How to survive A-levels...

If your taking A-levels it's that time of the year where its probably all starting to dawn on you that you have your final exams in about 6 months, and you may also have mock exams coming up very soon! AHHHH!! you may be in your second year or you might have just began the 'fun'.  

Having recently finished my 2 years of A-levels I thought I would share a few of my 'survival' tips, to help any one who is struggling, or who may just be in need of some advice! I did fairly well in mine (I'm not clever, I just worked blumning hard) I was lucky to be able to do As levels in year 12 and then A2 in year 13, I know they have now changed some subjects to doing the whole Alevel at the end of the two years, but I think the advice pretty much works in the same way :)

 For A-levels I did the subjects psychology, History, Biology, and As English, I achieved AAC and a B in As English which has got me a place at my chosen university for next year. I hope you enjoy my tips and tricks, and find them helpful... xxx 

1. Find a revision technique that works for you! I personally found that writing out the text books, and then re writing them was very effective. But some people find it easier to just read the books, or to watch youtube clips.

2. Theres no doubt about it, A-levels are very difficult, but if you realise that from the start you'll make sure you put in the work to do well. Some people can breeze through GCSEs having done very little work (we all have that one friend who seemed to do absolutely no work yet came out with basically all A*s! ) Unfortunately you can't really wing A- levels in the same way, I've seen people go form As at GCSE to literally Us at A- level, all because they did no work! So it couldn't really be simpler just work, work work!!!! I know it can be difficult to find the motivation to come home and revise after a long day at school or college but my advice would be just to think of your goal, if you are determined to get an A in a subject then let this be your motivation, you won't get that A without a bit of effort, or you may want to get into a particular university, a good way to stay motivated in this sense is to keep a picture of the uni near to where you revise or maybe on your phone, so your reminded of it every time you revise so you don't give up. I also wouldn't recommend revising with the TV on. 

3. Use your time effectively, this is very important. make sure you start your revision early in the year (about now is right) so you have plenty of time to revise little and often up until the exam season.  Its also not a great idea to do your coursework the night before its due in. 

I found that the best way to revise was to do a couple of hours of each subject a day, so maybe come home from school and get straight down and do 2 hours of say chemistry, then you could have a longer break maybe for tea, and then settle down to another 2 hours of a different subject. Personally i would get in from school at about half 3, i would then go on my phone or i pad until about 4:00 (no tv) I would then do a couple of hours until 6:00pm. I would then stop for dinner, and afterwards do another 2 hours of a different subject until 9:00pm after that I would watch some tv for the rest of the evening (its important not to over work). Its important to find times that work for you.

4. Take frequent breaks, its actually been shown that doing a whole 1 hour of revision is no good, we all think that the more the better, but actually we lose attention after about 20 minutes, so it's recommended to revise in 20 minute chunks, it just makes it easier to remember the information, as we remember things at the start and then end, but tend to forget the middle stuff, this is a good way of cutting down that 'middle stuff'. So after 20 mins or so (or after writing out a page of a text book) take a small 3-5 minute break, to fore example, check Facebook/instagram/twitter or maybe get a drink. Its also good to get up and walk around- just don't get too distracted so your 5 minute breaks ends up lasting 5 hours! 

5. Get some pretty stationary to make revision/class work more fun, it's a bit dull to just write in boring black or blue books. Pukka pads are actually a really good make of note books for everyday revision, they have lots of pages and good quality paper, also the pages don't just fall out like in many cheaper books, or re fill pads. Heres some of the things I used...

6. Use colour!!! using coloured pens really helps your work to stand out and therefore stick in  your memory, it's also far more interesting than just writing in black biro, plus your work will look pretty! obviously don't go writing your essays in bright pink, but maybe headings and titles and certain words and phrases you want to remember. Pictures are also really good when revising, I sometimes found it helpful to turn events in history into pictures to help me remember for the exam, (i drew out the whole of the arms race during the cold war in cartoons and it actually worked!) 

7. Stay organised, buy yourself a planner and write down each week what subjects you are going to revise and when and for how long. This will help you to not leave subjects out. It's also a good idea to break each subject down into units, so for example, don't just revise biology, revise biology unit 4 one day and then unit 5 the next! treat different units almost as different subjects, as they are different exams. 

8. Make sure you do other things... This one is actually really important, while the more revision you do the better, it's not a bad thing to take some time out for doing other things, maybe go for a walk, or have a day out. It's so important not to spend all 7 days a week working non stop. Make sure you see friends, and if you belong to a club of some sort or have a prat time job, don't quit, try to balance the two. For example I danced on Mondays and Tuesdays and I think it actually helped, it was a way of getting out of revision for a few hours, and de-stressing (which is also very important as A levels are pretty stressful... you've probably worked that out already) Also if you really don't feel like working one evening, don't! nothing will go in, you can't force yourself to revise if you really don't want to! 

This photo is from a walk i went on a couple of weeks before exams.

make sure you relax too! 

a day out to the beach 

So I hope these tip help you to stop ripping out your hair, and having weekly breakdowns. Just remember to stay organised and positive and keep your goals in mind and you will do just fine! :) 

Emma xxx