Guides for GCSE & A-Level

Studying for your school exams can be an incredibly stressful experience. So much seems to ride on them that studying for them can seem like an impossible task. But it’s not. The key to preparing for your exams is to revise and in plenty of time.

A Level Guides and GCSE Guides

To help you reach your full potential, and make sure you’re prepared for your exams, we’ve created a wide range of A Level guides and GCSE guides. These cover a wide range of subjects, and within each subject A Level guide or GCSE guide, you’ll find the content broken down into different topics, making it easier to revise. So no matter which syllabus you are taking, you’re bound to find exactly what you need.

How to revise

Revision in its most literal sense means to back over and look at something again – the idea is to commit it to your memory. Revising properly and in time can help you feel far less stressed. It really does pay off to revise well and in advance. So make sure you start plenty of time in advance.

But what does revising actually look like? There are many different methods – some are more effective than others, and some work better for different people. It’s important to be flexible in how you approach it.

The key is to keep repeating and testing yourself.

You also want to make sure you start your revision well before your exams, and it’s a good idea to prepare properly for your mocks too – this will help to commit things to your long-term memory.

If you’ve already studied and revised something in advance, it will be far easier to remember it, especially if you’ve returned to it several times.

Our revision tips:

When it comes to knowing exactly what topics you need to cover, we’d recommend having a look at our course specification. If you’re not sure where to find this, have a look at the exam board’s website or ask your teacher. This should list all the topics you’ll be expected to know – this list is also helpful for breaking your subject into manageable chunks.

Identify which topics you’re not as confident with. You may wish to invest slightly more time in the areas you find most challenging or difficult to understand. Remember, you don’t have to allocate equal time to each subject or topic.

Planning ahead also allows you the time to, well quite simply, spend more time on any areas of weakness and consolidating your knowledge. Instead of starting to go over your notes the night before an exam, it’s far better to have done these weeks, even months in advance, so you can practice past papers and makes sure you’ve really nailed your arguments.

Don’t forget to take breaks too. Burnt out is easily achieved, so it is essential that you carefully manage your time. Go for walks, make tea, rest your eyes, do a creative activity. If you break your day up by taking regular breaks that don’t hamper your productivity, you’re far less likely to go stale.

Take a look at our A Level and GCSE study guides

With these revision tips in mind, take a look at our A Level and GCSE study guides below! They cover a wide range of topic, so whatever your syllabus, our GCSE study guides can help.