revision tips

[Dave Stones]

ok, at the end of august i have 3 resits, 2 out of the 3 i need to pass to pass "go" and go on to my second year at uni. my only problem is, i am the worst reviser in the world. i am one of those people who has "ants in my pants", after maybe 5 minutes maximum of revising and doing questions i start to fidget and get really bored, and stop paying attention to what i am meant to be doing. (the fact i am here posting this kinda proves that ). going and sitting in a quiet room with no distractions and so forth doesn't work, i get bored and just get up and leave, i think i must have the shortest attention span in the world...

anyway, i know there are other studenty types and oldies who have done exams in the past that live here, so what are some good tips on helping me revise and do a second year at uni, and not turn into a dropout and work at a supermarket all my life?

if only those subliminal and sleep-learning tapes worked

[Bex]

Originally Posted by Dave Stones

ok, at the end of august i have 3 resits, 2 out of the 3 i need to pass to pass "go" and go on to my second year at uni. my only problem is, i am the worst reviser in the world. i am one of those people who has "ants in my pants", after maybe 5 minutes maximum of revising and doing questions i start to fidget and get really bored, and stop paying attention to what i am meant to be doing. (the fact i am here posting this kinda proves that ). going and sitting in a quiet room with no distractions and so forth doesn't work, i get bored and just get up and leave, i think i must have the shortest attention span in the world...

anyway, i know there are other studenty types and oldies who have done exams in the past that live here, so what are some good tips on helping me revise and do a second year at uni, and not turn into a dropout and work at a supermarket all my life?

if only those subliminal and sleep-learning tapes worked

the fact that you get bored sitting in one place for too long shows that you must be an active learner, ie you actually have to do stuff.
maybe walk around the room and say out loud the stuff that you have to revise (cant remember what subject you do)

maybe spend 45minutes at a time revising, and properly revising and then give yourself a treat...

i used to summarise each theory into a line, remember that line and then test myself on how many of the summaries i could remember..... problem is you kinda need to have a vague idea of the theory first

the other thing you could do is make amusing or dirty rhymes out of things.... take the first letter of whatever u have to remember....maybe a formula or whatever and make a amusing rhyme

[danielf]

Firstly, I would say that it is important to not cram your revision into a small time period. Rather than revising 12 hours in one day, start early, and do three days with 4 hours each. Make a summary of what you've revised to go over when the exam comes near.

As for getting yourself to revise. As with the above, get into a routine. You may want to consider revising somewhere else than at home (e.g library). Just get yourself to do a set number of hours everyday. If it helps, make it the same time slot every day. Boring, I know, but the trick really is to make it into a routine.

[Indians]

What worked for me was going through the material and writing out on another sheet of paper the 'key' points and things I always had trouble remembering, like a 'crib' sheet. i.e. if you were allowed to take a few notes into an exam, what would you take ?
I would carry it with me and read through it whenever I had a spare few minutes. I found that both writing stuff out again and reviewing it often was enough to let it sink in.

[Bex]

Originally Posted by Indians

What worked for me was going through the material and writing out on another sheet of paper the 'key' points and things I always had trouble remembering, like a 'crib' sheet. i.e. if you were allowed to take a few notes into an exam, what would you take ?
I would carry it with me and read through it whenever I had a spare few minutes. I found that both writing stuff out again and reviewing it often was enough to let it sink in.

the problem is dave obviously gets bored quickly.... i admit that was the type of thing i did as well indians..... although i admit i seemed to spend a lot of time on messanger and on the forum when i was meant to be revising....

another thing i found that helped was, my best friend (who i lived with and did the same course) never did any revision, so the day before the exam i would teach her everything we had done on the course

[Dave Stones]

Originally Posted by Bex

the problem is dave obviously gets bored quickly.... i admit that was the type of thing i did as well indians..... although i admit i seemed to spend a lot of time on messanger and on the forum when i was meant to be revising....

another thing i found that helped was, my best friend (who i lived with and did the same course) never did any revision, so the day before the exam i would teach her everything we had done on the course

i get bored quicker than you would believe... it's not right. i found a website which said what type of learner i was (yes, i got bored again so went hunting the interweb ) and it said i was an "auditory learner" cos i have to have loud music on in the background and find it hard to concentrate in quiet areas..... random.

anyway i will try out look cover write check and see if it helps... seems to be the best option at the moment

[punky]

Firstly dont worry about your ants in the pants. You can move around and stuff and walk (you'd become a potential diaster area though), but so long as you are reading. Basically though the best way people revise is usually specific to them for personal reasons, but i'll give you some general and personal advice that I can think of.

1) Test, retest and then retest again. The whole read-test-mark-lookup cycle seems to work for me.

2) The good old standby is re-writing your notes out. Again and again. For some reason, having the info flowing through your body and your hand makes you remember it.

3) Never underestimate the importance of morale. People think "I cant go down the pub, I have to revise!", but being in front of books isn't revising, you need to take in information. If you have worked hard all day, there ius no reason come 7pm you can slip off down the SU for a couple and have a laugh. Not revising is as important as revising in that respect. The alcohol will even open your mind a bit when you come back and you may find some things sticking easier.

4) Get index cards (little mini cards, like A8 size) and write down key pieces of information. Forumlae, rules, bullet points you just can't rememeber. Take them everywhere, every spare second you get (waiting for bus, on bus, in checkouts, etc), flick through them. All that extra exposure really adds up. If it is just a case or memorising, but not understanding something (like a formula), then this really works.

5) With the exam, eat a fair amount of chocolate (pure chocolate, not the extra bars like Crunchie and double Deckers), about 30 mins before the start of the exam. The chocolate will release sugars to help keep your mind active, and endomorphines to keep you calm. I normally drink Coke like normal and it doesn't really affect me, but i'm guessing you should avoid Coffee (I wouldn't know, I never drink it)

Other than that, all the same old stuff really. Try your best, that is all anyone can and will ever ask. Unless you are from a family of nuclear scientists, they would be proud of you for trying, so try and relax and don't think you are "letting everyone down".

That's about it for the moment. I'll post more when they come to me though.

Edit: If you can, some people swear by recording the facts down ona dictaphone and listening to it. Not only does it take the effort out (you don't have to read, just listen), but some people say that hearing it in their voice, explained in their way, helps it sink in easier

This worked for me and i dont have a long concentration span.

1. Do the work up front!! then revision is revision rather than learning. Too late for that i guess.

2. Do revision in 20 - 30 minute stints with 15 min breaks.

3. After three stints of revision take a longerr break and reward yourself.

4. ALWAYS revise something before going to bed. You'll be amazed how much you will remember from the pre sleep revision period.

[Halcyon]

I'd say take regular breaks.
so once you've covered one topic, take a break, go get a drink or something.
Also dont stay in all day. Just go out for 10 minutes and take a walk to the shops to give you a bit of fresh air, and then go back to your revising. You'l feel a lot better.

This does not always work for all people, but I have music on whilst revising which helps.

[Bex]

Originally Posted by gary_580

4. ALWAYS revise something before going to bed. You'll be amazed how much you will remember from the pre sleep revision period.

i purposefully didn't revise before going to bed, because if i did i would end up going round and round the stuff i had revised, so not get any sleep, which meant when i was meant to get up and revise i was too tired too, so would sleep in then wouldn't be able to get an early ish night... and so on the circle would continue.

dave listen to music when u revise then... i always used to. just dont put the telly on, or one of your fav Cd's that you know all the words from

don;t make revising into a major chore... like someone said, if you've done some revision that day (a few hours) go down the pub

[Ramrod]

'Distill' down the information that you need to memorise to it's basic simple facts and learn those, nothing else. Do not try to read around the subject or remember anything else. If you go into the exam knowing the 'bare bones' of your subject you will get your marks and pass.
If you have a good short term memory and you have done some work through the year you can also crash revise a subject the night before the exam. Revise the subject from 8pm - 1am and then get up again at 7am on the morning of the exam and do 2 hours of further learning. The info should then be in your short term memory (if it's up to it)