Break your subjects down into key topics, and manageable chunks including scheduled breaks and social activities. Use colours to make your plan more visual. Make your plan flexible, but don’t spend all your time changing it around.
Share your revision plan with friends and family so they can keep you on track. Ticking off topics when you’ve covered them will give you a sense of achievement, and revision will be more interesting if you vary the way you revise.
You may think that you’re no longer worrying about what caused the pain, but as soon as there is an open ear willing to listen, you find yourself retelling the story. At first this can help, but at some point you have to stop telling the story; you’re just re-opening the wound.
If nothing can be done about your emotional pain, your only and best choice is simply to accept what is and allow yourself to feel what you feel. It can be helpful to process your feelings with a friend, counsellor or to write them out in a journal.
Set yourself revision targets and goals. Aim to have revision completed one week before the exam starts to give yourself flexibility, rest and extra time to focus on harder points. Balance your time between subjects you’re most and least confident about.
Use as many old exam papers as you can to practice, and ask your teacher to read or mark them for you, with feedback. Note the questions that come up, and their themes and frequency. Time yourself to get used to exam conditions.
Each time you think about your worry, you reinforce its grip on you. Distraction breaks this by forcing you to think about other things. If you distract yourself with something sufficiently compelling, you will stop ruminating and start to feel better.
Distraction works because it interrupts your mood and forces you to “change gears”. Many negative moods contain an element of rumination to them. When you ruminate, you go over your problem or worry again and again in your mind.
For a revision timetable: get all the information you need (exam dates, lesson timetable); block out the times you can’t study; pick a revision start date; plot your revision sessions (how much time on each topic, schedule in breaks); display your plan.
A revision timetable helps you avoid running out of time, missing vital information and finding it all a bit too much. 15 minutes of planning will help you be more productive, keep you motivated and will boost your confidence for the challenge ahead.