How To Structure Your Revision Over Christmas

 

 

The festive period is almost upon us; and whilst this might mean presents and parties for some, for exam students, it's a crucial time to prepare for January mock exams.

Revising over Christmas is always tricky, as the festivities are inevitably a big distraction. So here are our tips for finding the right balance to stay motivated over Christmas, while still enjoying the festive fun that Christmas brings.

1. Start as soon as possible 

The key to holiday revision success is making sure you get plenty done in the lead-up to the festive period so that you can truly relax on the important days without having to worry about their workload. According to a recent study, a third of parents (32%) are planning to make their children revise during the Christmas period with 1 in 10 forcing them to revise on Christmas Day.

Jenna, Save My Exams' Head of Revision Resources says our advice to parents is to “sit down with your children and work out a revision plan where you can agree on time off for them to enjoy themselves but also decide on set dates and times where they can get stuck into their revision.”

Students might find it hard to get back into the swing of things after Christmas day, so we’d recommend you lay as much groundwork between now and the Christmas holidays as they possibly can. 

To do the most effective revision, before the Christmas holidays start, aim to have made:

• A topic checklist detailing all the topics you need to cover before your exams
• A revision plan that accounts for every day up until their exams, and outlines what you'll be revising each day 

Once they’ve got these two things drawn up, students shouldn't waste any time in getting started, either. Which takes us onto our second point…

 

2. Start by making notes and practising Topic Questions 

Once you know what you're revising and when, you should get started by looking through classwork, textbooks and revision guides, and making detailed, colour-coded notes (check out our colourful revision notes) which put all the information you need to know about a topic in one place.

Once you've finished making or collecting notes about a topic, you should use our ‘Topic Questions’ to practice exam-style questions directly relevant to what they’ve just revised.

According to our research, this actually is the most popular revision technique for students, as revising this way will mean they’re learning the content and getting that all-important exam practice, all in one hit. 

 

3. Don't put it off 

When exams still feel a little way off, it’s easy to convince yourself that you can afford to put off revision for another day. 

But they’ll come around sooner than expected; and when they do, a lot of students will probably wish they'd made the most of their revision time.

With this in mind, try to make the most of your free evenings between now and the Christmas holidays - and set aside a morning or afternoon on the weekends to get some good revision done. You'll find Christmas a whole lot more relaxing if you have broken the back of their workload before the big day! 

 

4. Encourage them to not lose heart 

When it comes to revision, little and often is better than nothing at all. So if you do find that you've fallen behind on their revision schedule, or are struggling to get your head in the game after Christmas day: encourage them not to give up completely.

Doing even just an hour or two of revision a day is better than nothing at all - so even if they know you haven’t got a whole day’s worth of working in, it is important that you just do as much as they can. It will be time well spent, we promise. 

 

5. Mocks exams ARE important 

Mock exams are important, despite not technically counting towards the final grade. 

In many ways, they actually do count, because the revision done now is laying essential groundwork which will help students to succeed in the summer. If you revise properly now, you'll have notes and other resources written and ready to be revisited before the ‘real thing’ - which will save a whole lot of valuable time and effort. 

If you work hard now, your future life will be far easier. So I'd really encourage you to get cracking and get ahead of the game over the next two weeks, so that you can all have a very merry Christmas together and a truly fantastic New Year, free from revision stress and exam worry. We know it will be worth it!