Revision
How do I go about revising?
It is not enough to just read through all your notes and books and hope something goes in. There are far more effective ways of revising.
Firstly, you need to know what to revise. Make sure your teacher gives you a list of topics. If you have large chunks of work missing because you have lost books or were absent you need to catch up quickly – see your teacher or borrow a book and copy up.

 

Effective revision involves reducing all the information on a topic to brief notes or diagrams which help you to recall everything else.

Reducing your notes by writing out the key points has two benefits:

•     The act of writing things out again and again helps you to sort out the key points and remember them.

•     Your revision becomes easier to manage; instead of having to go through all your exercise books/textbooks you only have to go through a smaller amount of information.

Try out these different ways of revising and see which suits you:

  • Use index cards, one card for each topic. Turn the cards over and see how much of the information you can recall.

  • Use post-its or index cards to write a sequence of events on. Lay them out in order on the floor. Visualise the layout in your room with your eyes closed.

  • Use different coloured post-its for different topics. Arrange them in different shapes on your walls. Remind yourself of the shape and colour as you enter and leave the room. Once you know the patterns remember them in your head in the exam.

  • To learn something very difficult go to an unusual place, e.g. the garage and learn the subject. Every time you try to recall the subject imagine yourself back in that place.

  • Talk your revision through as if you were teaching a younger brother or sister. Better still – teach a relative.

  • Work with a friend; this is a particularly useful method as long as you and your partner stick to revising and don’t get side-tracked. With a partner explain personal notes or mind maps. Make up some key questions and ask someone else to test you on them.

  • Use highlighter pens to pick out the most important words or ideas in your exercise books or revision guides.            

  • Chunking 

 

 

Levi Jeans

Terrorist Attack

Football Formation

End of World War II
 

 remember         

 

501

  911

   442

    1945

 

  • Mnemonics   e.g. Mathematics, Trigonometry – Silly Old Harry Caught A Herring Trawling Off Africa.

  • Smaller and smaller method.

  • Diamond Nine