When exams get close, most students don’t fail because they don’t know the content. They fail because their material, timetable and notes are scattered. Organisation is how you protect your revision time. If you can find the right notes in 10 seconds, see what to study today, and track what you’ve finished, you will stay calm even in a busy exam month.
Know your exam dates and papers first
You cannot organise what you don’t see.
- List every subject.
- Write the paper name (Paper 1, Paper 2, practical, oral).
- Write the date and time.
- Note the board (AQA, OCR GCSE exam, Edexcel, State Examinations Commission, NESA, VCAA).
- Highlight the first three exams.
Put this list on the wall or at the front of your notebook. Organisation always starts from the calendar.
Verified: all boards publish exam timetables. Unverified: your school’s exact internal mock dates.
Build a weekly revision plan, not just a big plan
A giant 8 week plan looks good but is hard to follow. A weekly plan is easier.
- Pick 4 to 6 study sessions in the week.
- Assign each to a subject and topic.
- Keep one slot for past papers.
- Keep Sunday or one weekday evening for review.
Example:
- Mon. A level Biology — gas exchange
- Tue. GCSE Maths — algebra + 10 topic questions
- Wed. English — essay planning
- Thu. Chemistry — rates of reaction
- Sat. Full past paper
- Sun. Review and tidy
That’s realistic.
Keep subjects in separate folders
Mixing subjects is the fastest way to waste time.
- One folder or digital folder per subject
- Subfolders for notes, past papers, marked work
- Name files “Board_Year_Paper_Section” (e.g. AQA_2024_P1)
- Date your notes
When you come back in 3 weeks, you know where everything is.
Use checklists for topics
The syllabus is long. A checklist makes it finite.
- Take the official specification
- Turn every bullet into a checkbox
- Tick when done
- Mark with a dot when you have also done past questions on it
This also shows your weak areas clearly.
Doing this in one place. If you keep your topics inside a single hub like SimpleStudy, the checklist part is partly done for you. The platform lines up syllabus-matched notes, flashcards, quizzes, past papers and mocks for UK, Ireland, Australia and other English-speaking markets. You can open the topic, complete it, and the progress is tracked. If your school or parent account is active, everyone in class follows the same structure, which helps teachers keep students organised.
Tidy your study space daily
A cluttered desk makes your brain do extra work.
- At the end of the day, put away all books
- Keep only tomorrow’s subjects on the desk
- Charge your laptop and calculator
- Put stationery in one box
- Throw away rough papers you don’t need
This 5 minute reset makes the next study session start faster.
Use one capture place for tasks
In exam months teachers, parents and coaching centres keep adding things. If you don’t capture them, you forget.
- Keep one small notebook or one note on your phone
- Write tasks as they come (“redo 2023 Paper 2 Q7,” “print history source,” “ask teacher about QWC”)
- At night, move them into tomorrow’s plan
Multiple to-do apps = confusion.
Track past papers and scores
Organisation is not just about files. It is also about progress.
Make a simple table:
- Date
- Subject
- Paper
- Score (%)
- Timing (on time / over)
- Notes
Over 3 to 4 weeks you will see improvement. You will also see which subjects you have ignored.
Verified: progress tracking increases student engagement. Unverified: exact score lift for GCSE/A level compared with no tracking.
Control your time blocks
You already asked to keep paragraphs under 150 words and to use formal tone, so we will keep time blocks simple.
- Morning before school: 15 minutes — review notes
- After school: 45 to 60 minutes — main study
- Evening: 15 minutes — marking and error log
Three small blocks beat one giant block that you skip.
Organise digital notes too
Many students are tidy on paper but chaotic online.
- Create a main “Exams 2026” or similar folder
- Inside, create folders by subject
- Save PDFs with sensible names
- Keep past papers and mark schemes together
- Back up to cloud or school drive
When exams get near, print only what you really need to hold.
Keep an error log per subject
An organised student knows not just what they studied, but what they got wrong.
For each subject:
- Question / paper
- Error
- Cause (misread, formula, timing, structure)
- Correct version
- Retest date
Then actually retest. Without this, the same errors will appear in the real paper.
Protect your energy with a routine
Organisation also means not burning out.
- Sleep 7 to 8 hours
- Keep one off day per week
- Do exercise or a walk
- Eat before big study sessions
A tired, stressed student cannot stay organised.
Common mistakes in exam season
- Studying from WhatsApp photos. Hard to find later.
- Mixing boards. AQA with Edexcel in one file.
- Not dating work. You don’t know what is new.
- No central place. Notes on phone, papers on drive, marks on paper.
- Planning too much per day. Then the plan is ignored.
Avoid these and your revision will stay neat.
Final takeaway
Organisation in exam season is about removing friction. If you can see your dates, know what to study today, find the correct paper fast, and record your scores, you will not panic in the last week. Using a single, syllabus-aligned platform to hold notes, questions and past papers makes this even simpler because the structure is already done for you.
