Struggling to keep up the motivation when exams aren’t right round the corner? Our top tips will help keep you on track year-round, and your life will be that bit easier when exams are approaching.
Updated: 14 Apr 2025Year 12 might feel like the calm before the storm (or in fact the calm after the storm) as it’s unlikely you’ll sit many exams in this year, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important to keep actively recapping topics. Regular recapping and preparing of what you’ve covered so far will make Year 13 and the run up to A-levels much easier and less stressful. And isn’t that what everyone wants?
To give you the smoothest ride through post-16 possible, we’ve come up with a list of tips to keep revision on a back burner throughout Year 12 so you’re not scrambling to make revision cards a month before exams start.
Make sure you’re using your time well and spending a bit of time on each subject every week. The best way to do this is to plan out what you’re going to revise and when (feel free to colour-code your plan) so you make sure nothing gets overlooked. You might want to opt to recap what you studied the previous week, for example, or you might want to go over something that you found tricky from last term. Writing it out will let you see if you’re putting too much or too little focus in a certain area.
As well as planning when you’re going to study, make sure you plan in your free time as well. We’re not saying every second of your day has to be timetabled, but just having a block labelled “free time” where you do one of your hobbies or hang out with your friends makes sure you’ve got a healthy balance of work and fun.
Especially when exams are far out, don’t be scared to change your plan either. You were going to revise biology but your friend just texted to ask if you want to go to the cinema? Go to the cinema! You’ve got time to catch up. When it gets closer to exams, you might want to re-evaluate your studying to free-time split and put a bit more time into revision, but if you’ve been preparing throughout post-16 then you’ll find you don’t need to spend all your waking hours in the weeks before exams cramming, so even then you’ll be able to find time to kick back and relax.
While it’s tempting to use your free periods to have a chat with your mates, you should also be using these as study sessions. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of a gossip every now and then, but if you try to keep socialising to your lunch breaks then you can use your free periods to complete any homework or assignments you’ve been given, or to do some independent study. After all, that’s what they’re meant for!
To keep it social, you could sit with some of your classmates and help each other out, or make sure you’re all focusing! If you’re doing practice questions, you can look over each other’s work and give each other feedback.
One of the big things that trip up a lot of Year 13s is looking back at their Year 12 notes and thinking “What is that meant to mean?”. Sometimes, when you take notes in class, you’re hurrying to get information down and invent your own bizarre form of shorthand. Writing up your notes just after the class, when the information is still fresh without having to hurry and you can decode your own writing will save you a big headache later on.
If you’re a visual learner, then this is the time to start colour coding, or adding in diagrams to your notes as well, as this is a bit more time consuming but can be a great memory aid. Making it look nice is also good motivation to actually rewrite your notes.
Another one for the more visual learners, creating flashcards is a good way to cement things in your brain, and they’ll be useful for testing yourself and your friends when exams are closer. Summarising information is also a really good way to check that you actually understand the topic as you’ll have to pick out the most important information.
Once you’ve made your flashcards as well, you can do regular quick tests to make sure it’s all still stuck in your brain. Even just a five or ten minute run-through of your flashcards every couple of weeks can give your memory a little refresh.
If you’re out of set assignments and notes to rewrite, then invent your own ways to revise. It’s always useful to exercise your exam muscles and the best way to do that is with some practice questions. It doesn’t have to be an entire paper, but you might want to select a couple of questions based around a topic you learned recently, set yourself a timer and have a go at answering them as if you were in an exam.
Your teacher might be willing to look over what you’ve done and give you some pointers if it’s an essay-based subject, or if it’s something like maths you might be able to complete some of the questions in a textbook and then mark your own answers. Getting feedback and marking is almost as important as actually doing this, because it lets you know if you’re on the right track.
While we know you’re not going to spend every waking moment of Year 12 studying, just a few extra hours a week will make a huge difference in Year 13. If you follow the steps we’ve advised above, then you’ll find that revising becomes a much smoother and less stressful process, meaning you’ll be able to perform at your best when exam day rolls around.