Chelmsford County High School for Girls

Study and revision help

Current students

How to revise & improve your memory

The following is a general "plan of action" to take you from the eighth week before your exams to the week in which the exams start.

Before you begin, you should ask yourself:

• How much time do I have available for revision?
• How many subjects do I need to revise?
• Which are my strong subjects, and which are my strong ones? (It might be useful to have a programme which alternates between strong and weak subjects).

Weeks Before Start of Exam	Advice
8	For each subject: identify the topics in your syllabus get to know the format of the examination papers: time, number of questions, type of questions start reading through your class notes, coursework, etc.
7-6	finish reading through your notes - you should now have an overview of the whole syllabus choose ten topics to study in greater depth allocate two topic areas for each subject for each of the next five weeks
5-1	Working on the basis of covering two topics per subject per week, an ideal pattern to follow in each of the last five weeks would be: read through your class notes and coursework on those topics summarise the main points: write down the principles/theories outline key terms and definitions note important examples/illustrations draw relevant diagrams/charts list important data/formulae practise answering questions: look at typical questions write outline answers write full answers to some questions, giving yourself the same time you would have in the exam make sure that you try to answer questions of each type set in the exam learn from any mistakes which you have made.

Making Summaries

As you can see from the above, making summaries is a vital part of your revision programme.

There are various methods for summarising your notes, for example:

• writing down a list of central points as you read through a topic in your notes; after finishing the reading, try to remember all you can which is linked with that point.
• using small cards on which you can record important facts, the main ideas, etc. Carry them about with you for regular reference.

Recalling & Checking Information

Even though exams are testing skills more than memory, you will still have to remember many important facts. Here are a few helpful ways of recalling information:

• Try to develop memory techniques ics) to help you recall important pieces of information. E.g. "Richard of York Gave Battle In Vain" helps you to remember the colours of the spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue indigo, violet).
• Try dictating some of your notes and then play it back to yourself from time to time.
• Read through your notes and use a coloured highlighter pen on the main points.
• Get someone to test you with questions (based on your notes). Testing (including self-testing) is one of the most effective techniques for revision. It pinpoints shaky areas in which you have difficulties, and which you need to work on, and it indicates your strong areas that you have understood and should be confident about. This is a particularly good way of revising technical definitions and formulae.
• Practice answering past exam questions. It may be a good idea to time yourself and see if you can write an answer in the time you are allocated in the exam. Using past exam papers also helps you be aware of the style in which questions are written and the number of questions to be answered in the time available.
• Make a summary on a topic, read it through and then put it way. Try writing the summary from memory. Then compare it to your original summary.
• Write down a list of central points as you read through a topic from your notes. After reading, try to write down all the items which are linked to those central points.