So, you’ve found yourself in the nightmare situation of having to do all of your revision in the last month before your exams. Not ideal, we’ll give you that, but it is perfectly possible to get some revision done before your exams.

1. Go through past papers and make summaries

You won’t have time to cover the exam syllabus in detail, otherwise you’ll never get anything done for your other topics. Go through past papers and find out which type of question that they ask most often; you should focus your revision on these topics, especially the ones that you find tougher. Make summaries of them and then go through the type of questions you get asked to make sure that you know how to apply the information as well as just recall it.

2. Prioritise

Another key thing to do is prioritise. If you find a subject easier then make it lower down your list of priorities, even if it means that you spend more time doing the subject you loathe. Of course, this doesn’t mean completely neglect your other subjects but try and focus on that particular one that you’re struggling with. Estimating how much time you'll need to spend on each topic/subject makes planning your time a much easier task.

3. Plan your study time

Speaking of which, make sure you plan out all of your study time. Making sure that you know what you're going to study during that session will improve your productivity and avoid wasting time doing things like trying to decide what you feel like doing. It also means that you can keep track of what you've already studied so you don't end up missing things out. You could tick things off the specification as you study them as a kind of tracker.

4. Use every instance to study

Don't limit yourself to just regular study sessions. Going through flashcards during ‘dead time’ like waiting for the bus is a great way to maximise what little time you have to study. Other examples of this could be listening to podcasts on the way to school or watching videos about a topic instead of YouTube before bed. You could also stick things up on your wall (like post it notes) and repeat them to yourself whilst getting ready in a morning.

5. Do timed papers for every subject

Another important thing is doing practice papers! Even if you somehow managed to memorise the entire syllabus, it's no good if you don't know how to apply the information. Do timed papers for every subject to test that you are actually remembering the knowledge that you cover as opposed to just forgetting the next day. Even just making quizzes from multiple choice questions (preferably from the exam) is a great way to go over content and remind yourself of it.

Upon saying all this, don't forget to relax. You can't change how much time you have so don't forget to get a break every now and then. Getting burnt out can be just as dangerous as not revising at all so don't forget to take some time off sometimes. Revision at this point is about making the most of the time you have, something which is perfectly possible with the right management. But no matter how long you have left, good luck with your revision and your exams!