Great way for notes you converted specification points into questions and converted source reference to answers. This way you are ONLY learning what you NEED not all the rubbish in the textbook. *GENIUS.*
Damn Ray now I can make tables for example for advantages and disadvantages and use image occlusion to test myself plus I also learnt the subheading Im not really the best at computers but I have started to put an effort since I never had the opportunity before until this recent year.
hey ray, i really wish i found your videos earlier :( so far i've been revising for exams by cramming and rereading notes which isn't rlly working for me because i'm barely staying afloat without retaining any of the content i've learned. Do you think i should rebuild my notes based on whats on the specs and add to flashcards or keep solving past papers and work on solidifying what i've learned?
Do you think it would be more time efficient to just make anki cards from the specification or do the advantages of this system outweigh the time it consumes? great series btw
@@kp___pk Spec and past paper questions is all you need. After you have memorised content make anki cards on exam qs you get wrong and memorise the marscheme. this will guarantee a 9/a*
What do you say about making mind maps based off of the specification or before learning a topic you look at the specification and see what they want you to know??
I’m not actually too sure because I didn’t really make mindmaps or find them too useful but I’d suggest trying both methods and using whichever one you find more useful
Very helpful video.... I study physics, biology, chemistry and math in my A level, But I always forget the contents for Math (But other subjects are not) So I loss all my confidence in my Math study, I only got an A in A level, so I decide to retake and want to get an A* in my coming soon summer broad exam Do you have any suggestions about how to do well in final review of math? Especially in like Log & Exponential Graphs and integration? When I forget those contents, do I need to study my textbook again and again? Thank you, study tips based on neuroscience are very helpful:)
Hi, if you achieved an A in A-level then I think you have a good understanding of the content - even though it may not seem like it - so my suggestion would be to focus on doing difficult practice problems and especially in those topics you are weaker at. I actually have a video on tackling difficult problems and making the most of them coming up sometime between tomorrow and Wednesday so I hope that will be helpful. As for studying the textbook again, not really? Just because you can't do a "tricky out-of-the-box thinking style question" on a topic doesn't mean you have to go back to basics as if you're learning the topic for the first time (unless you're missing something crucial like you forgot all about log laws or something), it just means you have to get better at those "tricky out-of-the-box thinking style questions" questions by practising a few more because it is quite a transferrable skill - independent of topic. And besides, once you've seen a fancy trick done once then you can do it many times again. I hope that helps for now, I think the upcoming videos will be much more helpful though :)
Hi, so I did sometimes for any bits of class notes that I didn't bother turning into flashcards for some reason or another but I tend to turn almost all the concepts into flashcards as well so I rarely need to
Nice and informative as always I've got s question to make my chemistry anki cards I use the notes from chemrevise and I turn them into questions than any other information that I needed to know from any other resources i will add it on Is this a good method or should I follow the same structure that you've used because with the method I use I find that it saves me a lot of time which I than can use to do more pastpaper questions
Yup, that does save a lot of time as chemrevise does condense information done quite well. There are few resources for other subjects that do what chemrevise is able to. And anything that is important enough that you haven't covered will come up probably come up in practice questions if you devote a lot of time to doing that. I will speak more at length about using other resources in the video on using Anki (which should hopefully be released later today)
Although I'm not Ray, I can give you a few tips for Maths. First of all, don't take notes. All you need is a topic list, and then go on various resources (corbettmaths, maths genie etc) and find some practice questions for each topic. Every once in a while do a few practice questions and you should be fine. For understanding how to do the problems, I find RU-vid videos very helpful.
@@arnab7562 If you're doing AQA Maths, there's a pdf on AQA's website with all of the fomulas. There's also one for Edexcel if you're doing that exam board.
Yup! I usually use a LaTeX to image and copy and paste the image. Although, you might be able to have a similar setup in Notion or Remnote which does have LaTeX support.
hi ray, if we’re not able to have anki, how would u suggest to incorporate spaced repetition and active recall? say if we have to study without devices. bc these methods rely on laptops and what not.
Good vid. Are there any sites that provide actual A Level physics exam questions? By topic? I'm self studying it and only have the textbook questions to go at (don't want to "waste" past papers before I've at least gone over all the material at least once)
Yup, you can find most of them split by topic on a website called Physics and Maths Tutor. Most of those questions come from old specification papers. I agree that it is worth saving the new specification papers for say a few weeks to maybe 1.5 or 2 months before your exams. But do bear in mind that there are A LOT of old specification papers which you can use to practise using the content throughout the year. Whilst some of the questions may not be in a similar style as the new specification, they do prepare you well for when you do the new specification papers. And do remember that it is likely you will have to repeat any papers (especially new specification papers).
Hey, this is exactly what I was looking for and I'm extremely happy I found this sooner rather than later, as I am currently heading towards the end of Year 11. I wanted to ask is the purpose of google docs is so that you can gather all the information you need in one place, using different sources, and then paste it into Anki? For GCSEs at the moment, I'm only using the textbook and I'm achieving good grades, but as I am planning on doing biology and chemistry for A-levels, I imagine that relying on the textbook will only be time-consuming and unnecessary, so do you recommend that I use the textbook to add on to my class notes and use the spec to see what I need to know? Moreover, I watched your A-level trap video and while I do understand your points, is it a good idea to start learning the introductory modules, and to get into the habit of using google docs and other sources to improve my note-taking/ skill of gathering information, and using youtube to understand concepts? Also, because I am doing additional maths at GCSE and understand some AS maths, I am planning on using my brother's AS and A2 textbooks (although they are a different spec to what I will be doing) and learn new content in the summer, so is that advisable since maths is different from the sciences, as it requires practice? Sorry for my long-winded questions, and once again, thank you so much for this video!!
Hi, I'm glad you found the video useful. I'll address a few of your points in list format because it's easier: 1. Yup, the Google Doc is just a place to compile all the information together, organise it, before turning it into flashcards in the Google Doc itself and copying the flashcards over into Anki. 2. As for the textbooks, I generally dislike A-level textbooks because they tend to go all over the place and have pages upon pages of things that will never be useful. I find it so difficult to actually learn from them for the first time and many A-level textbooks are just poorly written. The unfortunate thing with GCSE and A-level is that the textbooks aren't usually great and can just make you feel stupid if you don't understand them. Some university textbooks are absolutely fantastic whereas most A-level textbooks are mediocre at best. It's easy to settle for something mediocre, like the textbook, if you've never come across something great. I instead preferred to use online resources like videos, websites, and my class notes and cross-checked this with the revision guide to make sure all the important points were covered. I only used the textbook as a last resort. Sure, you may not cover 100% of the content and may be missing a couple fine details but you can achieve an A* knowing 95% of the content and besides, if you one or two points from the textbook were important enough then you'd come across it on a past paper (old specification or new). 3. As for the A-level trap video. I don't think it takes a lot of time to improve your note-taking skills / gathering information. It's something you can develop quite quickly during your first few weeks of sixth form. Remember that you don't have to be perfect from day one and can only change your tactics further down the line after you get used to sixth form. Many people realise a few weeks that something isn't working and stop using some of the revision techniques they used at GCSE and look for something new (which is when they usually come across videos on active recall and spaced repetition). Most others are stubborn and, while they do realise this, they refuse to change and end up wasting dozens of hours over the coming weeks and months. So I would suggest that don't bother taking time to practice note-taking / gathering information / flashcard making skills over the holidays. Besides, you may realise that in the first few weeks of sixth form that you just wasted your time because now you're bored during your lesson and you didn't understand the content by learning yourself over the holidays. Instead, I would highly suggest improving your problem-solving skills instead if you want to do something over the summer holidays. Even doing problems just outside your comfort zone on websites like Brilliant.org's Community page (which is free) is a great step forward. I've included a few recommendations on this page I've written some months ago: github.com/RehmanAmjad/problem-solving-bookmarks I am planning on making a series on problem-solving skills after my exams end in late June because I really want more GCSE and A-level students to see the value in improving their problem-solving skills (especially when they're young) and especially when it comes to admissions tests and interviews for university. They're so much easier if you've been used to solving difficult problems for months or a year before the test so instead of learning new content, I think it's better to practice solving difficult problems on the existing content you know. I hope that helps!
@@RAmjad Thank you so much for taking the time out to reply, and I shall take your advice on board. Problem solving is a crucial skill, which I see would be very useful to master in preparation for any admissions tests. Once again, thank you so much :)
hey, Nice video, keep up the great work. I wanted to ask I really stuggle with the 'passive' revision kind of thing, as I find it really difficult to do, as it makes me uncomfortable, how can you overcome this?
Hi, I'm guessing you mean that you struggle with 'active' revision as it feels uncomfortable as I think that, for most people, 'passive' revision is more comfortable? In that case, I can't think of a real way to force yourself to do it other than tell yourself that this is what the research shows and it is what's most effective. I think, like with most things, it is difficult when starting out because it testing yourself continuously through active recall does feel uncomfortable and can be a new experience but being able to push through the initial stages, you will often be surprised by how much more easily you're able to remember the information required for exam questions and will find yourself being able to answer more questions as a result. I think that once you get to that stage, the feeling of "hey, I can actually remember most of this information and it's so much easier" can keep you going for the later topics and eventually, it just becomes a habit and you tend to not think too much about it. Hopefully keeping this in mind can help you through the initial stages 🚀
I did the old specification for all my subjects except English and Maths. I personally didn't use any textbooks for GCSE and just skim-read them for A-level. I was set some questions from the textbooks as homework and I guess the questions can be useful when you first learnt about the material (incase your teacher isn't giving you question to practise). I think that videos on RU-vid these days are so much better when learning about something for the first time than textbooks. But ultimately, don't force yourself to use a resource that isn't working for you. I used to think that I had to read a textbook cover-to-cover to get an A* but then I found myself getting caught up on trivial details which will never be asked about in the exams. I then gave up on the idea and just skimmed through sections to make sure I had an understanding of generally what was going on.
