StudyArc Exam revision plan Exam Sprint · USD 15
Fourteen days to A-level Chemistry Paper 2
Six weak topics, eleven usable evenings, two mock papers and a rule for what to do when a day is missed.
You have fourteen days, about eleven of which are actually usable, and six topics you scored below 50 percent on. This plan spends almost all of that time on those six topics and on doing questions rather than rereading notes, because at two weeks out the only thing that moves a grade is retrieval under time pressure.
Eleven evenings covers your six weakest topics properly with two full mock papers. It does not also cover the three topics you are already passing. Those are deliberately left alone, and that is the trade this plan makes.
Priority
Where the marks actually are
Your confidence score against the marks each topic typically carries on this paper. The plan spends time where the gap between the two is widest, not where you feel worst.
The plan
Fourteen days, evening by evening
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Topic | Electrochem | Electrochem | Football | Organic mech | Organic mech | Mock paper 1 | Review mock 1 |
| Mode | Learn | Questions | Learn | Questions | Timed, full | Mark and redo | |
| Minutes | 70 | 70 | 0 | 70 | 70 | 105 | 60 |
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Topic | Equilibria | Rate equations | Football | Buffers | Transition metals | Mock paper 2 | Exam tomorrow |
| Mode | Learn + Q | Learn + Q | Learn + Q | Questions only | Timed, full | Light recall only | |
| Minutes | 70 | 70 | 0 | 70 | 60 | 105 | 40 |
Wednesday is football both weeks and it stays. A plan that deletes the one thing keeping you sane is a plan you will abandon by day four.
Method
What each session actually is
Seventy minutes is two blocks of thirty with a ten minute break. What happens inside them matters more than the total, and the ratio below is the whole method.
| Block | What you do | What you do not do |
|---|---|---|
| First 10 minutes | Blank sheet. Write everything you remember about the topic from memory | Do not look at notes first |
| Next 20 minutes | Fill only the gaps the blank sheet exposed, from your notes | Do not reread the whole chapter |
| Break, 10 minutes | Away from the desk. Not a screen | Do not check your phone and lose forty minutes |
| Final 30 minutes | Past paper questions on that topic, marked against the mark scheme | Do not do questions with the notes open |
| Last 5 minutes | Write down the one thing you got wrong | Do not skip this. It is tomorrow's starting point |
The ratio is roughly one third learning and two thirds retrieval. Most students invert it, spend the fortnight rereading, feel productive and score the same as their last mock.
Reality
If you miss a day
| What happened | What to do |
|---|---|
| Missed one evening | Skip it. Do not double up tomorrow. The plan has slack for two missed evenings |
| Missed two evenings | Drop transition metals. It is the lowest priority of the six |
| Missed three or more | Drop transition metals and buffers, keep both mocks. Never drop the mocks |
| A mock went badly | That is the mock working. Spend the review session only on the questions you lost marks on |
| Cannot face it tonight | Do twenty minutes of past paper questions and stop. Twenty beats zero and zero becomes a habit |
The last day
11 October and the morning of
- Sunday
Forty minutes, recall only
Read your one-thing-wrong notes from the fortnight. That is a sheet of your own actual mistakes and it is the highest value page you own.
- Sunday evening
Bag packed, sleep
Calculator, spare batteries, pens, ID, water. New learning on the night before does not land and displaces sleep that does.
- Exam morning
Nothing new
Skim the mistake sheet once. Eat something. Do not compare revision with anyone in the corridor.
- In the exam
Two marks a minute
If a question is taking more than twice its marks in minutes, leave it and come back. The marks you lose are usually at the end of the paper, not in the hard question in the middle.