Revision Hints & Tips
How do I make a revision plan?
- Make an outline of what it is that you need to cover
- Make sure that you have a complete folder of notes
- Identify any areas that have confused you or that you find difficult
- Work out how much time you have to revise,
- if you have plenty of time you may want to try to cover everything 2 or 3 times to make sure you really know it
- Now fit what you need to learn into the time you have
- remember to allow more time for the areas you find difficult
- block what needs revising into weeks at first – you can add more detail later
- allow yourself time – just in case you get behind
- remember that you will have other subjects to revise
- allow yourself time to relax, eat and exercise – you will not do well on the day if you are exhausted (or if you have relaxed too much!)
- Make sure that you ask your teacher about the things that confuse you well ahead of the exam – don’t leave it until the last minute
- If you have missed work you will need to catch up on any notes and make sure that you have all the information you need.� Remember that a lot of the information is on the college intranet, on the Sociology pages (for Esher students) or on this website, it will not provide you with all the detail you need but it will give you a framework to work from.
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How do I revise?
There are lots of different ways of revising – try a few different methods and work out what’s best for you.
- Make notes on index cards
- this is a good way of learning concepts and terms – you can put the word on one side and the meaning on the other
- Draw spider diagrams
- put a topic at the centre and then write down all the things you can think of associated with that topic
- you can then link the words together and look up any missing bits in your notes
- Try and summarise a sub-topic onto one side of A4 – this will take several goes – work your way down from several sides of A4 to one
- Pick out key words for each topic
- Read the relevant chapters in your textbook and look at other textbooks and resources in the LRC
- Taylor et al, Sociology in Focus – a good overall textbook, with relevant chapters, although it is a little out of date
- Haralambos & Holborn – Sociology Themes and Perspectives – more in depth, if you want extra information, and the 5th edition is up to date
- Browne, Introducing Sociology for AS Level – good, up to date and written to meet the syllabus although it sometimes lacks sufficient detail
- Giddens, Sociology is also helpful
- Sociology Review has lots of relevant articles and quizzes/questions so that you can test your knowledge, use the college’s database of articles to search for something specific or just browse the recent issues and read anything that looks relevant.
- Get together with other students
- test each other – this is good for learning names & dates
- discuss the things that you don’t understand
- draw spider diagrams together – have a competition to see who can get the most points down
- Stick key points up around your bedroom – read them before you go to bed and when you get up in the morning
- Do practise questions
- from your textbook
- ask your teacher to mark some of them
on February 2nd, 2007 at 11:19 am
Do you have any revision notes on the stigma put upon lone parents??
on February 11th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
I’m afraid I don’t have any specific revision notes on that topic, although there is some material on it in the Families section.
on March 22nd, 2007 at 4:52 pm
thnks 4 the tips, very helpful
on May 22nd, 2007 at 3:30 pm
seriously these revision tips are so right i would have done so much better in my exams in january if I’d done half that x
on May 22nd, 2007 at 10:48 pm
i’m really worring about ma exams tomorrow the family and education papers but i really want to do well i hope i do and hope you all do well thanks for the tips
on May 23rd, 2007 at 3:54 pm
So how did u all find it?
What question do u think was the hardest?
was u ok with the topic?
xxx