Christmas holidays – revision or relaxation?

With two weeks off for Christmas, many would be settling down for a period of rest and relaxation following their first term back at school. However, for year 12 students with mock exams in January, this time of relaxation has turned into a period of revision and stress. I interviewed Emilia to tell me more about how she has been dealing with this situation and how she balances her time between family and work.

Emilia is a year 12 student studying History, Sociology, and English language A levels at sixth form. By taking three essay subjects she definitely has her work cut out for her in preparation for a total of 6 hours in the exam hall in January!

When asked about her current stress levels in preparation for the exams, Emilia states that she is definitely feeling nervous due to the amount of content that has been covered in only one term, arguing that the revision that she has planned to get through will be gruelling but hopefully worth it.

Her next step of revision planning involved finding how she wanted to revise for each of her subjects. For History and Sociology, Emilia plans to recap and review each subtopic booklet and condense her notes for each through Quizlets and mind maps to consolidate the immense amount of content that has already been covered. Once she is confident has all of this knowledge reviewed, she will use the blurting technique to test and reinforce this knowledge further.

For English Language, Emilia chooses to take a different approach, instead, she will organise her sheets in her file by selecting the topics she deems most necessary to revisit, whilst also looking at past exam questions and essays to support her through her exam on accents and dialects