Thread by @Benneypenyrheol

Thread. These were the main findings when I interviewed our top performer at GCSE for last year's cohort, Caitlin Grigg-Williams on how she revised. She achieved 10 A*s and 2 As. Why was she so succesful? 1/14

1) Caitlin started revising in February half term.
2) the number of hours spent revising was smaller at the beginning and increased as time moved closer to the exams.
2/14

3) a month before the exams, Caitlin would revise 2 to 3 hours after school and up to 6 hours each weekend day.
4) early on in revision, Caitlin's focus was on building up her "background" knowledge rather than doing exam questions.
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5) Caitlin didn't spend an equal amount of time on each subject. It depended on when the course had finished as well as how much in year revision has taken place. Caitlin spent a long time improving her areas of weakness.
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6) each week Caitlin was flexible with her timetable. She would change it if something was covered in school (either to revise something else or to double up to absolutely nail a larger topic).
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7) rather than plan for an hour in History followed by an hour of English, Caitlin would nominate some topics to learn off by heart each evening and would nail them, no matter how long it took
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8) Caitlin was 100% clear on the topics (and subtopics) in each of her subjects.
9) These came from revision lists given out by departments. Caitlin used them to identify strengths and areas where she lacked some understanding.
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10) in terms of revision strategies, Caitlin used @quizlet , making her own online flashcards but also searching for & using quizlets made by other people (as long as it was the same exam board. She would do lots of self quizzing/brain dumping on a chosen topic then check
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She would ask her mum to nominate a topic and then she would retrieve and say everything she could remember. She also gave herself timed tasks e.g. in History 10 minutes to write down all she knew about the Catholic threat
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11) retrieval practice was Caitlin's main method of revising. (Phew).
12) @quizlet was chosen as it was so much quicker to set up than normal flashcards.
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13 Caitlin's revision strat3gies shifted towards past paper questions and full exam practice as the exams drew near (cc @danielharvey9 ) . Early revision was on building background knowledge, later revision on applying it.
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14) Caitlin watched 1200 @GCSEPod s in year 11. If she didn't fully understand something then she would "immerse herself in the lesson". She found GCSEPod brilliant for picking up different perspectives in English Lit on some of the characters in an Inspector calls.
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Please don't put Caitlin's achievements down to talent (alone). So much of talent is hard work in disguise. Incredible commitment to her revision.
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This is Caitlin picking up her results (left). 👏👏👏👏👏 now we are looking on what we can learn, as a school about Caitlin's revision and her subsequent success.

Fin.

And I probably should mention what a wonderful, well rounded young person she is. Good luck, Caitlin. We are very proud of you.