Revision Notes
On this page you will find tips and tricks to help you use revision notes in the most effective way. It is important that when you are revising you don't just sit and read your revision guide. Making notes is a really effective way to engage with what you are reading and will help you to retain the information.
1) Wherever possible, do revision notes by hand, not on a computer, phone or tablet. Studies have found this helps to aid memory retention, and you are also more likely to remember something in an exam if you have learnt it in a way close to the setting you're remembering it in. That means because you are writing things by hand in the exam, you should learn them by hand when revising.
2) Don't just copy things word for word from a revision guide or your school book. This won't help you to remember. Instead try looking for the keywords and phrases and make a note of these. Try writing things in a different way so they still make sense to you. By rephrasing a sentence, you are having to take time to think over its meaning in your head so your more likely to retain that information.
3) The way you make and present notes may differ depending on the subject you are revising. For maths you may want to take key formulas, group them by topic and annotate how you would use them. For history you might want to create yourself a timeline with key dates along it. For biology you might want to draw diagrams of cells, ecosystems and plants and label them with key information. Find the method that works best for you by trying out different things.
4) Keep notes organised. Have separate notebooks for different subjects, or separate folders, or get one of those notebooks split into different sections (you can find a link to a good one here)
5) Use colours, sticky notes and highlighters to make notes look good and make revision a bit more fun. Be cautious though about over doing-if you're spending more time on the presentation than the actual content, you probably need to tone it down a bit!
6) Read a passage and summarise what you've just learnt. Set yourself a challenge to take a page full of writing and consolidate it down to just 4 sentences. This will mean you have to spend time really thinking about what the key information is (and will also keep your notes from being not too long!)
7) Be realistic. Don't expect to make notes on an entire revision guide! Equally, don't expect to understand and remember everything straight away just because you have made notes on it. If you come across parts you still don't understand, keep a record of this and then either email your teacher or speak to them in class and they'll be able to help you with it.