Revision tips and tricks
Revision is an unavoidable part of any course, so the sooner you master the skills for success the better. Find the techniques that work for you now and you will be able to use them throughout university and into adult life (so when you've aced your exams and are earning huge amounts of money in a few years time... just remember who to thank with a holiday or new car). Of course you may already have a revision strategy that works for you, in which case you should stick with it. The ideas below are in case some of you are struggling to make your revision either interesting or memorable enough to be useful...
The techniques here are suggestions. Different people will feel comfortable with different strategies. Your job is to try them out until you have found a combination that works for you.
This means that you have to be daring for a while! Try something new when revising for small tests throughout the year. If it doesn't work, then that's fine, but there is no point in continuing to do the same thing that you have always done if it hasn't really worked before! Einstein agrees with me (see right)! The techniques given here have been experimentally tested and shown to help students' revision more often than not. If you need to, then give them a go... |
Take the study skills test here to find out if your techniques are effective.
|
Two major findings from recent research (Dunlosky et al, 2013)...
1. The Testing EffectThe Testing Effect is a very simple finding. You remember something far more effectively if you test yourself on it!
This makes perfect sense, as it forces you to be more active with your learning than you would be if you were just reading passively without any testing. 2. Distributed practiceDistributed practice is the finding that we learn far more effectively through a number of short sessions, spread out in time, than through one long session.
Remember all those marathon revision sessions you've put in the night before exams? You would have been much better off doing a little bit lots of times in the weeks and months leading up to it. |
This video is a great introduction to the importance of the testing effect. Also, the 'SQ3R' strategy suggested in it is very similar to the 'PQRST' system described below.
|
Conclusion...? Study less and test yourself more!
Look at the picture to the right. Which row would you say is an example of the most effective learning strategy? The top row, with an extra period of study, or the bottom row, with extra testing?
Psychological research suggests that you will be far more likely to remember information effectively using the bottom strategy - the one with more testing! Daniel Willingham, from whose website I've taken this example, is a good source of information about this effect. The bottom line, however, is to TEST TEST TEST! |
Both of the findings above can be added into all of the specific revision ideas below. Whatever technique you decide to use, make sure that you are always testing yourself regularly, and spacing your learning out over multiple short sessions
Specific strategy 1 - PQRST for learning notes or from textbooks
PQRST is an easy to understand 5 stage system for learning information from textbooks.
Positive Evaluation PQRST and similar critical reading methods are supported by experimental evidence, as they have been shown to improve learning in a variety of subjects. Try it out...Use PQRST to review a book chapter you have been trying to revise. Make sure you are able to show me some of the questions you set yourself before you started reading...
|
The stages of PQRST...
|
Strategy 2 - encouraging semantic processing
Semantic processing is a fancy name for giving things meaning. Information that is meaningful will be remembered far better than something that means nothing to you. Below are some ways of making the information that you learn more meaningful, but helping to create associations between that information and other pieces of information.
MindmapsMindmaps are obviously excellent ways of drawing links between the ideas you need to know and illustrating your understanding. Make them as detailed and as eye-catching as possible.
After you've done, don't forget to test yourself. |
Rhymes and mnemonicsLook at these raps about the Milgram experiment! Some may be better than others, but the important thing is that they are engaging with the material in an interesting and memorable way.
Rhymes, poems, songs etc. All of these can be useful for difficult information. Mnemonics are excellent methods for learning lists of information. |
Colour-coded notesAs long as you have a meaningful system, any colours can be used. Coloured and systematically organised pages such as this are FAR more memorable than bland pages filled with writing of the same colour.
|
The revision limerick...
Need a clever way to remember some of these study techniques, which uses some of the techniques itself?! How about this...:
There was a young student at JIS,
Who gave clever study a miss,
No mindmaps, links or mnemonics; just rote learning topics,
He struggled to pass his AS!
There was a young student at JIS,
Who gave clever study a miss,
No mindmaps, links or mnemonics; just rote learning topics,
He struggled to pass his AS!
Do as the ancient Greeks did... the method of loci
This ancient memory tool was used by orators in Greece and Rome for remembering speeches, and is still a trade secret of modern memory-contest champions. Watch this video for an introduction.
First you need to make a memory palace. It should be somewhere very familiar to you...
A person visualizes a large building with a number of rooms that they fill with familiar objects. She then attaches the items or thoughts that she wishes to recall to the objects. As she walks mentally through the edifice, they act as prompts.
e.g. for remembering George Washington, Barack Obama, and Nelson Mandela, you could imagine walking up to the door of your location and seeing a dollar bill stuck in the door with Washington’s face on; when you open the door Obama is reclining on the sofa and Mandela is eating out of the refrigerator.
This technique is great for memorising lists for sequences.
It’s good enough for the best memorisers in the world. It’s good enough for you!
First you need to make a memory palace. It should be somewhere very familiar to you...
A person visualizes a large building with a number of rooms that they fill with familiar objects. She then attaches the items or thoughts that she wishes to recall to the objects. As she walks mentally through the edifice, they act as prompts.
e.g. for remembering George Washington, Barack Obama, and Nelson Mandela, you could imagine walking up to the door of your location and seeing a dollar bill stuck in the door with Washington’s face on; when you open the door Obama is reclining on the sofa and Mandela is eating out of the refrigerator.
This technique is great for memorising lists for sequences.
It’s good enough for the best memorisers in the world. It’s good enough for you!
If you need any help or advice with how to put these ideas into practice, or any other memory techniques you want to try, then feel free to contact me.
Remember... whatever techniques you use, TEST YOURSELF REGULARLY and SPACE OUT YOUR STUDY TIME! Getting these techniques going at first requires some effort, but the benefits in the long term are huge! Happy revising... |