Im currently revising for my uni exam, At the moment, I have maded key point from each of the lectures and I will do past papers too. How do you revise and get good marks, as I want to get 50-60% in my exam.
I used to use a lot of past papers when I was in high school and that helped me a lot. However, once I got to university I realised that past papers are a bit limited. I mean they are very good for study don't get me wrong and by all means use them. But I have found that what works best for me is going over the entire course content and making summaries as you go along. After this try some exercises from past assignments you have done in the course and also textbook exercises (depending on the course). Reread all of your summarised notes and then start doing past papers without looking back at your notes. Afterwards mark your paper and this should give you a good indication of where you are at. When marking your paper, whatever question you get wrong, spend a little bit of time thinking over why you got it wrong (in this way you will remember the concept when you are in the exam). Do all past papers. Afterwards redo the past papers again. You should get 100% this time around and if you don't then go over the questions again and think of why you got them wrong and understand this. Also, after doing this I suggest you look over all of your notes again and you should be allgood for the exam! You could also try rewriting your notes out again from memory (this helps me tremendously!). This is what I do anyway and I aim for the 90% + percentile always. Hope this helps and good luck!
na g. u gotta revise like ur life depends on it. like mans gonna be deported if u don't get a*a*a minimum. nicca aint got time to read one book at a time.
There are various techniques that you could try out. It's just a matter of trying them all out and seeing which ones suit you best!
- Do lots of practice questions on the topics you're revising, especially for subjects like mathematics. It'll enable you to remember the steps of how to solve the questions effectively! For some links, try this link: http://studymaths.co.uk/ StudyMaths provide tutorials and practice questions on various topics. They mark themselves and you can always generate more questions if you need more practice on certain topics.
- Flashcards! Particularly for keywords you need to remember for questions that ask for definitions. Quizlet is a useful website for this; it allows you to learn them and it devises tests for you to see if you've understood and remembered the material. https://quizlet.com/
On the topic of flashcards, here's another technique; space repetition. This is a technique in which you study certain keywords over a peod of time consistently to ensure that you don't forget them. Here's a paragraph explaining this technique in more detail on a FluentInThreeMonths article:
This technique is particularly useful for subjects like the sciences, English Language and Literature, religious studies, geography and history.
- Cornell Note-Taking System
This is where you grab a piece of A4 paper, a 30cm ruler and a pen. For this, you need to draw a vertical line near to the left of the piece of paper and draw a line vertically 3/4 of the way down the paper. Then, from underneath that line, draw a horizontal line all the way cross the bottom of the page. You should have three boxes and in each of these boxes, label each of them the following:
I uploaded an image of this in case my explanation was too perplexing (it was poorly explained!). This technique is particularly useful for subjects like geography, the sciences, history, English Language and Literature and religious studies.
- Read the textbook once and not worry about remembering anything to get a rough idea of what you're reading. Read it a second time and as you go along, take notes and remember to write in your own words! Alternatively, put a gummy bear on each paragraph and every time you finish a pararaph, reward yourself by eating it! This technique is particularly useful for history, geography and the sciences.
- Loci; this was a technique used by the Ancient Greeks. This is where you associate certain ideas and topics with your surroundings. For instance, if you're learning about the Romans and you own a calendar, you can easily remember that Julius Caesar invented the calendar! Or if you're learning about the Holocaust, you can associate the ceiling with Anne Frank where she hid until she was found. This technique is useful for any subject!
- The Pomodoro technique; this is where you set yourself a certain amount of time to revise a certain topic with breaks in-between. Time management is essential at school and the Pomodoro technique is a perfect technique and habit to take up in order to improve your time mamagement skills. Before you embark on using the Pomodoro technique, make sure you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve by the end of the session so that way, you know what you need to do during this time period. This technique is suitable for any subject!
I hope some of these techniques helped! Yours, FLM3026