How are you preparing for assessments?

Preparing for formal assessments at A Level is key it to your success.We reccomend you follow these three simple steps...

1. Learn the information

Sounds obvious but this is a crucial step and you need to spend about 50% of your time here. Reading through class notes, using resources online, using textbooks, mindmaps/diagrams, making/remaking class notes, highlighting/ colour coding, flashcards and using a revision wall are all activities that help you learn information. Many students never move past this step they spend hours and hours learning their notes but to achieve the top grades you have to move to step 2.

2. Develop your exam skills

You’d never go and try and run a marathon without running some long distances in training. You can’t expect to do well at A Level if you don’t practice exam questions.So at least 25% of your time should be spent here. Writing exam answers under timed conditions, reading model answers and using past exam questions are all activities you can do at this step.

3. Get some feedback

The final 25% is about feedback. You have to get feedback if you want to improve. Don’t see criticism of your work as failing. Try stuff, make mistakes. This is how we learn. Try comparing your own answers against model answers, create your own questions, hand in extra exam work for marking or arrange a one-to-one discussion with your teachers/tutors.

Good luck!