GCSE Biology Week 3 Exam Preparation Tips

Hello! Nice to see you again! I’ve been loving the Champions League the past few weeks BUT I’ve kept revision at the front of my mind to get a healthy work life balance.

Speaking of, this week is all about , time management! Revision is super important, but so’s all the fun stuff you like to do with the rest of your life!

As a student, you should consider two aspects of time management: revision breakdown and exam time management. So, let's get a cup of tea and don our efficiency helmets!

Revision Breakdown

Organisation

Most students struggle to figure out what they need to revise. You may recall my previous suggestion that we divide our revision into the number of weeks we have remaining. Here’s an example of what I mean:

Lack of motivation is completely normal – we've all been there. In fact, I still have this from time to time (just don’t ask how many times). The challenging part for us at this time of the year is how to actually get started on our most difficult topics, and here motivation is key.

Usually, we think a topic is difficult because we either don’t like it, or just haven’t studied it enough. One of the best solutions for this is; “eating your frog.” Now, I know usually in Biology we dissect frogs but hear me out! (Also please note that some frogs are poisonous so we don’t suggest ingesting them – Elevate's Legal team) This is about procrastination and getting work done, if you’d like to read the whole thing click here. Here’s the important bit though:

“Eating the frog means to just do it, otherwise the frog will eat you, meaning that you’ll end up procrastinating for the whole day. Once that one task is done, the rest of the day will be an easier ride and you will get both momentum and a sense of accomplishment at the beginning of your day,”

We tend to avoid tasks because of our thought process. This ties in with changing your mindset from blog 1. By completing your most challenging topics first, it will feel like a greater achievement and the topics you have to do next will seem easier by comparison.

I study lots, but I don’t get why I am not achieving my best

All right, so you have just had your tea and a frog related motivational speech. What’s the next step? Well, in an ideal world, 4-5 hours of constant studying would work for everyone. However, this isn’t the case for most people. So we should aim for a break every 30 or so minutes to help us keep our motivation up. Have an annoying sibling? Keep them away during these short sessions so you can fully concentrate. And think of small rewards to give yourself, every 30 minutes is an achievement, this can help motivate you further! Also, many of us think we should sacrifice activities we love to make time to revise. True, you might need to cut back, but don’t cut things out completely. Work these into our weekly plans, or into our small reward breaks. By making time for the things we love we will feel better mentally and physically! Now, doesn’t this all sound better than pulling an all-nighter and stare at a textbook for 5 hours?

Exam time management

Time management during exams is ALSO vital!

I remember struggling to complete my Biology mock in time, even though my revision was impeccable! The problem was a lack of practice under times conditions. I focused so much on revising and getting the information into my head, I’d forgot to practice getting it back out onto the exam paper under time constraints!

After my traumatic mocks, I sat down and got all the past papers and questions I could. My exam board gave us about one minute per mark in the paper (to work this out for your exam just divide the time of the paper in minutes by the total marks available). So, for a 3-mark question I’d have around 3 minutes. I started practicing with the correct time and slowly worked on getting faster. So start trying this yourself, if you take too long at first that’s fine. Keep track of your time and soon you’ll start to speed up. Also, take note of which questions take longer as these are the type of questions you should practice more. Be doing this you'll guarantee that you have enough time to answer everything in the exam, the goal should be to finished with extra time at the end to double-check your answer.

Finally, we can beat the clock and win! Honestly, finishing an exam before time runs out is one of the best feelings ever!

Have any questions about how to prepare for your GCSE exams? Having problems with any hard to understand content or tricky past exam questions? Then ask Syed. Syed will be hosting a series of Q&A webinars in the 2 weeks before final exams. Post your questions here, and Syed will answer them in these sessions.