Our Handy Revision Tips That Will Actually Work for Exam Season

If you have some big exams on the horizon, don’t stress — we’ve got plenty of tips and tricks to help you breeze through the 2025 exam season!

Whether you are currently preparing to sit GCSE, A-Level, University or other exams, with the month of May fast approaching there’s probably only one thing on your mind.

How to ace those exams.

Whether you are a seasoned student, or are are sitting exams for the first time, we’ve put together our handy tips to help you breeze through those long study sessions.

Remember, starting early is your best chance of doing well in exams as well as practicing the “little but often” approach to revision. Everyone learns differently, but hopefully these ideas will make your revision sessions more productive.

Use Post-It Notes Effectively

When you think of revision essentials, Post It Notes probably soon come to mind. But do you know how to use them effectively? Although you can buy Post It Notes in all shapes and sizes, you’re best sticking to the small square size as it can be tempting to write down everything.

Once you have gone through your notes, open a fresh pack of Post It Notes and write down key information. This might be a date and a brief explanation if you are a history student, an equation for a maths exam, a quote if you are an English Literature student, or something else important. Keep it short and brief, and then stick it somewhere you know you will look.

This could be on the bathroom mirror, your bedside drawers or car dashboard, wherever you end up sticking them, make sure it’s a place you look at routinely. This way, you can keep the information turning over when you are on the go and doing everyday activities. You could even claim you’ve done some revision whilst brushing your teeth!

Keeping it short and simple is key - and Post It Notes help that due to their size. From the prompt, you should then be able to recall more information about the topic, theme or fact. With a whole host of different colours and shapes available, you could use them for different topics, subject and exams. A firm student study essential, don’t go without Post It Notes this exam season, but remember these tips for using them effectively.

Don’t highlight everything

Highlighters can be a brilliant revision aid, but only when you use them effectively. If you read through your notes with the temptation to highlight everything, you need to go and read through them again. Not every piece of information you learn in the classroom is going to come up in the exam, or be important.

Revision is a battle in working smarter - not harder, especially if you are leaving it to the last minute or finding yourself short on time. Highlighters are great as long as you use them properly.

Take advantage of the huge amounts of colours and shades that are available from top brands such as BIC, STABILO and Staedtler and split information or themes into distinct categories.

Create yourself a key. Yellow could be for an important date or event, orange could be for analysis, or pink could be for context. Create a key or colour code system that works for you, and take time at the start of your revision to go through your notes and highlight the most important information so you can consolidate your notes and begin to test yourself.

Remember, if you’re reading through your notes thinking everything is important - you’re probably approaching it in the wrong way.

Take a step back, remember what your teachers have said and think critically about what it is you definitely need to know and remember. If you have access, be sure to look back at past papers or examples to see what themes come up time and time again - and use highlighters to differentiate between each.

Use revision cards for notes and testing yourself

Once you have done both of the above and spent a fair few hours revising each topic, you’ll want to move onto revision cards. A staple of every student’s Revision Stationery Essentials, these are another fantastic way to consolidate key information into bite sized chunks, but are also a convenient way to test yourself.

There’s an easy way to do this. Simply write a question on one side, and turn the card over on the other side and write the answer. Carry these cards around everywhere you go, so that any small moment you get in the day you can stop and test yourself, or better, get the help of a friend or family member.

One of the key signs you have learnt something well is being able to explain this to others - so using revision cards is a no brainer if you want to ace those exams.

Consolidate, consolidate, consolidate some more, and then use revision cards as resources to test yourself. These will carry you all the way up to the exam and are a great tool to find out what parts you are confident on, and those you need to work on.

Don’t neglect breaks

Even if you are cutting it fine and cramming the night before, you need to take a break. The average person can only concentrate between 15-20 minutes before their attention starts to wane. This is something that shouldn’t be ignored, even if you’re cramming the night before - which you shouldn’t be!

There’s no better accompaniment for when you’re breaking up study sessions than a tasty snack and a drink. Luckily, Nescafe have an outstanding offer running until June, or whilst stocks last. When you buy 2 tins of Nescafe Gold, you get a free 24 box of Kit-Kats - result! For easy snacking and easy to make coffee to power you through those study sessions, look no further than this tasty offer.

After all, who can refuse the appeal of free chocolate? Especially during exam season when you need all the sugar and caffeine you can get.