Year 11 Easter Revision Timetable
The aim of this booklet is to help you organise yourself for revision over Easter. Easter is an excellent opportunity to really start revising fully as by now nearly all your coursework or controlled assessments will be complete, you have completed the final trial exams before Easter and when you return your lessons will all be focussed on the summer exams. Research shows that the optimum time for revising is 7 to 8 weeks before your exams, so now really is the time to start if you have not done so already.
If you have already created a revision timetable for Easter that is excellent, this is a suggested one for people who have not created one yet or would prefer to use this. Adapt it and change it as you see fit.
How much work should I do over Easter?
It is important to get the balance right; the break is the last opportunity for some rest before you begin the final push for the exams. You need to come back relaxed and rested so you can give 100% over the next few months. Therefore only revising in the break is not a good idea; make sure youhave some relaxation time and rest.
The attached timetable suggests 5 hours of revision a day. The timetable sets out the subjects in 30 minutes worth of activity. When you choose to do these is up to you but if you follow the suggested programme it will enable you to revise all your subjects over the 2 (and a bit) weeks and give you the time to rest. Remember that revision is about the quality of the revision you do not the amount of time you spend on it.
The programme is flexible, if you want to do more on one day and less another then you can build this into the timetable, if you want to take the weekends off build in the 2 hours earlier in the week.
The timetable allows flexibility so you can do:
2 hours in the morning.
2 hours in the afternoon.
1 hour consolidating and re-visiting in the evening.
How should I revise?
As you know you should do a range of different activities when revising. Reading your notes is not the most effective way of revising. Some of the activities below are the ones students find the most useful:
- Creating mind maps of topics in each subject
- Creating flash cards of topics in each subject
- Watching GCSE Pod and creating notes/flash cards/mind maps on different topics
- Completing past papers or questions
- Creating lists of key words and their meanings
- Revising in groups, each taking different topics and teaching the others about it
- Revising in pairs, checking work, peer marking or testing each other.
- Planning essays/answers to questions.
- Factual revision tests
- Use of YouTube for revision resources or BBC bite size to vary the ways you revise.
There are many different ways to revise but you remember more from creating notes, mind maps etc. than you do from purely reading your notes.
What is the point of the final hour each day on the revision timetable?
Each day you need to re-visit what you have revised, what can you remember? what are you finding more difficult? This will help you plan what you will cover in the revision for that subject tomorrow or later in the week. It will also help you see what you have learnt that day and confirm that the revision is going well.
I am coming in to school to do Easter School or controlled assessment catch up – does this count?
There are a number of different subjects that are offering controlled assessment or coursework catch up over the two weeks of Easter. If you are completing this, then they would count towards the hours you are completing each day as part of your revision. Making sure controlled assessment is complete to the best of your ability is really important too!
Have a restful and relaxing Easter but make sure you get some revision done too!
11