The Top 5 Tips for Revising A-level Geography

https://goo.gl/ro65FQ to access super concise & engaging A-level Geography videos by A* students for the AQA, OCR and Edexcel Specs.

My first tip for revision is organisation. Because the geography syllabus is so extensive and you’ll be revising for other subjects at the same time it is really crucial that you keep yourself organised. I would recommend making a timetable for you revision period, making sure you allocate equal amounts of time for each geography topic, to make sure you cover everything. Obviously it is fine to spend more time on topics you struggle with, but you have to make sure you aren’t neglecting another topic.
Secondly, it is really important that your revision notes are organised as well. Instead of writing things out in rough, I highly advise that you write a neat and concise set of notes that you can always refer back to. If you find it useful, it can be helpful to colour coordinate your notes, using specific colours for key words and definitions and case studies likewise. If you find it too time consuming to write your notes out by hand, feel free to type them up, print them out and use highlighters.
My third tip is to make sure you learn all your definitions. I would highly recommend creating your own glossary of key words for both physical and human geography, separate from your notes. I would split up the glossary by topic and write out your definitions in neat - making these notes will be an effective form of revision as well. Having this glossary will make it so much easier to test yourself and to find out what you do and don’t know.
My fourth tip is about how to revise your case studies. I found the use of flashcards really helpful for learning case studies. You will hopefully have all your case studies written up in full, so when you make flash cards, make sure you are condensing the information and only writing out the most significant and important fact and figures. For most case studies you will have to analyse social, economic, environmental and political factors, so it is really helpful to assign a different colour pen or note card to each factor - this will help when you are making comparisons between case studies.
Finally, my fifth tip is all about essay planning. When you’re practicing writing those long essay style questions, it is wasting time to write out each essay in full each time. Even though you will have to practice writing essays in timed conditions, in terms of practicing essay structure it is more effective to practice making concise but detailed essay plans. I would suggest going through past papers and collecting a list of essay titles to make plans for. Then write out essay plans in bullet points, using subheadings to distinguish each paragraph. Make sure to include a good introduction, 4/5 points/paragraphs and finish with a conclusion. Each separate point should be in a new paragraph - it can be helpful to use the structure of point, evidence, analysis - remembering to include case study materials to embellish your points where relevant. Finally, remember it’s all about quality, not quantity.