What are some good revision tips??

Question

I was wondering if anyone had any good revision methods thats help you remember stuff?

Answer 1

Do the exam in the state that you were when you revised. ie. If you had a couple of beers whilst revising then have a couple of beers before your exam. The brain will remember links better through the process of association and familiarity

Answer 2

I teach study skills, which includes exam revision. It is worth investigating all the answers you have received, because many of them may work for you.

1. The reduction method works very well for many people.

2. The idea of linking is good. Sit in the room where you are studying. Assign an idea, a point, a number - whatever you need to remember - to something that is in your room. You might do this by assigning something to the door, something else to the couch, another to the window, etc. When you take the exam, you can then mentally walk around the room to find your answers. If you need to remember dates or eras, try assigning colours to each one.

3. I like the brain-mapping method. Start with a big piece of paper,and in the center of it, write a possible exam question. Draw a circle around it. Now, think about all the possible things you can come up with that have to do with that question. Write them down in different colours all around the question. Fill in as many of these as you can, without looking at your notes.

Now, go back and look at your notes, books, etc. If there was a topic you missed, or a sub-topic, make a seperate brain-map for that.

After you do that a few times, you will be able to see what you really need to study, and what you already know.

On the day of the exam, make sure you have had a restful night's sleep. Cramming and staying up with the help of caffiene has never worked for me. Make sure you know where the exam is going to take place, even to the point of getting there if it is an unfamiliar location.

If you have made really good notes, you can go over them, but don't try to learn anything new. Don't join any group of people who are worrying about the exam. Don't try any last-minute learning. Go over the things you studied before. If you find yourself getting nervous, try taking in a breath, and then letting it out very slowly. You can do this a few times, until you feel calmer.

Read the entire exam before you start writing anything. Choose the questions that will give you the most points for what you know. If you forget, go to the next one, and if you have time, return to the one you forgot.

Answer 3

This is properly the total opposite to what some people would say but listen to ur music in a quiet room while revising and always listen to different songs and choose a song for each exam 4 example if u were doing maths then keep the same song for all ur maths revision and try and sing it along with the words u should soon start to remember it. It may nt work 4 u but it did 4 me so i hoped it helped.

Answer 4

Some very good tips from everyone.

The key thing here is time management.

DONT leave it till the last minute. Cramming will get you no-where.

Don't over revise it has the same effect and you will remember nothing.

Ask your tutor for the subject areas that will be included in the exam. They will be allowed to do this. Find out how many questions and sections are in the exam and how many you have to answer.

If you have had course work, find out what the weighting is for the overall pass mark. i.e coursework is worth 25% of the final mark and the exam is 75 % of the final mark. If you know what you recieved for the course work you can work out what mark you have already achieved and you can plan your exam around that.
Most of all, DONT PANIC everything will be fine.

Very best of luck with your exams.

Answer 5

When studying for my law degree I developed the following strategy:

Initially I took all my notes on a module from throughout the year and copied them up into coherent notes (my lecture notes were more often than not scribbles - maybe due to the level of alcohol consumption the night before I'm ashamed to say!)

After becoming familiar with the notes by reading them and re-reading them I'd make a reduced version of the notes, with the in-depth details left out, but with the key facts, laws, cases etc highlighted. I would then try to become familiar with these notes (the archaic way of reading the notes over and over and writing things out over and over again seems to work best!)

Finally I would then make spider diagrams of the most critical points, and yes you guessed it, read and re-read these diagrams! It may seem boring but I honestly have found this is the only way I could learn the mammoth amount of information.

You should then find (fingers crossed) come the exam time, that you can picture the spider diagrams in your mind, which will then jog your memory towards to reduced notes, and then to the in-depth notes.

Good luck with the revision, I hope this has been of help to you.

Answer 6

Make short notes of the key facts as you revise. E.g. Dates, names etc. Then read these back the following morning or get someone to test you on them.

Concentrate on your weak areas.

For maths do some test papers in exam conditions.

The most important thing to remember in an exam is to allocate your time properly. Spending too long on a question won't get you many additional points, but missing a question completely because you run out of time could cost you a lot of points.

Before you start. Take total number of minutes, and divide by total number of points. Then multiply that figure by the number of points allocated to each question to find how much time you can spend on it.

e.g.in a 3 hour (180 mins) exam, with a paper with 100 points.

180/100 = 1.8

If a question is worth 10 points spend (10 x 1.8) = 18 mins on it
If a question is worth 20 points spend (20 x 1.8) = 36 mins on it
If a question is worth 50 points spend (50 x 1.8) = 90 mins on it

Good luck!

Answer 7

Hey, Ill leave this short and sweet cos u probably dont want to be siting here all day reading everyones comments. What id do is sit in my room for about half an hour concentrating on one subject only (say history) and read a revision book highlighting any important information. Then id go and watch television with some chocolate ( =] ) for half an hour and then go back up into my room and do another half an hour if history.

Hope it helps and good luck with your exams x

Answer 8

Keep off caffeine drinks. Drink plenty of water. Don't revise too long. After revision in the evening a nice warm bubble bath a hot chocolate and a good eight hours sleep. Even nine. No more than that because too much can make you feel tired during the day. Good luck in your exams.

Answer 9

Never try to overload your brain.

If you need to remember something, try to relate it to something you use or see every day, or to some memorable event in your life.

If, when studying, you feel your head will explode, take a break. Go and watch TV, or listen to your favourite music. During this break you will probably remember something of importance, so always keep a note book and pen handy.

Many people can remember things when they are asleep, you wake and know the answer, but seldom have a note book to hand to write it down! Keep your note book with you at all times.

Take things one step at a time, look back at the notes you have made, any that do not make sense, put them in a file marked "?"

You can always look back at this if you get stuck, the answer may be there.

Please stay calm, never panic, and keep your note book with you at all times. You should be fine.

Good luck with your revision, I wish you well.

Answer 10

Noami,

No matter what, if you don't understand the topic you wont do well, the question here is how well do you know the topic that you are taking the exam on?
If you understand the therory and the various arguements your nearly there.

The secret with revision is reading and understanding, skimming through text for key words won't help if you don't under the context of piece. Something else is practise, get past papers and work through them in exam conditions. This will be a good indicator of your understanding

Don't try to memories stuff, try to understand it.

Best of luck