Christmas is without a doubt the hardest time to get your head down and revise. When there’s so much going on such as Christmas parties (hopefully), shopping, wrapping presents, and not to forget the spontaneous afternoon boozing – how are you meant to get anything done?!
However, in the midst of all the Christmas chaos; time goes on, deadlines approach, and exams continue to be sat. Not setting time aside for revision over the holidays could result in a daunting mountain of work to come back to January, which can be extremely overwhelming.
So, to help you have both an enjoyable and productive Christmas, I have pulled together my top tips for Christmas revision below (including a handy PDF print out to help you plan your time).
Erin’s top tips for Christmas revision!
1. Plot it out
It is crucial that you plan which days and times you are going to set aside for revision, and that you then stick to it. My CEO at my first job showed me a great time management method called ’21 squares’. You section out your days into 3 squares for mornings, afternoons, and evenings, and you fill each square in with what you want to focus on in that section of time.
2. Consider your personal productivity
When filling in your revision timetable, consider which times of day you’re most productive. I personally like to revise in the mornings, especially over the Christmas period. Christmas is a busy time and friends & family members often turn up unannounced with gifts (again, hopefully!), which sometimes leads to a spontaneous glass of wine, and then all the revision plans go out the window.
It also feels great to get the revision out the way so that it isn’t hanging over you all day, and that way your afternoons can be filled with as many spontaneous glasses of wine as you like!
But of course, everybody is different, so have a think about how your days tend to go over the Christmas period, and which time of the day best suits you.
3. Plan the fun stuff as well as the revision
If your planning on doing a little bit of revision each day your timetable can start to look a bit daunting, so be sure to put the fun stuff in there too.
In fact, I would start off by filling in your festive activities and blocking off any time that you know you won’t be free (make sure you’re realistic with it, so even though you may have nothing planned on the 27th but will most likely be tired and hungover from the Christmas and boxing day festivities, then block it off!).
It becomes a much more enjoyable task when you get to block areas off for party’s, movie nights & family time, as well as your revision.
4. Avoid wasted revision – plan your topics!
When you’re not in the mood to revise it can be very easy to just start looking over the easy stuff that you enjoy learning, but if your revising stuff you already know, you might as well just not revise at all!
At the beginning of each week, identify which area’s your weakest, and focus solely on these. You can even go into detail in your timetable, e.g. ‘Monday morning – Read chapter 1’.
A great way to help you identify which areas to revise is to complete past papers, and look at which learning outcomes you have scored lowest on. However, make sure that you check how big each learning outcome is too, some learning outcomes may only cover 6 points out of the 100 points in your exam, whereas others can cover up to 30.
5. Treat yo’self!
One of the best things about Christmas… is the abundance of snacks! We often find ourselves pigging out on quality streets, after eights & mince pie’s all day, every day over the holidays. Why not turn these treats into rewards, and set yourself goals to complete each day? This way you have an incentive to learn, as well as cutting down on your snacking!
