Recommended Reading
How to Revise
Many students can achieve consistently good levels of attainment during the lessons, tutorials, homework and key landmark assessments but how well will you perform in the actual exam ? This will often depend on the quality of your revision. Don’t let yourself down in the exam as result of inadequate revision. With as many as ten exams being taken at a certain time of year, have you left too much a build up at this crucial time of year? It may be too late to catch up on weaker topics.
The first crucial point is that too few students understand that revision should not be something left to the end of the course. It has to be built in to the learning both as it takes place and throughout the course. So it starts during the lesson as you learn. What revision strategies do you have in place during the lesson? How will you reproduce this material at a later date? You may have achieved the key learning objectives during the lesson but how will you remember this material in up to two years time? You should be thinking about the quality of your revision notes as you learn. Try to summarise material as the lesson progresses in a format with sufficient depth to revise from a later date. Use bullet points, colour, highlighter pens, quick small diagrams, summarise, summarise, summarise as much as possible. Not only will this help to clarify your thoughts, consolidate and reinforce learning but will also leave you with effective revision notes to be used again and again. Be wary of handouts, worksheets and text book exercises. Are these in suitable format to form effective revision notes, perhaps not, so you may have to write some, do not leave these to a later date. Build up a databank of effective revision notes as the course progresses.
So how often should you revisit these notes? The simple answer is as much as possible. The more often you glance over and reabsorb these notes the easier your task becomes. You must revise this material frequently so continually scanning your revision notes at the end of each lesson and at the start of each lesson a quick glance over the notes from previous lesson will help you learn new material. Little and often is the key. These notes are the key to your revision and if you revisit them weekly and monthly. You will soon find it much easier to retain this new ground permanently. Inevitably this ongoing revision should highlight inconsistencies in your understanding of topics. Which are the weaker areas for you? You may have to spend more time on these topics until you fully understand. Remember at school, teachers usually give you just one chance to understand topics. Don’t be afraid of using several attempts to master the material gradually building up your understanding in these weaker areas.
