Woooo Yeah...that time of the year again where everyone between 16 and 20+ is stressing about end of year exam so I thought I'd do a little bog post whilst taking a little break from my own revision.
How you revise depends on what kind of learner you are. I'm a 'visual' learning which means I like to be able to see things to learn them. For example, I'd rather learn something from a diagram than someone telling me somethings. You can find out what kind of learner you are by doing this test:
http://www.educationplanner.org/students/self-assessments/learning-styles-quiz.shtml
Of all the one's I've tried, I've found this one the most helpful and accurate.
So, onto how I revise. Obviously, how I revise will be different to how you revise and won't neccessarily be better but I find it's always good to try new ways of learning things
How you revise depends on what kind of learner you are. I'm a 'visual' learning which means I like to be able to see things to learn them. For example, I'd rather learn something from a diagram than someone telling me somethings. You can find out what kind of learner you are by doing this test:
http://www.educationplanner.org/students/self-assessments/learning-styles-quiz.shtml
Of all the one's I've tried, I've found this one the most helpful and accurate.
So, onto how I revise. Obviously, how I revise will be different to how you revise and won't neccessarily be better but I find it's always good to try new ways of learning things
- Write good clear notes in class because revision starts when you're learn something for the first time and if you don't have good note on a topic, how are you going to revise? Yes there are revision guides out there that are very good but it won't always be the same way that you're teacher has taught you. Also, for a subject like history where the exam is based on key knowledge, you want juicy facts that no-one else will know to impress the examiner.
- Use bullet points. I have always found this helps to structure my notes and also it breaks up huge chunks of writing, who want to look at a page of solid words??
- Spider-diagrams These only work for certain subject for me because sometimes they can get messy. I do like to use them when planning practise questions like in English you can write the question in a bubble and then plan around it the tings you could write: quotes, what your going to analyse for etc.
- Colour Coding!!! This for my is the most important technique. Being an art freak, I like to organise my notes by colour coding each section in rainbow order....yes I know, it may be sad but it works! That way you can see where one topic stops and another starts. Normally I just underline key words or phrases, not too much or you won't be able to pick out key bits.
- Have a glass/bottle of water on your desk next to you or juice if you prefer, but keep hydrated!! If your the type to revise for hours then take a break, make you always stay topped up other wise you start feeling tired, get a headache or just start to get grouchy and these things don't help when you're trying to remember things! Also, keep a snack bowl next to you. Something small and non-messy like smarties or if you're healthy then grapes, something to keep your energy levels up BUT not things too sugary like Haribo's because being hyper is probably not a good idea!!
- Jam to ya tuuunes (i.e. listen to music) This may not be for everyone as I know some people who hate listening to music whilst working. However, if you're doing practise questions, try to make it as realistic as possible with timings etc which also means not listening to music because obviously you would have that in the exam.
- Stay fresh Sounds weird but genuinely, keep some face wipes next to you and if you ever start to feel a bit "meh" then freshen-up and you'll feel much better.
- and last but not least...Schedule in breaks because if you don't then either you won't take any or you'll take too many, I'm very guilty of that!
I hope this has helped, if you have any more of your own tips, leave them in the comments below :)
abbey x
abbey x