Tag: exam

How to revise Geography in … 1 month

By Matt Burdett, 6 March 2020

This article is about how to plan your revision for Geography in one month.

Whoops! You had the best of intentions, but there were so many other things to do…and now you only have one month left to revise.

Don’t panic! Everything will be ok.

In a previous post, I wrote about the best way to structure your revision. It’s not too late – one month is enough time to have a good, full programme of revision. Check out my suggestions for stress-free revision in my ‘6-point plan to stress-free revision’.

If you only have a month, there are some specific one-month strategies you can use. If you have more time, you might also check out my post on how to revise if you have three months to go. It has a bit more ‘big picture’ stuff, so if you only have a month to go, keep reading this post for my top tips.

Tip 1: One month: one focus: one syllabus

The first thing you need to do if you have a month to go is make sure you know what your syllabus requires. It’s likely that your teacher has taught extra things that aren’t in the syllabus (good for her! Education is about more than slavishly following an exam schedule), and may have missed out or skimmed over some parts.

Get out the syllabus. Use it as a traffic light checklist. Anything you understand, highlight in green. Anything you have no idea about, highlight red. Anything you’re not sure, highlight yellow.

Tip 2: Know where to start

Which type of student are you?

  1. You start revising at the start of the textbook or syllabus. You probably run out time to revise the second half of the book.
  2. You start revising the things you have no idea about. You probably need to make notes on everything first.
  3. You start revising what you feel confident about. It’s all good, until you get to the bits you don’t understand, and then you find yourself asking the teacher about them the day before the exam.

If you are a yes to any of these: STOP STOP STOP! These are all strategies that make you feel better but don’t necessarily help you pass an exam. Instead, you should start with the areas you know about, but aren’t confident about.

If you have done the syllabus traffic lighting from Tip 1 above, you will have found that you kind-of know some things. These are the bits to start with. Why?

  • Starting with what you know is a waste of time. You know it already! Why prioritise this?
  • Making notes on stuff you have no idea about is probably pointless. Most exams will give you a choice of questions. You can probably get higher marks by avoiding the sections you really don’t know anything about.
  • If you begin with what you aren’t quite sure of, you have a starting point. This means your brain is working, and learning.
  • It’s quicker. You probably have some notes already, and will only need to do a little bit of extra research.

Tip 3: Use past papers

If you have more time, I’d recommend doing past papers alongside other strategies. But with one month to go, you should try to do one past paper a week. Your teacher will be able to help you find them, along with the mark schemes. It’s fine to start with the mark scheme open while you’re writing, but in Weeks 2, 3, and 4, you should try to do them unseen.

Make sure you mark your own papers. Giving your work to the teacher is highly passive, and won’t help you think more clearly. Mark your own work, then give your paper to the teacher. This will help identify any points where you have misunderstood the mark scheme.

Those were my top tips for revising in one month. Do you have any other great ideas for revision over a one month period? Leave a comment below, thanks for visiting!

How to write an essay in 30 minutes

By Matt Burdett, 28 February 2020

This article is about how to write a Geography exam essay in just 30 minutes.

In most Geography exams for pre-university courses, such as the IB Diploma or the UK A-level, you’re expected to write one or more essays. This is on top of the short-answer questions that come before then. And your teachers tell you to read all the questions first…and plan your answers…and leave time for checking… so it can seem impossible to actually write a full essay. So here’s my eight tips on how to cover all the bases in the time available.

Tip 1: Plan your essay

Your teacher will always tell you to plan your essay. They are 100% correct. A well-planned essay gets points for structure. You’ll also write more concisely, so you’ll fit in more information. And your argument will develop in a logical way, so you’ll have many more marks for evaluation.

Tip 2: Write your essay plan as a flow diagram…

I was marking an exam when I discovered a really clever idea from a student. They wrote their essay plan in flow diagram form, rather than a table or concept map. This was a really smart idea. It meant that, as an examiner, I could easily follow the essay.

The main point is that it didn’t lose marks. Remember, essays are almost always marked positively. That means you gain credit for clear, concise writing. You don’t lose marks for getting something wrong, so write the essay in a way that helps you to gain credit even if you later change your structure a little bit.

Tip 3: …then draw a box around it and label it ‘Figure 1’

The even smarter thing about this idea is that the student then drew a box around the plan and called it ‘Figure 1: the links between X and Y’. Throughout the essay, they referenced the ‘Figure’ to show the links between the issues being discussed. Even if they hadn’t finished writing the full set of paragraphs, I could have credited ideas they included in the plan. Genius!

Tip 4: Write an introduction that sets the direction of the essay

There’s more about this in my post ‘How to write a good introduction’. Basically, make sure you don’t just waffle. There’s no point in saying ‘The transmission of disease can be for many reasons. These reasons will be debated in this essay’. It doesn’t set up the essay well.

Instead, say something simple like ‘Diseases may be transmitted through relocation and expansion diffusion, which have different social and biological causes’. The direction of your essay will be much more clear to the examiner.

A good essay can be written in just three sentences:

  1. The direction of your essay (like my example above).
  2. Identify the case study locations you’ll use.
  3. If necessary, define key words from the question. There is no need to define words that have a commonly agreed definition e.g. ‘hectare’ but you do need to define words where there is debate over their use, such as ‘resilient city’.

Tip 5: Don’t cross anything out unless (and until) it’s repeated later.

It’s so frustrating when students cross out a perfectly good paragraph, then write it all out again anyway but miss out the key point that got a mark in the first place. Examiners are used to stressed out students waffling a bit. If there is repetition, it will be ok. Just don’t cross out work because once it’s crossed out, the examiner won’t read it and it can’t get any marks.

Tip 6: Read what you’ve written, and stick to the plan

As you write, make sure you’re sticking to your plan. It’s fine to add extras, but you had a plan for a reason: it helps you avoid wasting time.

Also make sure you read what you’ve written. If you notice yourself becoming waffly, stop and think carefully about exactly what you want to say. Never start writing just because you’re running out of time. Three sentences of well considered words is worth far more than a page of nonsense.

Tip 7: Write in paragraphs

Paragraphs have a beginning, middle and an end. Make sure you use a consistent formula to write your paragraphs so that you don’t keep writing unnecessarily. I’ve written more guidance on paragraph structure in my post ‘How to write a good paragraph’.

Tip 8: Always write a conclusion that answers the question

Even if you’ve run out of time, always always always conclude – and use words from the question. It’s essential for the examiner to see that you have answered the question. I’ve written more about how to conclude in just three sentences in my post ‘How to write a good conclusion’.

Tip 9: Keep to time

Sometimes it’s tempting to keep going on a point because you feel you’re writing good stuff. But, you’re probably not leaving enough time for the counter-argument, or the second or third major theme of your essay. Make sure you allocate yourself a specific amount of time for each paragraph, e.g. 6 minutes. If you are going over that time, read it back and check whether it’s worth continuing.

That’s it! If you have any more tips on how to write an essay in thirty minutes, leave a comment below. And good luck with all that writing!!!