The news
The BBC claims that in the lead up to this summer's exams, its GCSE revision site, Bitesize revision, netted 2.6 million swats in May alone - half a million more than in the same month last year. Total page impressions for May 2006 are said to have been 120 million - more than double the figure for 2005.
According to Liz Cleaver, Auntie's controller learning and interactive, 70 per cent of all GCSE students used the site - though we kind of suspect that "visited" might be a slightly more accurate description.
Cleaver claims that GCSE Bitesize is, "the most innovative" available multi-platform revision tool and reckons that it fits teenagers' lives because it's available in different formats - online, on mobiles and by pressing an interactive TV service's red button.
GCSE Bitesize, she says, "provides different ways of revising and helps to break up the monotony of what is an onerous and stressful period". For 2006, Bitesize added downloadable MP3s for English and Science, a multi-player revision game, RSS feeds and a "mind-mapping" tool - Revision Map.
In addition, Cleaver reckons, Bitesize "also provides an alternative angle to subject areas which may have been unclear before".
Click for larger imageSeemingly, the BBC's success with its GCSE site has encouraged it to look again at its revision site for Key Stage 3. This, we're promised, is being relaunched with updated and reworked content, games and an interactive mock exam in science.
Thoughts about Bitesize, other online revision aids or any other helpful exam-related stuff? Share them in this thread in the HEXUS.community.
HEXUS.links
HEXUS.community :: discussion thread about this articleExternal.links
BBC - Bitesize revision GCSEBBC - Bitesize revision Key Stage 3