Learning to revise effectively is essential while studying for a degree. The best revision techniques for you will depend on your personality, the subject you’re revising and how you learn, so it’s worth trying different methods.
Here, however, we offer eight basic revision tips that can be adapted to suit your personal requirements.
1. Take Helpful Notes
Keep this in mind throughout the academic year, and it will make revision much simpler. There are lots of ways to improve your note taking, but you should always ensure that your notes are clear, legible and well organised.
2. Create a Revision Timetable
A revision timetable will allow you to schedule your time more efficiently. This is especially useful when revising for multiple exams simultaneously.
3. Take a Break!
Or lots of short breaks, ideally. Most people find it hard to concentrate for more than 20-30 minutes at a time, so by taking a five minute break every half hour you can optimise the revision process.
4. Prepare Your Revision Space
A quiet, well-lit area free from distractions is the ideal environment for revising.
5. Don’t Memorise: Summarise!
Simply trying to memorise facts is rarely a good way of revising.
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Instead you should try summarising important information in your own words, which helps you to engage with the ideas you’re revising in greater depth.
6. Use Past Papers
Try to practice using exam papers from previous years. This allows you to revise relevant topics while also providing valuable experience of answering essay questions within a time limit.
7. Use Visual Aids
Creating charts, diagrams and other visual memory aids is a great way of revising, especially if you’re struggling to focus on written lecture notes.
8. Food, Sleep and Exercise
It might be tempting to pull an all-nighter the evening before your exam, but this is probably the worst thing you could do.
You will perform better in any test if you make sure you eat well, sleep plenty and get some exercise now and then while you’re revising.