How to revise for exams

April 12, 2017

• Effective Revision

Good revision techniques can make your life a whole lot easier. If you revise effectively, then it takes you less time to learn things, freeing up time for relaxing or allowing you to fit more topics into each day. Here are our top tips to help you to revise effectively in the run up to exams:

Stay hydrated and eat well – Water is crucial to brain function. Scientists have shown that a dehydrated brain is less good at fact recall and problem solving. Drinking enough water each day means your brain is in top shape to take in all that information. It’s also been proven that thinking actually uses a lot of your body’s glucose and that when these glucose levels are depleted the brain is less alert. Making sure you eat three meals a day and healthy snack such as nuts and fruit can help keep these glucose levels up.

Know what works for you – What type of learning works best for you? Some people are visual learners. Visual learners work best with techniques such as making spider diagrams or leaving colourful post-its around the house. On the other hand, audio learners might benefit from listening to a podcast about their target subject, or explaining it to someone else. Lots of people benefit from using these different styles of learning in conjunction with each other, so have a play and see what you like best!

Get enough sleep – Sleep is really important when it comes to learning things. While we are asleep, our brain processes and consolidates recently learned information. Reading through notes just before bed can be a good way to help you remember them with greater ease. As well as this specific link to improved recall of new information, getting a good night’s sleep can help you feel ready to take on a day of revision and help your levels of concentration.

Start early – There are two parts to your memory – the long term, and the short term. Beginning revision early will help make sure information transfers from the short term memory to the long term memory which will make it easier to recall under pressure in the exam. Knowing things thoroughly will help you have confidence in your abilities and help keep stress levels down near exam time.

Use resources well – Exam board websites allow anyone access to past papers, mark schemes and also examiner’s reports. Past paper practice will help make sure you don’t run out of time in the exam and familiarise yourself with the types of question you’ll be asked. Examiner’s reports are a great resource that very few people use. They often tell you what the examiner found disappointing last year, which means you can focus on improving this area and increasing your chances of impressing the examiner.

There are loads of other tips and tricks out there, so if you think we’ve missed a really important one, let us know!