Get more of your study time with a revision timetable!
A basic revision timetable is essentially a calendar. It contains topics and subjects you need to revise on specific days. This is essential for covering everything you need to in time for the exam.
It will help you focus and make the most of the time you have available to study for your exams. They allow you to plan your time effectively and track the material you’ve covered. Rather than confronting a whole textbook at once, a revision timetable breaks up the modules to cover each day, maximising your revision time. Revision timetable help students to know what, when and how to revise.
If you're preparing for your GCSE’s, A-level or 11 Plus exam this year, let’s create that winning revision timetable! Here’s how:
Determine the amount of time you have for revision.
Are you currently on school holidays and have a set period of time available time before you go back to school? Is it exam season, and you’re on study leave? Give yourself just enough time to make your revision goals achievable. You want to feel a little bit of time pressure, but not too much. Strike a balance between ambition and realism. On your calendar, make sure you fill in your current commitments and day to day activities. For example; when you’re at school, having meals, exercising or just doing the other hobbies and activities you do during your standard week.Prioritise your subjects/topics.
You need to decide which subjects you currently feel the most and least confident about. The best way to do this is to make a list. Write the subjects you’re weakest at towards the top, and those where you’re strongest towards the bottom. Give each of them a number as a reminder for when you input them into your timetable.Break subjects into topics.
If your timetable only instructs you to revise a subject, let’s say, English Literature, you’re probably not going to revise what you actually need to revise within English Literature. Not sure how to divide or categorise your subject? This is OK, since every exam board creates a syllabus or specification that covers everything you could possibly be examined on.Insert your exam subjects.
It’s usually best to allocate more time to the subjects that you’re a bit struggling with, and spend less time on the subjects that you already grasp very well. It’s also for you to decide whether you prefer to do a lot of the same subject on a single day, or do multiple sessions of different subjects. Also, think about the repetition of your revision schedule. Most students create a weekly or bi-weekly schedule. This will quickly create a routine and can make you mentally prepare better for the revision sessions.Colour code your subjects for a clear overview.
Another useful tip is to Colour code your template. If you give each subject a different Colour, then you can see at a glance what you’re doing and keeps the overview nice and clear. Also, do not worry whether you do not always revise as much as you planned. It happens. As long as you’ve done some of the subjects that you’ve put down on that day, then don’t worry. There will be opportunities to revise more for those subjects.
What to do during each revision session.
This step is important since it makes sure that you can remember and recall the information as well as understand it. During your initial review sessions, you will take notes in bullet points on the material you need to understand and then condense these notes into flashcards that you may use to test yourself.Stay flexible.
You also don’t have to follow the schedule exactly at the minute. If you planned to revise Biology at 8 pm but instead did it at 11 am, then that’s fine. The schedule is not meant to dictate your life. It’s a helpful tool that keeps your revision more organised and helps you stay on track. Here’s a blog on How To Revise For and Ace Your Biology, Chemistry and Physics Exams!Make sure your timetable is achievable.
Make your timetable achievable by managing your health and stress levels and by allocating time to exercise, socialise and generally forget about revision for a bit. You ought to be in a good place right away if you followed Step 1 already.
Finally, refer to your timetable often, so you can gut-check how you're pacing, some days you're going to have to work faster and longer than usual, others you can afford to ease off a bit. It’s up to you to make that judgement call.
Check out our blogs about enhancing your learning and revision!
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Download the template below to see an example:
Need more revision help? Try reading our blog post!