How do you revise?

[_Gizmo_]

I have my prelims* coming up soon and I'm not too sure if my revision techniques are working very well. The classic method of reading over countless pages just doesn't work for me. I do tend to be the guy who leaves everything 'till the last minute and I'm trying my hardest to change that.

So, in a nutshell, how do you do it?
Which method do you find best for storing large amounts of information in your head?
Does colour coding and highlighting work for you, or do you hit the energy drinks and practice questions for hours on end?

Oh and don't say 'you shouldn't be on the internet for a start', I'm going just after I watch the latest ZP...I promise...



*Prelims are tests you take in the space of a week on every subject you chose to study in S3-S4 (around 14-16 years old). These tests are harder than the final exams and are equally, if not slightly more important than them.

 

[dragonslayer32]

I read just before I go into the exam. It doesn't work for everuone but it works for me. I also make a list of things I need to cover before so I know what I need to read about.

 

[AnAngryMoose]

Go through your textbooks and class notes and summarise everything into bulletpoints and then read over them about 3 or 4 times a day until the exams.

EDIT: Also, after you read over them do a random question without using the summaries to see how well you've learned it.

 

[Silent observer]

I cover my walls with pages of notes and stuff in the run up to exams. Works a treat.

 

[The Night Shade]

Resume what i have to study and then read it

 

[El Poncho]

Oh yes, prelims, made to scare the hell out of you so when you go to the final exam you think, wow, this is pretty fucking easy

I have my higher prelims in March, I study by doing past paper questions and if I get a question wrong I almost all of the time remember what the question was and get it right the next time something similar pops up.

 

[konor77]

I don't really study because i've never really bothered and i don't really get it. but if ihave to learn something of by heart like a poem or a definition then making it into a sort of song helps me.

 

[BENZOOKA]

Write down the most important things. The same things that are on the book. Just a word can be enough for quite a large amount of information if you can connect the things right.

Don't only read. Also: write down, say aloud the things and listen to.

 

[DonMartin]

Ive come to the realization that anything I was told in class or wrote down during, is basically as good as it's going to get. I wont remember it any better if I just go through the same pages over and over again. What I do is I read through my notes once, and then I just read other books on the same subject. I find that's the best way for me to learn, looking up the same things in different books.

I use this "technique" mainly for philosophy and psychology, but I guess it should work for other subjects too?

 

[ramboondiea]

i do it very badly, i procrastinate too much, the only upside is im a constructive procrastinator so i do all my odd jobs haha

although when i get round to actual revision i jot down some fundamental aspects of what it is im learning, and read them over repeatedly.
if i have a rough idea of the questions il be getting il right out practise question and just read them oer and oer whilst listening music, its seems to be working as im getting throu uni with no real problems

 

[thylasos]

Copying out my notes, mainly. Writing a practise essay or two.

 

[aizenmyoo]

Studying with friends works for me. What we do is each one of us studies a different part of the subject. Then, we quizz each other about that subject, and then, when we're confident in our understanding of those bits, we switch to other parts. It's time-consuming, but it seems to work.

 

[revolutionaification]

When I did them just the other year I didn't make the effort to study. I wanted to, sure, but my procrastination got the better of me. But this year, for NABs and stuff I'm pinning A4 sheets of paper to my walls with short facts written as big as I can get them. Just stick them up behind your computer or tv or anywhere else you spend a lot of time facing and you'll notice them often enough for them to stick.

 

[Squidden]

My school system forces a single type of studying onto us. For each class we have to write "Learning Essential Questions" into our notebooks which really do not help at all. Also, most classes make you study one way such as outlining a book (which doesn't help me at all). Other teachers just throw a bunch of facts onto a board and make us copy it down.

I prefer to just read the textbook over and over, unless it's math. Then I would ask someone to help me and just keep doing math problems until I understand it.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Not.

That is, when I was still in school. Just doing fuck-all got me through high school just fine. Then I entered college and...oh boy, it wasn't pretty. Safe to say that I fucked up badly (twice) and as a result am now working a low-wage, low-hours job at a local supermarket.

Thanks to those huge failures (amongst other things) I've descended into a spiral of depression so I haven't gone back to college. It's been 2...3 years now? I'm not sure. I have been getting professional help for a while now, but it ain't doing much good so far.

So yeah, study hard, even if you don't really need it. You don't want to get into this situation.

 

[Dags90]

Cramming is what works best for me. I have a pretty solid short term memory, and most topics aren't so broad as to require more than an hour or so to get the major important facts for. For mathy subjects the only real way to "study" is to memorize any theorem that need memorizing, and practice problems. It's easier to memorize them if you make them rhyme or break them into "chunks".

 

[SimuLord]

I don't study. I show up for class, do the work, and when it's final time either I know it or I don't. Rare indeed is the case where I've improved my grade through studying, and it's usually been because I was either hideously unprepared (thus basically seeing it for the first time during the cram session) or the material was so technical that I had to make sure I knew the formula/method step-by-step for sure.

 

[Idlemessiah]

I read past exam papers to gauge the topics and revise from there. If one question comes up 2 years on and 2 years off for the last 10 years you can work out fairly accurately whether or not you'll get it.
Using this method I do less than half the revision of my classmates and still end up doing quite well.

Also, revision doesn't work if you don't do the work. Theres no point in dossing about thinking, I'll learn it myself before the exam, cause you won't have a clue where to revise from and you'll have no notes. Trust me thats not the way to go.


But don't go overboard either, to much revision in one area might make you forget about something you already knew, you can trust me on that one too. Best thing to do is leave it until about a week before your exams. Thats plenty of time to revise, plus you won't wear yourself out.

 

[Your Nightmare]

Funny this topic came up actually.
In year 12, during the January exams - I used the same revision method that I used through GCSE and came out with a B (I didn't have the best track record through GCSE mind you) Now I have got another way, and I came out with a high A (summer exams) So it couldn't have been bad.

It does very little to read something over and over again, or just copy out your notes - because in the exam, you're expected to 'Output' all of the knowledge that you have learnt, right?

So read through a page in your text book. Then read through it once more, this time picking out key words (by writing them down on a piece of paper)
Then do something for 5 minutes (Maybe make a post on the Escapist?) Then get a piece of paper and write down everything you can remember about the page you have just read. Then compare it to the actual page. If you have missed anything, make a note of it - then repeat the process. You want to be able to write down the key elements of the page from heart. But it isn't much good writing it out straight away (What with short term / long term memory) So you want to wait at least a minute before testing yourself (To test how much you can remember more efficiently)

Then move on to the next topic and so on. But at the end of the day, you want to write down everything you have learnt from that day. If you miss anything, you know what you want to revise tomorrow. This is a very time consuming process, but I'm at the stage where I can pretty much look at a page once and only miss only 1 or 2 details. Also depends how much time you have before your exam.

That's what I do anyway. But just make sure you are testing what you have learnt, as that is all an exam is doing, right? Doesn't make sense to just read and not test what you think you have learnt.

(I have wrote a lot about this on my blog for anyone who is interested)