40 Revision Tips: For Students & Professionals
By Philip Kumar
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40 Revision Tips - Philip Kumar
market.
Chapter 1
Start early
There are occasional examples of people cramming for exams and still achieving fantastic grades. Some people are gifted and can memorise information more or less instantaneously. People with photographic memories definitely have an advantage when it comes to sitting exams. But they are in a minority. Some studies put the figure as low as two percent. The vast majority of people only have average memories. Don’t believe me? Watch a television quiz show based on general knowledge. The vast majority of contestants don’t end up winning the car or dream holiday. The truth is that students who leave revision to the last minute run the risk of failing.
If you have important exams looming on the horizon the smartest thing you can do is start the revision process early. It is a fantastic feeling walking into an exam hall knowing you have given yourself the maximum chance of securing the top grade. And this usually means having memorised all the information that is expected of you. The best way of doing this is to start early. Starting anything is never easy, never mind starting something early. We tend to put off things we don’t like doing.
Examples: Packing for summer school, tidying your bedroom, completing homework, removing weeds from the driveway, cleaning your bike after a day out.
However if you want to be successful in life you have to make sacrifices. And hard work, for all of its pain, is surprisingly addictive once you get into it. Indeed, a strong work ethic will stay with you for life. It will open doors and make your life easier. What’s more other people will admire your graft and dedication.
So what exactly do I mean by starting early? This obviously depends on how many subjects you are juggling, what the time frame is, and how long it takes you to memorise information and learn theories. A reasonable rule of thumb is to start at least six months before your exam. If you are taking multiple subjects you might want to start even earlier. But six months is a reasonable amount of time for most students. Indeed starting six months early usually coincides with the onset of a new year. Once January begins you will know it is time to start revising. January is an excellent marker and a good time to establish new goals. The beginning of a new year always feels special. It is a time of reinvention, aspiration, and forward planning.
Giving yourself a reasonable period of time also allows you to start slowly before increasing your workload. You may only do a couple of hours to begin with before building up to revision days lasting several hours. It’s a bit like training for a marathon – you want to peak at the right time.
Another strategy is to be revising all the time – as soon as your course actually begins. If you are a first year student at university you could read your notes immediately after a lecture, and then condense them so they are revision friendly. You can add to these condensed notes if you think your lecturer has missed something important. And once your notes are ready you can start memorising them. By the time of your twentieth lecture you will have already memorised the previous nineteen. This will put you well ahead of your classmates. Most students will not have the discipline to revise immediately – it will just seem too much like a burden. But smart people do things that payoff in the long run.
Another reason to start early is to find a style of revision that you are comfortable with:
• Do you like doing short sessions or longer ones?
• Do you prefer revision cards, notes in a ring-binder, or mind maps?
• Are you more suited to working in the morning or at night?
• How do you fit revision around extra-curricular activities?
If you are studying several subjects at the same time, you might want to consider staggering the revision process so you start with the hardest subject first.
A lot of students who study Maths aged 16-18 can testify to the high workload. They spend more time on this subject than the others. It therefore makes sense to start working on it earlier in the build up to exams. Some people find Chemistry difficult. It can be daunting memorising equations. It is far better to begin the process early. You will eventually know the equations so well that they become second nature.
Some of the benefits of starting revision early include:
• More time to get organised and establish a rhythm
• Greater time to remember information parrot fashion
• Extra time to work on weaker areas and harder subjects
• More time to practice past papers and exam conditions
• More time to ask for help on topics you find difficult
• More moments of breakthrough, clarity, and understanding
• Plenty of time to make revision cards and notes
• Less stress before exams and the luxury of having proper sleep during exam week
• Greater confidence and self-belief on the big day
• Easier to maintain a social life and hobbies
• Better self-esteem. No reason to feel guilty because you are already doing what you’re supposed to be doing!
Chapter 2
Make Revision Notes
Some students don’t actually make bespoke revision notes. They simply revise from notes they have made in class, adding extra bits of information where necessary. Other students enjoy revising directly from textbooks. This sometimes depends on how well written the book is. A good textbook can be an inspiration, a badly written one can put you off a subject for life. Whilst many students like making notes from textbooks, they find them too dense to revise from. Other students buy ready-made revision aids from retailers. Many of these products are excellent and can be purchased from bookstores or over the Internet. All the above methods can work if you want them to.
The advantage in preparing ‘revision notes’ is that you are preparing notes with the very specific aim of helping you pass exams. Some students use cards as their preferred revision tool. One side of the card contains detailed information. The other side has an outline of the information only.
Take The Contact Process in Chemistry. This is an industrial process used to make sulphuric acid. The most important things students need to know are:
1. The stages involved
2. The chemicals needed
3. The relevant equations
4. The catalyst used
5. The correct temperature
6. Pressure considerations
7. Equilibrium considerations
8. The uses of sulphuric acid industrially
If using cards, one side would have THE CONTACT PROCESS written on it. Beneath this heading would be the eight points listed above. On the reverse side of the card would be the exact detail of what needs to be remembered.
In a relatively short amount of time you can generate enough cards to cover an entire subject. The advantage of cards is that you can take them anywhere with you. If you suddenly find yourself with a window then it’s easy to revise. Having a set of cards/revision notes is also a confidence booster. That’s because you know you have a resource to get you through an exam.
If cards are not your thing you can write revision notes on pieces of A4 paper. You can either prepare these notes on a computer or write them out by hand. Use headings for each topic and subtopic. Once the revision notes are ready simply cover up the information you are trying to remember with a piece of paper, and try and reproduce the information by either thinking it, saying it, or writing it down. If you can’t remember it, simply remove the blank piece of paper, re-read your notes and then cover them up again. Keep repeating this until you have remembered everything. It is hard at first but becomes easier with practice. You will observe your memory improving over time.
You can either store your notes in a ringbinder, cardboard document wallet, or plastic document holder. Transferring them onto a smartphone is also a good idea.
Don’t expect to write all your revision notes in a day. They will take 2-3 weeks to prepare.
If revision cards or indeed revision notes are not your thing then mind maps or web diagrams might be helpful. Here you connect information together using a large