Student Learning Development

Revision and exam

techniques
Student Learning Development

Presentation Outline
• How do I deal with exam anxiety?

• How do I start revising?

• How can I improve my memory?

• Which revision techniques can I use?

• How do I organise my time in the exam?

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How do I deal with exam

anxiety
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Concerns
• There is too much to learn
• I don’t know what to revise
• I don’t know how to revise
• I don’t know where to start
• I don’t have enough time
• My notes are too messy/disorganised
• I don’t know how to memorise things
• I feel too worried to remember
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Common problems
• Not starting to revise early enough
• Forgetting to revise key topics
• Reading notes again and again
• Not gearing revision to specific exams
• Learning essays off by heart
• Putting off revision – Lack of motivation
• Losing interest
• Unable to fit revision into schedule
• Feeling overwhelmed
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Reflect on Previous
experiences
• What revision or memory techniques have
worked for you in the past?
• Do you have any experience of using any
particular memory techniques?
• Are there any revision techniques or strategies
which you feel have been less successful for you
previously?
• How are you planning to approach your revision
this time?
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Make sure you try to…

• Reduce worry
• Have good foundations – plan you revision strategies as
soon as possible
• look after yourself:
This will help
o good nutrition and water you deal with
o rest, exercise and relaxation anxiety and
• learn to remember (techniques) improve your
memory
• revise – sleep – review
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How do I start revising?

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Stage 1
Begin as early as possible. Familiarise yourself with what is required and plan:

• Time: when will you revise?

• Location: where will you revise?
• Work: what do you have to revise?
• How – what works best for you?

To be a successful reviser you should:

• Prepare
• Organise
• Memorise
• Recall
(Price and Maier, 2007)
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Stage 2
Plan your revision strategy
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Stage 3

Make a realistic timetable and stick to it:

•When do you work best?

•Plan your day: include targets, treats, meals

and time to relax and sleep

•Take regular breaks

•Maximise your time – use short blocks of

time
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Stage 4
Select key issues to revise (use your notes from
lectures/ seminars as a starting point)
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Stage 5
Organise and reduce notes

• Group and organise your material

• Highlight and subordinate
• Use numbered points
• Highlight key words/phrases
• Have plenty of white space so that you can see the information
easily
• Use different colours, pictures or symbols if these help you

This helps you to understand and to remember the information.

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Stage 6
Make master cards, question and answer cards,
mind maps, graphs, tables and charts, etc.
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Stage 7
Utilise memory techniques:
• Record and listen to your notes
• Place reminder notes around your study area
• Draw diagrams
• Use different coloured pens

Don’t forget to:

• Take regular breaks
• Exercise
• Adopt an active revision strategy

Remember that there may be material

which you use/learn differently
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Stage 8
• Use past papers
• Key themes
• Blackboard
• Short questions/essay questions
• Practise timing and technique
• Build up writing speed
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How can I improve my

memory?
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Why do we remember?
We remember when
• we make
connections/links
• it’s of personal interest
to us
• we write it down
• we say it aloud or
record it
We don’t remember when
• we are stressed
• we aren’t interested in it
• we haven’t looked at it,
thought about it or
listened to it long
enough
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Memory capacity
We can only commit a certain amount of
information to memory at any one time.

But we can do things to increase the

amount we can retain.
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Exercise 1
You will have 1 minute to memorise these words:

Panda label
onion hat
peach puppy
jeans currant
car cab
coke tie
hare tea
bean
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Exercise 1
Write down all the words you can remember

How many
words did you
remember?
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Exercise 2
Try the same thing with the next list of words:

window ring
wall necklace
door bracelet

blue desk
purple chair
green
guitar
butterfly drum
wasp
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Exercise 2
Write down all the words you can remember

How many
words did you
remember this
time?
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Compare your results

Perhaps you did better with the second list? If so, this is
probably because…

• the words in the first list were in random order

• in the second list the words were grouped into categories

We can remember information

more effectively if we organise it
into meaningful ‘chunks’
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Learn and recall

• Remembering more:
o Organise material into meaningful, connected sections
o Use techniques that suit you personally – people
remember best in different ways

• Longer, more effective recall:

o Repetition – review material often
o Adopt active strategies and practise using the material
o Use memory aids
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Repetition
• Whatever our personal memory style, repetition is key to
learning and remembering long-term

• We can’t hold much in our short-term memory so we have to

move things from our short-term memory to our long term-
memory

• And then we have to be able to retrieve them promptly when

we need them in the exam

• Reviewing the material regularly makes the ‘memory pathways’

to the information stronger
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Which revision techniques

can I use?
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Repetition technique
• Carry mini revision cards on a key-ring. Look at them in
‘dead’ moments such as in queues

• 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10 days then randomly. This technique works

on the fact that if we repeat something intensively to begin
with, it becomes more secure in our memory, so we can
gradually leave longer gaps between revisions
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The ten Envelope technique

• Number 10 envelopes from 1-10
• Write 10-15 related facts on separate mini-cards
• Put them all in envelope 1
• Test yourself once a day:
o Move all the facts you can remember to envelope 2
o Leave the ones you don’t know in envelope 1
• Every time you remember a fact, move it to the next
envelope; every time you forget it, leave it where it is
• By the time the fact reaches no.10, you should know it
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Different types of memory

Cottrell suggests using your senses to ‘train the
brain’ (2007, pp. 129-31):

• Visual memory – diagrams, charts, using

different colours, pictures, cartoons How do
YOU
• Tactile and motor memory – writing, remember
tracking information, reading out
information without sounding the words things best?
• Auditory memory – music, recording,
vocalising, study groups
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Mnemonics: what makes

them successful?
They should be:
• important to you
• logical
• dramatic
• funny/bizarre
• colourful

For example:
RHYTHM: Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips Move

The order of planets in average distance from the Sun:

(Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto)
My Very Easy Method: Just Set Up Nine Planets (The Mnemonics Guide,
1997).
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Narratives
Cottrell (2007, p. 132) quotes a ‘story’ which will
support the recall of the bile pigment bilirubin (an
anti-oxidant which protects the cells of the body
against the effects of free radicals):

‘Billy Rubin always wore a yellow T-shirt. He worked

at the local prison where he protected the cells
from a local terrorist group, The Free Radicals’.
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To sum up,
Grouping and labelling
• use the power of association
• breakdown material into categories
• find associations between items/points
• develop these into revision sheets

Techniques
• Question and answer cards
• Revision groups
• Use past exam papers
• Use your visual memory
• use recordings
• create narratives
• stick reminder cards around your desk and home
• Create information maps, flow charts, spider diagrams etc.
• Recite aloud, make jingles
• Move around
• Interact with others – try revision tests with your friends
• Use mnemonics
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How do I organise my time

in the exam?
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Before the exam

Find out:
•Length of exam
•Number of questions. Any compulsory questions?
•Type of questions
•Regulations?

• Ensure that you have revised enough subjects

• Find out if you need to take in any specific materials

such as a ruler or a calculator into the exam.
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In the exam
• Are you comfortable?
• Can you see a clock?
• Listen carefully to any instructions given
• Try to remain calm
• Start to read through the paper as slowly and
calmly as possible
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The paper
• Read the instructions on the paper very carefully; read the
paper twice
• Make sure that you are aware of any compulsory questions
• Take note of any instructions regarding choice of question
• Make a note of how much time you have for each
question
• Do not panic if you do not see the questions you were
hoping for
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Plan your time

• Note the marks for each question carefully
• Estimate how much time you have for each
question
• Plan to spend an appropriate amount of time on
each question
• Keep an eye on the clock
• Follow your plan
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Answering the questions

• Read the question carefully
• Answer each part of the question
• Use your plan
• Write in answer books as directed
• Note how marks often relate to the question
o ‘Give three reasons why…’ 3 marks
o ‘Name four…and describe…’ 8 marks
o Do not write a page when there are only three marks
available
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Short answer questions

• factual/descriptive? • if it is broken into
• details of a procedure, sections, make it clear
naming an item, as to which section you
describing its use, are dealing with
• make it as easy as
differences or possible for the
similarities? examiner to mark your
• take note of the mark answer
system • stick to the point
• answer all parts of the • don’t waste valuable
question time
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Essay questions

• They are analytical, critical • Answer the question

and creative
• Look out for key words and
• They are usually worth direction words
large percentage of
marks each • Follow usual essay format:
• Introduction
• Follow instructions • Main body
• Conclusion
• Do not overlap subjects
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Finally,
• Do not leave too early
• If you finish early, read your work through – you
may have more to add
• Always leave time to check your work
• Check spelling, punctuation and grammar
• Move on when you get stuck
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References
Cottrell, S. (2007) The exam skills handbook.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Price, G. and Maier, P. (2007) Effective Study Skills.

Harlow: Pearson Longman.