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When to start exam revision?


Sceptyczka

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Hi, I was wondering when one should start revising for IB exams. Could any IB alumni please tell me when they started their revision and whether they think they started too late/too early/just in time? Also May 2015 candidates, when are you planning to start revising?

Thanks in advance! :)

 

For me, I didn't start the actual revisions until the last 3 weeks. This was because in April, I was still crying with my friends and complaining about our TOK presentation :P However, it wasn't that stressful after all because I had already understood all concepts (especially in maths, and the sciences), so all I needed to do was to read through my study guides and do a bit of past exam papers.

 

However, I was terrible with my revision in English. In fact, I didn't even have time to read any books for English; thus I tried to 'sparknotes' my way through :P I started reading through the sparknotes exactly 5 days before the exam. Even though I regretted starting revision quite late for English, but I'm just glad that it went surprisingly well for me.

 

In my opinion, you shouldn't revise everything like 1 or 2 months before the exam. The better way is to revise for exams as you go along the course. In other words, try to revise the old concepts at the same time as you study a new chapter. This way, you'll feel less stressful in the end.

 

Good luck with the study!

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I suggest starting soon and pacing yourself, not full on revision right now but more intense later, and doing past papers often to ensure you haven't forgotten anything. You probably won't have finished the syllabus by now since it's early, but go over old content now so that when you're closer to exam time you only have the new content to worry about, which shouldn't be too much of a problem because it'll be fresh in your mind. The only thing I'll warn you about is something that happened to me, and that is overconfidence. Just because you're acing in class tests and getting good grades on class work does not mean that you don't have to revise for that subject. Because, as good as you may be in class, it does not mean that you won't find the exam difficult (as in my case). Sure, you may revise less for that subject, but at least do past papers because that is the key to being successful. I didn't start revising until later and I found myself cramming last minute revision, selectively revising certain topics etc. - I was a mess, and my grades reflected that (I was predicted 6s in all my HLs). Also, make sure you give each subject the revision time it deserves - don't focus on one subject and ignore the others, make sure you go through all of them properly. Last but not least, good luck! :)

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Hi! I also, unfortunately only started around 3 weeks prior to exams.

That of course is a bit too late, my revision was frantic, hectic and crazed. But if you have no choice.....you gotta do what you gotta do.

I would recommend starting 2 months earlier, and it doesn't even have to be hard-core practising on past papers during that time, you can just spend a few hours every week two months before-hand, reading your notes, memorising and understanding the things you need to understand :)

Good luck!

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