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What is a Brain Dump?
What is a Brain Dump?
A Brain Dump is a way of recalling information to really see what you know about a topic. It is where you write out all the information you can recall from a topic, dumping it out onto the page. It can be a good starting point in a revision session, or for starting revision completely, as it gives you a clear idea of what you know and what you should focus on.
How do I do a Brain Dump?
How do I do a Brain Dump?
You take a piece of paper, or your preferred method of taking notes if its digital, and you simply write out all the information you can recall about a topic. It does not have to be organised at all as it is just you writing out information as it comes to you. Unlike other methods of revision this does not need to be timed as it is just you recalling as much as you can.
Once you have exhausted what you can recall, you can go in and visually organise the information if you like to keep things more organised, highlighting and underlining in different colours to show what sub-topic they are from. This does not need to be done but it can be very handy when looking back on what you were able to recall before as it helps you to clearly identify what is from where and what sub topics need extra focus.
Finally, and most importantly, you grab your notes from google classroom and compare them up against what you were able to recall, filling in what you missed in a different colour pen and if you need to, correcting some points you made in that different pen colour as well. This helps the information you did not know to clearly stand out when looking back and equally, it shows you directly what areas need to be focused on more in your revision now.
Brain Dumps Top Tips!
Brain Dumps Top Tips!
You can use different pen colours for different sub-topics/information eg. Modern Studies 3 pen colours for the PEE structure
You can give yourself time limits for them to see how well you can retrieve under timed conditions
They don't need to be in full sentences
Highlight any vey important pieces of information so that you can easily extract them when looking back on your brain dump
Pupil Advice on Brain Dumps
Pupil Advice on Brain Dumps
"They are really useful for seeing what you can actually recall. I would try my best to recall everything I know and if I wanted to add the information I forgot, I would swap my colour of pen to write in information with the help of notes so I can see clearly what I need to work on."
"They do not need to be structured. They can be as messy or as neat as you want them to be and you don't need to write in full sentences as long as you are confident enough to expand your ideas later to create an exam answer. Mine always look very chaotic and wouldn't make much sense to other people but I know what it means and that's the main thing!"
Do you have some top tips?
Do you have some top tips?
Do you have advice on how to do a Brain Dump for those who may not have done so before?
Is there anything that we have missed that you swear by?
Tell us your top tips for other pupils by responding to the Top Tips Google Form below!
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