Lucinda Powell, Director of Teaching and Learning

We know many students struggle to motivate themselves to revise and prepare for exams. So as you head back to the classroom for one final push, here are five strategies to help support their exam preparation. 

For each of the ideas below there is also a podcast which expands on them. So if you want to dive a little deeper into any of the ideas, just follow the links to the podcasts.

Planning effective revision

Effective revision depends not just on what students revise, but how they plan it. To support this they need to consider three key things: 

• the time they have available 
• what content they need to revise 
• what they already know, and where the gaps are.

Revision lessons provide a valuable opportunity to teach this process explicitly. Rather than assume students know how to manage their revision time, teachers should support students to build realistic revision plans. Discussing how revision fits around school, extracurricular activities and rest can help students understand that effective revision is about consistency and focus, not volume. 

Guiding students to be more intentional about what they revise during the time available is critical. While teachers often provide topic lists or revision checklists, students tend to treat these as static documents where, ideally, they should be supported to actively engage with them. Using a specification, contents page or personalised learning checklist, students can identify and prioritise content using RAG-rating (Red, Amber, Green). Revision should always start with any topic they have coded as red, and they should change the rating as they grow more confident with any given topic. Encouraging students to use the RAG system helps avoid the common pitfall of spending time on topics they enjoy or already feel confident with. 

Deliberately setting aside time to plan revision, perhaps as part of a lesson or tutor time, enables teachers to scaffold better decision-making and promote more independent and efficient revision, both in lessons and at home. In addition this reinforces the message that planning is a core part of revision, not something separate from it. 

Listen to the podcast: More ideas on how to plan revision sessions for you and your students.

Active revision

Many commonly used approaches – such as reading and re-reading notes, watching videos or listening to podcasts – are passive strategies. They expose students to information but do not require them to actively retrieve or use it. 

These approaches often feel effective, and in the short term they can give a sense of progress. However, research shows that much of this learning is quickly forgotten if students are not required to recall the information themselves. 

Active strategies, by contrast, demand more effort. They make gaps in understanding visible and can feel less successful to students at the time. Despite this, evidence consistently shows that active recall is far more effective for securing learning in long-term memory. 

Retrieval practice (retrieving information from memory) is beneficial for students in two ways: firstly it creates stronger long term memories, and secondly it reflects what they will have to do in the exam. 

To support durable learning, students need regular opportunities to practise retrieving information. You can do this in many ways, such as: 

• brain dumps (write everything you know on a piece of paper and then add in missed bits in a different colour) 
• online quizzes 
• teach the teacher/peer 
• practice papers, to name but a few. 

You can make these lively, interactive and fun so students re-engage with material. For example you could do mind maps on the desks or windows using board markers, create team recall quizzes and add in competitive elements.

Listen to the podcast: More on embedded retrieval practice into your lessons. 

Managing anxiety

A good first step is helping students understand what anxiety is. When students learn that anxiety is a normal bodily response (not a sign that something is “wrong”), it often feels less frightening. If needed, a biology or psychology teacher can help explain what’s happening in the body. 

Once students understand this, they can start to notice their own warning signs – physical (for example, a fast heartbeat), emotional (such as worry or anger) or cognitive (such as racing thoughts). This awareness makes it easier to regulate their feelings. 

Practising breathing exercises such as 7:11 breathing (in for 7 seconds, out for 11 seconds) or grounding exercises such as Feet, Seat, Hands (think about how each of these parts of your body feel and focus on them for 5-10 seconds) can help students to feel less anxious by resetting the nervous system that is triggering the anxious response. 

It’s important to practise these exercises with students before the exam – trying to do them for the first time when anxiety is high won’t work! It’s also worth getting students to try a range of strategies: the key is helping each student discover what works best for them. 

Listen to the podcast: More about anxiety, psycho-education and anxiety management techniques.

Control the controllables

There will always be things we can’t control, and things we can. However, students often spend more time worrying about what they can’t control, and this can increase their stress. 

Helping students let go of these worries can reduce stress and help them focus on what really matters. It can also improve motivation, as students can see where their effort will make a difference. 

Here’s a short classroom activity to try: 

• Create two columns on the board: Things I can control and Things I can’t control. 
• In the first column students can add things that they can control, such as how much revision they do, what they revise, how much sleep they get, how they respond to worrying feelings. 
• In the second column they can add everything they can’t control – such as what the questions will be, what happens if they get sick, what the person marking will think. 

Use this as a starting point for discussion. Talk through how students can practise letting go of worries about things they can’t control, and instead put their energy into the things they can control. 

Listen to the podcast: More about how to extend this exercise and develop if… then thinking.

The revision environment

A calm, well-organised revision space makes a real difference to how well students can focus. Research suggests that after a distraction, it can take between approximately 5 and 20 minutes to refocus. This means even small interruptions, such as phones, online alerts, or annoying siblings, can disrupt effective revision. 

Students often say they work best when it is quiet and when phones and other technology are out of reach. Teachers can help by talking students through what a good revision environment looks like and why it matters. Here are my top tips to share: 

• Remove distractions. Phones and technology should be in a different room, not just turned off. 
• Work in a quiet space. If students must have music, make sure it is without lyrics. 
• Make it easy to get started. Encourage students to set out their books and revision materials in advance. 
• Keep the plan visible. A revision plan helps students stay on task, and knowing what to work on next reduces stress and the cognitive load of decision‑making. 
• Keep sleeping space separate. Beds should be for sleeping, not revising, since this can disrupt sleep which is vital for consolidating memories. 

Listen to the podcast: More about creating the perfect environment for revision

In summary

As teachers we need to be confident that everything we do in each lesson will take students one step closer to doing their absolute best in the exam. We also need to acknowledge their challenges and validate their feelings, so be careful not to show frustration or anger or dismiss their concerns. Explicitly teaching students how to develop study habits they can sustain beyond the classroom and apply across subjects allows teachers to recognise the challenges of revision, offers solutions and enables success.

Teachers and students are going to have to work together to get through the next few months and building strong relationships is going to be vital. So good luck!

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About the author

Lucinda Powell is Director of Teaching and Learning and has taught psychology since 2002. She is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and her Podcast ‘Psychology in the Classroom’ makes psychological research on learning accessible to all. She works with students and teachers to bring the psychology of learning to life, delivering talks and workshops on mental health, study skills, exam preparation and cognitive psychology. Lucinda’s Book Overcoming Test and Exam Anxiety will be published later this year.