How to improve your grade in Religious Education Miss S Holmes

Exam Performance Most people believe that you have to be clever to get the top grades in exams. This is simply not true!!! The exam system does not reward intelligence, it rewards memory. This is good because it is much easier to improve our memory than it is to improve our intelligence.

How do you improve your memory? The brain like anything must be used regularly in order for it to work properly. The brain can be trained so you can use it to its full potential. Two words that you will need to be familiar with if you are to improve your memory are CONCENTRATION and COMPREHENSION

Concentration ‘Sustained attention focussed in one direction with no distractions.’ “You must get it before you can forget it!” One of the biggest reasons for you not understanding a topic is that you did not pay full attention when you originally looked at it.

Tips for improving concentration Don’t study with your mobile! Distractions like phones, t.v.’s , radios etc. prevent you from concentrating fully on your work. The brain is like a computer – the more programmes that you run at once, the slower and less effective it becomes. Distractions will make it harder for you to remember so you will not be using your studying time as efficiently as you could be. If you do not get the concept/ idea straight away – leave it and go back to it later.

Comprehension ‘The ability to translate information into meaningful ideas you understand.’ One of the biggest things that prevents students from remembering things is that they did not understand it in the first place! (think about jokes – can you remember the ones that you do not understand?) If you don’t understand something write it down and ask someone who does. (preferably a teacher)

How to use your memory We remember what we want to remember! Do you forget your name, address, phone number, mobile number, e-mail address, birthday, friends name, friends phone number? The list of what we remember is endless. The important thing is how do we remember all of this information

Memory Exercises Exam preparation is more than picking up your exercise book a couple of nights before the exam and reading it cover to cover. If you do this you will sink in but not enough for you to get a top grade. Preparation is the key, you need to plan to succeed!!!

Memory Workout To get the most out of your brain you need to put your brain through a workout. Here are a few exercise that you can do so that you can get the most out of your brain. (You may not find them all useful but it is important that you find ones that you like and work out regularly)

Periodic Reviews Periodic Reviews To make sure that you have remember what you have learnt you need to review it on a regular basis. e.g. - 10 minutes after first learning it 24 hours later 1 week later 1 month later

These reviews will help you transfer the information from your short term memory to your long term memory. Why is this important? If you don’t do this you will spend time going over things that you already know. The more things that you put into your long term memory the easier it is to learn more new information

Mind Maps These are a great visual way to help you review the effectiveness of your review sessions. Mind maps are also known as spider graphs, spider charts etc. They are useful for you to see exactly how much you know without writing it all out in detail.

Highlighters Important information (quotes, names etc.) stand out and are easier to recall if you highlight or underline them with coloured pens. Highlighting text makes it easier to transfer it to your long term memory. Highlighters and marker pens help you to make your review sessions more efficient

Visualisation Try to imagine what the scene looks like, try to picture the event actually taking place. (Your reactions would probably be the same as those around at the time) To try to stimulate your memory by drawing pictures or cartoon strips to help you visualise the miracles and parables. These pictures/ cartoon strips are only intended to stimulate your memory of the event, so do not spend hours drawing the most accurate picture that you can. (Detail are important not the quality of the art work)

Talk and Teach If you constantly repeat text or passages over and over again out loud, you will find it easier to recall it when it matters. Tell someone about it – friends, family etc. Try to teach the topic to someone else. If you do this properly you will be amazed how much you know and how well you know it. You only truly understand a topic when you try to teach to others.

Association Things on their own can be difficult to recall, but if you link them with other things they can be much easier to recall. Remembering lists of text in the correct order can be done in this way e.g. The 10 Commandments An isolated fact can be hard to recall but it can be more meaningful and as a result easier to recall if you link it with something you already know and can recall quickly.

Mnemonics Try some of these out; Many people find this technique as one of the most effective and enjoyable exercises for strengthening the memory. Mnemonics are word games and puzzles that help you to recall a series of information in order. Try some of these out; Acronyms: this is when you form a word from the first letter of each word in a series. Acrostics: this is when you make up a phrase that appears top make no sense until you look at the first letters of each word in the phrase. Poems and rhymes: make up short and catchy poems that help you recall the information

Cool Down Just like any other form of exercise your brain needs to cool down effectively, otherwise all of this exercise can be of little use. To make sure that you are using your time efficiently you need to take breaks to evaluate the effectiveness of your brain workout. After a study session lasting for 40 minutes take a 2 -3 minute break. Take a 10 minute break every two hours. In these breaks try to clear your mind so you can go back refreshed and ready to push yourself further. Breaks are important because you remember the first and last thing that you looked at in your study session, unfortunately the bit in the middle can become a little lost. So scheduled breaks can increase the number of ‘firsts and lasts’ It is essential that you do spend more time exercising your brain that you do resting it though!!!