How Did Students Revise During the Spring Holiday?

After taking in all that new material in school since September, the holiday after the second term is often the first time students of all ages dive headfirst into revision mode. For all that we learned inside the school walls, nobody ever really teaches students how to revise.

The result? A veritable smorgasbord of individual approaches. So, when should students start? What methods should they use? How should they effectively project manage their workload so they can feel confident in their exams?

In the hope of helping parents and students next year, we’ve gathered insights from over 300 students and parents from Years 10-13 about how they approached revision over the spring school holidays to prepare for exam season.

How Did Mock Exams Go?

For some necessary context, we asked about how students performed in their last mock exams or grade predictions and how those fit with their academic goals for the year:

The common trend was that there was room for improvement, with 61% overall saying they were happy with mock results but planned to improve their grades for the final exams.

Unfortunately, 1 in 4 (26%) students did not get the grades they expected. Most of these students were in Year 13, indicating that the mocks were not properly prepared for during and after the first term.

This lines up with what we saw in our last report on revision during the winter break: although 83% of Year 13 students revised, they were only doing around 1-2 hours on average per day.

As any educator will know, there is plenty of time to improve after the mock exams, especially in the interim years 10 and 12. So, we asked those who planned to improve on their final grade about the size of the gap they had to close in the following months:

Half of Year 10 students were on track for their final GCSE grade and are still looking to improve, given that they have the most time to break into the next grade boundary. A positive attitude indeed!

Almost half of the year 13 students were no more than 1 grade off, which is at least a very achievable goal for the final exams. Overall, 40% of students had some subjects over 1 grade below their targets, showing that, going into the final term, a large chunk of students need more targeted support in their studies.

Overall, Mock exam results showed that with a bit more effort, the majority can close the gap to their target grades. Most students are just one step away from their target final grades - a very achievable goal with the right revision strategy and potential help from an online tutor to fill in the gaps.

Did Students Revise Over the Spring Holidays?

To compare the student attitudes towards revision between the December and April school holidays, we asked if they did any revision at all during the recent break:

The biggest uptake (+32%) was understandably in Year 10 students who are set to sit their first real mock exams of the year in the summer term after the GCSE and A-level exam season. 

It was interesting to see that an extra 24% did spring holiday revision in Year 11, indicating a reluctance to start over the winter break, which could have contributed to the fact that 80% of Year 11 students missed at least 1 target grade in mocks.

Overall, it is good to see almost all of the year 11 and 13 students doing at least some holiday revision and the vast majority of the year 10 and 12 students following suit, showing a healthy respect for their upcoming exams, regardless of their relative importance. So, how long did they actually revise for?

These results show that year 13 had the best study discipline, with more than 1 in 3 students clocking in over 4 hours per day on average. Surprisingly, Year 10 had a similar proportion of students (20%) who studied over 4 hours per day on average as Year 11.

This indicates that a lot of GCSE students struggled to reach higher levels of holiday revision, with the most common time being only 1-2 hours per day. We asked for more details on the barriers to holiday revision:

1. Feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work
2. Distracting technology (especially “phone” and “phones”)
3. Not having a plan for what to do next
4. Socialising with friends
5. Family commitments (like family holidays)
6. Not organising or prioritising their subjects

The most common barriers to revision were students feeling overwhelmed by how much they had to do, particularly for Year 11 students. This issue was often quoted alongside being distracted by technology (especially their phones) and not having a clear plan in place.

Looking back, students most often wished they’d created a more structured revision plan, prioritised revision ahead of other activities, and started earlier in the term to lessen the workload covering older topics. A key lesson to take into their next academic year!

What Makes an Effective Holiday Revision Plan?

Over 80% of the Y11 students who did not make a plan did less than 1 hour of revision per day over the holidays!

Making a plan is an important part of the process of revising for exams. It gives students the necessary structure, especially during holidays, to make small, manageable improvements regularly so that the task does not become too big to solve.

Planning the revision itself is also not covered in school and can be quite a complicated task with all the variables. As a result, the process becomes very individual to each student and has the potential to be counterproductive. So, how did students make a revision plan?

1 in 4 students did not make a revision plan over the easter break, with a worryingly large number of those being in key exam years 11 and 13. The vast majority, however, planned their revision using a few different approaches.

Year 11 & 12 largely favoured planning their revision weeks ahead of time and sticking to their schedule, while Year 13 students seemed to favour making a prioritised plan the same day. But what is used by students who did the best in mocks?

Plans started weeks in advance were used by 28.3% of students who stayed on target (best), making them twice as likely to hit their target grades than planning on the day (14%). Only 6.5% who planned weeks ahead fell more than two grades behind (lowest).

Those who did daily or “several days in advance” planning had less chance of hitting their target for mocks (14-20%) and a much higher risk of falling 2+ grades behind (24-53%), but still better than no plan at all.

It’s clear that the earlier your child creates a plan, the better. Last-minute or daily planning works for some, but advance planning gave the best results overall in this group. So, what did they use to make their plan?

Students who used a structured digital tool, like a spreadsheet or Sherpa’s Revision Planner, were most likely to stay on target.

For example, 55% of those who used a spreadsheet and 58% of those using Sherpa’s Revision Planner achieved either their target grade or came no more than one grade below.

Pen & paper, the most popular method, also worked well: 35% stayed within one grade and 21% hit their target exactly.

By contrast, students who used an app saw less consistent results, with just 7% hitting their target and only 29% within a grade, while half ended up two grades behind. When asked, students quoted using apps like Gizmo, ChatGPT, Zinnia, Notion and Google Calendar to create their schedules.

The key takeaway: any structured approach works better than none, but dedicated tools like Sherpa’s Revision Planner or even a simple spreadsheet can give students a real edge for making a dynamic digitalised plan.

How Can You Revise Effectively?

Students should always incorporate a variety of revision methods to keep things fresh and aid memory retention. We set out to confirm the most popular revision methods used by students who performed the best in their mocks:

There is no better way to practice for an exam than past paper questions, and 75% of students agreed. They are key for familiarising students with the format of the questions and application of the knowledge they will be tested on. Surprisingly, 1 in 4 did not do any past paper questions over the school break!

Older students (Y11–Y13) overwhelmingly prefer practising with past paper questions, while younger students (Y10) are more likely to use flashcards, videos, and rewriting notes. Year 11 stands out for high use of timed exam practice, and Year 12 uniquely values highlighting notes.

About 1 in 3 students (32%) used AI in their revision. Most used it to get practice questions, example answers, or have topics explained and summarised. Some had AI generate quizzes or notes to help with tricky areas. So, what were the most effective methods?

The methods most linked to top grades were practising with past papers (78%), using worksheets/textbooks (67%), and a balance of reading new content, using flashcards, and discussing/teaching topics.

The revision strategies with the lowest payoff were often those that focused on passive review or creative summaries like audio notes and mind maps. The key seems to be actively engaging with content.

Does it help to have tuition over the holidays?

Using an online tutor for regular support during the holidays can be a lifeline for students revising for exams. We looked into how common it was to keep up lessons out of term time:

Students who took tuition sessions over the Easter holidays were nearly 10% more likely to be happy with their mock exam results compared to those who did not. Showing that even in light of good results, parents and students valued their tuition sessions very highly for helping maintain their progress. As anecdotal evidence, we asked parents and students why they feel their tuition helped them.

Across all year groups, students and parents described online tuition as most helpful for tackling difficult topics, practising exam questions with instant feedback, and boosting confidence. Younger students valued help catching up and explaining content, while older students emphasised building routine, exam technique, and confidence for challenging questions. 

What Can Parents Do to Help?

Roughly half of all parents check in on how their child’s revision is going periodically, while parents of Year 13s are just as likely to leave revision up to their child. A very small portion of parents even make a revision schedule for their child!

In Years 11 and 12, almost 1 in 3 parents said they will perform a review of their work at the end of the day. This is usually to ensure accountability and a sense of urgency to help motivate them during the day, potentially with a reward at the end! In addition, 25% of Year 11 parents said they will actively help with their work when stuck.

It’s important to keep these active involvements quite casual and positive, rather than any disappointing work leading to any consequences. Revision should be a marathon, not a sprint, and there is always tomorrow!

So, assuming these methods were used for mocks, what seems to be effective?

Though this sample group is smaller, the 8% of parents who said “I make the revision schedule!” saw the highest percentage of students hitting their target grades in mocks, most other common methods were effective, but “leaving them to it” appeared to be the least effective by some way.

Finding an effective method for your household may take some trial and error, but a good place to start is asking them directly what might help them.

Having something to look forward to as a reward can help motivate students to tackle subjects they struggle with rather than avoiding them until later. For others, a defined plan and a strict schedule are what they need. A lot of the time, students work better out of the home (in a Library for example) to help keep some distance between their work and relaxation spaces.

What motivates a student to revise during a school holiday with so many other temptations around them is highly personal to each child. What seems to matter most is that the parent shows some sort of interest in their efforts and an attempt at understanding their needs.