Perfecting Revision

Revision is something many of us avoid, and if your anything like me, you would do anything to get out of it, but at some point your going to have to face it.

I have had many exams in the last 7 years and i have had to learn in that time how to perfect revising and that revision being helpful.

Many people have different methods of learning but i have come up things that will help you to revise and see results.

1. Time Management

This has to be the most important step. When you receive your exam question, make sure to plan how long you have to revise. You will need to set realistic revision time goals, each day to ensure that your brain stores everything you will be learning. For example, if you have 4 weeks till your exam, i would recommend spending at least 3 weeks on the revision for a 2 hour exam. Each day, spending at least 5 hours revising will ensure, like with anything, that within those three weeks, you would have retained a lot of information.

Time management also allows you to spend time doing the things you love. Just because you are revising doesn't mean there is no time for the more exciting things in life.

2.Understand the Information

Now that you know how much time you have to consume the information, the next step would be to identify and highlight what information you need to consume.

Beforehand you would have been provided with a number of books, online sources or journals and lesson content. Go thorough all of this and read the sources, try to get an idea of the information before you start deciding what wont be needed and writing the "good stuff" down.

3.Writing it Down

Now that you understand the information, the next step would be to write it down. Make sure you take your time when doing this. I have found that the neater the writing is, and the more care i take, the better i read and remember the information.

While writing, it is important for you to almost have a conversation with yourself about the content. At university level, most university exams require extreme analysis. What is analysis?. Analysis in simple terms, is to read the content provided and give your opinion with evidence relevant to the topic. Often lecturers dress up the word but really, its simple.

When you have a thought write it down, its not rubbish, in the end when it comes together, your thoughts will help in your exam.

4.Repetition

In life, repetition helps many people to remember things in all aspects of their lives, and when revising it is no different.

When writing things down, it is important to repeat your notes. Write them out as many times as you need to, and then test yourself. See how much of the information you can write yourself without looking at your notes. By splitting your revision into sections and revision cards it allows you to take in your information in different way, this makes your brain work like a sponge.

5.Taking Breaks

But, and that's a big but!!, storing the information requires you to take regular breaks. Activities such as sleep and other distractions, gives your brain a rest and a chance to register and store the information.

On the day of your exam, after you've retained all of this information, you may feel like you dont remember anything, STOP!, relax and try not to look at your notes in the last 15 minutes leading up to your exam, i have found this doesn't help at all. Once you sit down and open your paper, before you look at your question, jott down everything first and then go in for the kill!!!.