When an exam is only a few days away, the question changes. There is no longer time to go through every topic properly, so the skill is choosing what to spend the time on. A clear plan for those last days is calmer and more useful than trying to read everything once.
Sort your topics in ten minutes
Take the list of topics for the paper, from your exam board's specification or the list your teacher gave you, and put each one into one of three groups:
- Secure: you could answer an exam question on it now, without notes.
- Shaky: you know some of it, but you would lose marks.
- Missing: you cannot do it yet.
Be quick and honest. The aim is a plan, not a perfect list. The subjects on DoRevision's revision pages are laid out by specification, which makes the list faster to build.
Spend most of the time on shaky topics
Shaky topics are where the quickest marks are. You already know part of each one, so an hour of practice can turn a half answer into a full one. Work through them first:
- Answer a few exam questions on the topic, then mark them with the mark scheme.
- Note exactly what you missed, and fix only that.
- Come back to the topic a day later with a different question to check it has stuck.
Missing topics get time only if they come up often or carry a lot of marks. A topic you have never met is slow to learn from scratch, so one or two key facts and a single worked example are a better use of a short session than trying to master it. Secure topics need no more than a quick check, such as one question each.
Practise questions, not pages
In the last few days, testing yourself beats rereading. Rereading feels productive because the material looks familiar, but recognising a page is different from writing an answer with the page closed. Short sessions of 20 to 30 minutes on one topic, each ending with a question or two, keep the work focused.
Practise the timing as well. Divide the minutes for a paper by its marks to see how long each mark is worth. A 90 minute paper with 80 marks gives you just over a minute a mark, so a 6 mark question deserves about six or seven minutes and not a quarter of an hour.
The day before
- Check which paper it is, the start time and the room.
- Pack your equipment: black pens, pencil, ruler, and a calculator, protractor or compass if the paper allows them.
- Look over a one-page summary or a handful of flashcards for that paper, then stop.
- Go to bed at your usual time.
Avoid starting a new topic or a full paper the evening before. Both are more likely to worry you than to add marks.
The morning of the exam
Eat breakfast, even a small one, and leave in good time. A quick look at your summary sheet is fine. Opening a new set of notes, or comparing what you have revised with friends outside the exam room, tends to raise nerves more than knowledge.
In the exam
- Read each question to the end before you start writing, and underline the command word.
- Let the marks guide how much you write.
- If a question stalls you, mark it, move on, and come back with the time you have left.
Where DoRevision fits
DoRevision modules test you on one topic at a time and check each answer as you go, which suits a shaky topic you want to firm up in one sitting. For example, Proportion Portal works through proportion in Maths, Cell Explorer covers cells in Biology, and Search Party practises searching algorithms in Computer Science. If you have a few weeks rather than a few days, GCSE mock exam revision sets out a longer plan, and GCSE past papers explains how to use papers well.