10 GCSE revision tips and techniques for science students

You may be struggling with exam revision techniques or watching your peers’ ace tests with ease while you struggle to even motivate yourself to study. You’re starting to think that you’re just not as bright as your classmates. And with all this overwhelm, you’ve decided that procrastination is the best way forward. In this post, I share with you 10 GCSE revision tips and techniques that will make you love science and be on your way to passing those exams.

GCSE Revision Tips and Techniques

1. Use flashcards 

After you have finished revising a concept, write down the key points in a flashcard. I suggest doing this at the end of every mini-sub unit. For example, for GCSE AQA Biology, you can do this for the first part of Unit 1, which is all about cells and microscopy. Then once you’ve done that, repeat for the next section on cell differentiation, chromosomes & mitosis.

The key to revising effectively from flashcards is to put the easier topics at the back of the cards and the harder ones at the front. This will allow you to focus more on the topics or concepts you find hardest and less on the ones you already know.

2. Use mind maps

Use mind maps together with flashcards. When you’re revising a concept or topic, create a mind map on a flashcard. If you need more space, use plain A4 paper and then compile all the mind maps in a study folder. Then revisit the folder periodically and revise using the flashcards method described above.

Mind maps are great because they help you link concepts with one another and give a clear overview of a topic. You can create mind maps on an entire chapter or unit. For example, you can create a mind map on the chemical calculations’ unit in chemistry, and include concepts such as relative masses, moles, calculating reacting masses, limiting reactants, percentage yield, and titration. This can give you a really good overview of the topic, helps you see how certain areas fit together and helps you easily see areas that you need to work on more.

3. Revise Actively

Active revision is about actively thinking about what you are learning as supposed to passively taking notes or cramming.

The basic technique for active revision is ‘read-cover-recite-check’.

1. Read over a key topic from your notes or student textbook
2. Cover what you have read
3. Recite from memory what you have just learnt. In some cases, you might need to write down or draw the information depending on what you’re learning.
4. Check your notes or notebook to see what you’ve missed out. Then fill in those missed gaps.

Once you have completed the steps, repeat until you are 100% confident you’ve now learnt that topic

All you need is a piece of paper and pen for this technique, but you can also use flashcards and mind maps.

Parent Tip: Phrase the main learning objectives or key points from your child’s book into questions. After they have given you an answer, tell them what they’ve missed and repeat until they can fully answer the questions.

4. Space out your learning

The best way to drive information into your long-term memory is by learning over a long period of time. For example, if you are in year 11, start learning in small amounts right at the beginning of the year. This requires a bit of planning and organising to ensure that you cover all the topics over the course of the year.

Spacing out learning does not mean intensively revising every day. It could mean spending five minutes after school reviewing a topic you did not understand in class. Then go through the topic again in increasing intervals. E.g. two days, five days, ten days later and so on. Eventually, you’ll understand the concept more and have it stored in your long-term memory.

If you leave revision till the last few months of your exams, you’ll suffer from information overload and overwhelm. Do not underestimate this method. It ranks amongst the highest for effective learning techniques (Dunlosky et al, 2013).

Parent tip! Ask your child to tell you one thing they learnt today. Choose a subject that they struggle with. Then a few days later, catch them off guard and ask them to recite. Do this until they give you the right answer.

5. Use chunking

Number five in our list of GCSE revision tips and techniques is chunking. Chunking is about breaking down large pieces of information into smaller more manageable ones. This helps the brain remember more. A good example of chunking is phone numbers. For example, if you need to remember the phone number 07800976172,  you’ll find it much easier if you break it into parts like this for example – 078-009-7612.

So, how can you apply this to learning science? Well, you can break up the large syllabus into smaller topics. Then break up the smaller topics into individual concepts that are easier to digest. Within individual concepts, you can use mnemonics. Things like ROYGBIV or OIL RIG are good examples of using mnemonics to remember concepts.

6. Write your own questions

Most of the time, our note-taking is a passive process. We read through the chapter or use the teacher’s presentation slides and write everything down verbatim. This is a common note-taking method but it doesn’t show that we’ve learnt anything. Here’s a better way to take notes.

1. Identify up to three key things that you need to learn during that revision session, or in your lesson (these are your learning outcomes). Using the learning outcomes your teacher gives you in school is the easiest way to do this.
2. Construct at least one question that relates to each learning outcome.
3. In class, and or when you get home, try to answer the questions you’ve written. This will engage your neurones and help you to think about what you learnt.

7. Practice Past Papers

According to research Dunlosky et al, 2013 practice testing such as the method described above and practicing exam papers ranks highest for effective learning techniques.

Why is practicing exam questions a good revision technique? They help you develop your subject knowledge and identify gaps in your knowledge. By going through past exam questions, you can also identify patterns. For example, you’ll notice that certain topics come up frequently; and if you’ve made use of the mark scheme, you’ll know how best to answer questions so that you can get full marks.

You can find tips on answering exam questions here and here.

Parent tip! Make sure your child has access to several past papers to accompany them with their revision.

8. Teach someone else

Teaching others is another extremely effective learning technique. It improves understanding & memory retention much more than passive methods like re-reading and note-taking. One recent study suggested that teaching is effective because it forces the individual to actively understand and recall what has been learnt.

In the study, participants who delivered a lesson from memory i.e. without notes significantly outperformed participants who delivered a lesson from a set of scripts (including making reference to pre-drawn diagrams).

So how do you get an opportunity to teach somebody else? Get a study partner that you revise with regularly. You can also take advantage of homework or classwork where the task involves presenting a topic you have learnt to the class.

Parent tip! Ask your child to teach you one thing they have learnt this week. Try and get them to choose one of their most challenging subjects.

9. Make mental associations

Creating a mental association is an easy way to boost and retain memory. This is actually a technique used by top learning and memory experts. For example, many students can struggle with learning the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum in physics. A very easy way to do this is to associate each wave with a visual image that stands out to you. E.g. for microwaves, imagine yourself making breakfast porridge or for gamma rays, imagine a large bomb exploding somewhere. Once you have made an association with each wave, you can then link them together to form a story. This will not only help you remember the EM spectrum but also the order of the waves.

I have used this method in lessons and it’s very exciting to see how various students’ imaginations come alive.  The fun aspect of this method makes it easier to learn and turn what might seem like a boring topic into something less mundane.

10. Create analogies

An analogy is when you compare one thing to another similar thing. Creating an analogy helps to enhance your memory, but importantly, it also shows your understanding of what has been learnt. A good example is likening the structure of a cell to a school. You can say that a school wall supports and protects the school like a plant cell wall supports and protects the plant. Or a nucleus is the brain of a cell and controls the cell’s activities like a headteacher controls the activities of a school. And so on!

GCSE Revision Tips and Techniques: Final Thoughts

You should have now learnt 10 essential GCSE revision tips and techniques that will help you love learning and be on your way to passing your GCSE science exams.

So, Here’s a challenge for you. Choose only one of the methods mentioned and use it in your next revision session. Comment below to let me know how you got on. Do you find that you can remember some things more? Are you finding revision less of a hurdle?