Different subjects are going to need different revision methods when it comes to exams. With maths, for example, there isn’t a better way to revise (or many other ways to revise) than to sit down and do past papers over and over. English and other subjects have other ways that would be more effective.
At A Level I studied maths, chemistry, physics, and geography, so I’ll talk about how I revised for each of these.
Maths
As I said before, the only real way you can revise for maths is with past papers. The best ones to use are the ones for your own exam board (eg OCR, AQA, edexcel). You can usually find the past papers on your exam board’s website, or sometimes on your college/school’s website. Often, the latest paper is not released, as schools use those as ‘mock’ exam papers. You can find the answers to these papers online as well.
The best way to revise I found was to first go through papers with my notes*. Then, without my notes. Then, without my notes under timed conditions. That way, you’re getting into the habit of keeping track of your time, as you will need to in exams.
The few other parts of my maths revision included making a power point of integration techniques and a poster of differentiation techniques.
Chemistry
Again, my chemistry revision consisted of a lot of past papers. For my exam board (OCR), there was a way you had to answer the questions, a recipe for longer answers in order to get all the marks. Part of my revision was learning how to answer those questions.
Then there were games. Dominos of key facts about acids and bases, a pairs game for my definitions (always learn definitions – not only for chemistry but for any science and some humanities – they are easy marks), and a jigsaw puzzle for learning the colours of transition metals.
Physics
Physics was, again, mostly past papers. My physics exam board, WJEC, didn’t have that many papers and I ended up doing the same ones three or four times.
Power points, posters, and revision booklets were also made, covering some of the key concepts, as well as the pairs games for my definitions.
Geography
Geography, like most essay based subjects, are a little harder (for me at least) to revise for. It’s important to do past papers (and extremely important to do them under timed conditions) but marking them must really be done by a teacher. Luckily for me, I had a teacher who would mark anything I did. I didn’t do quite as many past paper questions for geography as I maybe should have.
It was important in geography to learn my case studies. This consisted of making power points, making posters, playing dominos games, condensing information down to only a flash card, ect. It was learning and remembering facts and figures.
*A note on notes
It is extremely important to make good notes. There is one lie that every student tells themselves: I’ll remember that. You won’t. You won’t remember that. You probably won’t remember that by the end of the lesson, let alone when it comes to revising. If you think it might be important – or if your teacher tells you it’s important – write it down. What’s a couple of drops of ink worth, anyway, if it turns out to not be important?
The Ghoul Student 