With exam time fast approaching, students, teachers and parents up and down the country are swiftly feeling the strain and anxiety of it all. There is no doubt that for many, last minute cramming and after school revision sessions will be the method of choice. but is there a better way? What does the research say are the best ways to maximise student revision time?
Book performance Under pressure student Workshop
Space Out Your learning and test Yourself
A recent review into the science of memory and revision taken a look at what are the most popular and effective revision methods employed by students? Unfortunately, some of the most frequently used techniques are actually the least effective (for this, read using highlighter and simply re-reading crucial passages).
The two a lot of consistently effective techniques are arguably the least glamorous. They may not be fun, but they sure are effective. The first is to space out your learning. actors don’t leave all their rehearsals until the day before the opening night of a play. athletes don’t only train the day before the match. To commit something to memory, it takes time.
Starting early and revisiting topics frequently helps commit it to your long term memory. By giving yourself enough time to forget it and then re-learn it, it ingrains and cements the knowledge deep in your brain.
Likewise, testing yourself is a good revision strategy. It forces you to think about what you do and don’t know. The act of retrieving information is powerful. As stated in the exceptional ‘What Makes terrific Teaching’, “having to generate an answer or procedure, or having to retrieve information – even if no feedback is given – leads to better long term recall than simply studying”.
As well as this, it can be used to prepare students for exam conditions. By replicating the format of the exams, this will help normalise exam pressure and help students develop exam methods that work best for them.
Teach It To someone Else
Teaching the material to someone else Camiseta LOSC Lille has been found to improve students’ memory and recall. This is known as ‘The Protégé Effect’. As author Annie-Murphy Paul describes in this article, teaching someone can help improve your learning in two ways.
Firstly, by preparing to show someone else, it prompts you to categorise the information clearly in your own brain, ensuring you have made full sense of it.
Secondly, by knowing that you have to answer someone else’s questions on the topic, it ‘compels users to think and describe the material in different ways’. Their questions can also expose any gaps in your knowledge, forcing you to go back and re-learn the material in a lot more depth and detail.
Create a sense of Purpose
The three ideas above: spacing out learning; testing yourself; and teaching the material to someone else, all relate to improving your memory. get what about boosting the motivation to want to revise. What does the research say about that?
You could try to enhance motivation with rewards (i.e. “I will give you £20 for each A you get in your exams”). This sort of technique is becoming ever-popular amongst parents. The Sutton depend on investigated the effect of incentives on pupil attainment. In a randomised control trial involving over 10,000 pupils in 63 schools, they found that rewards such as an end of year trip had some impact on classroom behaviour and effort, but not on actual GCSE grades.
The problem with rewards is that they can hinder intrinsic motivation. It also takes a big reward to change Camiseta Selección de fútbol de Camerún daily behaviour.
A recent study found that there may be a better way. participants in the study were taught a new language in a very boring way. They were divided into four groups:
Some students were not given any reason as to why they must do the task.
Some students were told they must try hard as it was expected of them (in this group, words such as ‘should, must’ and ‘have to’ were emphasised).
Some participants were Camiseta AC Milan told to pay attention as they would have to take a test at the end.
The fourth group was told that learning a new language would help them in their future occupation (and thus created a ‘sense of purpose’ in them).
The results? Those who had the explanation as to why this skill would be useful to them put in much a lot more effort and learnt a lot more than the other groups. If we can help students identify: a) why their revision is important; and b) how this will help them in both the short and the long-term, it may help them fuel their motivation during their revision sessions.
Get a good Night’s Sleep
Sleep is an crucial and typically overlooked area during the revision session. For those dedicated students, the temptation may be to sacrifice some sleep in buy to stay up and revise more. This would be a mistake.
Sleep plays a major role in how you feel and also how much you remember. It is linked to your health, your concentration and your ability tonull