The week before your IGCSE exams is not the time to start learning new content. It’s the time to maximise marks on what you already know — by closing specific gaps, sharpening exam technique, and going into the exam confident.

Here’s exactly what to do, day by day.

The Golden Rule: Prioritise, Don’t Spread Thin

The biggest mistake students make in the final week is trying to revise everything. You cannot cover the entire syllabus in 7 days. Instead: identify your highest-priority topics and go deep on those.

Use Tutopiya’s Revision Priority Planner to rank your topics by weakness × exam frequency × days remaining. It tells you exactly what to tackle first.

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Day-by-Day Plan: The Final 7 Days

Day 7 (one week out): Audit and prioritise

• Open the Revision Priority Planner and rate your confidence on every topic in every subject you’re sitting
• Identify your top 5 🔴 priority topics
• Don’t study yet — just plan. Knowing what you’re doing tomorrow morning reduces anxiety today.

Days 6–4: Targeted revision of weak + high-frequency topics

• Work through your 🔴 red priority topics one at a time
• For each topic: read your notes → do 5–10 past paper questions on that specific topic → check mark scheme
• Use the Tutopiya resources portal for worked examples on topics you find hard
• 45-minute focused sessions with 10-minute breaks — don’t study for hours without stopping

Days 3–2: Exam technique focus

• Stop learning new content. Focus entirely on how you write answers.
• Use the Mark Scheme Decoder to practise the question types coming up in your exams
• For every “explain” question in your past papers, check whether your answer has the required chain of reasoning
• Do one full past paper per day under timed conditions

Day 1 (the day before): Light review only

• Review your most important 1–2 pages of notes per subject — the highest-frequency topics only
• Do 5–10 short past paper questions maximum — not a full paper
• Check your exam timetable, equipment, and travel time
• Stop revising by 8pm. Sleep matters more than another hour of notes.

Exam morning: Activate, don’t stress

• Eat breakfast
• Glance at your key terms and formulas — not full topic notes
• Arrive early
• Trust your preparation

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What Not to Do in the Final Week

❌ Don’t start a topic you’ve never studied — the return on investment is almost zero this late

❌ Don’t re-read all your notes — passive reading doesn’t move marks; active recall and past paper practice does

❌ Don’t pull all-nighters — sleep deprivation measurably reduces exam performance; a well-rested brain outperforms an exhausted one every time

❌ Don’t revise every subject every day — focus on 1–2 subjects per day based on your upcoming exam schedule

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The Most Important Thing: Exam Technique

The single biggest source of lost marks in IGCSE is not missing content — it’s writing answers that don’t match what the mark scheme wants. In the final week, prioritise technique over content:

• “Explain” questions need a chain of linked reasoning (because → therefore → which leads to)
• “Describe” questions need observations with values — never explanations
• “Compare” questions need paired comparisons with linking language (whereas/compared to)
• Calculations need every step of working shown, with units at every stage

Practice exam technique with the Mark Scheme Decoder →

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Tools to Use This Week

Tool	When to use it
Revision Priority Planner	Day 7 — plan your week
Mark Scheme Decoder	Days 3–2 — technique focus
Exam Countdown Timer	Track days to each exam
Vocabulary Quiz	10 minutes each morning — active recall warm-up
Tutopiya resources portal	Days 6–4 — worked examples on priority topics

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Get Expert Help on Your Priority Topics

If you have specific topics that remain unclear after revision, a 1-hour session with a specialist tutor in the final week can be more effective than 4 hours of solo revision.

Find an IGCSE tutor →

Browse IGCSE resources →

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