Chelmsford County High School for Girls

Study and revision help

Current students

Making notes

Look at the two sets of revision notes below:

• Which one is the easiest one to read? Which one would you prefer to revise from?
• Make a list of the differences between the two sets of revision notes.

Now think about how to write your notes and ways to improve them.

Using Flow Diagrams

Try to find new ways of presenting your notes in areas where your understanding is shaky. One approach is to build up a diagram showing the main points of a topic, rather than using a paragraph of writing.

To illustrate this, look at the more traditional approach of writing a paragraph on a topic (in this case, the water cycle) below:

The same information is presented below as a flow-diagram:

To draft a flow-diagram, you have to organise your thoughts into a logical pattern. This is a very useful exercise in revising a topic. You then have to decide which points should be given the most emphasis. Only these points will appear in the diagram.