Teachers are always happily surprised at the huge impact advice from past students has on current students. Information from recent graduates is perceived as important and relevant. Students are very likely to take it on board. For this reason, we often invite successful alumni to speak to current students.

These tips were collected from graduating students by our Head of Technology, Melissa Marshall. They are worth sharing with your daughters.

• Make sure you do practise tests and past papers and then ask teachers for feedback. It is a really beneficial way to learn from your mistakes and make sure you don’t make those same mistakes in the exams.
• Try not to fixate on certain areas of the course. It is better to have a broad knowledge of everything, rather than being an expert on one topic and knowing next to nothing on another.
• Study for tests three weeks in advance to ensure no late nights before assessments.
• Meet with your teacher regularly to ask your own questions and get feedback on assessments whether you go well or not.
• Use palm cards for definitions but don’t rely on them.
• Create mind maps with traffic light colours.
• Try to fit everything from a topic onto one A4 page. If it doesn’t fit, simplify it down.
• Redo assessments from the year when studying for exams.
• Go through past assessments and exams and write down areas of concern so that you focus on them more thoroughly during study time.
• Practise different question styles: This makes it easier when going into the real exam because you know what to expect for each section.
• Have keywords for each topic point.
• Use acronyms and memory tricks to help with dense content that needs to be memorised.
• Be aware of current news that relates to topics studied and school and be able to draw links.
• Spend two-thirds of your study time on learning notes and one-third on practise answers.