Revision techniques

[nms1]

Does anyone know of anywhere that teaches revision techniques? Looking at my Sec 1 daughter’s revision for her CT3 tests this week, the school is not helping them at all. She doesn’t seem to believe me when I say that reading her notes over and over again isn’t the most effective method. In principle. In primary school we were very reliant on past exam papers but it is harder to do that for secondary school.

[nim]

Different subjects require different revision techniques.


You need to know what is required. Content based? Application?

You cannot read your notes over and over again blindly. Always study your notes with \" What?\", \"Why\", \"How\" in mind.

Ask your child to check with her teachers if there are past years papers to try.
Can her teachers print out the papers for the class to try?

Hope these help.

Have a good week ahead.:)

[josephlee15317]

I realise that this comes a bit too late because exams are already over, but as a sec 3 student I feel that the most effective way to study geography/history/science subjects is to:


1. Write notes for the subject.
It doesn’t matter if the notes have almost exactly the same content as the notes provided by the school. Writing notes will help in remembering content for the topic. For my notes, I usually compile all the important answers/key questions that have been highlighted by the teachers, or the experiment questions for science (how to conduct experiments etc.) together with anything that your daughter feels that is vital from the school notes (which is usually about 70-80%, as a rough gauge). She can combine these two with more stuff from reference books (recommended to get just one or at the most two, sometimes there are more things even school notes might miss out). I like to write my notes in more than one colour, usually black, blue and red with specific objectives for each colour.
*note that since its holiday now is a good time to start writing a bit of notes, not too much tho)

2. Just get tons of practice
After all the notes have been written for that particular chapter (which’ll take quite a while) from there onwards its mostly practice and more practice. The first and second times doing assessment for that particular chapter its good to let her check back to her notes, and always make sure to check back to the answer key after the work is done and make sure she understands everything.
If anything else unsure can ask for consultation with her teachers to clarify, but tbh that’s just about all I do, then ramp up a bit more assessment around exam period. Consistent, moderate work will always pay off in the long run.

Of course, everyone has different study methods, as well as different study periods, like half an hour, 45mins and an hour as some of the most effective study intervals (for me, at least). There is no sure-fire way to study and score, its best if she experiments with a few techniques (and study periods as well) to find what works best and is most comfortable for her. This is just what works for me. Hope it helps.

[sharonkhoo]

nms1:

Does anyone know of anywhere that teaches revision techniques? Looking at my Sec 1 daughter's revision for her CT3 tests this week, the school is not helping them at all. She doesn't seem to believe me when I say that reading her notes over and over again isn't the most effective method. In principle. In primary school we were very reliant on past exam papers but it is harder to do that for secondary school.

Can you teach her yourself, based on your own experience? Or won't she listen to you? Find a book or article, maybe? I've not heard of such courses as I think most people learn from seniors, older siblings, parents etc.

[zac's mum]

There are plenty of articles online that give tips for revision. This is one tongue in cheek example but of course you can find others: https://www.cgpbooks.co.uk/interactive_tips_exam


The article mentioned Revision Guides. I see plenty of those in Popular. And yes the article backs up your train of thought that reading the notes alone is not enough. (Don't throw that in her face though) The idea is to engage all possible senses for the best retention of knowledge, not only just the eyes. And yes, like what someone else suggested, condense into own notes and do assessment books and past year papers.

[sharonkhoo]

zac's mum:

There are plenty of articles online that give tips for revision. This is one tongue in cheek example but of course you can find others: https://www.cgpbooks.co.uk/interactive_tips_exam


The article mentioned Revision Guides. I see plenty of those in Popular. And yes the article backs up your train of thought that reading the notes alone is not enough. (Don't throw that in her face though) The idea is to engage all possible senses for the best retention of knowledge, not only just the eyes. And yes, like what someone else suggested, condense into own notes and do assessment books and past year papers.

Another technique, in the absence of past papers, is to quiz yourself. Make yourself write out or say out loud from memory the \"5 characteristics of ...\", the \"how to ...\" or whatever, and draw diagrams from memory. That will really show whether you remember it or not.

Dealing with teens can be tricky. I used to tell mine stories about how various studying techniques helped me, and got them to try them out (\"try it for this topic, and tell me if it helps\") etc when they are in a more receptive mood. If they are honest, they will agree that it helps, but I would have to avoid saying \"I told you so\"!