How to revise before the exam

Revision is not reading your whole textbook again. It's about making what you already learned quick to recall under exam pressure.

1. Make one-page summaries

For each topic, squeeze the key points onto one page: definitions, formulas, diagrams, lists. Writing the summary is itself revision, and the pages become your quick-review pack for the final week.

2. Test, don't just reread

Cover your summary and try to write it from memory, then check. Answer questions on the topic. The parts you can't recall are exactly where your revision time should go. (More in how to remember what you read.)

3. Sort topics into three piles

• Strong: a quick check is enough.
• Shaky: most of your revision time goes here — these are the easiest marks to gain.
• Weak: focus on the basics and the most common question types.

4. Mix subjects and topics

In the exam, questions come in any order. Practise mixed sets of questions rather than one topic at a time, so your brain gets used to switching quickly.

5. Do full timed tests

In the last weeks, regularly sit full practice tests with the real time limit, then spend as long reviewing your mistakes as you spent on the test. See where to practise free.

6. Use your mistakes notebook

The questions you got wrong before are the most valuable revision material you have. Go through your mistakes notebook every few days.

7. Formulas and facts: little and often

Keep a sheet of formulas, definitions and key facts. Read it for 5 minutes at a time, several times a day, rather than one long session.

8. Protect your sleep

Late-night cramming just before the exam usually costs more marks than it gains. A rested brain recalls better and makes fewer careless mistakes.