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May is almost over! For many of you, this means that exams are over, whilst others of you may still have some to go. I hope that the tips and advice I have shared during this month have helped you out in some way, and that things have gone well for you over this undoubtedly incredibly stressful time of year. I wish good luck to you all. I hope that the rest of your exam season goes well, and that all of you get the results you deserve. And remember to always do your best, because nobody can ask any more of you than that. That’s it for now. As usual, you can click on any of the words in the table below to take you to my social media pages, where I am always available if you wish to get in touch. Until next time, keep working, keep smiling, and above all else, keep believing! SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS TWITTER INSTAGRAM YOUTUBE WATTPAD FACEBOOK YOUNOW TUMBLR SPOTIFY

Hello again everyone, and welcome back to my exams month, and the week of advice on what to do during exams themselves. Today, I am going to be giving you some advice on the best ways to manage your time in an exam. There is nothing worse than running out of time in an exam, and panicking that you’re either not going to finish, or that you won’t have enough time to write everything you need to. I am usually a slow writer, so I’ve always had a problem of not being able to write everything in the time I have. Because of this, I have developed a few different techniques which I am going to share with you right now. ·          Read all of the questions before writing anything. This gives you sufficient foresight of what is to come and can help you to plan out what time you have in relation to the number of questions you have to answer. ·          Do the questions worth the most points FIRST! Most exams will allow you to do the questions in any order you wish, so long as they a

Hello again all. After talking about exam preparation in the last few weeks, this week’s posts will be all about what to do when it comes to the exam itself. To kick off this week, I am going to be giving you a list of what I believe to be essential items to take into an exam with you. Before I begin, I should just say that some of these things will only be allowed in certain exams and not others. You should always check what you can take in with you before you go into an exam room. ·          At least TWO pens. This is just a standard piece of advice that most people in education would give, because in most cases, you are expected to be sufficiently prepared in this area. If you only bring one, which for any reason might run out, it may well be that invigilators will either not have a spare pen, or could refuse to provide you with one. So, always bring at least two, and don’t take the risk. ·          The same as above, but for pencils if your exam requires you to br

Hello, and welcome to the third and final part of this Trent’s Tracks weekend. Those of you who have been following me for a while may know that I have been in France on a study placement since January. Well, I am now set to return to the UK this Thursday (19 th May) which means that this incredible adventure is almost at an end, and in spite of how excited I am to go home, I have had such an amazing time here and am sad to be at the end of it. Because of this, I am feeling very emotional and reflective right now, and I wanted to recommend a song which reflects this mood I am in right now. I have chosen a more well-known song today than the ones I usually recommend, but for me it represents happy memories, missing people, and love, in a relaxed and happy way. Not only that, but I have once again picked a track from someone who is one of the best new talents that has emerged over the last few years, and this guy has had unbelievable success already. He has become a glo

Hello again everyone, and welcome to part two of this Trent’s Tracks weekend. For today’s song, I have chosen something from one of the best new British talents of the last few years. She is a truly amazing singer and I absolutely love her music. It is difficult to pick a favourite from all of the brilliant hits she has given us, but when I think about it, this is the one I love and listen to the most. It isn’t her most well-known, but it is still incredible. And so, I give you the amazing Paloma Faith, with New York. Paloma Faith New York Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/0Xy0S3KxaK0IcJHgryZr0h Video: https://youtu.be/PZF7CDBj1U0 As always, you can comment or get in touch via my social media (links in the table below) if you want to share your thoughts on this song, or on anything I post about. The third part of this weekend’s Trent’s Tracks trilogy will be up tomorrow, so until then, keep active, keep smiling, and above al

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Stay Blogitive! Today is the start of my second Trent’s Tracks weekend, with a new song today, tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday! As I am currently doing a month of posts about exams, I thought I would recommend a song today which reminds me of when I finished my A-Levels in 2012. This song always takes me back to that time when I was almost 18, and about to finish sixth form, with university over the horizon. I have memories of hearing it on those last mornings before I would leave the house, and then listening to it with my headphones when I got back. It is also a song I listened to a lot after I had finished my exams, so it always reminds me of that summer, and of the freedom I felt after two very tough, very stressful years. Maroon 5 are one of my favourite groups, and they have produced so many amazing tracks over the years, some of which I will undoubtedly feature on this list at some point in the future. For now, though, here is

Welcome to the last post of this week about revision. For the last instalment of this group of posts, I am going to be giving you a list of my top DO’S and DON’TS when it comes to revision. DO -           Plan well in advance and plan well, through timetables and organising your notes -           Get plenty of sleep -           Remember to maintain a healthy eating routine because this is just as important as studying is -           Take regular breaks and maintain both hobbies and social activities DON’T -           Cram. This is 100% the WORST thing you can do. It is ineffective because your mind is unable to take in information in such large doses -           Pull an all-nighter before your exam. I know so many people who do this and I absolutely do not approve. Depriving yourself of sleep will mean you will be unable to concentrate during the exam. There isn’t much purpose in it because as I’ve just said, your mind can’t take in information in such la

Hello again all! Today I’m going to be giving you part 2 of my revision techniques. I posted part 1 yesterday which you can check out here http://stayblogitive.blogspot.com/2016/05/revision-techniques.html PAST PAPERS This is one of the most common ways of preparing for any exam, and they can be useful for so many reasons. ·          Prepares you for the format of an exam ·          Sometimes, the questions may come up again in your exam paper but slightly differently. I have benefited myself from answering questions on a previous year’s paper when I found that one of them was in my paper, just worded differently. ·          Some teachers or lecturers are willing to look over what you’ve written and tell you how to improve, which can lead to a more successful performance in the real exam. WRITE QUIZZES One of my favourite methods of revising is to create quizzes, and then have others test me as to whether I know the answers. For me, this trains me to recall i

Hello all! Welcome back to exams month, and to this week of revision-themed posts. Today and tomorrow, I’m going to be talking about different ways of revising for your exams. It is important to remember that there are many different techniques out there and it is a good idea to try out different ones to find the right method which really works for you. STICKY NOTES Post-it notes are really useful when it comes to revision for so many reasons. You can use them to set yourself a reminder of what you need to get done, you can use them as bookmarks so that you can easily re-find something you read before, or you can even use them as jotting paper if you need to make calculations. However, by far the most useful thing you can do with them is to write facts or snippets of information on them, which you can then stick up everywhere around your bedroom or house, in places where you will notice them. Walking past them and reading the information every day during your routine is a

Hello everyone, and welcome to the second week of my month of daily posts about exams. This week, I am focussing on revision and studying, with advice about different ways you can study effectively and how best to manage your revision in order to achieve the maximum level of success. The first post of the week is going to be on planning. I know from experience that it is very easy to get overwhelmed by revision, and to feel so lost in it all that you have no clue where to begin. Of course, the amount of material only increases the further along the education system you go, and it gets more and more stressful as the workload gets more and more. A method that I’ve found works for me is creating a revision timetable. This helps me to organise what I’m going to do and on what days, and focuses my mind on certain subjects rather than thinking about too many topics at once. Below is an example of the sort of timetable I usually create to cope with my revision.