Whether you are currently studying or a parent trying to support your young person through their learning journey, revision is always something that can be mystifying. We are going to create a series of blogs giving you tips and tricks to use to make that revision just a little bit easier.
Let's start with the planning!
We all know that a revision timetable is a great idea, teachers tell us we need one and every How To guide tells us that's where to start but do you know how?
Create a week plan breaking your day into 15 minute slots - this may seem like micro managing but 15 minute blocks are manageable and actually small chunks of revision are really effective.
Next block out all your non-negotiables; school, travel times, clubs, meal times
Then put in your breaks. Do you need a 15 minute snack time after school? Do you need to go for a run every day to clear your head? Do you need to practice your instrument for 15 minutes a day? Do you need a relaxing bath to calm you down after a long day?
Once this is all in this is your template. Your timetable is going to change (a lot!) so you may want to print this several times so you can scribble your plans each week.
Breaking your revision up
Remember that your attention span is limited to about 45-50 minutes so when chunking up your time think about 15, 30 and 45 minute chunks. Past practice paper is a little different and we'll come back to that in a later blog.
Remember that you will need to go over the same content more than once for it to stick in your brain. Plan to look at a topic 3 times, each time reducing the amount of time you spend on it.
Try to make sure you have a variety of revision activities to keep it interesting and ensure that your brain is engaged. We will be exploring some of the activities you could do over our next few blogs.
Make sure you know what you can and can't do
It is human nature to want to do the things that we find easy but that isn't going to help you make progress.
Make sure you know what you can and can't do, use feedback from teachers, test results, traffic light sheets, to help you identify what topics you need to focus on. If you can do it leave it, go for the topics where you are loosing a few marks first (the amber topics) before then moving on to the ones you can't start (the red ones).
It may feel counter intuitive to spend time that you could be revising on planning your revision but if you can make a good plan your revision will be so much more effective.
Take a little time each week to reflect on where you're at, what you can and can't do and what you need to prioritise the following week.
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