Most students spend a lot of time making revision notes, and a lot of that time goes on copying. Notes are useful, but mainly as something to test yourself against. This page covers how to make notes that work that way, and where to get them if you don't want to write your own.
What notes are for
In the exam, you have to produce answers from memory. Reading your notes again doesn't practise that. It makes the topic look familiar, which is easy to mistake for knowing it.
So the useful question about any set of notes is whether you can test yourself with it. If you can cover part of the page and try to recall it, the notes are doing their job. If the only thing you can do with them is read them, they are a copy of the textbook in your handwriting.
Start from the specification
Every GCSE has a specification, the exam board's list of what can come up. Your teacher can tell you which board and specification you are on.
Use it as the plan for your notes:
- One section of notes for each topic on the specification.
- Nothing you don't need. If something isn't on the specification, it can't be examined.
- Nothing missing. Go through the list at the end and check every topic has notes.
The subjects on DoRevision's revision pages are organised by specification, so you can see the topics for your board and course in one place.
Ways to make notes you can test yourself with
Each of these keeps the answer somewhere you can hide it, so you can try to recall it first.
Question and answer notes. Write each fact as a question with the answer underneath or on the right-hand side of the page. "What does the mitochondrion do?" with the answer below it. To revise, cover the answers and go down the questions.
One-page summaries. Squeeze a whole topic onto one side of paper, with the key terms, processes and examples. Then put it away and try to rewrite it on a blank page. Compare the two and add what you missed in a different colour.
Flashcards. A question or term on the front, the answer on the back. Say the answer before you turn the card over, and keep the ones you get wrong in a separate pile to come back to.
Diagrams from memory. For processes, cycles and anything with labels, draw the diagram once from the textbook, then practise drawing it from memory.
Quotation and example banks. For essay subjects, a short list of quotations or case studies per topic, each one tagged with the themes it could be used for. Learn a few short ones well rather than a lot of long ones.
Ready-made notes
You don't have to write all your notes yourself. Good sources are:
- Your teacher's notes and slides, because they match what you were taught.
- Your textbook, especially the summaries at the end of each chapter.
- Revision guides for your specific board.
- Free websites. Check they cover your exam board, because the same subject can have different topics on different boards.
If you use ready-made notes, use them as an answer sheet. Try to recall the topic first, then check against the notes, rather than reading them through.
Mistakes to avoid
- Copying the textbook out. It takes hours and you can do it without thinking about the content.
- Highlighting most of the page. Once everything is highlighted, nothing stands out.
- Spending longer on presentation than on recall. Neat notes you have only read won't help in the exam.
- Making notes once and never using them. Plan to come back to each topic several times over the following weeks.
- Notes that don't match your board. Check them against your specification.
Where DoRevision fits
The modules on DoRevision do the testing part for you. Each one is mapped to a specification topic and asks you to answer, sort, order or work something out, then tells you straight away whether you were right. For example, Quotation Bank Builder helps you build a short quotation bank for English Literature, and Cell Explorer checks what you know about cells in Biology.
When you are ready to see how topics are examined, the past paper archive has papers, mark schemes and examiner reports by board and subject. How to revise for GCSEs explains how notes, testing yourself and past papers fit together.