5 Revision Techniques: Study smarter, not harder!

Dive into Lauralee's expertise as she reveals her top 5 revision techniques, honed through her journey to achieving remarkable grades in her GCSEs. Drawing from her own experience, Lauralee shares invaluable strategies to elevate your revision game and ace your exams.

1. How Should You Revise?

Surrounded by books, notes and past papers, its difficult to know where to start sometimes. A good approach to resolving this is to have a list - one that can be used throughout your revision and wastes no time! With so many vast and various videos out there, highlighting different versions of the same study technique or content summary, I found it fairly time-consuming and distracting when searching for a video on, for example, respiration in biology. Collating techniques and resources from an early stage is definitely recommended to increase efficiency. If you are a visual learner and prefer mind mapping, maintain this. It is important to realise that frequently changing up your study technique hinders your revision, however,that that is not to say you shouldnʼt try different revision methods! Find what works for you and stay dedicated to it, whether it be collaborating with your peers to exchange insight, placing post-it notes of formulas on your door or watching YouTube videos, (a favourite is Science with Hazel). You will be able to optimise your time while achieving the best grades.

2. Planning Your Revision

A crucial aspect of exam preparation is your plan. Exam period can be quite daunting for most, with the anxiety of having to sit all at once and by breaking down your revision into manageable pieces, you can save yourself a whole load of headaches. The purpose of your plan is to establish an organised framework for your revision, it acts as your visible guide to ensure you are aware of what you have achieved or what needs to be improved on. This is where formulating a means of progress tracking should come in, so you are assured that not only are you navigating forward with your structured system, but that you are also being time efficient. That precious time can be allocated to something of more importance, such as exam practice. A minimum of two months before the exams should be set aside for completing exam papers and so with the aid of your plan, you will be able to implement this into your routine without difficulty.

3. Life Saver Exam Paper Technique

Timing is everything in an exam, and quite often it is more your worst enemy rather than your best friend. At the start of your exam when given the paper and granted permission from your invigilator to open it, flip through the whole paper, scanning each question for keywords and labelling each one to identify which questions require more time and effort. I tend to use NH, H OR VH for the questions I find: not hard, hard or very hard. It has proven truly invaluable, providing a methodical approach to the paper when the stress and nerves start to take action! Your mind is fully engaged and you can rapidly recollect those specific points needed, to elevate your performance. Besides this, there are always bound to be questions within the same topic, so being able to group shared elements together is fundamental.

4. Use Your Specification

In essence, anything that will come up in your exam lies in your specification. It should not be taken for granted as it is an incredibly powerful tool in the course of reviewing content. Habitually refer to this and affirm that no point has been missed, to ensure no surprises arise on the day! Most students prefer using their specifications as a checklist, others are inclined to incorporate it into their revision in flashcards and notes, using each point on the specification as a header. When it comes to required practical's in Science, having access to this and ensuring you understand the purpose of the procedures can be of immense help. Use this to your advantage so that you are in control of the content and able to excel in any subject.

5. Memory Linking

To conclude, I want to share a favourite revision technique of mine, memory linking. Having the ability to connect concepts embeds them into your long-term memory, without having to review the content so regularly. This can be done using a trigger word that relates to a main topic, it should be as memorable as possible for speedy recollection. Utilising memory in this way is undoubtedly a good way to study smarter and not harder!