Revision Planning

Making your revision timetable

The principle: INTERLEAVING
• When we learn something, we
forget it
• When we revisit something
we’ve learned repeatedly, we
remember it better
• This is shown in the Ebbinghaus
Forgetting Curve
Interleaving vs blocking
• “Blocking” your revision –
focusing on one topic for a long
time then moving on to the next
topic – is inefficient.
• “Interleaving” your revision is far
more effective.
Interleaving and chunking
• For interleaving to work, you • GCSE Biology includes:
have to break down your • Health
revision into “chunks” • Responses to the environment
• Evolution
• It’s no good putting “Biology” • Ecology
into your revision calendar – you • Cells
need to be specific • Photosynthesis
• Organisms and their environments
• Protein functions and uses
• Respiration
• Genetics
• Speciation
Planning interleaved revision
Your tasks

Chunking Planning
• Break down the subjects you • Plan an interleaved revision
study into “chunks” you can schedule to cover the chunks
revise you have created
• Build in rest breaks
Flash Cards
GCSE Revision
The Flash Card
– distilling your • Distillation:
learning
Because a flash card is
small, you need to boil
down your learning to a
key, easily-revised
summary.

Your notes Revision Your flashcard

Making an effective flashcard
• “Chunk” the learning down
• Each flashcard should be on one
key idea or concept
• The key information only should
be summarised on one side
• Use diagrams, bullet points etc
• On the back, put key words and
possible exam questions on this
concept
Organising your flashcards
• You will build up an array of
flashcards
• Colour code them to classify by
topic or exam section
Flashcards 2.0 – practice testing
• Write key questions on one side • Also works with post-its!
of the card
• Write the answers on the other
• Keep testing yourself!
• Add a tick each time you get it
right, and a cross each time you
have to turn over to check
• Aim to get ten ticks next to each
question
Memory Tips
GCSE Revision
 Interrogation – asking “why?”
• One of the best ways to support revision is to ask why an idea or
concept is true – then answer the question.
• For example:
• In science, increasing the temperature can increase the rate of a chemical
reaction….why?
• In geography, the leisure industry in British seaside towns like Barry Island in
South Wales has deteriorated in the last 4 decades….why?
• In history, in 1929 the American stock exchange collapsed. This supported
Hitler’s rise to power….why?
• Rather than learning facts by heart, asking yourself why they are true
will help you remember and understand them.
Mnemonics
• Mnemonics use the initial letters of a group of words to help
remember them in order
• They are really good for remembering sequenced information
• Here are some examples…
North East South West

Never Eat Shredded Wheat

Naughty Elephants Squirt Water

Never Ever Support Wolves

Never Eagerly Snog Witches

PHYSICS

Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue,

Indigo, Violet
ASTRONOMY

My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up

Naming Planets Simply

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter,

Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Sedna
MATHS

I Value Xylophones Like Cows

Dig Milk

1 – 5 – 10 – 50
100 – 500 – 1000
BIOLOGY

King Philip Came Over For

Good Sex

Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family,

Genus, Species

(biological groupings)
MUSIC

G
E
C
A

Do you know a mnemonic for this?

5 Bones in Hand

Distal
Intermediate
Proximal
Metacarpals
Carpals

Can you create a mnemonic from this?

FLORIA
• FLORIA is a technique that provides “hooks” for information in your
memory. Look at the following list of words for 40 seconds, then see
which you remember:
 SHOE
GARDEN
GOOSE
MUSIC
AND
TAYLOR SWIFT
AND
CAR
HERB
WORM
SPIDER MAN
BOXING
GCSE
DUCK
NIPPLE
MOSS
PENCIL
GLOVE
WATER
GLUE
HERB
TURTLE
 RECALL DURING LEARNING - FLORIA

First. Last. Outstanding.

Repeated. Interesting. Associated.
 SHOE
GARDEN
GOOSE
MUSIC
AND
TAYLOR SWIFT
AND
CAR
HERB
WORM
SPIDER MAN
BOXING
GCSE
DUCK
NIPPLE
MOSS
PENCIL
GLOVE
WATER
GLUE
HERB
TURTLE
Using FLORIA
• Put the most important information FIRST and LAST
• When preparing revision materials, thing about how you can make
key information OUSTANDING
• REPEAT important facts
• Make key information INTERESTING using images, mnemonics,
sticking it on a post-it in an unusual place, associating it with a person
or event…
• Make links between information so the ASSOCIATION leads you from
one fact to another
Summary
• You can use…
• Interrogation
• Mnemonics
• FLORIA
• …to help your memory retrieve key facts. Try them!
Mind Maps
GCSE Revision
 Making a mind map
• Start with the theme in the middle of the
page.
• Develop your main idea.
• Each sub-branch must relate to the branch
before it.
• Use only key words and images.
• Key words must be written along the
branches.
• Colour code the branches.
• Make things stand out on the page so they
stand out in your mind.
• Design images you can relate to which will
help you remember key information
Mind maps can be mostly text
Or mostly images
Or both
 Using key words in mind
Albert Einstein maps
Einstein was born in Germany in 1879. As a child, Albert hated school and his
teachers thought he was rather “stupid”. In fact he was asked to leave school
because his teachers found him disruptive. He was a very curious child and
wanted to know how everything worked. When he was five years old, his father
gave him a compass, which he loved and took apart to understand how it
worked. When he was 12 he was given a geometry book, which he read from
cover to cover, and so began his love of maths.
Einstein had several jobs. His first, ironically, was as a teacher. At first he failed
the exam, but persisted and got the job. He then went to work in a patent office
where he would look at new inventions. When his scientific papers became well-
known, he was actively sought after by many universities. He worked in German
universities for 17 years, until the Nazi reign, when he fled Germany because he
was a Jew. He went to work at Princeton University in the USA for the rest of his
life.
He made some amazing discoveries in his work, that changed much about the
world. His first scientific paper was his Quantum Theory. He discovered that
light travelled not only in waves, as previously thought. This discovery later led
to the inventions, by others of the cinema and television. His second major
discovery was his theory of Relativity. Daydreaming one afternoon, he imagined
travelling on a beam of light, and dreamt that the universe is curved. This
daydream led to his famous theory, E=MC2, and has led to many inventions for
creating more powerful energy.
Although Einstein worked hard his whole life, he also had many things he
enjoyed, and contributed them to his great brain. He loved music and played
both the violin and piano to a very high standard. He went walking every day to
relax and daydream and keep fit.
Einstein married twice, and with his first wife had two sons. He died in 1955 at
the age of 76.
Make a mind map
• Pick a key topic in one of your
examination subjects
• Put the topic in the middle of
the page
• And begin!
Past Papers & Mark
Schemes
GCSE Revision
Finding past papers and mark schemes
• AQA:
http://www.aqa.org.uk/exams-administration/exams-guidance/find-p
ast-papers-and-mark-schemes
• OCR: http://www.ocr.org.uk/i-want-to/download-past-papers/
• EDEXCEL: http://
qualifications.pearson.com/en/support/support-topics/exams/past-pa
pers.html
Example
Example
A more complex example
Self-testing and diagnosis of errors

Understanding of the subject Exam technique

• Did you get it wrong because • Did you get it wrong because
you didn’t know that part of the you didn’t read the question
subject? properly?
• Or because you didn’t do exactly
what the mark scheme wanted?

• Solution: focused revision • Solution: repeated deliberate

practice
 PQRST
Self-testing for revision
PQRST – the principle
• PQRST is a self-testing technique • P Preview – Read through section headings.
Read the final summaries. If you’ve used
to be used once you have flashcards this will help!
revised a section • Q Question – Turn each section heading and
subheading into a question
• It’s helpful to have someone else
• R Read – Read your questions and then answer
to revise with – a friend, family from the text. Mark or highlight the keywords/
member etc. points
• S Say – Say your answer and explain your
• Here’s how it works… keywords aloud to yourself or explain to
someone else.
• T Test – Go over the questions and test yourself
again days later – what can you still recall to
answer each of the questions that you wrote?
Preview and Question

P for Preview Q for Question

• Flick through your notes, • Transform the section heading
flashcards, mind maps or into a question (or questions).
whatever • E.g. “What is an acid?” or “What
• Focus on the HEADINGS are the characteristics of bases?”
or “What features do settlements
• E.g. “Acids and Bases” in
have in common?”
Chemistry or “Settlements” in
Geography • It’s important to write your own
questions! This process engages
your brain and helps you
remember the information.
Read and Say

R for Read S for Say

• Re-read the questions you have • Say your answer and explain the
written. key words aloud
• Answer from your notes, • It helps to have someone to
flashcards, mind maps etc. speak to, but if not say it to
• Highlight or underline the key yourself – aloud!
words in the question and the • The process of transforming the
answer answer from writing to speech
engages your brain and helps
you remember it
Test

T for Test
• Test yourself again days later
• This will help identify where you
have got strong recall, and
where you need to work harder
• If you can’t remember it three
days later – you haven’t learnt it.
• Revise again!
An example – History
• P: go through notes/revision materials for The American West
• Q: What was life like for the Plains Indians?
• R: Read through the question and bullet point key answer ideas from
your revision materials
• S: Say them out loud
• T: the next day, Test yourself on them and see how many of the bullet
points you can remember
Transform It!
GCSE Revision
The principle: transform it
• “I’m just going to read through
my notes” is not actually
revising.
• In order to remember
information effectively, your
brain has to process it
• You have to think about it in
order to remember it properly
What is “transform it”?
• “Transform it” means taking
your revision notes and changing
them into a different form
• The process of changing the
information from one form into
another means that you will
think about it – and remember it
better
Turn your notes into
• A diagram: • Questions
• Bar chart • Tests
• Venn diagram
• Mind map
• 3D shapes
• Symbols • Timelines
• Bullet pointed lists • And more…
• Audio recordings
• Post it notes
• Flash cards
 Example
• Take a key poem from the English
Literature anthology
• Transform your notes into a revision
cube
• Each side is a category (you can
choose your own, or):
• Language
• Theme
• Form / Structure
• Context
• Author
• Interpretations
The Revision Process

https://www.wku.edu/senate/documents/improving_student_learning_dunlosky_2013.pdf
Not very
effective
Highlighting
Re-reading
Summarising Texts
Why?
• Low challenge.
• Little thinking required.
• Makes the student think that they
are ‘doing something’
“Whatever you think about, that’s
what you remember. Memory is
the residue of thought.”
Daniel Willingham
 More
effective
Practice Testing
Distributed Practice
Elaborate Interrogation
Self explanation
Interleaved Practice
Summary
• “Memory is the residue of thought”.
• Testing.
• Space it out.
• Keep asking ‘why’?
• Build on what they know.
• Explain their steps in problem solving.