"I Don't Know Where To Begin"

"I read It. I understand it. But I just can't get it to sink in"

"I've got so much to study... and so little time"

“ I panic in exams and forget everything"

"I can’t remember stuff well enough"

"There's too much to remember"

"I Knew It A Minute Ago"

"I need to cram before a test to keep it fresh in my mind"

"I'm going to stay up all night 'til I get this"

"I'm SO bored”

Leaving Revision until the last minute

Just reading notes over and over again

Writing notes out over and over again

Writing essays and trying to learn by learning them off by heart

Finding ways of putting off revision

I can’t get myself started

I can’t cope with the boredom- I start to daydream and wonder why I’m bothering

I start to panic and think I’ll never be able to remember it all

SOME IDEAS

7 tips 1. Know your own attention span. 2. Make sure you understand what you are trying to learn. 3. Vary your studying 4. Space your studying of a topic or area and repeat your study several times. 5. Organise the information that you are trying to learn. Check your memory style. 6. VISUAL MEMORY TECHNIQUES THAT WORK! 7. Learn then review, Learn again then review again

1. Pay Attention!!!!

24 Attention is a muscle 24

25 How we focus our attention decides what we see 25 Your focus is your reality

26 You are growing up in a new reality 26

27 10 texts every waking hour!!

28 ‘Information consumes the attention of its recipients’ ‘A WEALTH of information creates a POVERTY of attention’ 28

Running your eyes over a page of notes, then realising you haven’t understood or taken in anything Sat in a lesson and ‘tuned-out’ Performed a task on ‘auto-pilot’.

Attention research has shown We learn best with FOCUSED attention Better the focus, better the neural lock-in

If YOU don’t take a break, your brain will go on one without you anyway- -and your brain might decide to go on break just when you’re trying to learn the most important piece of work.

The amount of time a person can sustain attention differs from person to person and from task to task. You will know when you’ve reached your limit because your mind will start to wander.

Know your own attention span

2. Make sure you understand what you are studying

really Interpretation means really understanding what you’re trying to learn, thinking deeply about each part, thoroughly understanding the information you will need.

If you don’t understand, you won’t learn or remember. And, if you only ‘sort of’ understand, you’ll only ‘sort of’ learn or remember. So how do you know if you thoroughly understand, or you only ‘sort of’ understand? When you thoroughly understand you will R RR REMEMBER more.

37 Now is the time to make sure that you really UNDERSTAND all the topics you are trying to revise 37

38 Go online or use past papers Make a note of any topic you don’t understand Ask your teacher/parents/friends 38

3. VARIATION

40 TRIAL AND ERROR 40

4. Spacing and Repetition

You have 2 exams the next day – you have 4 hours study time How do you make the best use of this limited time?

43

You need to study a topic area more than once – hence the repetition. Spacing your study is another way of increasing variation.

5. Organization and Structure

Memory thrives on organisation

PlumElbowgiraffeCaravan PuppyBananafootapple ponycherrybargebungalow

Now try and write down the words you can remember.

Now look at this list

FRUITANIMALHOMEBODY Plumgiraffehousefoot BananaPuppyapartmentknee appledonkeybungalowelbow cherryponycaravanhand

Now try and write down the words you can remember.

Compare your scores

Organise the topic in a way that best suits you Flash cards Mind maps Revision headings provided by teachers Files/Folders *DIARIES*

How good is your memory? Where do you feel your memory strengths lie?

Why don't we use our memory to its fullest potential? For some odd reason, we tag certain information and remember it well. RIRO

Check your memory style

sea LenindogmerryPINK chair saucer cogkitchenLOGhobbybutter cheese circusgreenSpainessayharp windyginkstudentjogpillssandwich sickwalnutpongDoctorGandhiplate JAMFREDsneezesadmaybeholiday foghappytutorINDIAhandbandage bluelosttablebookkneelgloom

WHAT exactly made you remember those words in particular?

sea LenindogmerryPINK chair saucer cogkitchenLOGhobbybutter cheese circusgreenSpainessayharp windyginkstudentjogpillssandwich sickwalnutpongDoctorGandhiplate JAMFREDsneezesadmaybeholiday foghappytutorINDIAhandbandage bluelosttablebookkneelgloom

sea LenindogmerryPINK chair saucer cogkitchenLOGhobbybutter cheese circusgreenSpainessayharp windyginkstudentjogpillssandwich sickwalnutpongDoctorGandhiplate JAMFREDsneezesadmaybeholiday foghappytutorINDIAhandbandage bluelosttablebookkneelgloom

sea LenindogmerryPINK chair saucer cogkitchenLOGhobbybutter cheese circusgreenSpainessayharp windyginkstudentjogpillssandwich sickwalnutpongDoctorGandhiplate JAMFREDsneezesadmaybeholiday foghappytutorINDIAhandbandage bluelosttablebookkneelgloom

sea LenindogmerryPINK chair saucer cogkitchenLOGhobbybutter cheese circusgreenSpainessayharp windyginkstudentjogpillssandwich sickwalnutpongDoctorGandhiplate JAMFREDsneezesadmaybeholiday foghappytutorINDIAhandbandage bluelosttablebookkneelgloom

sea LenindogmerryPINK chair saucer cogkitchenLOGhobbybutter cheese circusgreenSpainessayharp windyginkstudentjogpillssandwich sickwalnutpongDoctorGandhiplate JAMFREDsneezesadmaybeholiday foghappytutorINDIAhandbandage bluelosttablebookkneelgloom

sea LenindogmerryPINK chair saucer cogkitchenLOGhobbybutter cheese circusgreenSpainessayharp windyginkstudentjogpillssandwich sickwalnutpongDoctorGandhiplate JAMFREDsneezesadmaybeholiday foghappytutorINDIAhandbandage bluelosttablebookkneelgloom

sea LenindogmerryPINK chair saucer cogkitchenLOGhobbybutter cheese circusgreenSpainessayharp windyginkstudentjogpillssandwich sickwalnutpongDoctorGandhiplate JAMFREDsneezesadmaybeholiday foghappytutorINDIAhandbandage bluelosttablebookkneelgloom

sea LenindogmerryPINK chair saucer cogkitchenLOGhobbybutter cheese circusgreenSpainessayharp windyginkstudentjogpillssandwich sickwalnutpongDoctorGandhiplate JAMFREDsneezesadmaybeholiday foghappytutorINDIAhandbandage bluelosttablebookkneelgloom

sea LenindogmerryPINK chair saucer cogkitchenLOGhobbybutter cheese circusgreenSpainessayharp windyginkstudentjogpillssandwich sickwalnutpongDoctorGandhiplate JAMFREDsneezesadmaybeholiday foghappytutorINDIAhandbandage bluelosttablebookkneelgloom

Left/Right Brain Which ever preference – try to use the other side too Try to combine a mixture of memory strategies Look at it Repeat it with rhythm Number it Give it a shape Turn it into a diagram

Say it out loud Sing it Draw it Colour it Act it out Make it bizarre Use ANY device to make it more memorableSYNAESTHESIA

Our memories are far better than we give them credit!!

6. Visualization and Mental Reinstatement

The use of IMAGES and MEMORY

The power of IMAGES

Exaggeration

Bizarre Humour

Movement

Sexual Imagery

78 Try and apply some of these techniques

“How can the use of images improve my memory ?”

80 How can this help my revision? 80

81

82 DIAMETER

83 DIAMETER

84 RAYS - RADIUS url

85 CHORD 85

86 TANGENT

87 ARC ARCH 87

88 CIRCUS RING CIRCUMFERENCE 88

89 SLI C E SE C TOR

90 SE G MENT 90

91

92 Shapes and Angles 92

93 PerPENdicular 93

94 PARAllell 94

95

96 CONGRUENT EXACTLY the same size and shape 96

97 SIMILAR Same shape but different size

98 ISOSCELES TRIANGLE 2 equal sides 2 equal angles 98

99 VOLUME How much an object can hold 99

Key to Memory

MNEMONICS

Mnemonics Any memory-assisting technique that helps us to associate new information with something familiar. Some examples :

103 ROY G. BIV

METHOD OF LOCI

Take a list that would be useful to know in order

1 Hair 2 Eyes 3 Neck 4 Chest 5.Navel6.Knee7.Feet

1.Radio Waves

2.Microwave

3.Infra Red

4.Visible light

5. Ultra Violet

6.X Rays

7. Gamma Rays

1 Hair 2 Eyes 3 Neck 4 Chest 5.Navel6.Knee7.Feet

7. Generate, generate, generate! Retrieve, retrieve, retrieve!

It’s well known that people will tend to remember the first thing that they learn and the last thing that they learn (these effects are known as primacy and recency).

First part Last part Primacy effect Recency effect 60 minutes

 1hour is too long  Age +2minutes  Maximum 30 minutes  Take a break  With more beginnings and ends and less middle we can actually work less and learn more.

BREAK 60 minutes

What about once you've finished learning?

What happens to our learning within 24 hours?

Research suggests we forget around 80% within a day!

To combat this, go back to the way the brain learns by making connections. The more you do something, the stronger the connections become. Cells that fire together, wire together After every period of learning, spend five to ten minutes reviewing what you've just learned.

Curve of forgetting

By getting into the habit of this review cycle you can improve your memory by 400%.

Curve of forgetting

GCSE EXAMS You can do this!

130 Keep the lid off the jar

ARE YOU GOING TO FINISH STRONG?