STUDY METHODS REVISION SESSION 6

WHAT IS REVISION? Revision is the re-capping of prior knowledge that has been learnt already, it is NOT the cramming of information into your head in the last few weeks preceding exams. Many students fall in to the trap of believing that effective study ‘revision’ includes hastily trying to compile their study notes when they know exams are just around the corner. THIS IS NOT REVISION!!! Revision involves going over study material that you have already produced and recalling past knowledge that you have already stored in your brain.

HOW DO I REVISE? There are many different ways to revise, it all depends on what kind of revision technique that you as an individual are most comfortable with and find most helpful. Some ways by which you can revise are as follows: Read over your study notes. Summarise and condense the study notes. Construct exam-style questions to test yourself. Complete the questions in ‘exam conditions’. Mark your questions and redo the questions you got wrong.

Have all your resources at your fingertips. ORGANISATION IS VERY IMPORTANT!!! DO NOT SIT DOWN TO STUDY OR REVISE UNLESS YOU HAVE ALL THE RESOURCES YOU WILL NEED!!! If you don’t have everything ready before you sit down to study you will waste time getting things organised during your study time and you will get NOTHING done. MATERIALS

Have your study resources compiled in a structured way at home for effective study. Separate study books and files/folders should make organising your resources much easier. Exercise books, textbooks, assignments, past topic tests, handouts and your study notes need to be at your desk.

Reading is important and cannot be avoided. Do not let this last for too long – most inexperienced studiers make this mistake. If you feel that the information is not sinking in, then it is time to move on to the next stage of your revision. Reading over notes IS NOT reading your textbook!!! READING OVER NOTES

When summarising notes: Use subheadings and chapter numbers, etc. Do not transcribe the textbook, this means, don’t ever copy it word-for- word. Copying large slabs of the textbook is not retained in your memory and is often not needed. Extract the important notes that you need for your study and reconstruct it in a format that you will be able to understand easily and retain in your memory. SUMMARISING NOTES

Keep all your summary notes in an organised study folder. The notes must be kept in order: initial work at the front and latest work at the back. Keeping your study notes in chronological order makes it much easier to find resource-related material when you need it quickly. SUMMARISING NOTES

Many students store their summary notes in the same folder as their handouts. DO NOT DO THIS!!! Keep your study notes in folders/books that are kept at home. In this way you will not lose everything if you misplace the folders/books that you take to school. SUMMARISING NOTES

Create questions related to your study that you think will be in the exam. The more questions you create the better because it will enhance your retained knowledge. Only create questions about important information!!! Use your study guide to determine which areas you should centre your study around. TESTING YOURSELF

Attempt your questions to the best of your ability. Give yourself a set time period to finish all the questions. Make sure your answers are the same length as what would be expected by your subject teacher in an exam. Study guides may assist you in making this judgment. TESTING YOURSELF

After your self-test, bring your notes and books back out to see how accurate your answers were and mark yourself. If there were any missing pieces of information, then these can be added on to the answers. If your performance was poor, then some or all of the steps need to be repeated to enhance your study revision and help you remember the material. Just remember, the more you revise, the more you will remember in an exam. COMPARE YOUR ANSWERS

Choose someone reliable! Give them the set of questions and answers, and allow them to ask you the questions in any order. Do not have anything handy to assist you. As speaking is a lot faster than writing, this is a useful way to immediately know whether you have revised well or not. Large sections of information can be covered rapidly in an oral test. Areas that you were not able to recall will have to be revised again. ORAL TESTING

All these methods will assist your revision immensely. Find out what method best suits your study style and implement it. If you are organised and well- structured your revision will be a much easier and simpler task. Revision is a constant process, so keep revising in order to maximise your chances of performing well in an exam! CONCLUSION