Acing Your Exams: Essential Revision Tips

With the final IB examinations right around the corner, you may be wondering about the best and most effective approach for revision to help maximize your points.

Should you read through all the textbooks again? Is it worth practicing past papers? Keep reading to discover the top ten IB exam revision tips to make sure you ace them!

1. Prioritize

You may be hardworking and put in a lot of effort studying and yet you might leave out certain unimportant topics or ones that you find difficult. Having questions from those topics show up during the exam could really put you on the spot and increase levels of stress and panic.

Hence, when studying, you should prioritize going through the syllabus for every subject and start with the topics that you struggle with the most. The IB was designed for students to get out of their comfort zone and tackle more challenging obstacles.

Getting the difficult topics out of the way makes it much easier to revise right before the final examinations and you will become more confident with what you know and less stressed overall. Revising for topics that you are already confident with could be a waste of time with having just a few months left before the IB exams.

However, this does not mean that you should neglect any topic that the syllabus covers, as everything must be treated with equal importance.

2. Make connections

It is essential to make connections when you are learning something. Interconnectedness helps retain and understand various bits of information from different areas better. For example, various topics in economics are connected with each other. A topic from international economics could be related to microeconomics.

Therefore, creating a link between information allows you to process and explain your answer better when it comes to the final IB exam.

3. Condense your notes

It is up to you to take notes in handwriting or on your laptop.

However, note-taking is a must. When you’re sitting in class, write down things that you may have more questions regarding or something you don’t understand. Taking notes on things you already know/Are familiar with may not be favorable as you will always come back to things that you do not know rather than the things you do.

Once you have covered the entire syllabus for each subject, you must now condense your notes to focus on key areas and other specifics. You can condense your notes by reading through the textbook and picking out points that you think are the most important or most difficult to comprehend. You must condense your study guide down to a maximum of 20 pages to make it easier for revision.

Furthermore, an overall reading for the sole purpose of revision is highly recommended; subject guides would be the most effective when doing so. I would suggest using the Oxford study guides as they act as distilled textbooks, explaining concepts in a compact and straightforward way to use for revision, which allows for more topics to be covered in a short time.

Also Read: 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting the IB

4. Divide and study over a fixed time period

Creating a schedule for what you need to study for each day and for how many hours will help make things more organized and determine the amount of time it will take to cover all topics for every subject before any exam final or a midterm.

This allows you to distinctly know how much progress you have made in that period of time. This can also help with determining whether your study methods are time-effective or not. For example, in Biology, you could study ‘Cells’ and their structure in a week, the various kinds of cells the next week, processes within cells the next week, etc.

Additionally, planning breaks are just as important. The maximum amount of time a person can concentrate on a topic in 20 minutes. Accordingly, having short breaks every 20 minutes will help you stay focused and keep you engaged.

5. Repeat midterms and semester exams

If you have not performed well in a midterm or semester exam, it is highly recommended that you go through the topics for that particular test again and repeat them at home at your convenience.

This will help prepare you better for the final IB examinations and be more familiar with how to give the best response to a particular type of question.

It seems as though it is the effort of attempting to retrieve the knowledge that makes it retain in your memory, not just seeing or repeating it.

Hence, if you can take tests once a week on difficult topics, it will help to a great extent.

6. Start early

Students tend to procrastinate studying until their final IB examinations arrive. This can cause an immense amount of stress and panic, leading to poor performance in the final IB examinations.

Thus, it is required for students to start their revision months in advance of the final IB exams. This not only allows you to completely revise through every concept but also gives you time to practice numerous past papers to be fully equipped to take up the exams.

Practicing past papers is one of the most important ways to ace the final IB examinations. It provides you with the structure and type of questions that appear in the exams, helping students be thoroughly prepared.

It also helps students be more organized in terms of finding out which section takes up most of their time and thus, provides an ideal way of timing yourself and becoming self-aware of your strengths and weaknesses.

7. Modify the form of information

Some students often find it difficult to read long paragraphs of a subject they may not have much interest in. So to avoid a loss of interest or skimming over crucial topics, you can always use various other mediums to obtain the same information.

For example, there are various YouTube videos of IB teachers explaining concepts in an engaging manner, or diagrams in websites that condense and thoroughly explain topics in a simple way, or using pre-made flashcards and quizzes to test your knowledge on the subject.

8. Practice past papers

Practicing past papers is one of the most important ways to ace the final IB examinations. It provides you with the structure and type of questions that appear in the exams, helping students be thoroughly prepared.

It also helps students be more organized in terms of finding out which section takes up most of their time and thus, provides an ideal way of timing yourself and becoming self-aware of your strengths and weaknesses. Familiarizing yourself with past papers as much as possible early on is essential when it comes to preparing for the final examinations.

9. Avoid distractions while studying

Avoid distractions while studying. It is essential to ensure that there are zero distractions when studying as it could deter your train of thought and interest towards that topic.

Make sure your phone, TV, and any sort of social network are turned off or away from you. You might think that responding to a message may be harmless and will only take a few seconds, but it could lead to hours wasted without you even noticing it or a loss of focus overall.

However, this does not necessarily mean that students must stay clear of all distractions permanently. Once you have finished studying according to what has been accomplished in your schedule in the allocated time, you can reward yourself with anything— be it watching a movie or texting your friends.

10. Apart from studying for the examinations themselves, students need to ensure a healthy lifestyle to maintain physical and mental health.

Undertaking a rigorous programme can be exhausting and tiresome. The program’s intensity can make it easy to forget that you require to be physically healthy and be in the right mindset to ace the examinations.

Hence, getting an adequate amount of sleep (8 hours) and maintaining a balanced diet is crucial to maintaining energy and overall health. Getting physical activity in the form of a sport, exercise, or meditation is also needed to remain healthy, improve strength and mental health.

Lastly, students must try to spend time with family and surround themselves with other people who challenge them and influence them positively. You require all kinds of moral and physical support at this point in time to feel confident and motivated to do well in this programme and your examinations.

So, there we have it, our ten amazing IB exam revision tips! From taking notes to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, we hope you can take away some of these tips to pave your way towards success in the IB programme.

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