8 tried and tested tips for mock exam preparation

21st November 2022 by Anita Naik

As the mock exam season approaches, many students seek the most efficient revision techniques. If that's you, here are 8 tried and tested tips you need now.

Start early

Whatever you are studying and no matter how good you are, starting early is key to a successful outcome. Your mocks may well be two months away, but revision is a time-consuming process, and to be ready to cover all your bases, you need to be organised and give yourself enough time to prepare. Remember, as soon as you have created your revision timetable; you can start on daily revision.

Take notes

Note-taking is a powerful tool for understanding and long-term memory when it comes to revision. Simply reading your class notes and textbooks won't have the sticking power that note-taking has. Notes should be concise, structured and organised. Remember that you are not aiming to rewrite your course material but to condense the critical information in a way you can recall and remember. This means writing them any way you want and colour coding, annotating and adding diagrams all you want.

Work on retrieval

Do as much retrieval practice as possible. Testing yourself and others is one of the most effective ways to revise; aside from past papers (see below), using quizzing apps, flashcards, and more will help with retrieval. This approach is practical because it makes you recall information and helps create more accurate recall.

Use the exam specification

Don't just follow your class notes; ensure your revision timetable and work cover the exam specification. This is a list of all the topics that can come up in a particular exam paper and successful students key a close eye on this. To find it, go to the exam board website, search for your qualification, and you should see it downloadable in PDF format.

Work on building in-depth knowledge

The more knowledge you have, the faster you can answer exam questions, and the more in-depth your analysis will be. This, in turn, demonstrates to the examiner that you have a firm grasp of the material. You can build in-depth knowledge by actively processing information, analysing, identifying key concepts, make links between the ideas and your knowledge.

Look at your mistakes in previous assessment tests

Analyzing your past mistakes in exam papers is key to understanding where you went wrong. Look at how you missed marks, what you can do to improve your answers and how to improve your exam performance.

Practice exam questions under timed conditions

Past papers are an essential part of the revision process; however, there is no point in using past papers if you haven't spent time memorising and revising the subject first. These two elements go hand in hand. Once you have revised and highlighted where you have gone wrong in previous assessments, try a paper under timed conditions. Not only does this help you to keep within the time limits during the exams, but it also gets you used to how exam questions are phrased, what examiners want from your work and how you can work more efficiently during an exam.

Read the GCSE Examiners report for last year's subjects

The best way to do this is to read the questions and write down how you would have answered. Check your answers with the mark schemes and then read the examiner report looking at how sample answers are written. Also, go through the common mistakes other students make, and be sure you don't make them in your mocks and exams.