Year after year, the pressures of exam revision persist. Tutors often blend tried-and-true methods with innovative strategies to keep students engaged. Fortunately, a wealth of evidence now supports certain revision strategies over others as we approach the crucial revision period. Understanding these strategies and tailoring them to individual learning styles can significantly enhance exam performance.
Understanding Effective Revision Techniques
It’s crucial to recognize that students may not always be the best judges of their own learning. Regular self-testing, for instance, has proven to be an effective antidote to this issue. Some strategies, like re-reading and highlighting, are largely ineffective, while others, like quizzing, deliver better results. Incorporating deliberate difficulty into revision can also be beneficial, and ‘distributed practice’ (spreading revision over time) is superior to ‘cramming’ for long-term retention.
A successful revision approach must be deeply rooted in subject knowledge and sustained over time. Subject teachers need to explicitly teach these strategies, model them, and offer guided practice before expecting students to use them effectively.
Matching Revision Techniques to Learning Styles
Visual Learners
Visual learners benefit from seeing information presented in a visual format. Effective strategies for visual learners include:
- Mind Mapping: Visualizing relationships between concepts.
- Diagramming: Creating diagrams, charts, and graphs.
- Colour Coding: Using different colours to highlight and categorize information.
Auditory Learners
Auditory learners retain information better through listening. Suitable revision techniques include:
- Reading Aloud: Reciting notes or textbook material out loud.
- Discussion Groups: Engaging in study groups to discuss and explain topics.
- Listening to Recordings: Using audio recordings of lectures or creating voice notes.
Kinaesthetic Learners
Kinaesthetic learners learn best through hands-on activities. Effective strategies include:
- Practical Applications: Engaging in experiments or real-life applications of concepts.
- Movement-Based Learning: Incorporating physical activities while reviewing notes.
- Interactive Learning: Using tools like flashcards or educational apps.
Reading/Writing Learners
These learners prefer interacting with text. Effective strategies include:
- Note-Taking: Writing detailed notes and summaries.
- Writing Essays: Practicing essay writing to reinforce understanding.
- Lists and Bullet Points: Organizing information into lists for easy reference.
Top Revision Techniques
1. Quizzing
Quizzing is an ideal vehicle for self-testing, which helps students calibrate their knowledge and memory. Various types of quizzes, such as short answer, multiple choice, or hybrid quizzes, can serve different purposes. Regular quizzing helps reinforce knowledge and identify areas needing improvement.
2. Flashcards
Flashcards are a familiar tool, but many students do not use them effectively for self-testing. Students should be trained to design or find effective flashcards and use them regularly. It’s essential to avoid dropping flashcards they think they know well and to keep revisiting them to reinforce memory.
3. Graphic Organizers
Graphic organizers are helpful for active revision. They enable students to reconstruct revision topics, making meaningful links and connections. This technique, known as the ‘generation effect,’ involves creating visual representations of information to enhance understanding and retention.
4. Cornell Notetaking
The Cornell method is a well-known note-taking strategy that encourages metacognitive thinking. It involves dividing notes into cues, notes, and summaries, prompting students to ask questions, note key terms, and summarize the content. This structured approach enhances comprehension and recall.
5. Exam Wrappers
Exam wrappers are feedback strategies that provide information on how students have revised. They help tutors diagnose the effectiveness of students’ revision strategies and guide students to improve their revision techniques. This method also helps puncture over-confidence by providing a reality check on their preparedness.
6. Just a Minute
The ‘Just a Minute’ game adapts a classic radio game for revision purposes. Students must talk about a given term or topic for one minute without pauses or repetitions. This technique leverages the ‘self-explanation effect,’ where explaining a topic helps consolidate and retrieve information from memory.
7. Prepare to Teach
This strategy involves students teaching a peer a topic or term from their revision. Expecting to teach enhances students’ learning by requiring them to elaborate on their knowledge. This method has a positive impact on understanding and retention.
8. Select, Elect
This strategy requires students to select the most important facts or concepts from a revision topic and then elect the most significant ones. This active engagement with revision material encourages students to think critically about what information is most crucial for their exams.
9. Topic Ranking
Students often misjudge their own revision effectiveness. By ranking their knowledge of revision topics, they engage in metacognitive evaluation, which helps them better calibrate their revision and monitor progress, even if initial judgments are overoptimistic.
10. Past Questions
Practicing examination questions over time helps students familiarize themselves with the exam format and refine their understanding. Exploring worked examples or exam answers allows students to process, practice, and improve their exam techniques.
11. Mind Maps
Mind maps visually represent complex ideas and concepts, using images, colours, and shapes to trigger memory. They are useful for note-taking and brainstorming essay themes or topics. Digital tools like MindMup or freehand drawings can be used to create effective mind maps.
12. Color-Coded Post-It Notes
Color-coded sticky notes can be used to organize important information like quotes, statistics, and dates. Placing them around the room helps students see and review the information regularly, using different colours for different subjects or topics.
13. Blurting (Memory Dump)
Blurting involves writing down everything known about a topic after a quick read, then checking for accuracy and repeating until the information is retained. This method is popular on social media for its effectiveness in long-term memory retention.
Implementing Effective Revision Strategies
Creating a Revision Schedule
A structured revision schedule is crucial for effective exam preparation. Allocating specific times for different subjects and topics helps ensure a balanced approach. Breaking down material into manageable chunks prevents overwhelm and promotes consistent study habits.
Setting Realistic Goals
Setting achievable goals for each revision session maintains motivation and tracks progress. Goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).
Using the Pomodoro Technique
The Pomodoro Technique involves studying for 25 minutes followed by a 5-minute break. This method maintains focus and prevents burnout by breaking study sessions into manageable intervals.
Incorporating Variety
Variety in revision methods keeps the process engaging and reinforces learning. Using a mix of active and passive techniques, incorporating visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic elements, caters to different learning styles and prevents monotony.
Self-Assessment and Reflection
Regular self-assessment identifies strengths and weaknesses. Reflecting on what methods work best optimizes future study sessions.
How can Educate Excellence help?
Here at Educate Excellence we provide support for both parents and children during revision and exam season. If you need help or support, please contact either Fayas, the head of education, or our PLOs who will be happy to provide advice where they can.
Mastering exam preparation requires a combination of effective revision strategies tailored to individual learning styles. By incorporating a variety of techniques, setting realistic goals, and maintaining healthy habits, students can optimize their study sessions and improve their performance. Understanding and implementing these strategies can transform the daunting task of exam preparation into a manageable and even enjoyable process. With dedication and the right approach, success in exams is within reach.
