What Does Great Revision Look Like?

High-Quality Revision for Students

• Learning is the process of understanding information and being able to remember it over a long period of time.
• Revising is the process of revisiting information which you have already been taught to ensure that you have learned it and to ensure that you can easily use it in exams.
• To remember a lot of knowledge quickly, that knowledge needs to be securely stored in your long-term memory.
• To make sure knowledge goes into your long-term memory, stays there, and to make sure you can find it quickly, you need to spend time thinking hard about that knowledge in your working memory.

Whenever you revise, you are doing one of three things:

1. Finding and closing gaps in your knowledge

2. Strengthening fading knowledge in your long term memory 

3. Practising recalling knowledge quickly

Why is re-reading your notes an example of poor-quality revision?

 Why is revising in a loud room an example of poor-quality revision?

Why is only revising immediately before an exam an example of poor-quality revision?

Key pieces of advice to learn and revise effectively:

1. Avoid distractions; give yourself as much space as possible in your working memory to focus on the information you are learning or revising.
2. Think hard; if you don’t think hard about the information you’re learning or revising, it is unlikely to go into your long-term memory.
3. Start early; thinking hard about information takes time and you need to revisit information regularly to strengthen those memories. Leaving revision until the last minute is likely to be overwhelming and will limit how effective your revision is.

 Where should i work and revise?

When you revise effectively, you pull information from  your long-term memory and strengthen it in your working  memory. You may also be finding gaps in your long term memory and closing them by thinking hard about new information in your working memory.

Your working memory can only hold a small amount of information at once. In order to revise and learn effectively, you should use techniques which stop your working memory from becoming overwhelmed.

Anything that you are currently experiencing or paying attention to takes up space in your working memory. One way that you can free up space in your working memory is by working in an environment which is free from distractions.

When creating a space to revise...

When should i revise?

In order to revise effectively, you must think hard. Thinking hard is tiring. Therefore, when you revise, you should choose a time when find it easiest to focus. This should be a time when you are well-rested and when you are used to working.

Exam Questions

You remember what you think hard about. One of the best ways to think hard about knowledge you have learned is by completing exam questions. Practising exam questions will also allow you practise exam techniques, such as writing in timed conditions or annotating questions. 

Get exam questions from your teachers and complete them as closely to a real exam as possible.

One problem which early migrants faced was disease. Between the 1840s and the 1860s, thousands of people travelled along the Oregon Trail from the East Coast. Because different groups along the trail used the same water sources both for drinking water and waste disposal, many commonly used water sources became contaminated. As a result, some migrants suffered from diseases such as cholera on the Oregon Trail.

Second, migrants often risked death from starvation. The Oregon Trail required travellers to pass through the Rocky Mountains using covered wagons. In the early years of the Oregon Trail, trading posts were extremely far apart. Because of this, if travellers set off too late into the year or took longer routes, there was a risk that they would get stranded in the snow of the Rocky Mountains and would be unable to get reliable sources of food. As a result, some migrants, such as members of the Donner Party in 1846, starved to death when they became stranded while travelling West.

When answering practice exam questions:
DO: 
...write from memory.
…write in timed conditions (ask your teacher how long you should take)
…ask your teacher to give you feedback or to give you a mark scheme so you can check your own answer.

DONT:

X …use textbooks or knowledge organisers while you’re answering questions.

X …assume that everything you have written is correct.

X …type your answer if you won’t be able to use a computer in your exam.

How do i decide what to revise?

Whenever you revise, you are doing one of three things:

1. Finding and closing gaps in your knowledge.
2. Strengthening fading knowledge in your long-term memory.
3. Practising recalling knowledge quickly.

Whichever purpose your revision has, it is important that you focus on the weaknesses within your knowledge. It is tempting to revise topics you’re already good at. However, if you do this, you waste valuable revision time and you could get a nasty shock when you don’t do well in exams or assessments.

Before you start revising for a subject, you should decide what you need to focus on.

When deciding what to revise?

DO: 

...gather information about the topics which you need to revise.

…break subjects and topics down into manageable chunks. 

…revise topics which you don’t enjoy or which you find difficult.

…keep a record of the topics you have chosen to revise and the revision you have completed for those topics. 

DONT: 

…spend more time making lists of what to revise than actually revising.

…write down entire subjects or topics as areas to revise.

…revise topics you enjoy or topics in which you are already successful.

…expect yourself to remember the areas which you need to revise.

 Revision Support for Parents

 Regular and effective revision is an essential part of learning so, as an academy, we work very hard to ensure that our students are motivated to revise and know how to. It is our aspiration that the children in our community will develop some of the best revision habits so that they leave us with brilliant qualifications. Due to this, we actively address revision skills within the normal curriculum, assemblies, and through our Personal Development Curriculum.  

What pitfalls should students avoid when attempting to revise? 

• Thinking they can leave it all until the “last minute.” 

We do not recommend ‘cram’ revising as it is impossible to condense two years of learning into an evening or two. Instead, revision should take place over a series of months and it should involve the students covering and re-covering the same information.  

• Thinking they don’t have to revise as they’ve “always been fine up to this point.”  

GCSE results really matter, and unlike normal assessments, there may be no second chance to secure a good grade. It is also unknown how a student may respond to a high-pressured environment on the day. While we support our students with this by practicing through mock exams, effective revision is the best safeguard to supporting on-the-day performance.  

• Worrying about looking like different to their peers by working hard in the evenings. 

Some teenagers are highly prone to peer pressure and sometimes a culture develops in which they are embarrassed to tell each other that they care about their grades and are revising. We want to overcome this mindset by modelling effective behaviours to encourage students to be proud of working hard. As parents, you can also do so my asking questions, actively listening, and reassuring your child that they are doing a great job.  

• Panicking and doing too much work, or no work whatsoever. 

We know that exam preparation can be stressful and that it is a highly pressurised time. Sometimes the result of this is that students feel they have to revise all the time or that they feel so overwhelmed that they do nothing at all. The best approach is to develop a balanced approach to revision in which they revise over a few months by doing small sections revision most nights, but also leaving time for relaxing or hobbies. 

• Trying to revise in the wrong environment 

Revising challenging subject content is hard and it requires periods of total focus. Students have to be able to avoid distractions if they are to ensure the learning ‘sticks’ and they aren’t just staring at the page or copying work. Therefore it is advised that students revise somewhere quiet with limited noise.  

• Working, but not learning 

Some students find it comforting to just read or copy out information or revise topics they already know really well. This creates the illusion of learning, but actually the students aren’t learning anything. Instead, students should focusing on revising using tested revision techniques, such as the ones we advise further up the page.  

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