We’ve done our research so you don’t have to! Revision tips to guide you in the right direction.
Exam season can be difficult for students and not knowing efficient ways to revise can add pressure and make you feel unprepared. Passing your exams can help you in securing your dream job in the future. The team at Lighthouse Personnel have done their research so you don’t have too! Read our best revision tips & tricks below.
Discover, Plan & Prioritise
We are all guilty of recapping what we already know to make us feel productive whilst studying. However, discovering what our weaknesses are and how much work they need is normally harder than anticipated.
We recommend that you create a quick table of things you feel confident in, things you think could do with a recap and things you don’t feel confident with at all. This allows you to see where your strengths and weaknesses are, and can then provide you with the necessary information to plan and prioritise your tasks.
Once you’ve established what you need to work on, you can create a schedule. In this schedule, you should include what time you’d like to start studying, the subject and the duration (we recommend 20-40 minute intervals with a small break in between). You can also include any revision techniques that you feel would be useful to use in that particular slot.
Being able to prioritise your workload is important. Revision is most effective when done consistently over a longer period of time, rather than hours on end, a day before the exam. Therefore, prioritizing certain tasks above others can help provide you with a bit of time every day to revise, rather than cramming it all in last minute.
Use breaks effectively
Regular breaks whilst studying can help keep your mind engaged and motivated. However, using these breaks effectively is necessary to make your revision as efficient as possible. Breaks in revision can sometimes cause a break in focus. Therefore, it’s best to try and stay away from playing games, watching videos, or turning on the TV during the short breaks between studying. Alternative ways to spend your breaks are:
- A cup of tea in the garden
- Taking a short walk
- Making some lunch (or breakfast/dinner!)
- Doing a short exercise routine
This allows your mind to get some rest, without getting distracted and your energy being used elsewhere.
Perfect your study environment
There are various different ways you can make your study environment work for you.
- Resources: making sure you have everything you need before starting can prevent a break in concentration.
Resources you might need:
1. Pens/highlighters
2. Notepad/paper
3. Laptop
4. Flashcards
5. Pencil case
6. Sticky notes
7. Calculator
- Organisation: having a messy environment when trying to study can make it increasingly difficult to find what you need & find the space you need to work effectively. Therefore, having a clean and tidy environment to study in and making sure you have things organised or in the right place can make a big difference to how effective your study time is.
- Comfortability: being too comfortable can cause you to be in the wrong mindset and you might find yourself more likely to pick up your phone or get distracted. However, you also don’t want an uncomfortable environment whilst trying to study! A desk and a comfortable office chair is recommended.
Train your memory
‘Retrieval practice’ is a principle known to psychologists and is used to describe a way of training your brain. This principle looks into the way the brain works most efficiently when studying and research has shown that ‘pulling’ information out of your brain, rather than pushing it in works best for many students.
To explain this more:
- Pulling information would be revision techniques that test your knowledge such as flashcards, quizzes, past papers etc. This means that you are retrieving knowledge and testing your brain as to what you do or don’t know.
- Pushing information would be revision techniques such as re-reading notes and highlighting. These techniques tend to push information into your brain through repetition, more than testing what you already know.
Neither of these methods are wrong, but it’s about finding out what way works best for you.
Overall, there is no one way to revise/study! Everyone learns differently, whilst using various different resources to help them, as an individual, work to the best of their ability. But if you weren’t sure where to start, we hope this blog has provided you with some fresh ideas to get started with!
To summarise:
- Find the revision method that works best for you – everyone’s different so what works for a friend, might not work for you.
- Schedule, schedule and schedule again - having a clear plan of what you’re revising and when will help you stay consistent.
- Prioritise your tasks - choosing what tasks are more important than others will help you focus on what you need to.
- Take breaks but use them effectively – regular breaks can help your brain stay refreshed but and ensure that your concentration doesn’t wander elsewhere!
- Find the perfect study environment – some people might find that they study better in a small cafe whilst others will find they work better at home at a desk in silence. Everyone is different so working out where you are most productive is strongly advised.
- Train your memory – studies show that ‘pulling’ information from your brain through practice tests, flashcards & practice questions has been more helpful when studying rather than trying to ‘push’ information into your brain through re-reading etc.