Metacognition is:

• The ability to critically analyse how you think – this means evaluating how well you performed and what caused your successes and failures.
• Having high self-awareness and control over your thoughts – actively choosing what to think about.
• Developing appropriate thinking strategies at each stage of a task – effective preparation, monitoring and self-evaluation.

To improve metacognition try:

• Self-Questioning – ask yourself questions like ‘is this similar to previous tasks?’, ‘what should I do first?’ and ‘what would I do differently next time?’
• Modelling – look at good examples of how to approach a task or exam question. Tap into your knowledge and develop your metacognitive skills.
• Self-Awareness – How should you approach and complete a task, use successful strategies that you have used before. It might be in a different subject. Skills are transferable.