How to choose the right revision method

There are so many methods to revision, so our writer Ross outlined the main methods and the advantages of each!

 

Flashcards

Flashcards come in a variety of shapes, sizes, colours and even the line width can vary. They are an extremely handy way to revise whether at home, school or on a trip.

I would especially recommend using physical flashcards for group 3 subjects (social sciences and humanities).

For group 2 subjects (languages), I would lean more towards digital flashcards such as Quizlet as there’ll be more to get through in terms of vocabulary, while group 3 subjects have a range of ideas that link to each other and in my opinion, that is better done on paper.

Method:

When creating flashcards, make sure you know all the content that you’re going to place on the flashcards before writing anything down. This can be done through any method of active recall- whether it’s mind maps or lists.

After these have been done, what I would recommend is finding two boxes or places to place these flashcards. Initially place them all in one of them. After testing yourself daily on them, separate them in the two boxes: one box as the I know and the other box as the I don’t know and will test myself on this tomorrow. After a week or so, put them all in the I don’t know box and start this process again.

Top tips:

· Use your coloured flashcards as a great way to distinguish topics in a subject. E.g in economics have blue microeconomics flashcards but yellow macroeconomics flashcards. This is to avoid confusion.

· Use a hairband/elastic band/box/carry case, to ensure your flashcards don’t get lost, damaged or mixed with other subjects.

· When testing yourself with flashcards, physically write down anything that you believe is on the other side of the flashcard. This is to ensure that you would easily retrieve that information during a test.

· When using white flashcards, instead of agonising over what colour highlighters to use for every single flashcard, create a colour scheme per topic. E.g in physics use pastel pink, yellow, grey, lilac and purple for circular motion. You don’t have to use all the highlighters per flashcard but you save time deciding on colours.

Mind maps

We have briefly run into mind maps in the previous section while it’s important to note that it can work well with other revision methods, it can also stand quite well on its own (though I personally wouldn’t recommend unless a few practice papers were thrown into the mix).

For mind mapping, I would suggest group 4 subjects (natural sciences). However, all subjects would be appropriate.

If using a similar method (timeline), I would suggest group 1 (Studies in language and literature) in order to test one’s grasp of a plot.

Method

One way mind maps can be formulated is after one reads a section of a textbook. After reading a particular section, close the textbook and brain dump all you remember from that in a mind map (can be done on a whiteboard, digitally, in a notebook or on loose paper). Next, open the textbook and add in/correct anything in a different colour pen.

Mind maps can also be made without having read any revision material beforehand but make sure information is checked through either a textbook, online sources or one’s own notes.

Tips

· If your revision method solely consists of mind maps, I would recommend making them as neat as possible so you can revise from them at a later date when you’re short for time.

· Additionally make them accessible e.g. if you used a whiteboard, take photos and put them all in the same folder, if you used a piece of loose paper, consider a binder to keep them together, and so on.

· If you’re planning on using flashcards as your main revision method but used mind maps to create them in the first place, don’t worry about your handwriting being scruffy.

· Ultimately it’s your choice whether to throw out mind maps after having made neat, legible flashcards. However, I would recommend using something I like to call a panic notebook for all the scruffy mind maps that way if you missed something, you can always find it again. 

 

Panic notebook

First of all, I’d like to claim that a panic notebook is actually just a thing I made up for my GCSEs that proved to be largely successful. So my advice is when finding a notebook to use as a panic notebook, don’t search up panic notebook because I have no idea what you’d find…

It is in reality, a normal lined notebook. I usually buy one with something funny on the cover. For example, I’m currently using one that on its cover has the sentence ‘things to worry about when I have nothing better to do.’ I purchased that one from amazon.

There is no clear method for panic book usage but as the name suggests it is used in moments of panic. When I first started using a notebook in this way, I was studying three modern foreign languages and needed to learn my speaking paragraphs for my GCSEs, so I would write all the paragraph down and then highlight sentences in different colours and slowly memorise the whole thing.

After this, I started using this for Romeo and Juliet quotes, then physics equations, then dates for history and before I knew it, I was using the same notebook for all my subjects. I would use the notebook – depending on which subject I was most stressed about or which one had a closer exam date.

So as there is no clear method, here are a few top tips!

Tips

As I mentioned earlier, this is a panic notebook-meaning it can be as scruffy as they come. As it is scruffy, make sure it is not used as your main source of revision or store notes.

Any subject can be stuffed in here, no matter the different layout of content. If you have to brain dump, no one is stopping you.

Bring it to school with you. You never know if your teacher is going to spring a last minute vocabulary test on you or whether you’ll have time in your free period to squeeze a mind map in.

Your panic book can also be your pride book. During my GCSE exams, my best friend and I gave each other a sticker for every paper we completed and I would stick mine in the back of my panic book. The tradition will continue into my IB examinations!