Revision and Study: Tips and Advice

Useful Sites

Each day...

• take good quality notes in class;
• reread those notes each night prior to your homework;
• add the information to a series of flashcards;
• learning is social! Yes, that's right.  Learning with other people assists understanding and retention.  Teach others, explain concepts to others, form a study group and meet once a week before an exam;
• work through the flashcards already produced for the unit;
• complete your homework for the subject;
• go beyond your textbook and teacher, read about the topic, watch YouTube clips, search for additional information in the library and add to your notes.

Click on he image below to be directed to a step-by-step process on how to revise for an exam.

General Strategies

Your teachers are your best source of information regarding how to study/revise.  They are the experts in the discipline and have been or still are successful students in their discipline areas.  Ask them for advice regarding strategies but do not leave this to when they issue you with a revision sheet for the exam.  Typically, this will happen approximately one week prior to the exam; at this time it is too late.  Ask for advice on the first day of the unit.

Here are some general strategies to consider:

• do not rely on one type of revision technique; use a combination;
• know what type of learner you are; visual auditory, kinesthetic.  But again, do not rely on just your preferred style, borrow ideas from the other styles (see below). Try different approaches, this may prove unsuccessful but failure, when handled positively, invariably leads to improvement. 
• revise/study in 45 minute blocks, any longer and you run the risk of losing concentration;
• make no mistake about it, distractions are named such because they do just that; take your concentration away from your focus.  Music, social media, television etc are all distractions.  Minimise these;
• as with most aspects of life, balance is key.  Take the time to relax and unwind.  Take the time to exercise, go for a work each day and take in fresh air (Wessely, 2015); and
• sleep.  Teenagers require at least 8 hours sleep each night.  Accept performance will be below capacity if you stay up too long.

For more information here to be directed to "Five secrets to revising that can Improve your grade".