Schools and teachers are experts in teaching the content of their subject. They understand the specifications of examination boards and the requirements of the exam. They teach, set homework and revision tasks to maximise their students abilities to achieve their best possible result in the examinations.

Despite this, schools and teachers are not very good at teaching core learning skills such as memory techniques, revision strategies and accurate note taking. This series of blog posts takes each of these topics in turn and shares useful strategies to help students to learn how to learn.

Revision strategies

Many people waste hours of time not revising effectively. Effective revision techniques will not only help you to remember more, but will save you time. Use the tips below to develop your revision skills.

1. Planning – Planning is key to success in all projects, including revision. Time spent planning saves hours over the long term and also reduces the chances of delay and procrastination. Break large tasks (the subject content) into small steps (topics). Then estimate how long each topic will take to learn. If some are still long, break these down further until you can reasonably expect to achieve one step per day. Set this as the priority target on your to-do list for each day, so it is the first thing you do.
2. Make a revision plan – A revision plan is a visual timetable. There are many websites, such as: https://getrevising.co.uk/planner that give advice on how to produce a revision plan. The first step on making this timetable is to input the dates of the exam, and second is to block out any times that you are not available to revise. It is easy to be overly optimistic at this stage, leading to an unsustainable plan that is quickly abandoned. Realistic planning will allow for your social life and means that your revision is part of a balanced life that also includes meeting friends and relaxing. The final step is adding the detail. This is the daily targets from the planning stage above into the revision timetable. Use colours to represent different subject areas or types of revision (reading, note taking, completing past papers, study groups etc). An effective revision plan is: Realistic; Detailed and also Flexible. It is always the case that some topics are difficult and will take longer than planned to complete. This means that a plan needs to be a working document that is tweaked, updated and adjusted as it goes along.
3. Past Papers – Rather than reading your notes, an active revision strategy, such as completing past papers, can aid memory retention by making the learning more engaging. This is also useful if you are unsure what you need to revise because completing past papers (and using the official mark scheme) from the exam board website will help you to find which areas you are unsure about. Once you have selected a question to answer, spend 20 minutes revising the information you need to answer the question. Put your notes away and spend a further 20 minutes completing the question. If it is a long question that would normally require more time, rather than writing your answer in full, spend the 20 minutes planning the main points to your answer, and write the introduction and conclusion paragraphs to your answer. Having completed the answer, use the mark scheme to score your work. This is crucial as you need to see what else you should have included to level up your work. If you are unsure, ask a teacher / lecturer to mark and give you feedback. Lastly, have a further attempt at the question in a weeks time to see if you have recalled the information you need to answer this type of question.
4. Mix it up – We get bored when we do the same things. A bored brain is not a brain that will develop a good memory. This means that each day we should mix up the topics we study, the places where we study and also our study methods. In addition to past papers above, different study methods such as accurate note taking and techniques to aid memory have been discussed in earlier blog posts.
5. Other revision methods that are useful include:

Large colourful posters of important information, highlighted key passages and post-its on a bedroom wall be a useful ‘bigger picture’ starting point when considering everything these is to learn on a topic.

Visual models such as diagrams are often easier to remember for learners with dyslexia. Use mindmaps to help break up with bigger picture of topics into smaller sections. Later, try to draw or recall the mindmap from memory, then check back to see what you missed out.

Keep your notes to a minimum, try to condense notes into their main points.

Put key points on post its or revision cards and use images or pictures as visual reminders. Flash cards can help you to remember everything from facts to formulas. They help you to break content into smaller chunks and as they are pocket size, can be kept on hand for when you have a spare 5 minutes. 

Reading your notes out loud and also recording it to listen back later can be a useful multisensory way of revising and help your memory to retain key information.

As with so many areas in life, there is not one tool or solution that works for everyone. A useful article to look at other revision methods can be found here: https://www.lovelearningtutors.com/main-blog/how-to-revise It is important to try different strategies and techniques to find out what works for you.

For the Learning how to Learn blog about note taking, click here: https://www.dyslexiauk.co.uk/learning-how-to-learn-accurate-note-taking/

To find some more information about working memory, read this post: https://www.dyslexiauk.co.uk/working-memory/

To speak to a dyslexia assessor, contact is here: https://www.dyslexiauk.co.uk/#request-form

– Recommended Books for Teenagers & Students with Dyslexia and Books about Dyslexia for Teachers and Tutors https://shop.dyslexiauk.co.uk/