The usual form of revision is to revise (however you revise) until the exam, but this only tends to  confuse students even further.

So how can a student resolve the issue of confusion on exam day? 

The answer to this is to plan accordingly and take a bold step by doing nothing at all to do with your studies the day before the exam and that includes the morning of the exam. 

How can you do this?

The answer is simple. You plan when you see your examination timetable. (see below)

So, looking at the English timetable for 2023, including the dates of other exams, we see 4 dates for the English exams.

17th May……… Lit Paper 1

24th May……… Lit Paper 2

5th June………. Lang Paper 1

12th June……..  Lang Paper 2

This then, is what I propose and it is a tried and tested model for revision. 

15th May – DAY OF TOTAL REST

16th May – Bio exam 9am 

16th May – TOTAL REST AFTER!

17th May – English Lit Paper 1

22nd May – DAY OF TOTAL REST

23rd May –  English Lit Paper 2

4th June – DAY OF TOTAL REST

5th June – English Lang Paper 1

11th June – DAY OF TOTAL REST

12th June – English Lang Paper 2

REST DAYS = NO REVISION, GO TO ALTON TOWERS, THE CINEMA, SKATING; WHATEVER YOU WISH BUT NOTHING TO DO WITH STUDIES. TOTAL REST. 

In 27 years as a teacher I have always taught this technique and I have used an analogy to explain it which involves the household task of ‘dusting.’

Yes, dusting!

When parents dust a room, if you look at the air as the light comes through the window, you see the dust particles in the air, floating before they settle. Gravity does the rest and it takes time to settle. 

Revising is the same. 

The dust is the subject information, whatever the subject. You revise how you revise and it needs time as information, to settle into your memory. 

By having that DAY OF TOTAL REST the day before the exam and leaving revision books at home on the morning of the exam, you’ll be ready to sit the exam. 

If you have revised fully, it will almost feel, when you begin to write, that you want to be sick with the information inside you. It simply needs to come out of you. 

Try it. It improves scores by at least a single grade, assuming you have revised fully. 

Please consider this method of timing your revision and do it.