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One of the things I (re)learnt when doing A level physics is that the day before and the morning of an exam can be a crucial time, but it is difficult to know what to do with that time. I shouldn't be learning anything new in that time(!) I found that doing practise questions, whilst useful, is also time intensive and I couldn't cover the whole specification. A useful thing I discovered was to make a last minute list - this is a list of things I need to remind myself to do, o

The specifications for science exams are big and some things will get more focus than others. Some aspects never get taught very much at all, and some are not taught well consistently every year. Here are some reasons why... Changes to the specification: When a science specification changes, only about 5% is different. In a way, this makes it harder to write new resources than a 100% change, because the resources are almost sufficient, but not quite and it's easier to spot a

Last summer, I decided to take A level physics and revised it myself for the exams. I used a variety of resources and I will cover them in a future post. However, there were other things I learnt besides physics itself. First of all, I found that I was not above making exactly the same mistakes I had been telling people not to make for years. At first, I forgot to convert units, use equations properly or express numbers in the form that the question suggested. It is easy to c

There are a few things that can get lost in the general maelstrom of content when you revise your science. One of those things is unit conversions. In GCSE science, you need to make sure that you have all of your units in SI units for the maths questions. That is: Kilograms for mass Amps for current metres for distance seconds for time Joules for energy If the units you have been given are different, you need to know how to convert them. To convert them, you need to know the

I recently read this article on the TES on SLOP (Shed Loads of Practise) Although the acronym is new, the concept is not. You get better at things when you do lots of practise. It is an idea we should be promoting to children anyway, as Carol Dweck's research shows - we should be linking their successes to the amount of effort they put in. In the context of revision, this means doing lots of questions then looking at the answers to see how you have done, marking them and thin

You have started your revision in earnest. Maybe you have spent some time making a lovely colour coded revision plan. Sometimes, you wake up and decide what to revise there and then. You realise that you have two (or maybe even three!) year's worth of material to get through. You can't do that with 8 weeks left and a load of other exams to revise for. You need a revision guide. Something that sums up everything you need to know into succinct statements. Well, if you study AQA