How to make revision stick?

*Nearly* finished my revision, but after my mocks there's still about a 3 week gap until the start of the summer exams.

Can anyone share any techniques for making the stuff you revise stay in your head without another load of writing 2049 sides of A4? Just reading over your revision notes, or anything better?

Thank you! :smile:

Reply 1

hemant1

rewrite the MAIN part in no more then 3/4 sentences
Do past papers.

Reply 2

onlineeducator

Original post by Paramore<3

I always hated trying to learn things off so I just made my notes shorter and shorter.

I would start off with the text book (or teacher notes) and summarise a chapter (or topic or whatever). Once I had all the notes taken, I hated trying to learn them, so instead I made another (shorter) set of notes summarising those notes. and normally I repeated the process once more (by this stage an entire topic or chapter would fit on a small card, maybe A6 in size.

I found that constantly summarising stuff was way less boring than trying to drill it into my head, and it worked surprisingly well for really quick revision at the end, cos revising the small card only took maybe 5 minutes, but by then it was the bones of a chapter

Reply 3

RWills

In all seriousness though, do lots of papers, write and re write your notes and use colours. If it is for a numerate subject then best bet is just do practice paper after practice paper until you start to get it.

Reply 4

Theconomist

Past papers,read notes, take a highlighter and highlight the textbook .

Reply 5

Implo

I use flash cards, but write a question on one side and an answer on the other, if you can answer the question easily and all the time it's stuck, if not keep trying.

Reply 6

BWCW

Original post by RWills

Haha, brilliant, how much would I love to take that into the exam hall...

Thanks everyone, they're all top ideas. Looks like summarising and flash cards are the way to go!

Reply 7

paranoid197

1. making mind maps as well !!!!
2. Come up with a timetable.
3. spend a minimum of 30 minutes on each topics : long sessions make you attention drift away.
4. don't spend a long time on one subject : try to spend 30 min on biology and the next 30 min on English or maths. This technique is called 'disturbed practice'.
5.Also try to come with quizzes after you've done your revision. :smile:

Hope this helps!!!!!!!!!

Reply 8

Haz8

Apparently the human mind can only fully concentrate on one thing for 15 mins, Take regular breaks!!!

Reply 9

bytheseasons

Okay listen up 'cause have I got a lot of advice for you kiddo xD

First, and i can't believe no one's mentioned this, but F L A S H C A R D S. It works really well! And this isn't just summarising your notes onto smaller pieces of paper, no. You use flashcards for putting a question on one side and an answer on the other side. Very useful for key concepts and key words.

The key thing for remembering the content in the long term is to just constantly review and question yourself on knowledge so, go through the flashcards as frequently as you can. What I try to do is:
1) Review flashcards
2) Review flashcards the next day
3) Review flashcards a week later
And when you feel like it's been too long since you've reviewed it, review it again! Simple.

It's also very important to do past papers 'cause it's once thing to get your head around the information and it's another trying to apply that knowledge,.

Posters and mindmaps! Make it colourful! And try not to just get information down from textbook to another piece of paper. Use. your. head. And plaster them ALL over you room, your house, anywhere you'll see it on a frequent basis so you can subconciously take in information! (This is how adverts work so it's very effective :smile:

)

Anyway i hope this helps! Good luck on revision! (P.s. i can't help but notice Lay as your profile pic :wink:

)

EDIT: And yes! Like everyone's said, breaks! Use the pomodoro technique for efficient revision sessions :3
yet another edit: And revise before you go to bed! Apparently this is helpful for retaining information. Whoo!