How to revise

Revision, revision, revision… Revision is the magic word when it comes to exams. Students are told to spend weeks revising but are rarely told what revising actually is.

Here’s a helpful acronym we have made to help you revise:

UPA

Understand

Practice

Apply

UPA is a three stage process that covers all the essential steps to understand a topic. If you use UPA we believe this will help you lock down the topics you need to revise and prepare you for exams. However it is important to remember there is no one way to revise, so do what’s best for you!

Understand

The first stage of the process is to understand the topic you need to revise. This may sound simple, but people often jump into practice questions without knowing how much they know! There are many different ways to understand a topic, here are some methods that work well: Reading through the textbook, making notes, using flashcards and watching explanatory videos. Once you feel you have developed a good understanding, you can move on to the next step of the revision process.

Top tip: A good way to tell if you fully understand a topic is if you can comfortably explain it to someone else.

Practice

“Practice makes perfect” may be an old phrase but it is certainly true. The second stage is to practice, practice, and practice some more. Maths in particular is a subject that has no substitute for this. Developing your mathematical skills and confidence is done mainly through answering questions - the more you do the better you’ll get. Practice a variety of questions that range in difficulty to build your skills in the topic. When you are getting most questions right you can move to the last stage of the process. If you feel you need more practice, this is not a bad thing, and even going back to stage one to understand the topic better can be a good idea!

Apply

The final stage of the revision process is to apply your knowledge and practice. The apply stage may look different depending on the subject and school level. This step is about taking your knowledge and skills, and applying them to the setting you will be assessed in. Some examples could be practicing an exam paper, planning or completing coursework, or doing a mock real-life practical. For Maths, this is generally practicing past exam questions or a full past paper, under test conditions. The difference between this and the practice stage is that you are not just practicing elements of the topic, you are doing it in the very same way it will be required in the exam.

We hope that after you follow these steps you will be much more confident in how to revise. Remember, you can repeat/come back to any of the stages if you feel like you need more time on them. Let us know if this worked and how you revise!