How to revise – revision planning

When studying we need to immerse ourselves in the activity in front of us. I cannot study while watching TV, or playing with my phone, or thinking what I want to have for dinner, or what is the next film I am going to watch on Netflix. Studying means being present in the moment and fully interacting with the learning, making revision notes and testing myself. Just copying information mindlessly from my textbook will not help me retain information.

• Go over information at least 5 times in five different active ways to commit it to your long-term memory (take notes, ‘teach’ someone else, do an assignment/a past paper/extra exercises, go over mistakes) so focus on active learning.
• Organise your notes.
• Chunk the information you must learn and underline key ideas taking notes using relevant subheadings. When you finish processing a section (no longer than half a page) use your notes to explain the theory to your pretend ‘student’. Repeat the step without consulting your notes and revise all data every time you process a full page (overlearning).
• Create a list of keywords and definitions and test yourself regularly (glossary).
• Make colourful and visually interesting notes (colour coding).
• Have a designated quiet place for studying and reduce unwanted stimuli.
• Use daily schedules.
• Learn new information in connection with previous information.
• Set your personal targets on a weekly basis.
• Before writing a long answer, read and copy the structure of exemplar answers.
• Use flashcards to write questions on one side of the card and answers on the other.
• Get a big A3 poster paper and make mind maps. List key stages of a complicated process, draw arrows to show links, and then create detailed notes separately with questions and answers to go in more depth.
• Pretend that you are explaining the information to a classmate or that you are teaching someone else without looking at the textbook.
• Do exercises as soon as you finish learning the theory.
• There is a wealth of past papers for each subject you can use to practise and then use the examiners’ mark scheme to check how prepared you are for the final assessment.
• Go back to papers you have done before as practice and use different colour pen to reflect why you made that mistake originally.
• Check your teacher’s feedback and use a different colour pen to write what advice you would have given to yourself if you were to redo this exercise trying to avoid making the same mistakes again.

• Answer challenging questions – It is not enough to just train yourself to answer straightforward questions. Think: “What is the worst possible question that the examiner can ask me?” and “Do I know how to answer this”? “Should I revise this topic again?”

Be critical and reflective to prepare yourself to answer the toughest questions.

• Answer challenging questions within a timeframe – Again it is not enough to be able to answer very challenging questions when you have your textbook, revision notes and answers in front of you. Can you produce an outstanding answer without looking at anything and adhering to an exam timeframe?

When it comes to revising, imagination and creativity can be your guides. Happy studying!