Revision websites, YouTube channels and apps to support students in the run up to the summer examinations

Article written by John Roe.

Over the next few months, a key focus for teachers will be how best to support students to prepare effectively for upcoming examinations. Many students find online platforms and apps incredibly beneficial when revising. Not all students have equal access to traditional revision materials like textbooks, so online resources can often be more inclusive and accessible to students. Revision apps and websites often include interactive elements, which can engage students in active learning. Many also help students to organise subject content in a more structured way, breaking down topics into manageable chunks, providing summaries, flashcards, quizzes, and practice questions, which can help make the revision process more efficient and enjoyable.

With so many revision websites and apps available, it can be difficult to know where to start. In this blog I share details of some of my favourite websites and apps when preparing students for upcoming examinations, as well as my experience of creating my own revision channel on YouTube.

Fantastic revision websites and apps to supercharge students’ revision

1. Physics and Maths Tutor. An excellent revision website for both GCSE and A-level students, covering STEM subjects as well subjects such as English, Economics, History and Psychology.  The website contains an extensive range of past papers, exam questions by topic, revision notes, worksheets, and solution banks. 
2. Quizlet. A popular website and app that allows users to create study tools such as interactive flashcards, tests, and study games. Although there is a fee for the full version, a free version is also available for students and teachers. 
3. BBC Bitesize. Bitesize is the BBC’s free online study support resource for students. It covers a wide range of subjects and contains step-by-step guides, videos, and quizzes by level and subject. 
4. Khan Academy. This website and app are fantastic free resources for students and teachers containing thousands of interactive exercises, videos, and articles covering a range of subjects. 
5. CorbettMaths. This is an excellent free revision resource for students studying mathematics, particularly at GCSE. It consists of a YouTube channel with over 1200 video tutorials, and a revision website containing a wealth of practice questions, revision guides, worksheets, and interactive quizzes. 
6. Crash Course. The Crash Course YouTube channel is incredibly popular with over 16 million subscribers and is full of engaging video content that can be used to supplement students’ revision. 
7. Brainscape. This is another fantastic website and app which allows students, and teachers to create and upload electronic flashcards, and to access flashcards created by other users.  Brainscape uses a revision technique called spaced repetition,which research has shown to increase the rate of learning. Users rate their confidence in each flashcard, on a scale of 1-5, which subsequently determines how frequently the flashcard is repeated. Although once again there is a fee for the full version, students and teachers can access a free version of both the website and app. 
8. Power Up. This website contains links to an extensive range of resources to support students not only with their revision but also their wellbeing. Although aimed at students studying GCSE, AS and A-levels in Wales, it contains information and resources that should be useful for all students. 
9. GetRevising. This popular website offers a wide range of free revision resources for GCSE, AS, A-level and International Baccalaureate subjects and includes timetable creators, interactive revision cards, games, and quizzes. 
10. Cold Turkey. This app temporarily blocks-out social media, games, and any websites that act as a distraction. The basic package is free and allows you to block unlimited websites. Available to download for Windows or macOS. 
11. Physics Online. This fantastic GCSE and A-level physics resource for students and teachers is created by former physics teacher Lewis Matheson.  It consists of a YouTube channel and revision website.  Hundreds of revision videos are available completely for free on the channel and during the exam season there are also live stream sessions where students can engage with each other and ask questions.  The revision website also has a wealth of free resources that can be downloaded, and there are also additional resources which can be accessed for a small fee as part of a subscription plan. 
12. Memrise. An excellent website and app which allows student access to a range of free language courses. 

Starting your own revision website or YouTube channel

The COVID-19 pandemic was undoubtably a catalyst for a digital revolution in education with schools, colleges and universities being forced to make the transition quickly from in-person to online or hybrid learning models. Teachers across the world had to adapt to this change, familiarise themselves with online platforms like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Classroom etc and quickly develop the digital skills required to make the massive shift towards online teaching.

During the pandemic, alongside my role as a post-16 leader, I was teaching GCSE and A-level chemistry classes online. Teaching a practical subject through online Microsoft Teams lessons was challenging and I became increasingly worried that significant learning gaps were developing and the lack of traditional face to face support was significantly impacting on students’ progress. With a large amount of subject content to cover and continual disruptions in schooling to combat I, like many other teachers started to look for alternative ways to create personalised content for my students that met their needs.

I made the decision in 2020 to start my own Chemistry YouTube channel. The original plan was to use the channel as a place to store a collection of online lessons and revision videos which I could use to supplement live lessons that I was teaching via Microsoft Teams. I found it easy to set up the channel, as all I had to do was create a Google account and email address. In terms of making the videos, I started off with a quite simple set up of a whiteboard and visualiser along with some free screen capture and editing software but progressed over time to a more professional set up as my digital skills developed.

The channel felt like a bit of a novelty at first, but it did not take long before I realised that it was becoming a valuable resource. Many students would tell me that they often found it difficult to concentrate and keep up with the pace of online lessons. Some struggled to access live lessons, especially in the early days of the pandemic due to a lack of devices at home. The YouTube channel offered flexibility and enabled students to pause, rewind and rewatch lessons, learning at their own pace. It also reduced the pressure I felt to deliver the subject content solely via live, online lessons.

Over the weeks and months that followed, my online teaching strategies began to evolve. I started to adopt a more blended learning approach where I was able to set students tasks related to the video content and then utilise the live lessons more as tutorials designed to support students with their understanding and application of knowledge. This approach led to increased student engagement within online lessons, a noticeable development in students’ independent learning skills and stronger performance in assessments. Some students even started viewing video content for topics well before we were due to cover them in lessons, enabling them to use lessons to enhance and fine tune their understanding. Having the YouTube channel as a resource also enabled students who missed lessons due to illness or other reasons to catch up quickly. It was also noticeable that even when we returned to the normality of face-to-face teaching, that the channel was still being utilised extensively by students. This encouraged me to incorporate video clips from the channel into both classroom and homework tasks and to develop further content.

As the popularity of the channel began to grow in terms of video views and subscribers, teachers from across the UK and internationally started to reach out to me. It was fantastic to be able to collaborate with other educators to share ideas, resources, and methods, enriching my own teaching practice. The concept of creating and setting up my own YouTube channel started out as just a straightforward way of sharing subject content with my exam classes but quickly led to so much more. If anyone is thinking of starting their own revision website or YouTube channel, my advice would be to just go for it. I firmly believe it will enhance your teaching, benefit your students, and provide opportunities for you to engage with other educators that will provide a rich source of inspiration, ideas, and teaching strategies.

I hope you have found the tips in the blog useful, and that your students find the strategies I have discussed beneficial as they prepare for the upcoming examination series.

About John Roe:

John has worked in education for 22 years as a science teacher, head of department and pastoral lead.  John is passionate about creating an aspirational culture and supporting students to achieve their full potential. Prior to joining Alps, John was Director of Radyr Sixth Form in Cardiff for 10 years, where he lead the transformation of the sixth form with student outcomes consistently matching the performance of the top 2% nationally.