Overcoming Mock Exams

As we enter the last few months of the year, thoughts of Christmas and snow liven up the gruelling last few weeks of school. And if you are anything like me, you are bricking it for mock exams, even though you do nothing to actually help yourself until the week before which is when the real panic sets in. Luckily, you have come across my blog and I am going to do my best to help you out in acing your exams. And this is helping me procrastinate, so really, thank you.

To start off, we want convenience and of course to put the least amount of work in as possible. Something that has really helped me in learning key words and facts is an app called Cram. If you are not up to spending hours making flash cards or plastering your walls with posters Cram is going to really help you. It is available for both Apple devices and Android. All you have to do once you've downloaded it is search for a topic and make sure you include the exam board your school is using. You'll find loads of flash cards that have already been made and all you have to do is click on them and use them.

Another good resource is a website called Get Revising. Now this is a website that helps you make  revision time tables and all other sorts of things to help you revise. All you have to do is enter the exam board that you are with for each subject and once you've searched that there will be all sorts of things to help you to revise. I'm not sure that it can be downloaded as an app but I'm pretty sure you can link it with your phone to send reminders and so that you can access the resources from your phone too.

And after talking so much about revising, something that is also really important is sleep. I've brought this up because after a horrible emotionally and physically tiring week at school I came home today and sat down on my bed with the sole intentions of completing my homework. That did not happen at all. In fact I ended up taking a short nap that maybe wasn't short at all. But after that, I ended up having enough energy to complete the rest of my homework. Which might not have happened otherwise. Basically, what I am trying to get across, is take all the time you can to sleep, but still remember to keep a healthy amount of revision. There's no point in revising until your eyes are bloodshot and you can only speak in sloppy slurs like your drunk.

Also, somewhere I find myself most nights, whether its for educational purposes or not, is YouTube. I LOVE YouTube. And surprisingly there are a lot of different videos on all sorts of GCSE courses. Some of my favourites are from a channel called Wisecrack. They do videos about English literature as well as famous novels, poems and Films. But something that has really helped me is certain videos called Thug Notes. They have made ones on Macbeth and A Christmas Carol and I'm sure they have lots of others too. But, as well as being extremely funny and engaging they really help you to understand the pieces without having to speak with excellently mature vocabulary. (which is something I'm not good at anyway) Also, it doesn't really feel like revising when you watch them which is a plus, just don't get side tracked. I've gone from watching a video about the hydrological cycle in Geography to watching people squash things with a hydraulic press (I would extremely recommend, it's soooo satisfying!).

Reward yourself. Rewards. Rewards. Rewards. Now I think I have mentioned this before but I'm going to mention this again. At the minute I am rewarding myself for finishing my homework by watching the film Elf. And if I do something else good too then I will continue to reward myself. It's important to recognise that you are completing tasks and rewarding yourself is a great way to recognise that. Especially if that's something that you don't do regularly, it's nice to give yourself that little boost.

Hope you are feeling a little bit more sane after reading this. And good luck for you week ahead. It seems these days that it's a win to get through the day without having a mental breakdown. Be sure to let me know if there are any tips you have! xxx