Top tips for revising

We asked some of our students to share their top revision tips:

Chloe, BA English

1. Plan lots of mini-breaks
2. Revise what you don’t know, not what you do, even if it is the easiest option!
3. Use lots of colour. Make your revision notes visually appealing so they’re nicer to look at.

Xavier, LLB Law

1. Don’t leave it all to the last minute! It’s tempting but makes it much harder to retain information.
2. Try breaking down the areas you need to revise into smaller subject areas, then break down further if necessary. Categorisation and organisation will make your life much easier.
3. Small, frequent revision ‘sessions’ are more efficient than sitting down for hours at a time staring at notes. Even taking ten minutes to review your notes after class can help.

Christine, BSc Nursing

1. Change up the methods you use to revise, depending on the subject. For some, focusing primarily on practice questions is more effective, for others flashcards are the way to go. Experiment with different methods to find the right ones for you. Revision is a very personal thing.
2. If in doubt use MIND MAPS (or spider diagrams). I liked to use them especially at the start and end of a revision session to see how much I had learned/been able to remember.
3. You need to have a dedicated revision spot, someplace that your mind will instantly associate with revision, (which is why your bed isn’t a great location). E.g a corner of the library, a specific cafe, the kitchen table…wherever!

Zoe, BSc Biology

1. Make revision posters with key points and diagrams and stick on walls where you’ll see them
2. Be creative – I wrote all my chemistry and biology equations on my bedroom windows with a whiteboard marker so I could always see them and test myself
3. Summarise all the module content and use it to help you see where you went wrong on past paper questions

Amelia, LLB Law

1. Find out when you work best– morning, afternoon, evening and plan your day around this. If you work better in the morning then make sure you got to bed early so you don’t miss out on this productive time!
2. Find something you enjoy to take your mind off revision and de-stress. Go for a run in the evenings or watch a movie. Make sure you spice up your days so you’re not constantly revising.
3. Past papers!! Even with the new spec there are lots of practise papers and companies have come out with more papers too so make sure you take advantage of those.

Zainab, LLB Law

1. Organise your essay reading by chapters – will help with structure!
2. Create a deadline list and manage the work you will be doing every day
3. Take frequent breaks! They’ll stimulate your mind

Ellie, BA English

1. Plan regular breaks with friends and family to relieve stress, you’ll focus better afterwards
2. Revise in different locations so revision doesn’t become repetitive
3. Focus on the content, not buying pens and making your revision look pretty; it doesn’t matter if you can put your revision on Instagram.

If you’ve exhausted all the past questions for your own exam board, look at others! There often relevant questions, and the different format/wording will really help test your understanding.

Molly, MMath Mathematics

Gina, BSc Biomedical Sciences

1. Timetable!! Allocate ‘slots’ to subjects and particular topics within that subject.
2. Take breaks – it’s very easy to become overwhelmed and burnt out if you don’t.
3. Blurting – write out everything you can and then go back with a different pen and add/correct.

Kirsten, BA English

1. Learn short quotes that could be applied to lots of different essay titles
2. Say things out loud back to yourself to save time always writing it out!
3. Use flashcards to make mini essay plans and practise planning them in 5 minutes

Rebecca, BA French and Linguistics

1. Writing revision cards is all well and good, but what’s important is what’s on them. It’s much harder to recall large chunks of text, so make sure the “answer” side of your revision card includes short words and phrases, definitions or facts. Don’t overcrowd it – just make more flashcards!
2. Doing practice questions for essay subjects takes a lot of time, so you might not feel motivated to do it. But practice questions are really useful, so if nothing else, try planning lots of different essays. It’ll save you time in the exam if you’re used to seeing a question and immediately starting to formulate a structure and plan.
3. Help your friends! Teaching people is a great way to make sure you know the content.

Get someone to help test you – give a friend or a family member the textbook (they don’t have to know the subject at all) and ask them to test you on content. It helps you realise which bits you know well, and which you need to need to look over again.

Molly, MMath Mathematics

Faye, BSc Biomedical Sciences

1. Don’t leave everything to the last minute! Doing little bits of revision each day I found is much less stressful than packing it all into a short amount of time.
2. My favourite way to revision is making Q cards (flash cards)! You go over the content whilst making the Q cards and it’s more fun having somebody else test you than you just reading through them.
3. Get your favourite snack and have some at different intervals so you have something as a treat once you’ve completed a section of revision!

Rebecca, BA History

1. Take regular short breaks every half an hour or so
2. Build-in rewards for yourself so after you’ve finished one section or topic you can have a break/treat
3. Timetable how many hours you need to be working and limit your revision to those times- mark the rest as free time and let yourself enjoy it

Tajri, MBBS Medicine

1. Revise what you find hardest first instead of going in the order you learnt it in
2. Keep reviewing topics throughout the year
3. Use different resources such as YouTube videos to supplement what you learn from the textbook

There are some great videos on YouTube that take you through model solutions to questions / revision of key topics. If you find it hard to just sit with your notes, this is a different way to review content that works for some people.

Molly, MMath Mathematics

Read more revision tips from our students