1.  On each card, write a question on one side and write the answer on the other – be precise in your question and answer and check they are accurate with your WJEC knowledge organiser or revision guide.

2.  Use the flashcards in a variety of ways in a variety of places, alone and with partners.  Use the Leitner system* or come up with your own ways but remember to space out your repetition, getting a good night’s sleep between sessions.  Saying your answers out loud is important even when you are alone.  Sometimes use the answer side and check you can remember what the question is. 

3.  Make sure you test yourself on the ones you are less confident about most often, but review how well you can answer your confident questions every now and again too, to keep your memory fired up. 

1.    Spend 5-10 minutes selecting questions from a knowledge organiser/revision notes

2.    Cover notes and test yourself/study partner – write or say answers aloud (choose your words carefully to be precise)

3.    Mark your answers and reflect – which answers were precise, which need refining and which are still a struggle?

4.    Decide how you are going to tackle the refinements and remaining struggles.  Will you re-do full quiz, part of the quiz or use Leitner, and when?

1.      Write down everything you can remember about the topic you are revising in 5 minutes (8-10 minutes if you know a lot already).

2.      Once you have written everthing down, use colours/highlighters to link/categorise the information into chunks.

3.      Compare your brain dump to your knowledge organiser/revision notes/mindmap – add any information you have missed in a different colour.  Take note of this extra information – try closing your eyes/looking away and saying it aloud.  Which parts are you still forgetting?  What will you do to remember them?  Put on post-its around the mirror you brush your teeth in front of?  Add to flashcards to keep in pocket to self-quiz on bus?

4.   Re-do this brain dump in 1-2 weeks – give yourself less time to brain dump this topic the second time.  Compare the difference.  How often do you need to revisit aspects of this topic?

1.  Within your topic, identify sub-topics.  Place your Image/Topic in the centre of A3/A4 sheet landscape, with sub-topics branching off.  Each sub-topic is written in a different colour with its own branches showing its key words/concepts/details.  Images/symbols that represent the information are helpful to add but avoid spending time looking for the perfect picture.  You are aiming to have an overview of a topic as you understand it. 

2.  Once complete you may want to show a teacher/study partner to see if you have any gaps or misunderstandings before you make you you learn the contents.

3.  See how much of the mindmap you can draw out from memory and go through as many Look-Cover-Check cycles as you need to complete it.  Each time you try to draw it from memory (remember to space these sessions out over days/weeks) you will find it easier to complete with fewer L-C-C cycles.  You may want to intersperse drawing it out with describing it aloud to somone else who has a copy of the original mindmap that you can’t see.

4.  Keep copies of your mindmaps visible, stuck around your space and ask people to test you on the whole or individual branches (they can give you clues to prompt you if you are really stuck eg the frist letter or ‘it sounds like...’)

1.  In order to teach something you have to truly understand it.  Going through the process of thinking how you would explain a topic out loud to another person, whether you are formally peer tutoring, or just working with a study partner, or talking with an interested/press-ganged family member, is a powerful way of being active in your learning. 

2.  Even if you don’t actually teach it to someone else, research shows this planning process is very helpful.  Going on to teach someone else does bring even more benefits to your learning, especially if they ask you questions so that you have to explain it in different ways. The questions from whoever you are teaching can also identify any gaps in your knowledge, leading you to go back and re-learn the material in more depth and detail.