GCSE Revision In response to a large number of Y11 students asking for advice on how to revise….. Introduction & revision planning Revision techniques

Why do we need to revise? Because we forget!……… The graph shows that the more times that we review (or revise) something, the more we remember …PERMANENTLY.

Revision planning On a blank calendar of the time between now and your mock exams, write in when your exams are. Break each subject down into a list of topics (You can’t revise all of Physics in one night ….. But you could revise the ‘Waves’ topic). You may not be able to do this now – using the chapter headings from a revision guide may help. Each evening that you put aside for revision work on two topics from two different subject areas (this is called interleaving and helps your brain take in more information).

Revision planning Space out when you revise subjects over the time available. (i.e. Geography and English one night, Maths and Biology on another etc.). Try to use some different revision strategies to vary what you are doing. Some ideas for different strategies are identified later in this presentation Just get on with it! Remove distractions (e.g. leave your phone in another room – it will still be there when you finish revising)!

A revision session – what might it look like? 6:00pm Maths topic 1 6:30pm Short break 6:40pm Chemistry topic 1 7:10pm 7:20pm Maths topic 2 7:50pm 8:00pm Chemistry Topic 2 8:30pm 30 min revision blocks separated by short 10 min break. Revise harder topics first… this gives you time to come back to them later Remember: Some revision is better than none. The key is to get started and give it a go. For your final exams you will need to start as early as possible and you will be able to do more useful revision over a longer time.

Revision techniques How to revise: Different people revise effectively in different ways. However there are some techniques that are not useful! Just reading and/or highlighting alone is not particularly useful. Remember the aim of revision is to be able to recall the correct information when needed. This is called retrieval. During your revision you need to practice retrieving information so that you know how to do it in the exam.

Flashcards Summarising class notes or revision guide notes onto flashcards is a useful first step in revision. Some people like to use words, colours and pictures to help with memory recall. Don’t put too much onto the flashcards …. the aim is to summarise. Write the topic of the flashcard on the back. Then, in a later revision session, look at the topic heading and see how much you can recall (by writing it down or having a friend to help test you). Check how much you got correct but more importantly what did you miss? Doing this will help you to remember it next time. Keep the flashcards in a safe place to use at a later date to practice retrieval again. This will help to train your brain to retrieve the right information at the right time – exactly what is needed in an exam

Practice tests & quizzes Take any chance that you get to test yourself and check your answers. Revision guides often have questions at the end of chapters to answer. Your teachers will be able to guide you towards other tests / quizzes suitable for their subject. These can be online or phone apps but stay focused on the task! Past papers / topic tests – again your subject teachers will be able to help you with these. Remember to try the test first without help. Then check the mark scheme to see what you needed to add to get even better marks.

Concept map / Spider diagram Once you have read a section of your class work or revision guide, (or summarised some notes onto a flashcard) write the topic heading in the centre of a piece of paper and try to write down what you can remember about the topic. If possible make links between different parts of the topic. It might be relevant to identify advantages and disadvantages. It is important that once you have done this, you check back with the revision notes to ensure that you have remembered everything. This is further practice at retrieving the information.

Worked examples / model answers In some subjects, you may be provided with worked examples to questions, or model answers to long answer questions. It can be useful to annotate these in your own words to explain why it is answered in this way. You could always cover up the answer and have a go and then check back against the model answer to ensure that you included everything that was needed.

Flow chart / story board Where a sequence of events needs to be remembered, a flow chart or storyboard can be a useful way to summarise a lot of information. Where possible also try to annotate why something happens. (Explaining why something happens is usually worth more marks than describing something). Remember to include key words in your flow chart as these will get you more marks as well!

Apps / You tube There are some very good apps and revision videos / tutorials on you tube that can also be useful. You may need to check with your subject teacher to make sure that they are relevant to your course. A search for ‘GCSE waves tutorial’ located a bunch of videos called ‘crash course physics’. For maths we have made all the papers and markschemes available. All students should have been told about it. I:\Maths\Shared Files\Mock Exam