Advice on effective techniques for examination preparation
Understand it
Condense it
Memorise it
Review it
The Key to
Successful Revision...
The most important part of your preparation for tests and examinations is to stay
positive and try your best - this booklet will help you to make the most of your revision
time and help you to learn some effective tips.
First, let’s look at some of the essentials...
1. Limit distractions
However organised you are and whatever
revision you plan to do, your phone
or ;laptop can be you worst enemy. Put
everything on silent, leave them downstairs
or in a different room. Friends will understand why you are not replying if they know
you are revising.
Don’t be tempted to use the excuse that
you are using your phone to look up facts
or to translate.
Limiting distractions is essential if you are
going to be successful in your revision.
2. Revise
in a quiet,
comfortable space
Without your phone to distract you, its important that you find a quiet,
comfortable and light space to revise in. If you’re lucky enough to
have this at home then try to keep it free from clutter and make sure
its organised. Alternatively, you could use the LRC or H1 (Y11 Study
room), which are both open until 5pm.
3. Make
a revision
timetable
There is a free revision timetable planner available at
getrevising.co.uk
registering is easy
Plan your revision timetable, think
about the dates of your exams and
work out which days you need to revise
for which subjects. This will help you to
avoid last minute revision and devote
time to the remaining subjects when
others are complete.
4.Be prepared
5.Set an alarm & start
Make sure that you have all the files,
pens, pencils, post-its and highlighters
that you will need to be organised in your
revision.
Ask your teacher about revision guides,
available to buy from the academy or
shops.
It’s much better to revise in the
morning.
Get into a good routine and make the
most of the day. The earlier you start,
the earlier you can finish—giving you
time to relax and switch off from your
revision.
6.Rewards
Set yourself revision targets and reward
yourself once you have achieved
them.
If you start the day early and work hard
you could have time to meet friends,
play FIFA, watch a film, go out with your
family etc.
7
Eat healthy and get
regular exercise
8.Take a break
There is a page dedicated to this
further on in the booklet - entitled
‘THE POMODORO TECHNIQUE’.
Revision will be easier and more effective if you feel good. Avoid unhealthy
snacks and energy drinks—they will
make you feel more tired after a short
period of time and may affect your
sleep. Aim to get regular exercise and
drink plenty of water
It’s important to take regular breaks
throughout your revision sessions.
Research shows that revising for a long
periods of time is not effective and will
stop you from remembering important
information. It is recommended that 25
minute sessions with breaks are ideal.
3
Now that you know the best ways to prepare for revision and
how to be organised in terms of location, limiting distractions
and having the right equipment, it’s time to look at effective
WAYS TO REVISE
Understand it
It’s important that you understand WHAT YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND!
It’s even more important that you understand the work BEFORE YOU REVISE!
Just reading your books, notes or revision guide is not an effective way to revise
Understand it
Studies show that there are tricks and techniques that will make learning and
remembering facts much easier.
See the example below...
Why did Britain declare war on Germany in 1914?
Britain actually declared war on Germany because of the Schlieffen Plan. Using this
plan, Germany marched through Belgium to invade France. Britain had signed a
secret treaty with Belgium in 1839, promising to come to her aid if she were ever
invaded. Britain was also worried that, if Germany was successful in defeating Belgium and then France, she would have a powerful enemy just across the Channel.
She therefore came to help Belgium against the Germans.
However, there were other reasons as well for the declaration of war. Britain felt
threatened that Germany was expanding her navy. Britain was an island and depended upon her navy for defence as well as to look after her large empire. Britain
had the largest navy in the world at the time and insisted that her navy was twice as
big as the next 2 largest navies put together (Two Power Standard). When Germany started to build dreadnoughts, Britain were suspicious as to why Germany needed to do this as they did not have many colonies and hardly any coastline.
Britain also declared war on Germany because of the Kaiser's foreign policy. He
wanted "a place in the sun" which means he wanted a larger empire. Britain was
worried that Germany were planning to take some of her empire away. There had
already been incidents in Morocco in 1905 and 1911 when Germany interfered in
order to stop the French taking it over. Britain had supported France and Germany
had been forced to back down.
Condense it
To make it easier to remember facts and details, you will need to CONDENSE
the information and choose the most important bits.
There are a few different ways to do this - you can choose the one that best suits
your way of working, or choose a combination of different styles.
Mix of colour, pictures and written information
Condense each topic onto a small card
Logical and purely written approach
Very logical and organised visual approach
All of these resources can be created on getrevising.co.uk
Condense it
ASSOCIATION MAPS
Mix of colour, pictures and written
information.
MAIN IDEA
THEME
DETAILS
...all of these follow the method discussed earlier on,
being organised in terms of THEME, MAIN IDEAS and
DETAILS.
Memorise it
...if something is not interesting and not memorable, the brain
will easily forget it.
Studies show that there are tricks and techniques that will make learning and
remembering facts much easier.
Below are three ways that you could try when revising....
Simple, memorable ways to remember
important facts and definitions.
Mainly sketches to remember orders or key
facts.
Short facts left in different locations really help
the brain to remember.
Repetition is an important way to make sure
that ideas and details can be recalled.
Review it
Testing and checking the work you have condensed and memorised is a
very important step in the process of revising.
There are a number of different ways to do this...
You’ve spent time condensing and summarising the information—make sure you spend
time reading over your notes, flow diagrams or
association maps.
You can do this in a number of ways, such as..
Writing your own questions, such as discussed
in the ‘Understand it’ section.
Speak out loud for 1 minute on the topic
Answering questions out of a text book or study
guide or past paper questions.
Using on-line tests such as BBC Bite-size.
You could ask family to test you, using your
condensed notes or association maps as a
starting point.
You could also work with friends and test each
other.
Use voice recorder to make short spoken word
summaries.
This will help you to reflect on whether your
summaries make sense and will also enable
you to listen to them wherever you are.
The Pomodoro Technique
The Pomodoro technique is designed to help you
make the most of your revision sessions.
It combines all the information shown in this booklet and will only
work if you have the right working conditions and
FULLY UNDERSTAND what you need to be revising.
Check back to pages 2 & 3 for
information about the perfect
conditions for effective revision.
Understand it
Condense it
Look at page 5 for information about
making sure that you know what you
need to revise.
Look at pages 6-9 for information on
techniques for CONDENSING and
MEMORISING.
Memorise it
Review it
You need to make sure that your revision has been effective by using the
techniques for REVIEWING (page 10).
PLAN THE REVISION TASKS YOU'D LIKE TO GET DONE: Pages to read, questions to
answer, subjects to focus on. It doesn't matter. What matters is that it's something that
deserves your full, undivided attention. Check you UNDERSTAND IT (see page 5) or see
your teacher before you start.
SET THE POMODORO FOR 25 MINUTES: Make a small promise to yourself: I will
spend 25 minutes on this task and I will not interrupt myself. You can do it! After all, it's
just 25 minutes.
WORK ON THE TASK UNTIL THE POMODORO RINGS: Use the techniques shown in the
CONDENSE IT and MEMORISE IT sections. Immerse yourself in your revision for the
next 25 minutes. Focus only on that, nothing else…
WHEN THE POMODORO RINGS, PUT A CHECKMARK ON YOUR PLAN: Congratulations! You've spent an entire, interruption-less Pomodoro on a revision task. Of course,
it’s important to REVIEW your work to see how effective the session has been.
TAKE A SHORT BREAK: Breathe, meditate, grab a cup of coffee, go for a short walk or
do something else relaxing (i.e., not work-related). Your brain will thank you later.
EVERY 2 POMODOROS, TAKE A LONGER BREAK: Once you've completed two
Pomodoro's (traditionally it's four, but start with two and work up from there), you can
take a longer break. 20 minutes is good. Or 30. Your brain will use this time to assimilate new information and rest before the next round of Pomodoro's. Again, it’s important to REVIEW your own work or check with your teacher.