Turning Breaks into Success: Why the Holiday Season Matters

Written by Lewis Mclellan

The IB is renowned for not allowing breaks, and for many, it will inevitably squeeze its way into the holiday season. Indeed, many DP2 students around the world will be taking this holiday as their opportunity to kick off their revision for IB exams in April/May. Whether this is you or you are set to start revising in the next couple of months, this guide has you covered, detailing the key skills and strategies required for success in your IB revision.

First, you must start with the question of how to organise your IB revision. For this, I strongly recommend setting solid goals before you do anything else. By this, I mean: decide what your goals are for the IB exams in terms of grades; make sure these are specific and realistic but also challenging. Furthermore, set clear boundaries. Taken together, this will help you to create a revision strategy that has clear reasons behind it and that you are happy with.

Devising a Revision Strategy

A revision strategy mostly encompasses having a revision timetable, but a strategy also plans not just for when you will study certain subjects but how you will study them. In other words, a revision strategy is the product of you taking time to think about how, specifically, to achieve your goals in each of your subjects.

Key Components of a Strong Revision Strategy

Aspects to consider when devising such a strategy include resources and priorities. Before launching into revision, you should make sure you have all the resources you need to successfully approach the subject. This means making sure you have notes on all content and a bank of past papers/practice questions at the very minimum.

Working out your priorities is also essential. This means deciding perhaps that you will dedicate more time/effort to an HL subject over an SL subject, or to a subject that you are weaker in. It could also just mean spending more time revising specific content/elements within a subject.

The Role of a Timetable

Of course, the best way to codify a revision strategy is through a revision timetable. A timetable allows you to plan meticulously for when and how you are going to revise your subjects that week. In that way, revision timetables can be really helpful for good revision as they allow you to organise your revision and be comprehensive in it.

A Note of Caution: Do not create a timetable that stretches you too much, as this can lead to burnout. Secondly, do not be too rigid with your revision timetable. Feel free to add more of something or do less of another subject if that is what you feel is right at the time. This flexibility, adapting your timetable to improve your studying, should be welcomed even if it contradicts what you had originally planned.

Conducting Effective Revision

Start Early

To begin with, and this is a fairly obvious one, start early. The earlier you can start your revision, the better. This may sound totally intuitive, but I suggest it not because it means that you can revise more, but because it allows you to carry out your revision at a more relaxed pace. Ultimately, this allows you to take breaks in your revision and not rush any important parts of it.

Reward Yourself

Sticking with the fairly obvious pieces of advice, I would also offer that it is important to reward yourself for good revision. Sticking to a revision timetable and putting in solid revision hours amidst all else going on is tough going. Any way in which you achieve this should be celebrated, and hopefully doing so provides extra motivation.

Optimize Your Study Environment

I would also suggest that you find your ideal study space and plan ahead so that this is where you do your revision. In my experience, a surprising amount of students end up squeezing their revision into awkward blocks of time and thus into places where they are not at their most comfortable.

Techniques for Revising Different Subjects

As for techniques to revise subjects, I mostly split these up into two categories:

Content-Heavy Subjects (e.g., Biology, History)

For these, the techniques that I recommend include flashcards, content revision with friends, and creating plans for practice questions. In general, these techniques come down to keeping revision for the subjects reasonably light and not as taxing as they often can be.

Concept-Heavy Subjects (e.g., Math, Languages)

For this category, the best techniques are slightly different as they revolve more around practice implementing the concepts. As such, past papers seem always to be really quite valuable with these.

Preparing for Exam Day

Recharge Before the Big Day

My last piece of advice for IB revision relates to the time of actually taking the exams. The business end if you will! For this often-stressful time of the year, I always advise students to take a step back from revision and instead focus on recharging. This means prioritising sleep, exercise, social life, etc., over studying. This is because once you reach a certain proximity to the exams, being refreshed when you walk into the exam hall becomes the most important determinant of your success.

Hopefully, some of the above tips are helpful for some of you starting to think about your revision for upcoming IB exams.

Best of luck!

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The holiday season offers a crucial opportunity for IB students, especially DP2, to kickstart their revision without the usual school pressures. It allows for a more relaxed pace, helping to avoid burnout and ensure thorough preparation for upcoming exams.

Start by defining specific, realistic, and challenging grade goals for your IB exams. It's also important to set clear boundaries for your study time. This approach helps create a revision strategy with clear objectives and a balanced approach.

A strong revision strategy involves having all necessary resources (notes, past papers), prioritising subjects or topics based on difficulty or HL/SL status, and creating a flexible revision timetable. It's about planning not just when you'll study, but how you'll study each subject to achieve your goals.

For content-heavy subjects like Biology or History, flashcards, group content revision, and creating essay plans are effective. For concept-heavy subjects like Math or Languages, focusing on practice questions and past papers is crucial for applying concepts.

In the days leading up to exams, prioritise recharging over intense studying. Focus on sleep, exercise, and social life. Being refreshed and well-rested when you walk into the exam hall is often the most important factor for success.

The Lanterna IB consultation is a free, no-pressure 20-30 minute chat with one of our expert IB Student Success Experts. It's designed to help you clarify your current situation, understand what's coming next in your IB journey, and walk away with a personalised plan and clear priorities for your revision.

Yes, the consultation is genuinely free, with absolutely no obligation to book tutoring. Our goal is to provide valuable guidance and a clear plan for your IB revision. We believe in empowering students and parents with expert insights, whether or not you choose to continue with our services.

Our Student Success Experts are highly experienced IB graduates and educators who understand the program inside out. They can help you identify your revision strengths and weaknesses, suggest effective strategies tailored to your subjects, and outline a practical plan to maximise your study time, all based on thousands of successful IB student journeys.

Absolutely. Our Student Success Experts can guide you through the process of setting realistic goals and developing a flexible, effective revision timetable. If you need more in-depth support, our 600+ expert IB tutors, many of whom scored 40+ or are experienced IB teachers, can provide one-on-one guidance tailored to your specific subjects and learning style.

Beyond our free consultations, Lanterna offers premium one-to-one tutoring across all IB subjects (SL and HL), revision courses (like our winter mock exam revision courses), and specialised support for IAs and EEs. Our tutors are experts in IB criteria, helping students refine their understanding, practice exam techniques, and build confidence for top marks.