If revising for exams wasn’t hard enough, you’re being expected to start doing uni research too. Here's our tips for getting it all done, without getting too stressed...
Updated: 14 Apr 2025
It’s coming at you from all sides. Teachers are telling you to start revising for your GCSEs, finish your coursework and rushing to cover the whole curriculum before your exams. Your parents are supportive, anxious and trying not to nag.
Then you start hearing you should be choosing what you want to study at university, doing further reading and going to open days.
What?! How can anyone get all of this done? Have your teachers heard that they’re only 24 hours in a day (and you have to sleep?).
Well, the answer is planning and prioritisation. As the great American President Benjamin Franklin said: "If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail".
So, how to plan for success? Lucy gives us her top tips.
When I was at school I knew I wanted to get five A grades at A-level and a place at Cambridge University. It was a tough task that I’d set myself but I was confident that if I did the work I’d get the grades. So, I created a weekly routine.
Basically, I treated my studies like a job. I had set start, finish and break times, with the aim of doing four hours study every week night. (And it worked! I got five As and went to Cambridge!).
Once you’ve got your schedule you need to work out what needs to be done. These are some of the tasks that should be on your list:
Revision
Homework
Coursework
Further reading
Researching unis and courses
Getting work experience
Going on open days
Going on summer schools, workshops, conferences, seminars and other ways to extend your passion and learning for the subject you want to study at university
Somehow you’ve got to fit all this in. And you actually can. Trust me. Once you know what your priorities are allocate them slots in your weekly schedule. So, if your exams are next week you need to be spending most of your time on revision. But, you probably need to spend a minimum amount of time each week on things like researching unis and further reading.
Start following your schedule. Do your very best to follow it and tick off tasks as you do them.
You may find that your schedule doesn’t work perfectly for you. Instead of completely abandoning it, try to adapt it so that it does work.
When you prioritise tasks and plan to complete them at certain times they’re more likely to get done well and on time. Don’t worry if you don’t stick to your schedule 100%, even if you do it right 80% of the time you’re well on the way to getting everything done!
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Lucy Parsons helps 15-18 year olds get the best grades and into the universities of their dreams. She’s the author of The Ten Step Guide to Acing Every Exam You Ever Take.