General Revision Guide

How to revise
Revising does not have to be a painful or boring experience. Believe it or not you can have fun and make it an enjoyable experience. You don't have to revise on your own.

We have drawn up a list of 6 key skills (with the help of some teachers), which will help you to revise in a more competent manner. These key skills will allow you to concentrate better during your revision timetable and hopefully lead to better results!!

1. Make notes
The good thing about making notes is that they help to focus your mind and concentrate better. This will help when it comes to understanding a topic more clearly. Making notes also saves you from reading a whole years work, simply because you can memorise your own notes easier.

• Key Points Read through your notes and coursework and make a list of the key points and facts. Separate these lists into relevant headings.

• Be Concise Make sure that you distinguish between what is important and what is not. Keep your notes to the point.

• Be Legible Make sure you write in a way that you will be able to understand your own notes!

• Different Colours Use different colours or marker pens to highlight important points or notes.

• Index Cards Index Cards are a useful tool to summarise the main points. They are also easy to carry around with you so that you can read them when you have a spare moment.

2. Use diagrams and sketches
Diagrams and sketches are a good way of understanding and memorising facts and details. You can always use these diagrams in the actual examination.

3. Revise with your friends
Revising with others is a great way to revise. It allows you to share information and knowledge amongst your friends. You can test each other also which enables both of you to learn at the same time. Remember not to have too much fun revising with your friends – you should be working!!

4. Use mnemonics to assist your memory
This is a great way to commit important facts to memory in a fun way. 

Consider the colours of the rainbow;  red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. To remember the colours of the rainbow in order, you might use the mnemonic: Richard of York Gave Battle In Vain, where the initial letter of each word relates to the first letter of each of the colours in the rainbow, R,O,Y,G,B,I,V.

This is the easiest way to show what and how mnemonics work. The funnier the phrase the better they tend to work! Try it!

5. Test Yourself
During your revision timetable you should set aside time to test yourself. This can take the form of many different types of test, some of which are available online here at Infomat.net.
This is a very important part of the revision process and shows you exactly how much you have learnt so far.

6. Past Papers
Nowadays it is relatively easy to have access to past examination papers. They are available within your school; they can be bought in bookshops and are also available on the Internet.
Past papers offer an insight into the nature of your examination.

They will illustrate the types of questions you will have to answer; mutiple choice, essay etc…Past Papers will also allow you to familiarise yourself with the layout of the examination and of course they will test your knowledge.