Back to School Advice:Revision Tips

Since I am starting year 11 this year and I have experienced a full four years of the secondary school environment I finally feel qualified enough to give you advice on how to go about these school days. Now telling you that these days will be the best of your life is not entirely true, these days will sometimes also be the worst in your life. Partly due to the fact that you are still young but mostly because it’s a plain fact that some people are mean and work is hard. That universally accepted but it’s how you get through this that will make your high school experience worthwhile.

I have gone through my share of high school up’s and down’s myself, some of which were of my own doing and some because I did not have someone that would give me the advice that I will be giving you now. Sit tight because in the next few blog posts we will discuss revision techniques, tips with bullying, stationary and books and the best makeup for school.  

Firstly In this post let’s start off with the hallowed revision tips and tricks, without some sort of revision plan set out for yourself during the school year or even a rough idea of how much you want to revise you will find secondary school very hard. If you are currently attending one you will know it is much bigger and more work focused than your previous primary school. Were before you could get away with maybe an hour a week of story reading with parents now you will come to realise that this is not the case. If you realised this early on Well Done! You are much more intelligent than me but if you did not, it’s not to worry it’s never too late.

For Years 7-8 an hour of revision of the maths, sciences and subjects like history and geography is all that is needed each week. Also be sure to ready at least 1 book every two weeks this will do wonders for your English grade. It will extend your vocabulary and creativity like you would never believe! If you are not much of a reader however just try and get into reading as much as you can, everything counts. Magazines, non- fiction books based on your hobbies and even blog posts will help you.

Years 9-11 will get a little harder, nothing to worry about but if you do not have the right mindset of wanting to achieve good grades and do well you will struggle. That’s a tip I always give, if you have the right mindset everything else will follow. Once you have the right vision there a few things you can do to make this a reality.

·         Buy revision text books

This is always a first step as when you have your revision books all brought and ready to use then it is only a matter of getting revising! For the sciences I recommend buying books set out for your specific exam board more than the other subjects because the syllabuses vary widely for each of the exam boards. Buying this for the other subjects will help also however. CGP books are very good at giving short information and notes to memorise.

·         Set yourself a revision timetable

It is very important to know when you are studying and when you are not so that you can have a healthy work and play balance in your life. This also comes in useful when an exam is looming so you are completely sure you are using your time effectively to insure the top grades. A revision timetable may seem stressful to make but it will save you a lot of stress later on. Here is a link to my personal favourite revision timetable creator - http://getrevising.co.uk/planner/week/2015-08-17

·         Things to help you revise

A few things that actually help me revise are highlighters, I use these to brighten up important information and help them stick in my mind long after I put down the book. These are also really helpful to take to school, you will never get bored when your text books are brightly fluorescent. Same with coloured pens and felts, use them generously and you will be repaid with good grades and very pretty books. Another thing that I sometimes use to help me revise for subjects like Business and Spanish,when there is a lot of vocab to memorise, is flash cards. They are so easy to pop in your bag and go through in car journeys and free periods that they are a no brainer. Every person should own an emergency wad of flash cards, you never know when the next class vocab test will creep up on you.

All this information may feel overwhelming but believe me after a month in a secondary school it will feel more like home.

Love lule xx

 

 

The Summer Holiday

The Summer

This summer has been a learning curve for me as after only one week into the holidays I decided to try some new things. My family and I were not going on a holiday this summer, our holiday was already booked for the October half term so after a long think I realised I wanted to do something beneficial with my time this year. Now don’t get me wrong I still wanted to lounge about on the sofa and watch re-runs of Pretty little liars and The vampire diaries because believe me that is always inevitable but I also wanted to be a little productive.

Volunteering

And that’s when the idea struck me, what is the best thing to do during the holidays that would help me and also help others, well volunteering of course. I knew that there were some places going in my local library to become a summer reading Challenge volunteer which consists of helping the young children that are partaking in the summer reading challenge with quizzes, activities and arts and crafts. As someone that used to do the summer reading challenge for nearly every year since I was 5 up to 10 then I know how important it is to make these children have the best time possible. This challenge encourages reading and writing in the young children as they have to finish six books and then write reviews for each. By the end of the summer and are also rewarded for all the work by stickers and activities. I know first-hand how important these kinds of programmes are to young children as I believe this is where my love of reading and writing first stems from.

Also as part of the volunteering that I took part in I have also become a much more confident person, I speak to the parents and workers in the library comfortably which at first I could not do because I always thought that I was in the way when the adults were organising the events. After getting past that however I really started to enjoy my time at the library and whilst I could have been staying a home and being busy doing nothing I knew I was doing the important job of insuring these young children see reading and writing as a hobby rather than a chore.

Lots of love Lule x