REVISION SKILLS

Highlighter PensUse highlighter pens to pick out the key points in your notes. You could, where appropriate, colour code these, so that sections in a certain topic are in a certain colour. Whenever that topic comes up, the same colour is used.

Reduced notes

Some people like to produce reduced notes, which have the key points alone on them.

Cue Cards• Reduced notes can then go on cue cards. You can easily put

them in your pocket and look at them again when you have a few spare moments.

• Making bullet pointed summaries of key sections of notes can be useful.

Teach someone

We take in:

• 10% of what we see;

• 20% of what we hear;

• 50% of what we see and hear and

• 95% of what we teach someone else

(Barwood 2005).

What works for you?• Some people like to use the same documents constantly

• Especially if they are colour coded, they actually become able to picture the page in their minds

• Others prefer variety, as they find it terribly dull to use the same thing again and again

General points:• So, you might want to look at the same topic in your own notes, then on a

website, then in the textbooks

• If you learn by repeatedly rereading a text, that’s fine.

• But try some more active learning methods too. You may be pleasantly surprised!

Around 70% of what you learn is likely to be forgotten within 24 hours - you must review the information regularly after the first learning.

For each topic, spend around 10 minutes going over your revision notes within the first 24 hours, a day later, then weekly until the time of the exam.

‘All learning without

reviewing is like filling

the bath with the plug out ’

(Hughes 1999).

Grit

• In many different investigations, one characteristic emerged as a significant predictor of success. And it wasn't social intelligence. It wasn't good looks, physical health, and it wasn't I.Q.

• It was grit.

• Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a sprint.