The Best Revision tools under £10
I thought it would be helpful to go back basics.
In this newsletter I am going to set out the best affordable tools for successful revision. This newsletter is devoted to the items that are all too often forgotten about as they seem just too obvious.
Number 1
CGP Revision Guides – Price range £3.50 - £10 (Ebay)
The CGP Revision Guides are one of the most popular resource for revision. They are less daunting than a textbook and more applicated focused, which we love at ILS! You need to ensure that you purchase the CGP revision guide for each subjects specific exam board. I would start off by obtaining the science revision guides as the first priority followed by English and other essay subjects as the second priority.
A lot of students find revision guides and textbooks unhelpful and even demotivating as they do not know how to condense the vast information into memorable notes. For advice on memorisation during note taking I recommend going back and reading last weeks newsletter, if you haven’t already -
Number 2
Hardback A4 notebooks – Cheapest at £4.50 (shorturl.at/lCT49) with most notebooks around £10.
This is probably our most recommend purchase at ILS. Usually, this step is overlooked and students end up making notes on scrap pieces of paper, ringed booklets or on their computers. Whilst all of these options are better than nothing, they do not facilitate the proud attitude we want to create around your teenagers revision. We want our client’s notebooks to become a prized possession which they can easily access, add to, and revise from. If your teenagers’ notes are scrappy, it is likely that their revision will follow suit.
Number 3
Forest (app) - $1.99 initial purchase from the app store
Forest is an app available on iPhone and Android which helps to fight procrastination. Your teenager sets the app up at the beginning of a revision session by inputting the amount of time they plan on revising for. If you then complete the session without going on your phone, you then earn virtual points which can be cashed in for the planting of real world trees.
Often students go on their phones almost subconsciously. Therefore, whilst planting trees is quite random, the act of adding that bit more friction between your teenager and their phones can have surprising consequences.
Finally there are a couple of additional purchases that you may want to look into. An organisational drawer system for all of their papers will definitely come in handy and for students who find the whole process overwhelming you may want to look into a calmness/meditation app like headspace or Calm. These tools can cost a little more than £10 but their applications last for a longer period of time.
I hope everyone has a great week ahead,
Best wishes,
Joel