Effective Revision Techniques

“If you think you can,

you can,
if you think you can’t,
you can’t!”
Henry Ford

Presenteer:
Mrs. Swati Tanna
DAV Public School, Nerul

21 Feb 2018
 The Statistics
• 66% material is forgotten after 7 days
• 88% material is forgotten after 6 weeks

• Reading notes and text books leads to a mere

10% retention 
Let’s start with what not to do!
Don’t imagine you can learn everything
you need to know the night before the
exam. Your memory won’t cope.
Don’t imagine that life will go on as
‘normal’ during important examinations. It
won’t. This is a critical time in your life,
possibly with HUGE implications for your
future. You must be prepared to make
some sacrifices to make sure that you do
the very best that you can.
Don’t be negative about what you think
you can achieve. Revising thoroughly and
receiving the help and support of the
people around you will make all the
difference. So, don’t tell yourself you “can’t
do it anyway” – that’s just opting out.
Don’t think it will be enough simply to read
through your notes. It won’t. Very few of
us have a photographic memory. You will
need to employ other techniques.
Give yourself the best chance you can.

Revision needs to be planned. Draw up a

revision timetable. Be specific: don’t just write in
‘maths’ – write in ‘maths, algebra’, for example.
Stick to your timetable, but build in room for
manoeuvre. Make sure that all areas of each
subject are covered within your timetable.
Avoid the temptation to focus on what you
are good at or what you most enjoy. We
all do this to make ourselves feel
successful, it’s human nature.
Make sure you devote extra time to those
areas you find more difficult and, possibly,
less interesting. You can bet your life that
these things will crop up on an exam
paper.
Plan your revision in half hour chunks with
built-in breaks of at least 5 minutes. Every
couple of hours, take a slightly longer
break of, say, 15 minutes. During your
break, forget about revision – have a drink
and a snack. Talk to your family!

Use the “Pomodoro technique”, invented

by Francesco Cirillo who began using a
kitchen timer to structure his work – 35
minutes of work, broken by five-minute
intervals to do whatever he pleased.
Revise in a quiet environment. Close the
door. Keep phone away to keep away
from calls, SMS, WhatsApp Messages, or
e-mails.
Examination time is not a good time to go
on a diet!
Eat breakfast!
Eat lunch!
Eat dinner!
Eat healthy snacks!
You brain needs and uses energy and
burns calories. So feed it!
 Do's and Don'ts
• Start brushing up on your revision early — i.e. weeks, not days before the
examination. Make a schedule and stick to it.
• Don’t devote ages making your notes look pretty — these should be just
informative / hinting but surely not a work of art.
• Take small breaks — every 40 to 60 minutes, not every 15-25 minutes.
• In study vacation, start early i.e. 7 or 8 am — that way you will get your
day’s work completed much faster.
• Stick revision notes all around your house so that in the examination you
think — “aha, quadratic equations, I stuck them on the TV…”
• Sit at a appropriate desk – Don’t try to revise the material in bed — you’ll
get relaxing before you can say “Revision”.
• Don’t Procrastinate – it means reorganizing stuff on your table,
organizing your room, etc. Sit down at your desk and GET ON WITH IT.
• Don’t turn into a revision stickler — do other things as well and relax.
• Find the right environment to revise – NOT while watching the TV. NOT
while listening to music. Music can occasionally be OK.
Revision Steps...
Word Document
Know your Learner
 Know your Learner

• If you know what type of learner you are, you

can then tailor your revision to your needs...
 Revision Methods
• Mind-maps
• Key words – post-its
• Flash Cards
• Podcasts
• Family / Friends Test
• Highlight
• Chant / Rap
• Mnemonics
 Mind-Maps
• Mapping your notes
by radiating key
words out in a pattern
of links from a central
point will make best
use of your memory.

• If you use colour and

images on the maps,
you'll be harnessing
the power of both
sides of your brain :
creative and logical.
 Revision Methods
• Key words – • Flash Cards • Highlight
post-its
 Revision Methods
• Mnemonics
ways of helping recall facts and lists, or creating
visual representations of the knowledge
 So, how will you learn?
What techniques will you use?

We all have different learning styles.

You will need to write things down. You
may need to do this more than once to get
it into your head.
Complete practice papers. Your teachers
will be only too happy to mark them and
give you advice.
Learn and use the key words for each of
your subjects. It is important to spell these
words correctly, so take time to learn them
if you need to. Use the ‘look, say, cover,
write , check’ method.

For really tricky words, write your own

mnemonic to help you remember.
Use post-it notes, strategically placed
around your home, to remind you of tricky
facts.
This is a good place…

You need to choose places you go to

regularly.
Ask someone in your family to test you.
Be the teacher! Once you have revised a
topic, try teaching it to someone else.
You might try recording your own notes
and listening to them last thing at night.
Upload your recording to your MP3 or
MP4 and listen to it on the way to and
from school etc.
If you are musically inclined, set your
notes to the tune of your favourite tune
and sing them!
 Some New Approaches
Prof John Dunlovsky, of Kent State University and his colleagues reviewed
1,000 scientific studies looking at some popular revision strategies. His
research identified some useful refinements in revision methods, and
recommended TWO methods.
Practice testing Self-testing to check knowledge, especially using flash
cards
Distributed / spreading out study over time and subjects
Spaced practice
"Students who can test themselves or try to retrieve material from their
memory are going to learn that material better in the long run", says Prof
Dunlovsky.
He adds: "Testing itself when you get the correct answers appears to
produce a more elaborative memory trace connected with your prior
knowledge, so you're building on what you know".
The best strategy is to plan ahead and not do all your revision on one subject
in a block before moving on to the next - a technique called "distributed /
spaced practice".
 Some New Approaches

Ed Cooke, a British “memory champion”, says that, the key is to start early
but learn in short bursts, testing yourself on a subject over several weeks.

“One good technique is, at the end of a revision session, to force yourself to
write down everything you know about the subject on a blank piece of paper,”
says Cooke. “That way, rather than testing yourself on individual bits, you’ll
test yourself on the whole, and it forms in your mind as a narrative. When
you compare what you have with your notes, you’ll also notice the gaps, and
be like 'Oh, I completely forgot that Japan was in the Second World War.
Whoops.’ ” And this will lead to summarization as you understand it best.
When you do the next revision, “You don’t have actually to go through the
whole text, but only important points. Because you have already
consolidated the learning once.”
 Distributed / Spaced Learning:
• 1 hour later revise the topic for 10 minutes
• 1 day later revise the topic for 5 minutes
• 1 week later revise the topic for 2-5 minutes
• 1 month later revise the topic for 2-5 minutes

• Each time knowledge is reinforced; it enters

deeper into the long-term memory and
becomes more stable.
 Thanks

The Bottom Line is:

No technique works without focus and discipline.