How to effectively revise for a high mark

As a new student you will discover that you need to acquire a whole range of academic skills, such as studying independently, managing your workload, sourcing relevant material for assignments, thinking critically, and being able to explain your thoughts clearly.  You may also need to further develop your exam preparation and revision skills, and that’s what I’m going to focus on in this blog.

When I first arrived at university, I thought the revision for exams would be a breeze as I had not struggled with academic work growing up.

However, my first year exams truly humbled me, and scraping a pass by the skin of my teeth made me re-evaluate my revision methods.

So, I thought I would share some tips about how I learned to effectively revise and get higher marks.

The exam period is typically three weeks long and you’ll have a revision period prior to the exams where you can set your gameplan.

I like to believe I can be an organised person, but truthfully, I often forget things if I don’t have them in a calendar. I suggest downloading a calendar like Google Calendar to your phone so that you can create events and colour-code them based on subject. For exam season, I made a specific calendar and over a three-week period would divide up my revision material.

Some modules were easier than others and I was able to revise multiple weeks of content in one or two days. Other modules were far more in-depth, and I would designate certain times in the day for terms and definition revision, and another chunk of time in the day for policy review.

It may take an hour or so to go through your material to divide it up and plan but, trust me, it makes the revision process easier as you won’t be overwhelmed with information all at once.

I also used this method of preplanning for my dissertation and found it extremely helpful to catch myself when I was procrastinating and to stay on schedule.

I hope these tips help when it comes to your exams.  You can find lots more advice about revision for exams on the AberSkills webpages.

Unless otherwise stated, the views contained within these blogs are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Aberystwyth University.