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In-depth guide

Ready-to-run GCSE revision activities

A revision activity is ready to run when three things have been decided before the lesson: what students have to pull out of memory, how they find out whether they were right, and what they do with the answer. Most activity lists settle the first and leave the other two to you. Every activity below states all three. They're split into ones that run on a screen, where the checking happens as students work, and ones that need nothing but a board and a question, where the checking stays your job. Neither kind is better than the other. They cost you different things, and the list says which.

Activity lists usually describe the shape of a task and stop there. "Do a quick quiz." "Try a brain dump." A teacher reading that still has to decide what the quiz is about, how students find out whether they got it right, and what happens to the ones who didn't.

This list makes those three decisions in advance.

What every activity here states

The recall goal. One specific thing to pull out of memory rather than a whole topic. Something like the path a red blood cell takes through the heart, instead of "the heart".

The feedback moment. The point at which a student learns whether they were right. If that's a week later when you hand books back, the activity is doing much less than it looks like.

The next step. What a student does with a wrong answer. Without it, you get a score and nothing changes.

Activities that run on a screen

These are built as DoRevision modules, so the checking happens as a student works and nothing comes back to you for marking.

Recall six. A short run of single-answer questions on one narrow area. Goal: pull six specific facts out of memory. Feedback: immediately, per question. Next step: the questions they got wrong point at the part of the specification to go back to.

Put it in order. A sequence a student has to rebuild: stages of a process, steps of an algorithm, events in a period. Goal: recall order, which ordinary questioning rarely tests. Feedback: on submitting the sequence. Next step: look at the pair they swapped, since that's usually the step whose reason they've missed.

Fill the gaps. A passage with the load-bearing words removed. Goal: recall precise vocabulary rather than the gist. Feedback: per blank. Next step: a wrong word here is a vocabulary problem, so it's worth writing down.

Match the pairs. Terms against definitions, causes against effects, quotations against techniques. Goal: connect two things students have usually learned separately. Feedback: on each pair. Next step: whatever is left over at the end is what to look at.

Work the number. A calculation with a typed answer rather than four options to choose between. Goal: do the arithmetic without a multiple-choice list to work backwards from. Feedback: immediate, on the value. Next step: a wrong value is either method or arithmetic, and the working tells you which.

Read the graph. Plot or interpret a real curve rather than describe one in the abstract. Goal: get information out of a figure, which most specifications assess. Feedback: on the reading. Next step: axis and scale errors tend to repeat, so they're worth naming.

Annotate the source. Mark up a passage or a data extract for the thing being asked about. Goal: find evidence rather than recall it. Feedback: on the selection. Next step: what a student missed is usually what they weren't looking for.

Activities that need no screen at all

Nothing here links anywhere, because there's nothing to link to. They cost you the checking, and in return you can see the whole class thinking at once.

Brain dump. Three minutes, blank paper, everything you can remember about one named thing. Then a second colour to add what they missed from their notes. Goal: free recall, which is harder and more useful than recognition. Feedback: when the second colour goes on. Next step: the second colour is the revision list.

Three, two, one. Three things from last lesson, two from last week, one from last term. Goal: spread the recall out rather than always asking about the most recent thing. Feedback: verbal, within a minute. Next step: whatever the class struggles to reach from last term is your next starter.

Mini whiteboards, all up together. One question, everyone writes, everyone shows at once. Goal: recall under mild pressure. Feedback: instant, and you can see how the whole class did rather than just the fastest hand. Next step: if a third of the room is wrong, reteach now.

Exam question triage. Give students three past-paper questions and ask which one they'd answer first, and why. Goal: read a question properly, which is a separate skill from knowing the content. Feedback: through discussion. Next step: the question nobody picks is the one to work through together.

Teach it to the person next to you. Two minutes each way, no notes. Goal: retrieve and organise at the same time. Feedback: from the listener, who notices the gaps. Next step: whatever neither of them could explain.

Silent past-paper question, timed. One question, exam conditions, on the clock. Goal: recall at the pace the exam asks for rather than at revision pace. Feedback: against a mark scheme, together, straight afterwards. Next step: marks lost to timing and marks lost to knowledge need different responses, and students should know which they had.

Picking one for the slot you have

Slot Off-screen On-screen Marking
Lesson starter Three, two, one Recall six None either way
Tutor time Brain dump Match the pairs None either way
End of a lesson Mini whiteboards Fill the gaps None either way
Cover lesson Not ideal, needs you Any of the on-screen ones None
Intervention Exam question triage Work the number None
Mock preparation Timed past-paper question Read the graph The past paper needs you

What this list does not do

It doesn't tell you which activity works best. That depends on the class in front of you, and we don't have evidence that would support ranking them. What the research does support, at the level of the general principle rather than the individual activity, is on our retrieval practice page with the sources named.

It doesn't report back. If you share an on-screen activity, you won't get a list of who completed it. That's a deliberate choice about children's data rather than a feature we haven't written yet.

It doesn't replace a plan. These are the fifteen minutes at either end of a lesson, not the lesson.

Where to go next

If you want the reasoning behind short activities rather than the activities themselves, start with fifteen-minute revision. To put a run of these in front of one class, build a sprint and share the link. To browse by subject and exam board, use the revision pages, and for the real thing under timed conditions, the past papers are free and official.

Try it with your class

Edexcel Biology 13 minutes

Temperature Control

11 steps, 7 interactive, 6 activity types.

Best used for
Starter Independent study Intervention
  • Starter: Short enough to open a lesson and still leave time to teach.
  • Independent study: Explains before it asks, so a student can work alone.
  • Intervention: Mostly questions, so it finds the gap quickly.

Try one question

How does the hypothalamus mainly detect that your CORE temperature has changed?

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Edexcel Computer Science 19 minutes

Algorithm Detective

14 steps, 9 interactive, 7 activity types.

Best used for
Homework Independent study
  • Homework: Set it as a link. It marks itself.
  • Independent study: Explains before it asks, so a student can work alone.

Try one question

An algorithm contains the line "FOR i <- 1 TO 10". Which building block is this?

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Edexcel English Language 14 minutes

Think on Your Feet

12 steps, 8 interactive, 9 activity types.

Best used for
Starter Independent study Mock preparation
  • Starter: Short enough to open a lesson and still leave time to teach.
  • Independent study: Explains before it asks, so a student can work alone.
  • Mock preparation: Asks students to build an answer, not just recognise one.

Try one question

What best describes a strong response to a question after a presentation?

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Edexcel Computer Science 9 minutes

Decomposition Detective

8 steps, 5 interactive, 6 activity types.

Best used for
Starter Tutor time Intervention
  • Starter: Short enough to open a lesson and still leave time to teach.
  • Tutor time: Fits a short tutor slot without being cut in half.
  • Intervention: Mostly questions, so it finds the gap quickly.

Try one question

A programmer ignores the exact colour and size of every button and just thinks about "a button the user can press". Which technique is this?

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Common questions

Do I need a DoRevision account to use this list?

No. About half the activities here need no technology at all, and the ones that do are linked so you can look at them without signing in. Students need a free account only to save progress across sessions.

How long does each activity take?

The on-screen ones show their length on the module page, and most sit between seven and fifteen minutes. The off-screen ones are as long as you make them, which is part of why they're on the list.

Which of these can I set as homework?

Any of the on-screen ones. You share a link and students work through it wherever they are. You won't get a report back showing who finished, because we don't track that, so treat it as practice rather than as a task you can chase.

Are the on-screen activities matched to my specification?

Yes. Every module names the exam board specification it's mapped to on its own page, so you can check the match yourself.

Why are the off-screen activities not linked to anything?

Because there's nothing to link to. If an activity works better on a mini whiteboard, it stays on the list without a link rather than being turned into a page.

Can I use these with a whole class at once?

Yes. The off-screen ones are designed for it. For the on-screen ones, share one link with the class and let students work at their own pace, which is usually a better use of the time than moving through together.

Put one in front of a class

Tell us the subject and how long you have. You get a link to hand out, and it marks itself.

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Written by David Wright, Co-Founder, DoRevision.

David builds DoRevision with his son Noah (15). David has spent his career building EdTech products, and Noah has grown up watching lines of code being written. As a student at an important stage of his education, together they are building the revision platform that Noah is using to help revise for his GCSE exams and hopes his friends will find useful too.

Spotted an error on this page? [email protected]

How DoRevision writes its teacher material How DoRevision uses evidence and cites sources

Related for teachers

  • 15-minute GCSE revision activities for teachers Short, specification-matched revision activities for those spare fifteen minutes: a starter, tutor time, the end of a lesson or a cover period. Students get their answers checked as they work, so there is nothing for you to mark afterwards.
  • Retrieval practice for GCSE, without the marking What retrieval practice is, what the research does and doesn't show about it, and how to run it in a GCSE class without making work for yourself. Every claim on this page names its source.
  • The GCSE revision homework toolkit What to actually set as revision homework at fifteen and thirty minutes, a weekly routine that lasts a full term, options for a class with a wide range in it, what to tell parents, and a printable sheet students keep themselves.