by Katya Alban, OXSS tutor for in-person and online tuition
Posted November 2025
Katya talks you through the idea of social revision and the power of social networks in the lead up to exams. She shares opportunities for collaboration as well as top tips for maximising revision time with friends.
How do you prefer to revise? Consider the below ideas and whether social revision is for you. Perhaps we’ll see you on an upcoming revision course!
“Social learning is fundamental to human development, helping individuals adapt to changing circumstances and cooperate in groups.”
We have all heard something like this in some form or other. After lockdown, I think it’s safe to say even the most antisocial of us were tested! Indeed, much as we may enjoy our own space, at our core we are social creatures.
However, it’s not a one-size-fits-all when it comes to filling up our social battery. That’s right students, I’m talking about revision. Different social settings serve different purposes. Spending some quality time at your grandmother’s house and hearing a “brief” story of her life offers a different social experience to being around your friends. Equally, “chilling” with friends isn’t exactly the most productive way of getting you to where you need to be when exam season hits. So what are we to do?
Revising by yourself can be lonely and unmotivating. Spending your precious hours sitting alone in your room; a cafe, a public library, may lead you to question what you are doing all this studying for anyway. Or is that just me?
Some of us seem to have a never-ending drive to work. The, ‘if I’m not working, I’m not succeeding’ mentality. Perhaps that comes from external pressure. Or perhaps it’s an intrinsic drive to survive and thrive. Society will certainly always have a need for grinders who are willing to push through and grapple with complex problems. But even short-term grinding requires some kind of balance. For some that may be sport, for others, time with friends.
The good news is there are ways to do well in your exams without cutting all social ties. In fact, strong social ties might just give you the support you need to get through the intense months of revision.
Who doesn’t want a community to celebrate with when you get to the other side of it all?
Get your friends on the same page as you:
If you’re the driving force in your friendship group, you might find that gently inspiring your friends to get serious about revision might give them the push they need to join you in the library.
Here is an interesting statement by a researcher at The Royal Society:
‘Although peer influence among adolescents is traditionally associated with risky and unruly conduct, with long-term negative effects on educational, economic and health outcomes, recent findings suggest that peers may also have a positive impact.”
We all know that finding the balance between a healthy social life and academic success can be difficult. But getting productive together will put you all in the best position for exams, and give you something real to celebrate at the end of the journey.
Revision courses like those offered by OXSS do a lot of the heavy lifting for you. Aside from scheduling your revision and giving you a solid framework for success with the support of qualified teachers and tutors, they are a wonderful place to make new friends who are just as keen as you are to pass their exams. Having worked as an ENTZ (entertainment staff) member and tutor on several courses, I can attest to the power of groupwork to get your head in the game. While you see some groups taking in the sun while doing their class reading, you see others discussing tough problems over lunch and sharing strategies to solve problems. This kind of collaboration is key to anyone’s success, and it makes the whole process of revising for an exam less intense.
All students on the course are in the same boat. You are there because you want to smash those exams.
On the OXSS courses you get designated silent study spaces where you can sit with others to complete any work that has been set to you by your tutor, but without the distractions: there is always a supervisor there to ensure it is a quiet and distraction free environment.
If you want to go above and beyond and revise outside of course hours or in your own time, be smart about where you choose to revise with your friends. Sometimes having someone who knows what you are supposed to be working on there with you is enough to keep you on track. Other times it’s not so easy, especially with a large group.
A setting like a cafe, especially if it is busy, can be a bit too much for your mind to stay focused. You can avoid the stress by trying out a few options in the early days of revision before the pressure really sets in. Get to know what works well for you.
Perhaps you could try a quieter cafe one weekend, and bring backup reading or simple worksheets with you as a backup in case laptop work proves challenging. Then try the library and see if the atmosphere works for you.
Be mindful of which section of the library you are in. Usually, there will be a corner where you can speak to your friends quietly if you’re working on something together, while other areas will be dedicated to silent study. Don’t waste your precious time making enemies!
If you have a part time job; a sport you play regularly, or some other regular commitment outside of school, maybe doing a bit of revision straight afterwards will work well for you. Be prepared and bring your study equipment with you. That way you can ‘lock in’ once you have expended some energy and got the nervous study anticipation out of the way.
Usually once you start you remember where you got to in your last study session, and can find a steady flow. Better yet, if you work; play a sport or an instrument with colleagues who also need to revise or work, why not join forces? Save time and move efficiently from one activity to the next with the accountability of friends.
Remember to relax after studying. We all need breaks, so make sure that whatever slots you choose for your revision, that you recognise your limits and leave some time to just exist. This is the time your brain needs to sponge up what you’ve been doing during those focused hours.
To this day I love a session of blurting with friends. Sometimes getting everything going on in your head out into the open helps you to clear your mind and break all the things you need to cover into a sequence of steps and actions. Blurting can also be a really great way to check how much information you have retained from your studying. It is good practice to do before refining and developing your thoughts into clever arguments.
It forces you to be concise and helps you to recognise that you need more content for, let’s say, an answer to an essay question. Different exams naturally require different skills, so perhaps printing an examiner’s report or creating a tick list for your study-buddy to tick off while you speak might help you keep track of the subjects you need to go over.
Whiteboards – who doesn’t love them? Creating a visual representation of what you know and comparing it to what you need to know works very well for a visual learner. You can add various ‘tips and tricks’ bubbles around the content with advice on applying the subject knowledge to the exam format. With a team, you can get very ambitious with the level of detail you add, and you can split the chapters up among yourselves. You can even collaborate with friends to make detailed timelines; mind maps and PowerPoints which you can use to revise with later.
It’s true that your friends may not have time one week to put as much effort into the task as you. Communicate openly with them. If the revision method works for you and not for others, keep it as your activity and revise with your friends in a different way when you’re together. Even being in the same place as someone and doing your own thing can be a lot more inspiring than revising alone.
This is a more intense form of studying, and I would recommend saving this for the later stages of revision. While it is important to know what an exam paper expects from you, there is no shortcut to learning your subject knowledge. Remember, the paper is just a medium through which you are tested, but what’s important is what you know. The examiner could always go rogue on you and throw in an applied scientific question, or use an unexpected extract in an English exam. Stay agile and think about what skills your subject actually requires you to refine and practice. If the subject is English, the exam will test if you are able to read and interpret new information, as well as remember and recognise rhetorical devices; characters and key concepts from your set texts. Be mindful of this, and you won’t be caught unawares.
Leave revision for the evening. Your body gets tired. A good sleep schedule is important for the exam season itself, so get yourself ready by working during the day, and winding down in the afternoons and evenings. There aren’t any night time exams! If you are having trouble adjusting your sleep schedule, it is worth asking for help earlier and working around your periods of concentration. In any case, your friends are likely to be keeping daytime hours, so to make the most of the benefits of social revision, it is best to try the 9-5 schedule.
However you and your friends get to it, best of luck! I hope some of the ideas shared here were of use to you.
We hope that you have enjoyed reading our blog and feel ready to try revising with friends or an OXSS revision course to meet like-minded individuals. You may be interested to read related articles for exam success. To read one of our other blog posts, please return to the main blog page. If you would be interested in attending a revision course or booking some online subject tuition, please contact us today for further information or apply via our online application forms.
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