Last week I did my first instalment of my Revision Tips and Tricks posts. If you haven't read the first one you can read it here. This week I am mainly going to be focusing on the different methods of revising and the tools you can use to aid this.
RECORD CARDS
As I study Law I get taught a lot of legislation and cases I need to learn. Most of these are long winded and are too much to write on mind maps without it looking messy and too much. I love using record cards, it gives me room to bullet point the key aspects of case/statute. Ideally I would've done these throughout the year as and when I learnt things, but I didn't (retrospect is a wonderful thing). When writing out record cards I find I can do them when I am doing other things whether it be listening to music, watching YouTube or TV etc. Record Cards I love doing in the evening as it is the perfect way to drift out of work mode and into chill mode. These are great to do to just take in your bag and look at whenever you have a free moment, whether it be on the bus, sitting in a waiting room or even in your break at work.
MIND MAPS
I think these are probably the revision tool I use the most. I love drawing mind maps, making them pretty and colouring and just appealing to the eye. Mind maps are so versatile and there are so many different ways in which you can design them, making them completely tailored to how you like to revise. I find drawing out mind maps so relaxing and so comforting (except when you go wrong and have to start all over again!). I post these on my wall as a constant reminder to look at them and I take in information without even realising. This year I've placed them on my bathroom door (I have an ensuite) and my wardrobe door as they are the first things I see when I either leave or come back into my room! Plus I love using colourful pens to make them look super bold and pretty of course! I find colour really helps me and makes revision aids look interesting so this is definitely something I'd recommend to do. I own way too many different coloureds, more than I care to admit!
STICKY NOTES
A random one but for me, especially for GCSEs and A-Levels, I found writing things on sticky notes and placing them around my room definitely helped. This worked well for quick, small facts I needed to know or formulas. I still use this technique at university but not as much as I did, but still thought it was worth a mention. I stick these on random places, usually where I go to or look the most, similarly to where I place my mind maps. When I was at home I placed them all around my house (which drove my parents insane) so I never had an excuse not to revise. Obviously this might not work for everyone depending on what you are studying and how you revise best but for me these are great. I usually use these a week before my exams for those little pesky facts/cases/statutes I'm having trouble remembering and it works a treat for me!
I guess this depends on what you are doing, but most of the time you have past papers available to you. I personally do have access to past papers at university, but I don't know if all courses/universities allow this. I actually had a revision seminar last week and my lecturer pointed out the importance of using past papers and making your revision strategic. Most of the time they can only ask you so many questions on a set topic so make sure you can find as many past papers and the questions on that said topic and base your revision on how you would answer that. I can't speak for you but for me we got taught essentially a lot of 'waffle' to give us a deeper understanding of a topic which we would never actually have to use in the exam so theres no point using my notes from that lecture when I don't necessarily need to know all the information. So revise based on how you would go about answering such a question. Most of my questions in my exams are problem questions so planning them can be quite easy in a way as there is a set structure/test we have to follow but for essay questions this can be more difficult. So basically a more simplified way of putting that is revise using past papers as a tool and work out what you need to know for each topic.
Another way of using past papers is actually sitting them in a timed manner and exam conditions. This can seem quite tedious but the amount of times I know my friends have run out of time to answer all the questions and have probably lost valuable marks. So for me, I know for criminal law my exam is 2 hours long and I have to answer three questions which all carry equal marks so I have to spend 40 minutes on each question. As with most people there is always one topic which you could literally write word for word what your notes say and spend way too long on that one question rather than focusing on a topic you are weaker at. But always stick to the time limits and doing past papers in your own time definitely helps so when you walk into the exam you know you are comfortable doing the exam well in the set time without running out of time and not answering all the set questions to your ability!
I hope this little series of posts has helped any of you coming up to exam season, whether you're doing your GCSEs, A-Levels or University exams! I really enjoyed writing these are they are so relevant to me at the moment as I am going through the exact same thing! I'm definitely planning on doing some more university posts in terms of organisation and notes in the summer so keep an eye out for those!
Good Luck!
