Revision techniques

J-FRO

J-FRO

J-FRO

Soldato
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Just wondering, when you've had an exam or exams coming up, what have you found to be the best technique for revising?

Currently using the "write it out over and over to drill it into your head" technique, but it's quite long and laborious and so am looking for some more exciting innovative ways to revise.

I've never been much of an exam performer and have generally just flunked my way through my education relying on my ability to do well in coursework. So any advice will be appreciated,

cheers chaps.
 
I always try to make a point of understanding the material. That is, rather than simply remembering through repetition, I try to work out/understand why or how. I find I am more likely to keep the knowlegde in my head.

Obviously this doesn't work for everything and rote learning is sometimes the only way to do it.

Whatever method you choose, always take regular breaks, say every 30 minutes. Your concentration will go out the window after that much time and anything you do will be wasted effort. Much better to do it in small chunks, then get up and do something else for 5 minutes.
 
It's totally dependent on the person, so it's difficult to give any useful advice.

I rely on what I do best - learning a large amount of information in a 'not leaving it to the last minute but still cutting it fine' period, which involves extremely long hours, virtually zero breaks, no fun and self-inflicted stress. Not for the feint hearted and not a 'sensible' recommendation for anyone, but it does the trick for me.

I do not have the attention span to take everything on board as I go through it in a lecture, I physically cannot do it. No pressure, minimal work. But I do confess I have the benefit of what some might say is better than average 'processing power' and memory (but that certainly doesn't mean I have respectable common sense :p).

Oh and self-bannage from OCUK and anything internet related is a must.
 
Remove all distractions then distill what you know. First write detailed notes, then make notes of those notes and do that until you have it condensed as far as you can go, once done learn what you have and you should be ok.
 
3vil Tom said:
Remove all distractions then distill what you know. First write detailed notes, then make notes of those notes and do that until you have it condensed as far as you can go, once done learn what you have and you should be ok.
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I like this.

Abstraction!
 
I've spent the past 9 years doing exams from GCSE to professional qualifications and I'm still yet to find a technique that I enjoy learning. At least it's almost over (hopefully!) :p
 
J-FRO said:
Just wondering, when you've had an exam or exams coming up, what have you found to be the best technique for revising?

Currently using the "write it out over and over to drill it into your head" technique, but it's quite long and laborious and so am looking for some more exciting innovative ways to revise.

I've never been much of an exam performer and have generally just flunked my way through my education relying on my ability to do well in coursework. So any advice will be appreciated,

cheers chaps.
Click to expand...

Pick songs you love -- invent new 'ryming' revision words to those songs -- sing the new words as you listen to the songs.
 
I always struggled as a kid, I was never actually told any revision teqniques which really is stupid as it should be taught if your grades are slipping.

I unfortunately learned how to revise properly at 19, simply get some paper and do test questions, write down things over and over again, read books.

Even as simple stuff like that I never really gave it a second thought or just thought I was stupid. In all honesty though, It can depend what you're revising on.

And that's 2-3 minutes of revision I won't get back.. :D
 
At uni I used to record the lectures (get your lecturers permission first though). Then when it came to revision I went back and filled in what I had missed on the handout, then I condensed the notes down and drew as many pictures of the material as possible as I am a visual learner (not always easy with biochemistry). This is extremely time consuming though.
 
I think overall im pretty good at exams, for me it depends on the exam

atm i'm doing my sparky exams and stuff, for this i just skim the book/notes a few times and that works for me, ive got a pretty good memory, the other peeps on the course hate me for that lol

For harder stuff i do the same but skim slower and more times and follow the worked examples in the book and do the practice q's

This has worked for me for pretty much everything, running 100% except for 1 97% in my sparky stuff so far, but it didnt work for 2nd year chem degree, that needs real work and i failed in the end, but still only went to 2hrs of lessons and did no course work so an almost pass is pretty good i think, prob the worse mistake of my life so far screwing that degree up :(

ps. i'm waaay to lazy to write stuff out and condense, but i think thats probably the best method
Then take the very last stuff you really don't know to the exam to read just before you go in

2nd ps. Forgot to say doing lots of past papers to learn the style of q's you will be asked really helps, if you learn the papers often you can guess the answers if your stuck with a pretty good success rate, especially for multiple choice stuff
 
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Nitefly said:
Oh and self-bannage from OCUK and anything internet related is a must.
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Q: How do those not studying know when exams are coming up?
A: Check whether Nitefly has banned against his name. :p

For myself at uni I just used to make sure I made it to all the lectures or near enough (I think I averaged about 95%+ attendance for every year) so while I may not have been in a fit state to follow it all properly some of the knowledge went in. After that it was a case of going through notes and trying to condense it down until I had just a few sides of A4 with all the salient points to help me remember the rest of what I needed. It does depend on the subject though, for EU law you could probably have filled up all the sides of the paper with just case references so there I'd prioritise and choose the cases that touched on most points to learn, if I had any spare capacity I'd pick a few more that illustrated specific points. Usually all done rather last minute and relying on my short term memory to pull me through.

Now studying for professional I'm trying to set aside a couple of hours a week to do the practice exercises and when it comes towards actually sitting the exams I'll be running through multiple exam questions until hopefully I'm reasonably happy I know the material.

I would say that getting a decent amount of sleep before an exam probably helps, I'll make an effort to study a bit the night before but after a certain point will just go to bed as I'm much more likely to be able to work it out from context than I am to just happen to have studied the exact point in last minute cramming.
 
SiriusB said:
I always try to make a point of understanding the material. That is, rather than simply remembering through repetition, I try to work out/understand why or how. I find I am more likely to keep the knowlegde in my head.

Obviously this doesn't work for everything and rote learning is sometimes the only way to do it.

Whatever method you choose, always take regular breaks, say every 30 minutes. Your concentration will go out the window after that much time and anything you do will be wasted effort. Much better to do it in small chunks, then get up and do something else for 5 minutes.
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+1

I Find working out How something works or even Why works best.
 
Kemik said:
I've spent the past 9 years doing exams from GCSE to professional qualifications and I'm still yet to find a technique that I enjoy learning. At least it's almost over (hopefully!) :p
Click to expand...

This! I probably should have it down to a fine art by now, but the varying nature of my exams has forced me to adapt.

Past papers and any mock questions are about the best I've come up with so far.
 
I enjoy leaning stuff now for exams as generally they are exams in things I'm interested in and want to do, rather than school type things.

I tend to just go over the notes and do any practice questions over and over to try and validate that it's all sunk in.
 
I will second the process of condensing material down into smaller and smaller pieces, which also gives a certain sense of repetition and drilling it into my brain. It may be boring and laborious but I usually end up with most of the information in my head, only for it to evaporate the moment I put the pen down at the end of the exam :o

For most exams I will make notes of all the material that I need to know well in advance of the exams, say 2-3 weeks if I get the time. It is then a case of splitting the material down into manageable topics and condensing these notes. I usually make myself a challenge and try to fit all of the information for one exam onto an A4 sheet, which keeps my motivation up in most cases.

Past papers and questions are also key, as well as reading the mark scheme of the paper if you have access to it. Try to understand what the questions are looking for!

Get plenty of rest before the exam (I will usually take the evening off after around 8 and just relax and get an early night) and take regular breaks!
 
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