How To Maximise Your Result in Every GCSE Exam

Achieve Your Target Grade In
GCSE Maths
In Four Weeks
How To Maximise Your Result In Every GCSE Exam
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The information presented herein represents the views of the author as of the date of publication. Due to the rate at
which conditions change, the author reserve the right to alter, change and update the information based on any new
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in this report, neither the author nor their partners/affiliates assume any responsibility for errors, inaccuracies or
omissions.
This report does not guarantee nor imply guaranteed results in examinations. Results are dependent on your own
efforts and experience. There is no guarantee that you will achieve your target grade using the techniques and ideas
presented in this document. Results in examinations are entirely dependent on the person employing these techniques
and ideas. Your level of success in attaining results similar to those in this presentation depends on the time you
devote to the ideas and techniques mentioned. Since these factors differ according to individuals we cannot guarantee
your success nor are we responsible for any of your own actions.
Contents
Introduction
2-3
The General Idea

What is the most important rule of thumb when revising for each subject?
When is the best time to start revision?
4-5
The General Flow Of Revision

1. Revision
2. Practice
3. Exam Technique
4. Review
5. Consolidation
6. Concentration
6-9
Reverse Engineer To Create A Feasible Schedule
10-11
Theory-Based And Essay-Based Subjects

What are they?
Revising for Theory-Based Subjects
Revising for Essay-Based Subjects
Revising for Theory and Essay Based Subjects
12-14
How Much Time Should You Spend On Revision?
15-16
Approaching The First Exam
17-18
Memory Is The Most Important Factor Of Your Exam Success
19-21
Motivation Is Key
22
Conclusion & Summary
23-25
1
Introduction
At school, I seemed to excel at maths. I achieved an A* at GCSE (taken a year early) and A-level. This led me to study
maths at a top 20 university in the world Kings College London. In my opinion, maths is one of the easiest subjects
to learn. This is due to its repetitive nature i.e. its difficult to create brand new questions in maths. The same
questions pop-up every year, albeit with different values. This means if you practice well enough, you will pass your
maths exams with flying colours. I know what youre probably thinking: Well obviously youre going to say that,
Jeevan, because maths is your strong point... but the truth is, maths is very straightforward. Its just people make it
seem much more difficult than it actually is.
It was a shock to me when I found out thousands of students, all over the country, were struggling with their maths.
Why did I seem to do so well in the subject when others were underachieving? What made me different to them? I
guess there were two things that were wrong...
Firstly, they dont have the belief they can do it. Remember, if you think maths is hard and you wont do well in it,
then that is exactly whats going to happen. You will struggle to achieve the best grades in it. Have you heard of the
self-fulfilling prophecy before? I am a firm believer in it and all it means is if you feel a certain way about something,
it WILL become true. So, if you feel maths is difficult, it will be.
Secondly, students do not have the right approach when revising for a particular exam. A lot of students tend to
revise on auto-pilot without thinking about what theyre doing and whether or not its actually working. If you dont
have a well-defined strategy to begin with, then you will not hit the top grades and thus, reach your full potential.
I documented my strategy into a revision guide for other students to emulate. I placed it online because this is how I
could reach out to the masses. I was confident that if fellow students followed my system, then they should
experience similar success in the subject and I was right. Since I launched it in October 2012, the feedback has been
phenomenal. Here is what students had to say about it:
"Your maths revision guide/strategies are fantastic! You have really opened my eyes as to where Ive been going
wrong all this time and what I should focus on, going forward..."
"He (Jeevan) provided me with all the tools I needed to prepare for the exam. Together with his guidance, passing my
GCSE maths exam was a foregone conclusion..."
"Jeevans guide is great! I followed his advice and jumped from a D Grade to a B grade within weeks..."
"Jeevans revision strategy is a must have, if want to succeed..."
2
"It is nothing like your usual revision guide because Jeevans is a well-defined strategy; he shows you exactly what to
do to achieve a top grade in GCSE maths..."
"Thanks to Jeevans program, I was able to see how I could maximise my grade in a maths exam. At the end of the
day, this is the most important thing the result on the paper!"
Jeevan explained that I didn't have to work around-the-clock to achieve top grades... and he was totally right; my
first maths paper was on the 9th June 2014 and 2 days before, I decided to take a trip to Thorpe Park! In the end, I got
an A grade! :D
I seemed to underperform in my mock exams achieving Ds/Es but after following your strategy and advice, I
achieved a B grade in my final GCSE maths exam...
Thanks for giving me the belief that I can do well in this subject. Im even considering A-Level Maths! Thats quite
phenomenal for someone who failed their GCSE maths before!
Jeevans revision guide has helped me understand questions which I did not understand before in class. It has really
helped me learn things the easy way...
I have no doubt that this programme is the best there is and would have complete confidence in recommending it to
anyone studying GCSE Maths...
Despite its vast success, there was still something wrong with my program. In the past, Id receive enquires about
revising for other subjects, such as Science, and thats when the thought occurred to me: The chances are, those
who use my maths program will be revising for other GCSE exams at the same time. However, my program was
geared towards GCSE maths. This would be a problem because the interference of other subjects would obviously
affect the validity of my program. I addressed this issue in my maths revision guide but it wasnt discussed at great
length. I felt a more detailed resource was needed so students would fully understand how to tackle each GCSE exam
accordingly. Hence, why I created the guide you are reading now.
Unless you are a re-sit student, chances are you will be revising for many other GCSE subjects. In most cases, this
figure would be 10 but sometimes its less than this and sometimes its more. Most GCSEs consist of two papers, and
with the curriculum reverting back to the final-exam structure next year, you could end up having up to 20 exams in
one go. Having viewed the exam timetable over the past few years, a lot of these exams will be bunched up, with
exams falling on consecutive days and on some days, you may have to take two. This means, without a detailed plan,
you could end up performing badly across the board. Read on to find out how you should structure your revision in
order to maximise your result in every GCSE exam...
3
The General Idea

When is the best time to start revision?
You may ask: when should I start revision? Should I start early, at the beginning of the year? Or could I revise last
minute? Well to answer these questions, the earlier you start, the better but this doesnt necessarily mean you
cannot revise last minute and still do well...
When I did my GCSEs in 2008, I left revision to the last minute. I started my revision, from scratch, during the Easter
holidays. However, I would not recommend this. If you are a last-minute revision student, you should begin your
revision no later than 1st of March, of the same year youll be taking your final exams. Youll need that extra month to
run through those exam-style questions and consolidate your learning. Also, be prepared for intensive sessions.
When push comes to shove, you may have to put in those extra hours. Youve left it to the last minute, so all of that
revision you missed throughout the year will be compensated in the final few months.
Alternatively, you could begin your revision as early as the start of the academic year September. This will make
your revision more streamlined and less stressful. You wont have to put in as many hours per day, as you would if
you were taking the short-term approach. This is because your revision schedule is spread out over the whole year.
There is also the benefit of perfecting your exam technique and boosting memory retention early on (more on this
later). This increases your chances of getting top grades, in the long run, because youve given yourself more time to
study each syllabus.
What is the most important rule of thumb when revising for each subject?
As mentioned in the introduction section, youll most likely be taking 10 GCSE subjects. Some of you may be taking
less and some of you will be taking more. The aim is to revise each subject at least once, in a given week, irrespective
of the number of subjects taken. This ensures you are revising a particular subject on a regular-basis. I would advise
not to adopt the one-subject-a-day rule because it may be some time before you revisit a certain subject. For
instance, some of you may be taking up to 14 GCSEs so youll revisit a particular subject after 2 weeks. This a bit too
long before you return to a particular subject and its not ideal for memory retention. The best (and only) way to
boost memory retention is repetition i.e. doing the same thing regularly. Thats why its important to revise every
subject in a week, even if its for an hour.
It doesnt take a genius to work out that youll have to group subjects together if you want to revise every subject in
a week. You should pair subjects which are similar in nature. It will be easier to group certain subjects. For instance,
some subjects offer a double-award such as English and English Literature so it would be wise to pair these two up.
Although these subjects examine different areas, there are similarities between the two; knowing how to critically
analyse a given text or writing a well structured essay requires the same set of skills. Do not group subjects which are
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very different in nature. This will have an impact on attention to detail and conflicting information is not good for
memory retention. Your brain likes to store information which is closely linked so revising Science and Business
Studies on the same day would not be wise.
Let me give you an example of how you can pair off certain subjects. Lets assume, for the sake of this guide, you are
taking the following 10 GCSE subjects:
1. English
2. English Literature
3. Science
4. Science (double-award)
5. Maths
6. Business Studies
7. Geography
8. Media Studies
9. P.E
10. Technology
As I suggested before, I would pair-off English & English Literature and the two sciences. This leaves us with 6
Subjects and 5 days left in a week. The last pair is not so obvious.
Firstly, you should revise maths in isolation because it is the only subject which builds on from the basics. For
instance, you cannot learn algebra without learning addition or subtraction. Thats why its important to set aside a
whole day for maths. This gives you more time to consolidate on the basics. For a good revision guide on maths, I
would recommend my GCSE Maths In Four Weeks program.
Out of the remaining subjects, I would pair business studies and geography. The reason being is these subjects rely
heavily on common knowledge. There isnt a great deal of theory your need to learn in them. As long as you use your
common knowledge, read up on more ideas so you can use them in your exam and learn the definition of some key
words, you should be fine. You can dedicate a whole day for the other subjects.
5
The General Flow Of Revision

When revising ANY subject, you should have the following process in mind:
Revision
Practice
Exam Technique
Review
Consolidation
Concentration
1. Revision
We all know what revision means. It simply means to study the content; the theory of the syllabus. Remember, your
exam will be based on whats featured in the syllabus so its important to run through all of the content. There are
many revision guides out there, on the market, which cover each syllabus, so its important to choose the right ones.
If you take the last-minute approach for revision, you should choose a revision guide which is not too big and not too
small. Obviously, time is of the essence, so you would want to make your revision as efficient as possible. You dont
have time to read heaps of text. You just want to absorb notes on the main ideas/concepts of the syllabus. This is
enough to trigger your thought patterns and provide detailed answers in the exam. A good size is around the 100
page mark.
On the other hand, a book which is too small (around 50 pages) is not great, unless you are in the final few weeks of
your revision and need a quick reference point. These books are not suitable for revision at the beginning of the
program.
If you want to study throughout the year, you could invest in a larger textbook, but dont go overboard. Bear in mind
that youre only going to revise a particular subject 4 or maybe 5 times a month (using my every subject a week rule),
6
so choosing a 500 page textbook is not wise and it will take months to go through it. A 150-200 page textbook would
be more suitable.
The motive of going through the revision guide is NOT to take notes. I know, it sounds absurd but if you focus on
note-taking too much, there is a danger of copying 85%-90% of the revision guide and this is highly inefficient. I used
to make this same mistake before. I would go through a revision guide, with the intention of note-taking. Once I
completed the syllabus, I had a look at my notes and I realised that Ive just copied out more or less the entire book.
How inefficient! What is the point of having a duplicate of the same text?
Also, note-taking is not a good memory-retention tool in itself. It is very rare that youll remember everything that
youve written first time around. Youll only retain about 10% of what you just wrote down. Youve probably
experienced this yourself before. After writing notes on a particular chapter in a textbook, you wont remember
everything that youve just written down. At some point in the near future, you will have to revisit this chapter.
Thats why detailed note-taking is a very inefficient activity. Practise questions are much more effective in terms of
memory retention (see next couple of sections).
It is very tempting to jot down everything thats on the page but a good way to overcome this is to test it. Begin to
write your notes as normal, keeping an eye out on the time. If its taking time to go through the syllabus and it feels
as though you are writing out the whole thing, then you know you are conducting your note taking far too seriously.
Dont get me wrong, I dont mean you should not do any note-taking at all. You could jot down a key formula or
concept. Generally, this is something which is totally new to you; a point which is not stating the obvious. Some
revision guides highlight the key ideas/concepts. I guess you could add these to your notes page. If you feel it is
worth noting down, then dont hesitate to write it down. Towards the end of your revision program, you will reduce
your notes to a minimum, anyway. This is because, youre about to take a whole host of exams so you dont want to
be referring to tonnes of information. Cheat sheets work best.
The most effective form of note-taking will come after youve done some practice/exam questions and reviewing
your work. This is because practice/exam questions will test your memory so if you get a question consistently
wrong, then this area should be noted down. Your stronger areas will be retained in your memory banks.
2. Practice
Once youve gone through the theory, you have test your knowledge. You have to see if youve retained all of the
information youve just read. Most revision guides will provide you with general revision questions. Make sure you
work through these to test your understanding. If the revision guide provides exam questions, make sure you answer
these too. This will test whether you can apply the theory to an exam context.
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Treat every question as if its a test. Do not refer back to the theory sections of the book when answering them. This
will defy the purpose of testing your knowledge. Even if you have no idea on how to answer a particular question,
give an educated guess. Chances are, you may be close to the actual answer. If your answers are well-off, then you
may have to add this idea/concept to your notes page and give it more focus. This is where the majority of your
note-taking will occur when you check/review answers.
3. Exam Technique
At the end of the day, the only way you can excel in an exam is if you master your exam technique. Exam questions
are written in a specific way. They are not like your general revision questions. You have to understand the nature of
them; what it is they are asking you to do and how to give an adequate response. Before diving in to the question,
think about the overall approach and use this to shape your final answer.
Answering exam questions is one of the most important areas of your revision plan. Generally speaking, the more
exam questions/papers you complete, the greater the chance of getting a top grade. This is because you can rectify
your mistakes with each new paper you take. Thats why you should access as many exam papers as you can. You can
find tonnes of papers online and your teacher can provide you with some too. Collect as much material as you can
first and then use this to finalise your schedule. If you collect all of your materials first, you should create a more
structured plan and thus, get through all of it (see the next chapter).
There will come a time where you have to switch you revision to exam papers only. At this stage, your sole focus will
be exam papers and review. You cannot afford to write new notes at this point. Instead, revision will be a part of the
review phase looking back on your revision guide/notes to verify answers. If you are taking the last-minute
approach, you should begin past papers at the beginning of April. This will give you a solid month and a half to
perfect your exam technique. If youre an early bird, you can start feeding in the exam papers as early as January of
that year.
4. Review
This is probably THE most important phase of the revision schedule, yet many students dont pay much attention to
it. This is the only area where a student can progress and improve their grades. Anyone can attempt an exam
question but its the answer which will determine whether theyll be awarded full marks or not. Your answer should
agree with what the examiner is looking for. Thats why its very important to analyse the mark scheme too. Do not
leave this duty to your teacher only. Its always best to study the mark scheme yourself. The mark scheme will show
you the correct way in answering each question. When you dig-up your past papers, make sure there is a mark
scheme to go with it. Otherwise, theres no point in answering the exam paper at all. This is because you can never
be sure on where youre going right and wrong.
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A question you get wrong often is regarded as an area of weakness. Obviously, an area of weakness should be given
more attention. As you get closer to the first exam, focus on your weaknesses more than your strengths. Your
strengths are called strengths for a reason. You should not have a problem recalling your strengths in an exam. It is
your weaknesses which will let you down so identify them early and work on them until theyre no longer a
weakness.
5. Consolidation
Consolidate means to strengthen your knowledge. You may need to cross reference between the mark scheme and
your revision tools to fully understand the solution. In doing so, youll boost memory retention because youre
reading the same thing twice. If you feel an idea/concept should be remembered, make sure you add it to your notes
page.
6. Concentration
As mentioned in the revision section, you have to shrink your notes page as you get closer and closer to your first
exam. As your weaknesses will convert to strengths over time, you can cross-off certain sections of your notes page.
Remember, you will have a lot of exams in quick succession so it would be inefficient to have pages and pages of
notes.
A page or two of key notes for each subject would be enough. These usually consist of things you must remember for
the exam. It is merely a list of your weakest areas and things you get wrong frequently. Only you will truly know
yourself, after weeks of testing and reviewing, what your weaknesses are and what you have to remember for the
exam. Then, its just a case of memorising each cheat sheet a night before the exam.
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Reverse Engineer To Create A Feasible Schedule

Before drawing up your first schedule, you have to collect the resources youre going to use for each subject and
your exam timetable. The resources you use will depend on when you officially start revision. As I said before, if you
plan to leave it till the last-minute, you should choose a revision guide which is no longer than 100 pages. Also, you
should begin exam papers on the 1st April. This means you have a month to go through your revision guide and
answer any general revision questions you may have. These may come from the revision guide itself or from other
worksheets, provided online or from your teacher. Assuming your revision guide comprises of 100 pages, you would
need to get through 25 pages each week, including any revision questions. If you follow this routine, you will finish
off each syllabus by the 1st of April.
If you planned to start your revision at the beginning of the school year, you can choose a larger textbook, but dont
choose one which exceeds 200 pages. Assuming your textbook contains 200 pages and you have until 1st January to
go through the entire syllabus, you would work through around 15 pages a week (not much at all) and complete all
revision questions. At the turn of the year, you would have completed the syllabus.
Remember, this isnt a fixed rule. It is just examples to help you understand the process of reverse engineering in
order to design your first schedule. If you feel you can do more and have access to more worksheets, then embed
these into your schedule. At the end of the day, its about what you find comfortable just dont do too much or too
little. An hour a day is more than enough if you are working throughout the year.
You would use the same process when finalising the second-half of the schedule or the Exams and Review phase.
First, you would need to collect as many exam papers and mark schemes as possible. The materials youve gathered
coupled with the exam date will help you to divide the schedule into its weekly components. For instance, if you
have access to 20 past papers and the exam is on the 5th June, then you can divide the schedule in two ways:
1) If you start your exam papers on the 1st April (short-term approach), there is approximately 10 weeks until
your exam. This means you should complete 2 past papers a week, including marking and reviewing them.
You should leave one of these exams for the day prior to the exam.
2) If you begin on the 1st January (long-term approach), there is over 20 weeks until your exam. On average, you
should complete 1 paper a week, including marking and reviewing them. Ideally, you would want to
complete 1 of these papers, a day before the exam.
10
As you can see, reverse engineering is very important when drawing up your revision timetable, yet not many
students take this approach. Collating your resources first will enable you to break-down your schedule into its
weekly components.
Remember, you will not always get your revision schedule right on the first attempt. Thats why I called it a first
schedule. You will never know for sure, whether your revision schedule is feasible or not. Youll only know once you
test it by adopting it for a few days. Either it will be fairly comfortable or quite impractical to follow. In either case,
make small adjustments until you get the most viable program.
11
Theory-Based And Essay-Based Subjects

What are they?
Subjects generally fall into one of two categories: theory-based and essay-based, whereas some can be a mixture of
both.
As the term suggests, theory-based subjects are packed with theory. You learn the theory before-hand and then
regurgitate (repeat) it in an exam. Most of the subjects you take will fall into this category; Maths, Science,
Geography, Business Studies, P.E etc.
There is only one type of essay-based subject: English. This subject does not contain much theory in it. To do well in
English, you have to improve your overall understanding as well as essay writing skills. This only comes with practice.
However, some subjects are a mixture of both. You will have to learn some theory before-hand and use this
information to construct a well-rounded essay. Examples of these subjects are English Literature, History and
possibly Media Studies.
Revising for Theory-Based Subjects

Revising for theory-based subjects usually follows the process outlined in the general flow of revision section of this
guide. Revision is split into two main parts:
1. Learning the theory going through your revision guide/textbook and making notes (if necessary) on the
main ideas/concepts.
2. Applying the theory Using this information to answer revision/exam questions in a way which is in line with
the mark scheme. Through testing, youll identify your strengths and weaknesses.
Revising for Essay-Based Subjects

As essay-based subjects (such as English) do not contain any theory in them as such, you can dive straight into the
exam questions. This is because questions in English will generally ask you to talk about this or discuss this etc. You
will be tested on different types of text such as newspaper articles, stories etc. so the best preparation is to read
them! Get a feel for the content; the language, the layout, the different conventions, the target audience and how
its shown from the text etc.
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Explore grade C and grade A responses to these questions. Draw comparisons. What makes the C grade essay a
C grade and what makes an A grade essay an A grade? You should consider things such as the content the ideas
used, structure, language, vocabulary etc. This will show you whats expected from a high-achieving student. Then,
its just a case of imitating/developing their writing style. You should find example-essays in your revision
guide/textbook or you can ask your English teacher for some.
Once youve studied each text, the next step is to write essays on your own! Gather a range of exam
questions/papers and answer each one. Get a feel for each question and whats required of you. Always plan your
responses before rushing-in. Planning is crucial. It ensures your essay is compact yet covers all the main points you
had, in mind. Time management is one of the biggest factors in your English exam because you will be required to
write a number of essays in a short space of time. You dont want to miss any questions out because you simply ran
out of time. That would be a huge disappointment. Spare a few minutes, at the beginning, to think about your
overall approach. You may think planning is not worthwhile but planning for 5 minutes can save 25 minutes in the
long run. Also, a plan can win you marks if you do not finish your essay in time. From your plan, the examiner will see
your thought processes and award you marks even though you didnt get to it, in the end.
When I was at school, my English teachers used to emphasise the PEE rule: Point, Example and Explain. This rule is
still important up to this day. When writing your essay, always keep the PEE rule in mind; make a point, give an
example from the text and explain it. This method clearly shows the examiner that youve absorbed the text, made
an observation, and justified it using evidence from the text.
An essay is subjective which means its based on personal opinion. Thats why there can be no fixed mark scheme.
Sure, there will be general guidelines but ultimately, students can raise all sorts of points. At the end of the day, its
about how you feel about the text and what your opinions are. As long as you make educated remarks and justify
them, then you shouldnt go wrong. Give your essays to more than one teacher. This is because one teacher may
admire your essay whereas another may say more work needs to be done. Its all about getting as much
feedback/ideas as possible and creating the perfect essay.
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Revising for Theory and Essay Based Subjects

As I said before, some subjects fall into both categories. The approach is the same as the general flow of revision on
page 6. There is some background knowledge that you have to learn prior to writing it in an essay context. For
instance, in English Literature, you have to learn theory on the anthology poems before writing a balanced essay on
it, in the exam.
The great thing about English Literature is they have various books, on the market, which analyse the subject matter.
You can find cheap resources on the anthology or certain novels which analyse the content for you. Use some of
these ideas but throw in some of your own too. Its very easy to plagiarize from a revision guide or textbook and the
examiner will pick up on this. He/she will notice that youve made universal points. Thats why its best to throw in
your own interpretations too. Think outside of the box and dont forget to refer to the text to support your ideas.
In the exam, you will not be required to answer all of the questions. Instead, they will give you a number of essay
questions to choose from. When you are going through your practice papers, youll notice that similar questions will
crop-up every year, albeit with different wording. This is beneficial because you can narrow your revision down to
only a few questions. Focus on questions you enjoy answering or are confident with. Obviously this is a riskier
approach but it means you can focus on certain areas without revising the entire syllabus. As you get closer to the
actual exam, create a handful of essay templates and memorise them. Then, in the exam, choose the templates
which are relevant to the questions youre going to answer and simply write the essay out, in full.
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How Much Time Should You Spend On Revision?

Another question I get asked frequently is how many hours should I spend revising a day? The answer to this
question is it depends on the nature of your revision schedule. Whatever you plan to do on a particular day; whether
its read 25 pages of your revision guide or complete an exam paper, will dictate how long youll spend on revision.
The attitude you should have is to complete a set task, regardless of how long it will take you. You designed your
schedule with the intention of completing every sub-task so you should strive to complete it by the deadline. Unless
a task takes a ridiculous amount of time to complete, for instance; 6 hours to go through 2 chapters in a textbook,
you should aim to complete it on that day.
Productivity is key. You should ask yourself on a consistent-basis: Is what Im doing productive? Is it efficient? And
more importantly, am I benefitting from this? The best way to judge if youre making progress is your
answers/results in practice papers.
You dont want to waste time unnecessarily by reading heaps of text. You just want to read notes on the key
concepts/ideas in order to conjure up your own thoughts/judgements. At some stage, you have to apply this theory.
Ultimately, you are being tested on what you know, not how much you can read. Thats why half of your time (or
more) should be spent on answering questions of some kind. Make amendments to your schedule if you feel you are
not getting the right balance between reading and testing.
You shouldnt disregard other aspects of your life in favour of studying. I am not suggesting you should lock
yourselves in your room and work for hours on end. This is certainly not healthy for you and can affect results in the
long run. You have to maintain a balanced-lifestyle. There is no reason why you cant maintain a balanced lifestyle
whilst achieving top grades in your GCSEs. If you plan ahead, you should be to do all the things you intend to do. For
instance, this is how you could go about your daily schedule:
Task
Wake Up, Breakfast & Get Ready For School
School
Leisure & Snack
Revision working through revision guide
Exercise
Dinner
Revision answering questions
Leisure
Light Revision recap and finalising notes
Bed
Time
8am 9am
9am 3pm
3pm 4pm
4pm 6pm
6pm 7pm
7.30pm 8pm
8pm 9pm
9pm 11pm
11pm 12am
12am 8am
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This schedule is a perfect example of how you can maintain a balanced lifestyle. Contrary to popular belief, school
should not be perceived as revision time. Sure, you will learn something at school but you are not fully focused.
There is constant distraction from your peers so its difficult to take-in anything you learn from school. You are most
likely going to consolidate on what you just learnt, at home so dont view school as part of your revision. You
should view it as leisure.
This is an ideal schedule because you have a good balance of work and play; about half your time is spent on revision
and the other half is spent on leisure. Revision is sporadic; you revise for 2 hours, have an hour break, then revise
again for an hour etc. Taking breaks in between revision is important. It is hard to sustain motivation levels
throughout long periods of revision due to its laborious nature.
When motivation levels drop, it is the best to have a break. This is because your mind is starting to drift and its not in
the right state to learn any new information. It simply will not stick. Thats why its important to move on to some
other activity. Personally, I can revise for up to 2 hours before boredom starts to kick in. This is when I stop what Im
doing, temporarily and focus my attention elsewhere. Ill return to revision when motivation levels are restored.
Ive also set aside an hour for exercise. During revision, most students tend to forget exercising but exercise has a
massive benefit on revision. Exercising relieves stress and relaxes the mind a perfect state to revise and absorb new
information.
Youll notice that there is a light revision session just before bedtime. Light revision involves reading over your notes
made throughout the day, answers to revision questions, and finalising your key notes for the day. This session
should not be intense. Rather, it should be viewed as a recap of the work you carried out during the day. You may
find it difficult to revise just before bedtime but this is one of the best times to revise. As you know, the brain never
stops ticking; it churns away at digesting the information youve put in front of it when you are sleeping. Thats
why, revising just before bedtime, is great for memory retention.
With regards to sleeping, you should sleep for no more than 8 hours a day and no less than 6. Some students
sacrifice a lot of sleep during the revision period but you shouldnt do this. Sleep is very important. Memory
retention is stronger after a good nights sleep and its easier to recollect certain information. Also, youll feel
refreshed when you wake up and ready to begin another day of revision.
As you can see, the number of hours you spend on revision will depend on your own beliefs/opinions. Some students
feel they need to sacrifice certain aspects of their lives in order to concentrate on their revision but in my opinion,
you dont have to do this. As long as you have a feasible schedule going forward (like the one Ive provided you on
the previous page) then you should be able to do other things you enjoy. As a good rule of thumb, 3-6 hours of
revision a day is sufficient, and that doesnt include school!
16
Approaching The First Exam

You should follow the the general idea (page 4) until 1 or 2 days before the first exam. Then, youll revise for each
exam as it comes. The first exam usually takes place around mid-May. Up until this point, you wouldve revised for
each exam accordingly. Revision from this point onwards will depend on the spread of your exams as well as the
nature of them. Let me give you an example to illustrate the point. Suppose this is your exam timetable:
Exam Number
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Subject
R.E
Media Studies
English
Geography
Science (Chemistry)
English Literature
Maths
Date
17 May 2015
22nd May 2015
2nd June 2015
3rd June 2015
4th June 2015
5th June 2015
9th June 2015
th
What you notice is there are 5 days between the R.E exam and Media Studies exam and 11 between Media Studies
and English. The next 3 exams come consecutively and there is a bit of a gap between the penultimate exam (English
Literature) and Maths 4 days. This is how I would approach each exam...
I would revise R.E a day before the exam. Up until this point, revision would have been distributed, evenly, across all
subjects. R.E is not regarded as an important qualification (in the real world) so there is no point spending weeks on
the subject. A day before would suffice just memorise your key notes and use this to develop a valid argument in
the exam.
Media studies can also be revised a day before. The exam board for my media studies exam was AQA. It was a
controlled assessment so the assignment was issued before we carried it out, in exam conditions. This was fantastic
because I literally answered the entire paper before completing it, in exam conditions. As I got closer to the exam, I
created an essay template. This consisted of the first line of every paragraph. This was enough to trigger my mind
into recollecting every paragraph in full, culminating in an 8-page essay. In the end, I got an A in this subject. If your
media studies exam is under the AQA board, you can use this approach when preparing for your exam. If its not a
controlled assessment, then you may have to give yourself an extra day or two to memorise all of your key notes.
Amidst your R.E and Media Studies exams, you should revise for the group of subjects in the middle English, English
Literature, Chemistry and Geography. This is because these exams are all bunched up. Its important to revise these
continuously for memory retention. These exams will come thick and fast, so you need to be able to recall as much
information as possible. Maths can be sacrificed until you have completed the English Literature exam. There are no
17
other subjects to cater for and youll have 4 days to focus on it. This is more than enough time to memorise the key
formulas/concepts.
Here is how I would design my revision timetable based on the exam timetable on the previous page:
Subject
R.E
English (post R.E exam)
Geography
Chemistry
English Literature or Media Studies
Media Studies
English (post Media Studies exam)
Geography
Chemistry
English Literature
Maths
English
Geography
Chemistry
English Literature
Maths or English
English
Geography (post English exam)
Chemistry (post Geography exam)
English Literature (post Chemistry exam)
Maths (post English Literature exam)
Maths
Maths
Maths
Date
16 May 2015
17th May 2015
18th May 2015
19th May 2015
20th May 2015
21st May 2015
22nd May 2015
23rd May 2015
24th May 2015
25th May 2015
26th May 2015
27th May 2015
28th May 2015
29th May 2015
30th May 2015
31st May 2015
1st June 2015
2nd June 2015
3rd June 2015
4th June 2015
5th June 2015
6th June 2015
7th June 2015
8th June 2015
th
Ultimately, how you revise for each exam will depend on your exam timetable and the nature of each exam. This will
vary considerably from student to student. What you should take note of is some subjects will not require as much
dedication as others. In this instance, the focus was on the 4 subjects in the middle and not so much R.E and Media
Studies. There was a reasonable gap between English Literature and the final exam; Maths, so you can neglect it
until after the English Literature exam has taken place, if you feel you need to focus on the subjects in the middle. 4
days is enough to recollect the key formulas/concepts in maths and remember, there are no other subjects to revise
for at this stage.
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Memory Is The Most Important Factor Of Your Exam Success

Without-a-doubt, memory is the most important factor of your exam success. An exam is simply a test of your
memory. The more information you have stored in your brain, the more valid points you can make in the exam.
Youll be taking a number of exams in quick succession, so your memory retention skills have to be up to par. Over
the years, Ive used a number of memory retention techniques in order to store as much information as possible. Ive
shared them with you in this chapter.
Firstly, be creative when drawing-up your notes. Use colours and diagrams; highlight the key words and phrases.
Your brain likes to store colours and diagrams and it makes it easier to take a snapshot in your photographic
memory. Photographic memory is the ability to store images of pages in your mind. Believe it or not, you can
visualise an entire page in your mind, including the text, layout etc. You may have experienced this yourself before;
when you stare at your notes-page for a while, your brain will take a photographic image of it subconsciously. Then,
when you need to recall these notes, during a revision question, you can conjure up an image of this page (including
the notes) in your mind. Photographic memory is most useful on the day of your exam, when you want to cram-in
that last minute content.
Mind-maps are a useful tool for revision. It revolves around association and this is how your brain essentially works.
For instance, suppose a friend asked you what you did on your birthday. Youll respond by explaining the events that
took place, who was present, what gifts you received etc. You would recall everything associated with that event.
Revision is no different. When youre answering a question, your brain will find all the information thats linked to it.
Thats why its best to incorporate mind-maps into your revision. It acts as a chain of events so when you are lost for
ideas in an exam, you can always visualise your mind-map to keep the ideas flowing. Here is an example of a mind
map for Biology (GCSE science):
Cell:
1. Membrane
2. Nucleus
3. Mitochondria
4. Ribosomes
5. Cytoplasm
Tissue:
1. Muscular
2. Glandular
3. Epithelial
Cell (other)
1. Wall
2. Chloroplast
3. Vacuole
Plant
Animals
Cell
Organisation
Organ:
1. Leaves
2. Stem
3. Roots
This is just a small example to give you the idea. Make sure you create these in your revision.
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Tissue:
1. Epidermal
2. Mesophyll
3. Xylem
4. Phloem
For subjects which are heavy on content, you can use, what I call, triggers. Triggers are words or phrases which
trigger your mind into thinking of the bigger picture. An example of this is given in the previous section, where I
explained how I recollected my entire Media Studies assignment, by simply memorising the first line of each
paragraph. The first line acted as a trigger and it triggered my mind into reciting the whole paragraph. I did this for
every paragraph and soon, it developed into an 8-page essay! You may wonder how thats even possible, but if you
consider the purpose of the first line in a paragraph, it summarises what youre about to say. Thats why I could
remember the rest of the paragraph. If you use this approach, keep your paragraphs small; no more than 7-8 lines. It
is difficult to recall large paragraphs. You brain prefers to store bite-sized chunks.
Triggers can be as short as a single word. These are usually in the form of acronyms. Ill give you an example to show
you what I mean. Suppose, for your Business Studies exam, you have to memorise the following reasons on why an
individual would become a sole trader:
1. You are your own boss. You dont have to take orders. You make the key decisions.
2. You keep all of the profit.
3. More freedom you can choose how to run your business, what time to run it etc.
4. Self achievement/satisfaction in running your own enterprise.
It would be impractical to remember these advantages, word-for-word. Instead, what you can do is make an
acronym based on a buzz word from each reason. For the first reason, the buzz word is boss or rule. In the second
reason, the buzz word is profit or money. A buzz word in the third reason could be freedom or choice and in the
last reason, you can take achievement or satisfaction as your buzz word. Once youve established all the buzz
words, you can form an acronym. After some thought, you could come up with the following:
F Freedom
R Rule
A Achievement
P Profit
As you can see, it would be more-efficient to learn the F.R.A.P acronym as opposed to learning each reason, wordfor-word. Each letter in the acronym, defines a key word which, in turn, leads to a full reason. Acronyms work best
for essay-based subjects. This is because, in an essay, you are required to write a number of different reasons or
factors. Acronyms help you to remember these reasons or factors so you have plenty to talk about, in the exam.
20
Another trick you can use to memorise a key concept/idea is to turn it into a song. Why can you remember the lyrics
of a particular song for years? This is because the lyrics are associated with a tune. Thus, turn a key concept into a
song and it should help you to memorise it. For instance, you could use the following rhyme to help you remember
the formulas for the circumference and area of a circle:
Circle, Circle, around you are,

your circumference is 2 pi, r,
and for those of you who really care,
your area is pi, r, squared!
Ultimately, the quickest and most effective way to remember a piece of information is to write/say it and repeat it.
Take your notes page and choose a fact that you would like to remember. Read it and say it out loud repeatedly.
Reciting it is crucial because you are more likely to remember its word structure. Then, put your notes page away.
Get a plain piece of paper and attempt to write out what you just read. On the first attempt, you may not remember
it all. This is when you should repeat the process. On the third or fourth occasion, you would have memorised it
word-for-word. This is great method because youve not only remembered the concept, but youve remembered it
word-for-word. This is very useful when memorising definitions and other key concepts.
21
Motivation Is Key
Motivation plays a big role in fulfilling your revision schedule and ultimately, your final GCSE results. Drawing up a
schedule is the easy part but adhering to it is a totally different ball game; you have to show great determination and
character in order to complete every task set. Motivation and productivity work in tandem; if motivation drops, so
will productivity and if motivation increases, productivity will also increase. Thats why you need to keep your
motivation levels up throughout your revision.
Inevitably, your motivation levels will drop. It is difficult to keep your motivation levels sky high all the time. This is
because revision is generally viewed as a tedious task; the idea of reading a textbook and answering a handful of
questions is not appealing to the majority of students. Instead, students would prefer to relax on the sofa and watch
a movie. However, the reality is, GCSE exams are compulsory and you have to strive in order to achieve top grades
and secure a well-paid job in the future.
Having a feasible revision schedule is a great starting point. It provides the student with structure and discipline. By
knowing you have a list of tasks to complete for the day ahead, makes you more motivated to complete them.
Students who revise on auto-pilot, without the aid of a revision plan, tend to lose motivation very quickly. This is
because they realise quite quickly that what theyre doing is not very effective. Negativity creeps in and students
begin to doubt their own ability as well as their revision methods. At this very moment, motivation and revision both
decline. This all stems from not having a revision schedule to begin with. Not having a schedule from the start causes
a downward spiral and its difficult to pick yourself up when youve hit a low.
Furthermore, by drawing up a revision schedule, you can make time for leisure activity. If you look at the revision
schedule I outlined for you on page 15, half of your time is dedicated to revision and the other half, is dedicated to
leisure activity. Your schedule should not consist of work, work, and more work! Too much work can cause a burnout
and this can affect performance and results in the long run. By incorporating leisure activity into the revision
schedule, you can take frequent breaks and return to revision when motivation levels are restored.
Human beings are distinct. This means students are motivated in different ways. Its just a case of finding out what
motivates you the best. Personally, Ive found that listening to an inspirational song or watching an inspirational
video tends to boost motivation. This is because it alters your mindset immediately and you feel like picking up a
revision guide then and there. Revising with a friend is also great for stimulation. By revising with a friend, youll
understand that you are not alone youre friend is also in the same boat as you. You can both strive together and
achieve top grades in your GCSEs. One friend can push the other when their motivation is low and vice versa.
Another technique that Ive used is visualising the results slip in my hand; the euphoria I would get if I achieve all of
my target grades. Always have this thought in mind as it will keep procrastination to a minimum.
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Conclusion & Summary

The reason why students underachieve in their GCSEs is because they do not have a well-defined strategy to begin
with. Students tend to revise on auto-pilot, without critically analysing their revision methods. They should
constantly ask themselves: Is this productive? Am I making progress, in an exam sense? Ultimately, youll be taking
an exam so you have to master your exam technique. This essentially means, providing adequate answers which are
in line with the mark scheme.
Most of you will be taking 10 GCSEs. A GCSE usually consists of 2 papers. This means you could be taking up to 20
exams. Thus, its important to have a well-structured timetable in order to revise for each GCSE accordingly. When
designing your revision timetable, you should keep the following pointers in mind:
Reverse engineer - gather all of your resources (revision guide, past papers, mark schemes) first. This dictates
how your revision timetable will pan out, including its feasibility and whether youll get through all the
resources mentioned.
Begin revision early. The earlier the better. Revision will be more streamlined and less stressful in the long
run, as opposed to cramming it all in last-minute. There is also the benefit of improving your exam technique
and memory retention early on.
Test your revision schedule. You may find, at the beginning, that your schedule is either fairly straightforward
or very impractical. Make amendments to create the most viable program.
Revise one subject a day, where possible, and revise every subject in a particular week for memory
retention. Some subjects will have to be paired. Obvious pairings are English and English Literature, Sciences,
Geography and Business Studies etc. You should pair up subjects which are similar in nature.
Subjects usually fall into one of two categories: theory-based or essay-based. Some subjects fall into both.
The revision process is more-or-less the same for both categories, despite subtle differences. For instance,
notes will be in the form of essay templates for essay-based subjects.
Avoid too much note-taking. Detailed note-taking is highly inefficient. Write notes on only the key
concepts/ideas. Towards the end of the program, you would want to reduce your notes to a minimum. This
is because youll be taking a number of exams in one go, so referring to heaps of text is not efficient.
23
Cheat sheets usually work best. Theyll contain the things you must remember for the exam. Only you will
truly know, after months of revision and testing, what these things are! Memorise these cheat sheets a day
before each exam.
You will be tested on what you know and not how much you can read. Half of your time (or more) should be
dedicated to answering revision questions/exam questions as opposed to reading a large textbook.
Answering revision questions/exam questions are a true test of memory retention.
The review phase is the most important part of your revision schedule. This is the only part where you can
improve your grades. Always review your work and identify any weaknesses. Convert these weaknesses into
strengths over time.
As you approach the first exam, you should revise for each exam in turn. How you revise will depend on the
final exam timetable and the nature of each exam. Dedicate more time to certain subjects (see pages 18 &
19).
Memory retention is the deciding factor in achieving top grades in your GCSE exams. As you could potentially be
taking 20 exams in quick succession, memory retention must be strong in order to contain as much information as
possible. The more information you retain, the more points you can discuss in your exam. In this guide, Ive provided
you with a number of memory retention techniques and Ive summarised them here, below:
1) Take snapshots in your photographic memory. This usually works best a day before or on the day of the
exam to cram in that last minute content.
2) Mind maps are similar to how your brain operates it revolves around association. Create mind maps and
use your photographic memory to conjure up the mind map in your exam. This will keep your mind buzzing
in the exam.
3) Use triggers to trigger your mind into thinking of the bigger picture. Triggers can be as long as whole
sentences; if you are memorising an entire essay. Triggers can be as short as single words. They usually come
in the form of acronyms. When you have to remember a number of reasons, form an acronym by taking a
buzz word from each reason. Triggers are necessary to keep your notes to a bare minimum.
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4) If you are struggling to remember a key concept, turn it into a song. Your brain is more likely to store
information when its associated with a tune. Thats why we remember lyrics of a song for years!
5) The quickest and most effective way to remember a key fact is to write/say it and then repeat it. Read it on
your notes page and say it out loud several times. Put the notes page away and attempt to write-it out.
Repeat this process until youve memorised the whole fact. This usually occurs on the third or fourth
attempt. This method is very effective when memorising definitions or other key concepts.
6) Revise just before going to bed. Your brain never sleeps and it continues to churn away at digesting the
information that you put in front of it when you are sleeping.
7) Get enough sleep. Between 6-8 hours is sufficient. Memory retention is strong after a good nights sleep and
you feel refreshed and ready to begin revision for the day ahead.
There you have it. These are the most important guidelines when taking your GCSEs. Take these pointers on board
and use them to shape your final revision schedule. Then, make sure you stick to it! Take frequent breaks to keep
yourself motivated. As youve seen from the schedule on page 15, it is possible to spend half of your time doing the
things you enjoy!
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Achieve Your Target Grade In

NOTICE: YOU DO NOT HAVE PERMISSION TO SELL OR SHARE THE

The General Idea

The General Flow Of Revision

Reverse Engineer To Create A Feasible Schedule

Theory-Based And Essay-Based Subjects

How Much Time Should You Spend On Revision?

Approaching The First Exam

Memory Is The Most Important Factor Of Your Exam Success

Conclusion & Summary

The General Idea

The General Flow Of Revision

Reverse Engineer To Create A Feasible Schedule

Theory-Based And Essay-Based Subjects

Revising for Theory-Based Subjects

Revising for Essay-Based Subjects

Revising for Theory and Essay Based Subjects

How Much Time Should You Spend On Revision?

Approaching The First Exam

Memory Is The Most Important Factor Of Your Exam Success

Circle, Circle, around you are,

Conclusion & Summary

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