Daisy Dewsnap: Tips for going back to school

Daisy, a 15-year-old from Mossley who attends Saddleworth School, writes for the Reporter. Here, she shares five useful tips for any pupils returning to school who have exams to prepare for.

When I return to school in a few weeks, I will be entering my final year at high school which means I have my GCSE exams this academic year. 

I thought I would write an article sharing five of the tips that have helped me when revising and studying. I have used these since starting secondary school and I plan to take them with me into Year 11 when preparing for my exams.

1) The first tip is to revise in short 30 minute bursts rather than for three hours straight and take frequent breaks. This has been scientifically proven to be effective and it helps you to maintain a high level of concentration so that you’re able to remember the information you are studying.

2) The next tip is: don’t just memorise content, understand it. I think this is very important as you need to have a good understanding of each topic in order to answer questions on it in an exam environment. Even if this means searching online for it or browsing through a text book, make sure that you understand everything you’ve done.

3) The third tip is to read through any notes that you made at the end of each day. This will encourage the revision to stay in your memory and will also remind you of anything you may have already forgotten. Recall is one of the best ways to remember information so if you keep revisiting and reminding yourself of the learning them it should stay in your memory.

4) The next tip is to do plenty of past practice papers. This enables you to understand how to answer various question types and also gives you an opportunity to test your knowledge under exam conditions so that you can see any gaps in your knowledge.

5) The final tip is to remove all distractions. This is to make sure that the environment in which you’re working allows you to be the most productive you can be. That way, you can work at your highest standard & get the maximum amount of work done.

These tips have all really benefitted me and I hope you may be able to take something from them too.