#aleveladvice

[inspostudy101]

Let’s try this then...

After months of low motivation and an Instagram lacking in fresh content, I have decided to revive my tumblr page after I created it about a year ago and never used it... oops. My goal on here is to be able to write a lot more in terms of advice and my own study techniques without feeling distant- like with my formal wix blog (bye bye Inspostudy101 blog R.I.P). I have thought about also perhaps creating a weekly (if I have time ofc) “diary of an a-level student”, I haven’t seen anything like this (although I’m certain something like this exists- shout out to those who have done this) and I think it would be a nice way to post content without putting pressure on myself. If any of you have any questions about revision or life in general you can ask me here and it’ll allow me to share more of my advice with you guys since tumblr is quite known for the whole Q&A thing. This is a beta though so please be aware that this tumblr is bound to experience a plethora of growing pains whilst I learn how to navigate the site properly and create engaging posts- since my expertise is mainly Instagram- if any of you don’t follow me on there, it would be great to see you; @inspostudy101 on Instagram. If any of you have come from my Instagram, HI!

Anyways, if I carry this on it’ll be a miracle, one of my favourite hobbies is not finishing things that I have started :)

[matildasmiles]

This is a video of everything I wish I knew before I did A Level Drama. A lot of the advice is good for those who do GCSE too xx

undefined

[tkstudiess]

, Hey all! I have collaborated with @allergictostudying to bring you this post :) I hope this is helpful. If it is, please do like and share :) I have divided this post into essay based, non-essay based subjects and general advice. I will try to make this as short as possible :3

ESSAY BASED SUBJECTS

This applies to English, Philosophy, History, Sociology etc

1. Don’t spend too much time on content.

My essay-based subject was economics and I spent more time on exam technique than on content which really helped me secure a good mark! You can know all the content inside out but if you cannot apply it and present your knowledge in a format that the examiners want, you won’t get as many marks. My tip would be to try to learn and understand all the content/clear up any problems you have, then focus on exam practice a month or so before your exams.

2. Make detailed essay plans for as many question possibilities and try remember them.

Essay plans are the quickened versions of writing a full essay. Exam practice usually involves writing tons of essays but this takes a lot of time and can be necessary. Essay plans are great since they save you time but also serve the purpose of writing a full on essay. Simply write a sentence of the point you want to make. You can use bullet points to note down the explanations and evaluations. These are useful to review just before your exam to be prepared for whatever question that could come up since you would have covered the points in your essay plan! If you find an essay difficult, you can write out the full essay and then get your teacher to mark it and get feedback.

3. Get as many essays marked as your teacher will allow.

Connecting to the previous point, give your essays to your teacher to mark. They would give you feedback that you can use to continuously improve until you have reached the point where you know exactly what you need to do. You will not be bothering/disturbing the teachers because that is their job and they want to help you to the best they can.

4. Learn a few random facts to boost your essays

Outside reading (reading outside your curriculum) is a way to boost your essays to get the top marks. For example, for economics, we had to learn some case studies which had facts and figures on developing countries which would be useful in our essays. This is more important for A2 than AS but it is always beneficial to use. The examiner would be impressed with your knowledge and may award you more marks.

5. Make sure you know the structure you should write your essays to.

Different subjects may have different structures, so know what structure you need to use. Structure is a part of exam technique which examiners would be looking for in your writing.

6. Mix up your revision techniques

You can use the Feynman technique (where you read a page of content, write as much as you can remember,compare it, see whats missing and make cheat sheets). Use an essay question, get A4 sheets of paper and put relevant information regarding the different points you have to mention in the question. Obviously, do what works for you but this is a good technique. Find out what kind of learner you are and use the appropriate techniques.

7. Dissect the question.

This relates to above point but basically you write down all the topics you need to mention underneath your question, whether or not you should put both sides according to what prompt is used (e.g. discuss, outline). When you dissect the question, it becomes less daunting and makes it much easier to answer!

8. Practice essays like mad

As I explained before, practice makes perfect!

9. Watch YouTube videos and documentaries

Watch on whatever topics you find difficult and make a cheat sheet of relevant information (THIS ONE IS SO USEFUL, ITS A LIFE SAVER!). Especially if your teachers aren’t that great at teaching or if you don’t feel like asking them. However, remember not to get distracted!

10. Make progress sheets

This is where you write what grade you got on a marked essay and what you need to add/remove to improve your essays and keep that at the forefront of your mind. This would help you know what areas to focus on and review your learning.

NON-ESSAY SUBJECTS

These tips apply to maths, economics, science subjects etc.

1. Past papers

Do a past paper and go over everything you did wrong. Write down a list of these topics and you can use Feynman’s technique to learn the content (As explained previously). Continuously refer to your syllabus so you know you are covering everything that you need, also refer to the mark scheme to understand what the examiner wants (what they are looking for).

2. Grade tracker

I did this for all my subjects on a excel spreadsheet, it was very effective. You can make a digital or physical tracker, whatever works for you. Track every past paper you do and write the topics that you didn’t do well on, this list should eventually decrease.

3. Go through syllabus and write summary of each section of the syllabus

You can get an A3/A4 paper and write a summary which would make it easier to review closer to the exam as well as helping you remember the content.

4. Videos again, watch relevant tutorials

I’ve explained this before, there are so many videos that teach/explain your subject well :) It will give you a better understanding if you are unclear.

5. Flashcards and the leitner system

Make a bunch of flashcards/cue cards and put them in a pile and test yourself on how well you know them. If you get the card wrong put it at the bottom of the pile, if you get it right move it to a second pile and you should have a pile you got wrong and one you got right. Make sure to go over the ones you got wrong every 2 days and go over the second pile every half week. If you get one from the second pile right move it to a third pile, if you get it wrong it goes BACK TO THE FIRST PILE. No matter what if you get a card wrong it always goes to the first pile where you review every 2 days. The third pile you review every week. Keep utilising this system as you add to your card pile! Flashcards tend to not be as useful for essay subjects as they are for the non essay subjects.

GENERAL TIPS

TIME MANAGEMENT

1. The pomodoro technique

I can’t stress this one enough, after 25/30 minutes of study, attention rapidly decreases, so take a 5 minute break where you do something else eg. chill like drawing or listening to music and then hop back into your work. You'll last a lot longer that way doing work. For example, for every 4 mini breaks, take a half an hour break.

2. Build a general study plan

Its generally not sustainable to plan out your week in 30 minute increments so make a weekly general plan. Plot in your lesson time and your non moving commitments and add in study time around them, stick to this schedule as best you can. Brains like regularity and this ensures that you dont have to keep making a weekly schedule, if you have appointments and such then give yourself leeway but in general stick to your schedule.

3. Get a planner

These are lifesavers. Write down what you need to do for homework and all your commitments in and reconcile these when you get home. You will be more organised and will be less stressed.

4. Just got home? Don’t sit down yet

Go to your planner and write any appointments etc on a calendar (I like the one on my phone and i set a lot of alerts for my appointments because I’m forgetful). Then write your homework on a piece of paper. When is it due? If its due tomorrow, do it now. Any small pieces of work, do it immediately and have it ready to hand in inside your bag (I put all my completed homework in a plastic folder in my bag so I knew where to find it). Then cross these off in your planner! I know having it on a piece of paper is random but it a) gets you in the mood b) it feels more consolidated in your brain. For any homework due that's a larger project, split it into parts, name the project and split it up on your paper. For example, essay on the cold war? You have to plan the essay, go over the content then write 3 pages...or 4 paragraphs an intro and a conclusion.

You split it up so:

Plan essay

Review relevant content as highlighted in my essay plan

Write introduction and paragraph 1

Write 2 middle paragraphs

Write last paragraph and conclusion

You have 5 steps. Now if you have a week to do your essay and you have 5 steps split it accordingly. Know you're gonna have lots of homework from your biology teacher on Tuesday and Thursday? Leave these days off and set one task for every other day of the week.

I hope this was helpful! A massive thanks to @allergictostudying on instagram and tumblr for helping out!

Check out my instagram! @tkstudies  (I post way more on there). Follow this blog for more posts on school/college/uni and growing up in general! :)

[studyblralevels-blog]

A LEVELS -

 Hey, there guys! I know this account has been inactive for a little while over the summer but I’m back. This studyblr was mostly made for GCSE’s in 2017, as I was in year 11 at the time but whether you are new or old I hope those pieces can still motivate and help you! However, I had thought to make this post just about what A - levels I am taking as the difference between GCSE and A level is that you become specified to your 3/4 courses, I’ll be explaining which ones I did and you guys can make judgement on whether or not my studyblr will help you in your courses. This might be quite long, but it could perhaps give you an insight on the process of how I had chosen them (aiming this for the year 11′s)...

So I have chosen to do 3 A levels, as I am about to also start a GCSE language outside of school (I had too many GCSEs to worry about during year 11/10) - my school offers me to do an EPQ too. My 3 A-levels are History, Business Studies and English Language. Although I have never taken History before, I was able to go over the requirement to get in which just means that I need extra time to go through certain elements to gain more knowledge about the time and era my course is linked to. DISCLAIMER: At A level you have to read.

HISTORY - AQA 

I know many people will tell you that its extremely hard to do an A level which you have no GCSE experiance in, but for me I try to look at the positives and have a mindset that no matter what - I will try and make sure that I get feedback from my teachers about how to write and work on my essay skills. HOWEVER, although some of my thoughts lingered on taking history because it was a facilitating subject I decided to do some extra tasks at home by reading the specification/summer home learning which from that I really enjoyed it, so I thought that why not? I should go for it - I mean if it was so bad I could easily ask to move, within the first week, but its been a week now (For me anyway) and I really do like it, something about history is so interesting. History itself has enabled me to have an insight into how our country was adapted and lets me gain knowledge about the world that we all live in. 

BUSINESS STUDIES - AQA

If I am honest, business studies is seen as a very soft subject towards Universities or this is what I have been told many times. But I’d like to point out that if you enjoy a “soft” subject just do it, if you want to and never let the whole soft/facilitating subject make you feel like you can’t. /Although I thought about it for history, we were given option blocks and within those, I felt history would enable me to gain knowledge which I could apply to my intellectual knowledge./ But business is something that I enjoyed at GCSE and I felt that if I was to change my whole future plan - going to University - that I’d dive into business and I believe, in my opinion, that the theory of business does play a large part in some cases. However, there are maths within A level Business and it is very different to the GCSE especially with coursework, I believe there is none! But I enjoy the subject, so I took it. 

ENGLISH LANGUAGE - AQA

At first I was highly unsure about this subject as I didn’t know whether I wanted to take this or religious studies, however I had went to a sixth form evening in which I was able to understand what the subject was about. This is completely different to the GCSE. Although many may be put off by the essay writing, its quite interesting learning about how people speak and why they are using the language that they do. There is elements of sociology and media, which if you are taking can help but ultimatley you are able to have a greater understanding of analysis in many different texts - I find that it is very interesting as it really makes you think about how we, as individuals, use the english language and how it became modernized. I feel like this subject enables me to strengthen my analysis of texts and can perhaps help me if I was to take a route into media in Businesses or law (although literature is better).