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6 Solid Exam Revision Tips

RevisingAll across the world, the months of May and June are notorious for being the months of exams. Whether you’re doing your Finals, your A Levels, your International Baccalaureats, your GCSEs or your normal End of Year examinations, chances are that you’re gonna have a hill or a mountain to climb in order to get to the next stage of education and your life.

“By failing to prepare, you’re preparing to fail”
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

The above is a good quote often used by teachers to stir pupils into bouts of activity. But it’s really true. The best way to succeed is to revise, and whilst this can be long-winded and annoying, short-term pains are necessary for long-term gains, and as entrepreneurs, long-sighted vision is just as important as the present.

So, how can you go about your revision in the most effective and thorough way? Here are 7 pointers that should help you get through the stacks of paper that you’ve been writing on all year:

    1) Make a plan – at the start of your week or half-term holiday, draw up a schedule and list all the subject areas you would like to look over. Then, work out how long each revision slot should be (I recommend 40 minutes) and fill up your day accordingly.

    2) Make notes – now there’s a few ways that you can revise and in most situations its up to you to develop your own style of revision. But personally, I find that making brief notes about all the topics and subject areas can refresh your brain and will save you having to look through massive files for repeated revision. Make sure you don’t write in full sentences and develop your own form of notation for quick-hand.

    3) Be realistic – don’t set yourself amazingly difficult goals to achieve over a certain period, and don’t try and do a 15 hour day of revision, our brains simply aren’t made for such intense activity (unless you’re bionic). By setting yourself easy ultimatums, you’ll be a lot more content once you’ve managed to finish them (this applies to business as well).

    4) Have a break – as mentioned, having a 15 hour day of work is not gonna really get you much done. So in between each 40 minute slot, take 10 minutes out to check your emails, site stats or earnings – everyone’s favourite! That will give you time to refresh.

    5) Focus and Concentrate – Once you’ve finished breaking and slacking off, get back to work and try to focus your energy into note writing and memory flexing. There’s no use just day dreaming because that will be time wasted (and time is our most precious commodity).

    6) Be confident – Once all is said and done and you’re at the start of exam week, feel confident knowing that you’ve put enough work in. If you know you haven’t done enough work on the other hand, then hope that the questions that will come up will be based on the topics you’ve studied. And if all else fails – you’ll just have to take one step back 😉

There you have it. Whilst these definitely aren’t failproof ways of cramming in the most hours of work and most efficient forms of revision, they can definitely help you from my own experience. Feel free to add your own tips in the comments below, because they could really help us all as we enter the examinations period.

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