Practical advice on how to study, revise and prepare for exams. Drawn from over twelve years of teaching experience and grounded in evidence-based learning strategies. New posts are added regularly.
A step-by-step guide to building a realistic revision timetable, covering time auditing, subject weighting, spacing, and how to stay on track when motivation dips.
Why most revision cards fail and how to make ones that work. Covers question-based formats, the Leitner system, and the best digital tools for building lasting recall.
Why cramming fails and spaced repetition works. A practical guide covering the spacing effect, the Leitner system, Anki, and how to build a sustainable retrieval habit.
Practical strategies for when motivation drops. Covers process goals, study environment, tracking progress, and knowing when to ask for help.
Realistic guidance on daily and weekly revision hours at GCSE and A-Level. Covers term time, study leave, signs of overwork, and why quality matters more than quantity.
Why wider reading improves exam grades. Practical suggestions by subject and how to build a reading habit in fifteen minutes a day.
How students who take ownership of their study make the most progress. Covers using the syllabus, mark schemes, self-tracking, and building independent habits.
A curated reading list across English, History, Sciences and Maths. Books, articles and podcasts to build subject knowledge and support exam preparation.
Age-appropriate book recommendations from early readers to sixth form. Fiction, non-fiction, and practical advice for reluctant readers at every stage.
How to find, read and integrate scholarly references into A-Level History and Classics essays. Covers historiographical debate, contrasting interpretations, and building a scholarship bank.
How to find and integrate critical perspectives into A-Level English essays. Covers feminist, Marxist, post-colonial, and psychoanalytic criticism with practical examples.
A practical guide to close reading at A-Level, covering language, form and structure, a step-by-step method, and the most common mistakes students make.
A practical guide to critical thinking for GCSE and A-Level students. How to agree, disagree, and evaluate arguments in essays and discussion.
How to use the Point, Evidence, Explain, Link structure to move your writing from description to analysis, with worked examples across subjects.
Practical definitions of the essay and the academic argument. Structure, common weaknesses, and how to build a case rather than write a summary.
Methods for writing integrated comparative essays at GCSE and A-Level. Structural approaches, comparative language, and worked examples across poetry and prose.
How to incorporate historical, social, and literary context at GCSE and A-Level without reducing your essay to a history lesson.
A practical guide to fonts, margins, line spacing, page numbers, headings, and referencing for school essays in Microsoft Word.
Practical techniques for overcoming the blank page, from freewriting and mind mapping to planning and drafting a first draft.
How to select short quotations, embed them in your sentences, and analyse language at word level for higher marks in GCSE English Literature.
A guide to the types of dramatic speech including dialogue, monologue, soliloquy, aside, chorus, stichomythia, and direct address, with examples from set texts.
A guide to the major dramatic genres from tragedy to absurdism, with the playwrights most associated with each and what makes each type distinctive.
A list of literary techniques separated into basic and advanced, with definitions and examples from GCSE and A-Level set texts.
Effective maths revision techniques and links to the best free revision websites, including Corbett Maths, Dr Frost, Maths Genie, and more.
How to form, recognise, and use comparatives and superlatives in grammar, essays, and creative writing.
How to use your planning time effectively, with abbreviation techniques, argument structure, and worked examples for exam essays.
Direct links to past papers from AQA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC, Eduqas, and CCEA, plus the best third-party past paper websites.