Short answer: don't re-read your notes from the start. First find which topics you can't do yet, spend most of your time on those, and practise problems without looking at solutions. Spread the practice over several days instead of cramming it into one night.
Step 1: Find your weak spots first (day 1)
Most students lose time revising topics they already know because it feels productive. Take one problem from each topic on your syllabus (limits, derivatives, chain rule, optimisation, integration techniques, series) and try it cold. Sort the results into three groups:
- 🟢 Solid: solved correctly without help
- 🟡 Shaky: solved slowly or with a small error
- 🔴 Gap: couldn't start, or got it wrong
Step 2: Study in order (red, then yellow, then a little green)
Give about 60% of your time to red topics, 30% to yellow, and 10% to quick green reviews so they don't fade. Start with topics other topics depend on: derivatives come before optimisation, and substitution comes before harder integration.
Step 3: Practise actively
- Cover the solution, attempt the problem, then check. Recognising a solution is not the same as producing it.
- After a mistake, write one line about why it happened ("forgot the inside derivative"). Patterns show up fast.
- Mix topics in your final sessions. Exams don't tell you which rule to use, and choosing the rule is part of the skill.
Step 4: Space it out
Research on spaced practice and retrieval practice (for example Dunlosky et al., 2013, Psychological Science in the Public Interest) consistently finds both improve long-term retention compared with rereading or massed study. In practice: revisit each red topic 1 day, 3 days and about a week after first fixing it.
A sample 7-day plan
- Day 1: diagnose every topic.
- Days 2–4: red topics, with a short review of the previous day's mistakes each morning.
- Day 5: yellow topics, plus a re-test of day-2 topics.
- Day 6: a full mixed past paper under timed conditions.
- Day 7: redo only the questions you missed, then rest.
Not sure which calculus topics are costing you marks? Take the free 5-minute diagnostic. You get a readiness score and a study order built from your own answers. No card required.