School holidays account for about a third of the year.

With the short summer term and examinations impending, students are often struck by a sense of panic: two years of notes staring menacingly at them, syllabuses not completed, topics not understood.

There are many ways to tackle the last few weeks and different students do this successfully in different ways.

For some, particularly those who have paced themselves throughout two years, a final review of their work in the library and a refreshing short break is all that is necessary to ensure they get the best out of themselves.

But for many others some support, advice and structure is helpful.

They may be students who need extremely high grades because they have applied for a subject such as medicine, or to a leading university.

They are confident perhaps of B grades, but want to secure the As they need. Others are aware that most of their Lower Sixth was buoyed up by a sense of ‘can do it later’ — as exams approach they are as the proverbial rabbit in the headlights and cannot face the prospect of opening the mountains of notes in front of them.

And for others, especially students new to the IB, some topics may not have been covered adequately or understood properly.

A well-planned Easter revision programme can assist such students enormously.

It can provide expert help in understanding or covering weak areas. It can reduce the sense of panic in those who are not best prepared by helping them tackle their revision in bite-sized chunks, advising them on how to organise their revision time effectively, and giving them short term targets which gradually reduce the overwhelming mountain of work to a task that can be managed.

For many students, practice in answering questions is essential — practical advice on attaining the maximum number of marks per minute, when to let go of a question, and how to keep to the point of the question asked.

Of course, miracles cannot be worked. The students themselves need to be aware that two weeks with tutorial support cannot undo two years of bone idleness.

But provided that the student is aware of the selected areas he or she needs help with, informs the college of this, and is willing to work hard and take advice, an Easter revision programme can provide a refreshing boost to both morale and grades.

Carolyn Llewelyn, MA(Oxon) principal, Oxford International Study Centre