The 12 Steps of Christmas Holiday Revision - Our Guide

Let’s face it. December is in full swing and the last thing you want to think about as we approach the 12 days of Christmas is exam revision, but hear us out!

While we think anyone who sets exams straight after the Christmas break should go straight on the naughty list, the reality is that they are coming! Trying to ignore them won’t make them go away and it will end up making your holidays less enjoyable as they get closer. Believe us, we’ve been there!

That’s why all we want for Christmas this year is for you to read our survival guide that will help you thrive during the holiday season so you can carry that momentum into your January exams!

1 - Prepare for the Worst, Hope for the Best!

It’s been a tough year for students and schools enduring the re-opening in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s no wonder that there is a widely reported loss of learning and poor use of remote learning within UK schools rolling over from 2020. 

As the government announced their “Plan B” this week we have to assume things might end up like they did last summer and prepare for the worst. That means this year's January mock exams could be more important than you think! 

Preparing for the worst isn’t just relevant to the pandemic but also to your general studies! Don’t be satisfied preparing the minimum amount of topics for an exam, you could be setting yourself up for a stressful exam situation which often leads to productivity paralysis. One of the worst things to happen in a timed test of knowledge! Remaining positive about your exams is important, but it is important to be realistic about what needs to be done and plan accordingly.

2 - Consider Private Tutoring

You don’t have to go this alone! Over the holidays, checking in with a private tutor is a great way to touch base with an expert in your subjects. Not only can you use them to talk over the weak points you have identified during your revision and practice questions, but they will help keep you on a schedule and hold yourself accountable for your studies to avoid a mid-week slump. They are also the perfect companion to a revision period. You need an expert who has seen it all and will be able to keep you grounded.

The experience of the qualified teachers and professional tutors at Sherpa are the perfect choice. The fact you can book a session instantly with them online any time and take it anywhere you can fit a laptop makes it the most accessible way to find professional help. Especially since you can ask them questions between lessons. It's like having your own personal teacher, on-call! Consider keeping them on during your exams season, as having a regular tutor session as an academic touchpoint where you can vent your concerns and gain a different perspective. This is often all we need for the penny to drop.

3 - Create Healthy Habits

We hate to state the obvious but cramming is not a good way to revise, so please don’t rely on short term memory getting you out of trouble straight after New Year's Eve! After a few weeks of getting used to mountains of leftovers, TV specials and mince pies over the Christmas break, it naturally takes time to get back into the flow of exam revision. Especially if you completely stay away from school work the skill of learning.

You then run the risk of falling into the “valley of despair” illustrated in the Dunning-Kruger effect when you pick up revision again closer to test time and it turns out you don't remember all you thought you did! Momentum is a form of magic, so try to get in the habit of doing revision little and often instead of rarely doing a lot! This will ensure you get on the "slope to enlightenment" come exam time and test with confidence. It will also keep your motivation high and stop you from avoiding it when the going gets tough. At least you won’t have to bear it for long!

4 - Get Organised to Stay Motivated

Before you break up from the holidays, when your mind is still in the textbooks, talk to your teacher if you can about where your work has been the weakest. You can target these areas and allocate more time to improving them. Time management is a very important skill to master that is specific to you because everyone works differently!

It is important to set realistic goals for your revision to remain motivated and even top workaholics like Elon Musk believe that! The 85% rule describes that if you only ask a maximum of 85% of what you think you can do in that time frame, you will actually end up being more productive and getting more done. Set targets for how many hours you want to spend each day and split them up into chunks. Once you complete a full day of study, reassess your schedule again using the same 85% rule to ensure you are not expecting too much. It is a good idea to start the day with harder subjects and allocate more time to your weaker ones. The more achievable a goal seems, the higher the motivation to do it!

5 - Be Resourceful!

With the power of the internet at your fingertips it would be tempting to watch a video on each topic and say it counts as revision, but as Uncle Ben once said; with great power comes responsibility! We get a lot of this passive learning in school, so it is important in your free time to focus more on active learning which involves figuring it out for yourself through trial and error with a little help here and there. Be resourceful, but use your brain!

If you get stuck there are some great ways to find a solution. Just make sure you engage your thoughts and really question why they did each step. Make notes in your own words and, when solving a Maths or science problem, try to practice the process yourself by making up the variables and see if you can work it out without help. It helps you to memorise and it's really satisfying! There are some fantastic free online resources available outside of youtube though which will make it easier to avoid any distractions!

6 - Keep Calm & Focused

We know it’s difficult to focus and get quiet study done at any time, never mind at Christmas! If the dog is barking at the postman delivering another package or the fire alarm is going off while you are getting shouted at to come and help with chores, it can get really stressful! That’s why it’s important to always remember to set boundaries and keep study time to study and playtime for play! Getting these mixed up is a bigger recipe for disaster than your auntie's extra strong sherry trifle! If it all gets too much try and practice some mindfulness.

Top Tips

• Get any chores done in your downtime and meal times so that you aren’t interrupted.
• Set your phone to “Do not disturb mode” and notifications off on your computer.
• Keep plants and fresh air near your desk if possible.
• Keep your workspace clear of visual clutter, even if it means moving your personal items and decorations into a box for a couple of weeks.
• Work in a well-lit environment, borrow a lamp or better yet a UV light that can improve alertness and eliminate the winter blues from the lack of sunlight!

7 - Get in the Groove

When you are fighting distractions in a noisy household, nothing drowns it out better than a tune! If you don’t already have some, try to borrow some over-ear headphones that will drown out the sounds that might break your concentration in the middle of a task and tempt you to procrastinate. You can make your own playlist or use some else’s on Spotify, Youtube or Apple Music and beyond. Studies show nature sounds can have an awesome effect on mood, focus and stress levels for long sessions or you can use energetic music in the morning to really uplift your mood and help you get started!

8 - Past Papers

Get used to the sight of them! Ask your teacher if you are not sure what the name of your exact exam and exam board are. They may have some themselves to share with solutions. They can be written and marked differently between AQA, OCR and Pearson/Edexcel, for example, so make sure you find the right ones to work on. There are loads of other places to look too, like Mathsmadeasy.com!

Not many people try to run a marathon before the day comes, so start by focusing on individual questions and divide the usual total exam time by the marks available for a question to estimate how much time you should spend on it. If you struggle to understand the question and never finish on time, maybe it's time to get help with your exam technique.

Make sure you are really ready to give past papers a go without notes before looking at the solutions, we know it is tempting! There are only so many of these available that are relevant to your exam so try not to waste them!

9 - Note Taking

As you go along reading notes and making new ones, make a list of topics or subtopics you struggle with so you can reassess your priorities later on and allocate them more time on other days. Working smarter, not harder is a popular trope because it’s true! After each day, write up any new lengthy notes summarised on a flashcard. This way you're learning through repetition and concentrating your knowledge in bite-size chunks and saving time and stress when the cramming urges start!

Everyone learns differently too, but the best way to figure out what works is by mixing up different types of media. Get creative and use printed pictures on your walls, coloured pens and drawn doodles or diagrams to add a visual aspect you might understand better than a string of sentences!

10 - Bring Learning into your Daily Lives

One of the most powerful ways to commit knowledge and theories to memory and truly understand them is by associating them with the very real things we do every day. It’s the best way to *trick* yourself into learning! Our recent blog about Maths and Physics touched on this recently but the same applies to every subject! If you can start to truly see everything in the world around you with the questions, inspirations, theories and development that preceded them, you start to associate the things you are learning as relevant to your daily lives and this enriches your interests in them as well as strengthening memory bonds. Stay curious!

So in your downtime, if you are boiling a kettle, making a cup of tea as snow falls from the clouds or maybe just watching a film or reading a book…think to yourself: How did it all get here and how does it work? When you eventually end up watching Netflix as you get cosy on the sofa, try to steer the family decision to something educational or documentary so you can keep the cogs turning.

11 - Make Study Social!

It’s no fun staying locked in your room with your thoughts and notes for company, especially when you hit a topic you just can’t crack no matter how hard you try. That’s why we suggest keeping in touch with your school friends in a way that’s enjoyable and helpful to you and your peers! I repeat, you don’t have to do this alone! You can arrange a regular study group video call with some friends so you can catch up, compare answers and share your knowledge. Not only does explaining something really help you memorise it, nothing feels better than helping someone else understand something they didn’t before. Just ask our expert tutors! While you can’t talk in class, here it is encouraged. As a bonus, you don’t need to go out in the cold!

11 - Look after your Mind & Body

It’s Christmas time! Enjoy yourself! Just make sure amongst all the chocolate, roast potatoes and lazing by the TV that you balance it out with some regular healthy alternatives. With all the thinking you’ll be doing, your brain is going to need a lot of water and vitamins from fresh fruit and vegetables to combat brain fog. This is a revision session's worst nightmare, beware!

Stay hydrated and squeeze in some exercise when you can to keep your energy levels up. Not everyone can get to a gym or play sport but a short walk for fresh air or some regular light stretching can make a world of difference to wake yourself up. Take regular breaks for at least 10 minutes every hour or tune into what durations work for you and stick to it.

Sleep is also vital to energy levels, mental clarity and memory forming too so get a good amount of sleep every night! Try your best to stay off phones and computer screens less than an hour before bed as they negatively impact the quality of sleep. If that’s your usual routine, take this holiday season as a chance to make a start on a new book before bed. Remember, a healthy body is a healthy mind and vice versa!