Struggling with motivation? The Exam Shack takes an alternative approach to exam motivation by conjuring a free-thinking salmon
If you look up the word motivation in a dictionary, other words inevitably swarm around it 
like bees around honey: reward, incentive, goal… and so it goes on. The same words appear whenever you look at an article about motivation, how to get motivated, how to stay motivated, how to be motivated. They’ll tell you to reward yourself, to set goals, to bribe yourself with incentives. They’ll tell you to ignore the suffering, to see it as part of some bigger plan or, to borrow from Machiavelli, they’ll suggest it’s the means to an end. Without a doubt motivation is a vital part of examination success. The keen learner, the motivated learner, will more actively engage with their studies, be more likely to retain information consumed and be more likely to form interconnections between strands of knowledge, thought and ideas. But treating yourself rather like a plant that bends toward light does not, I believe, create the type of motivation that can forge exceptional candidates. So here’s our approach...
Exams around the corner? Get ready with our revision guide and free Exam Shack revision planner...
For most students, revision is something that happens in the weeks (sometimes hours) before an exam. It should in fact begin as soon as you lean something, making it more vision than re-vision. One of the most vital components in highly successful revision is the ability to take good notes, which in turn requires some understanding of how the mind works. The importance of repetition (revision) in this process cannot be underestimated. Think about the most remarkable feat of memory of all (learning a language). This is achieved because language for a child is deeply significant (it enables communicating needs to others) and, because language is used constantly, repeated ad nauseum. read more...
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Sample Exam Paper: an approach
"The Nicomachean Ethics is effectively a training guide for the development of virtue. But virtue is not a single entity. Aristotle separates intellectual virtue from moral virtue; the former can be taught, the latter must be cultivated, habitually performed. The role of habit, therefore, applies only to the moral virtues - identified by Aristotle as courage, temperance, self-discipline, moderation, modesty, humility, generosity, friendliness, truthfulness, honesty and justice. Though it must be stated, at an early stage, that the use of the word "habit", though used by Aristotle, might require closer examination, because this candidate believes "habit", in Aristotle's usage, relates more to the practice of virtuous acts than virtue itself." The Exam Shack looks at an A Level Philosophy question and outlines what the examiner was looking for and how it might be approached. Because it is merely being used as an example of a mixed format exam paper - the type you'll get in Geography, History, English etc - our in-depth look at forming a response should be of use to all students. More
Reading William Blake's Songs of Experience...
The Tyger: The most important point is that the poem is made entirely of questions,
some of which also serve as exclamations. Notice the incomplete syntax of line 12, produced by Blake cancelling the line "Could fetch it from the furnace deep". (He tried also – in one copy – "What dread hand formed thy dread feet?" and also, in another, "What dread hand forged thy dread feet?") Notice the way this elliptical line 12 runs into the line 13 to produce four gasps of awe in a row, to be followed a little later by two more such gasps in line 15, all of which serves as a frame for the metrically and grammatically different line "In what furnace was thy brain?" to stand out in its completeness of apprehension... We've got a guide to Blake's poetry written exclusively for Exam Shack by a Cambridge-educated teacher and A Level English examiner... read more
The Art of Active Revision...
How does an athlete prepare for a championship? Do they sit around reading stretching manuals, watching Chariots of Fire and then break periodically for a quick cup of tea. No, they get out at there and train by practicing what they will have to do on the day. Why is this relevant? Because too many students see revision as process of taking in information and leaving it at that. Come the exam, you will be required not to “take in” fresh information but to “put out” information. So your revision should be structured and planned with “output” at its centre. To break this down still further, your revision programme should have three essential components: learn, recall and utilize. read more...
Writing History Essays at A Level...
Essays at A Level are designed to act as springboards for your writing and critical skills. A single question can yield wildly different though equally effective answers. We've taken a sample question, worked up an essay plan and come up with two very different answers. We've also looked at what the examiners were looking for from candidates and the wider skills they demand of all history candidates. For this section, a knowledge of British expansion in India is helpful though not absolutely necessary to get an idea of how to write effective A Level essays to a set time limit. read more...
How To Read a Literary Text...
Think of a book as a thinking tool. Just as a cycle is a tool for allowing you to move across terrain, and just as an examiner can work out whether you know how to ride one by watching you perform a certain few manoeuvres, putting your feet in the pedals, your hands on the handlebars, rotating the pedals with your feet, turning the cycle in a tight circle, changing gears appropriately etcetera, the examiner is aiming to see what you can do with text and what kind of thing you have been doing with the book as a whole. The question you will be asked has been carefully, very, very carefully, designed to test a surprisingly wide range of skills. It will enable the examiner to find out things like this...read more...
Eat your way to more effective studies...
It’s a well known, stated fact: “Healthy mind, healthy body: healthy body, healthy mind.” So in the same way that a proper diet is good for your body, so it is for your brain. And the foods you consume, whether "good" or "bad" can possibly influence your brain power. The brain is the greediest organ in your body, with some quite specific dietary requirements. read more
Unlock the power of Speed Reading...
Faced with a mountain of books, most students will eventually ask themselves a simple question: is there a quicker way of reading all of this? The answer is yes, and the tool is speed-reading. As young children we are taught to read one letter, and then one word, at a time. For learning to read, this is fine. For later life, however, it is a hindrance and it doesn’t make full use of the way the eyes and brain actually work. read more...
