DOVER GRAMMAR SCHOOL FOR BOYS

Revision Tips for Students by Teachers

• From time to time, give yourself a break. Hours and hours of continuous study may not be effective after a while. What you need to do is to be strict about the amount of time off you plan to take. If it’s ten minutes, don’t take fifteen! During those ten minutes, do something you really enjoy.

• Always avoid just ‘reading over my notes’. You have to do something with your textbooks and notes in order to take in what they say. You could try summarising a chapter of a book in as few words or as few bullet points as you can, for example, or put the most important ideas and facts on post-it stickers which you can spread around. But don’t just ‘read’.

• If you can find online revision games and puzzles – and they do exist for quite a few subjects – use them to complement your other revision. Even if you can’t find games you may well find revision sites, but make sure that they are good sites first (you could ask your teachers to look at them).

• Plan a topic list, breaking the work up into manageable sections, which are easy to put down and pick up.

• Revise actively; make notes of notes on cards. Note key phrases, definitions, tables and diagrams.
   

• Learn definitions – they come up every year.
   

• Use revision notes with stimuli in the left column and answers on the right. Cover the left and test yourself.
   

• Always return to previously ‘learnt’ material two or more times before the exam.
   

• For each hour of revision completed give yourself 20 minutes break which includes some kind of reward.
   

• If you have the knowledge to compile web pages, put together a web site or at least htm pages for your course as if you were writing notes for someone else, with links to different pages for similar or connected topics.
   

• Add doodles and cartoons to your pages of note taking as these seem to be memorable and will jog your memory to the more difficult and mundane aspects of remembering the course.
   

• Use acronyms where possible for remembering sequences such as the colours of the rainbow. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet becomes Richard of York Gave Battle In Vain, etc.
   

• Understand the subject – When reading or writing highlight the keywords then make sure you know their meanings. The wisdom is if you do not understand the question how can you write a good quality answer?
   

• Explaining processes – Most subjects have important processes to learn, e.g. combustion photosynthesis, designing, analysing. You should be able to explain or at least describe the important steps that make up the process. Simple Steps  Complex Processes!
   

• You can’t learn everything in life – Some questions are asked about topics you may never have been formally taught, e.g. some strange animal or exotic plant. Think! The question is probably about applying facts, principles or processes you already know about. Think laterally, look for patterns in data given.
   

• Don’t try to revise what you don’t understand in the first place. Ask your teachers for clarification. That’s what they are there for!
   

• Short, sharp bursts of activity are better than sitting for hours looking at a page and thinking you are revising.
   

• Try to do something when you revise. Talk ideas out loud, draw pictures/diagrams, make abbreviated notes: Don’t just read.
   

• Get an up-to-date copy of the specifications.
   

• Be scrupulous in the organisation of your notes.
   

• Practice exams based on SMART targets.
   

• Decide when not to revise. You are allowed one day off a week – however if you chose Friday night you are committed to staying in on Saturday afternoon and evening to revise.
   

• Get some A3 paper and draw up a realistic revision timetable and stick to it. Fix it to your bedroom wall.
   

• Take fuses out of anything electrical in your bedroom (play station, TV, etc) apart from one reading lamp, one coffee percolator (£10 in Adscene) and one radio, which is tuned to Radio 3.
   

• Using coloured paper list topics/themes (red for Science, green for Maths, blue for History, etc) on the coloured paper and put up in areas of bedroom/study – group colours together. Get someone at home to remove one – now and then. Can you still say what’s on it?
   

• As you revise take one A4 page of notes – aim to reduce this to 10 points. Take the 10 points and aim to reduce to 5. Learn the five (by note if necessary) - the other five bits will flood into your mind.
   

• Always revise a subject with the same piece of music in the background. Obviously a different piece for each subject – but always use that piece for that subject.
   

• The optimal length of concentration time is around 25 minutes. Each session should be limited to this amount of time. You learn best at the start and end of a revision session so give yourself lots of starts and ends with short breaks in between.
   

• If you think that the revision session is boring then do something about it by changing the strategy. Revision does not have to be boring. It only is if you make it so.
   

• Make audio tape recordings of your notes and then listen to these as you are falling asleep. Your brain is at it’s most receptive in this ‘alpha’ state. You may be surprised to know a lot more when you wake up.
   

• Revise for set periods of time, regardless of how much you get done. If you know when you will stop your attitude will be more positive and you will get more done.
   

• For the above idea to work you must organise content of your revision well in advance. Make a revision timetable with realistic time slots and carefully planned content, which will cover what you need to revise.
   

• ‘Revise’ your revision timetable at regular intervals, but always have a fixed finishing time for each session and stick to it.
   

• For English Language and Literature – Read the poems on audio/cassette/CD and listen to them when walking around or in any spare time to familiarise yourself with them.
   

• As well as re-reading a novel, watch it on film and/or listen to it on audiotape. (Generally available at WHSmith, Waterstones and Blockbusters).
   

• Listen in lessons and follow the teacher-led revision programme, including practice questions/answers.
   

• Pick a topic and write essential details about the case study examples and information on small ‘flash’ cards and review these frequently.
   

• Start early – Work intensively for 20 minutes (have music only if you are not actually listening to it and doing nothing else). Have a 5 to 10 minute break – walk the dog, have stretch in garden, have a drink. Then back to a new topic for another 20 minutes.
   

• Pick multi-purpose case study (one that can be used in different areas of the course) and learn how to draw sketch map/diagram by constant drawing and redrawing until memorised. Remember – A picture is worth a thousand words.
   

• Recall all you know about a specific topic/concept/idea with a memory mind map before you revise in more detail.
   

• Review briefly what you have learnt or revised the session before using bullet points and colours, thereby building on what you know and can use.
   

• Use movement, hands, visual images, colours and shapes to consolidate some of the notions you absolutely need (tenses/modifiers/opinions/time markers).
   

• Find a ‘Revision Buddy’, talking through your subjects with somebody else will enable you to bounce ideas off each other.
   

• Place lists, diagrams, formulae on posters around your bedroom/study place. Take time to walk around and look at them as often as possible.
   

• Revision Cards – Go through your notes and other revision materials. Use a pencil or highlighter to underline or highlight key facts and important terms. Make a revision card (postcard size) containing the key ideas and information you need to learn.
   

• Test Yourself – Study your revision cards to learn them. Put away the revision cards and test yourself. You could test yourself by doing a practice question, writing out the key points from memory or drawing a diagram or chart.
   

• Check – Look again at your revision cards. Check you got the facts right and identify anything important you missed out. Use a pencil or highlighter to mark any important points you did not remember or got wrong. Learn them and then test yourself again.
   

• Break down large chunks of learning or material into key words – these become ‘triggers’ for the memory. Keep the key words on cards for regular review and memorising.
   

• Create large posters to show processes using flow charts.
   

• Practice exam questions. To save time plan the answers for longer answer questions.
   

• Create a phrase associated with the first letter of each word, e.g. ‘Spiced’ – Strong Pound Imports Cheap Exports Dear to explain what happens to trade and balance of payments when the exchange rate appreciates.
   

• Use a side opening plastic wallet and a highlighter. Slip the page inside the wallet and highlight main points, key words, dates, etc, as you read. Make notes from highlighted words. Wipe off wallet and start again.
   

• Plan revision – Make a timetable at least 8 weeks ahead of exams.
   

• Read the section 10 times. Close your eyes and try to see the words and try to repeat it to yourself in your head. Do this several times. When you have a good recall of most of the facts re-read and try to get the section word perfect. Repeat each week to keep it in your long-term memory.
   

• Try to teach the section to your peers/family. Doing this several times will make you really understand the key facts. Ask them for feedback or questions and if you can’t answer them repeat the above revision tip.
   

• Put some relaxing music on with no singing. Shut your eyes and try to visualise exam-type questions. Mentally rehearse your anwers. Come back to your answers in subsequent sessions and try to add more detail. Try to link different ideas. Do no writing – just mentally see the answers.