Student Team Tips: Revision
It’s almost that time of year not Christmas, we’re talking about exam season of course! Would you rather be getting into the festive spirit than thinking about your January exams? Perhaps you’re too cosy at home and finding it hard to start revising? Or maybe you’re not even sure where to start? Fear not, we (the Student Team) know what you’re going through because we’ve all been through or are going through the dreaded revision process ourselves! We’re current students just like you, working part-time at the UoM Library. We know all about the pressure and stress of exams and want to use our experiences to help you prepare for them. So here are our top tips:
1. Get started
Let’s face it, no-one likes revision, nor having to think about it at the start of the Christmas break! There are about a thousand other ways we’d all rather spend our time than to sit down at a desk and absorb knowledge into our brains just so we can spill it all out in our exams (probably never to be used again!). So if your motivation is low approaching the end of an especially challenging year, it’s completely understandable. In a world of the instant gratification provided by social media, it’s also never been harder to focus. Many of us also procrastinate, delay and generally do whatever we can to avoid having to revise. Here are some things we do to help us get the ball rolling:
“One of the things that I find hard during revision time is to start my revisions. It is very important to give yourself the “initial kick” into the revision as sometimes that can be the trigger for your motivation to study even more! Getting your desk tidied up, tidying your notes for the subject you are revising might be a great start. ” Jakub, Physics
“The most important part is to have a quick look through the course outline. This helps you identify the amount of work which you might have missed(think about all the reading that you didn’t do!) and difficult bits that you might need to spend more time on.” Jia Xuen, Accounting
“What I struggled with the most when revising was prioritising the most important information, I’d often get lost in piles and piles of books digging for the specifics. After going through a few exam periods I realised how important it is to refer to your lecture notes and identify the key themes of the topic.” Kerry, History
2. Make a schedule (break it down)
We’re more likely to procrastinate if we see revision as just one big, scary block (or blob!) of work. Think of your exam like a destination and the journey of revision is how we’ll get there. For any good journey, we need a roadmap (i.e. a schedule)! We agreed that it’s better to have a revision plan, breaking down all the topics, and work backwards from the exam dates. This way, you can reduce overwhelm and make it easier to get started. Some of us also touched upon how it’s always a good idea to have a buffer of a few days before the actual exam in case revising takes longer than expected.
“Break your workload into small blocks using an estimation of time needed to study, and divide the time you have for exam revisions. It doesn’t need to be extremely accurate, a gauge will do.. Prepare a monthly calendar a few weeks before the exam season and allocate the blocks into the calendar respectively. Finally, don’t forget to set an artificial deadline so you have some buffer before the actual deadline!” Jia Xuen, Accounting
“What really helps me revise is making a schedule for my work and prioritise my commitments. It takes a bit of time, but it is incredibly helpful and makes my actual revision a lot more efficient.” Simone, Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology
“What helped me when I did get overwhelmed and felt a bit lost was to just have all the information in front of me. I would write down all the modules I have exams and assessments for and list out whatever I need to complete as specific short tasks (this is very important!)” Nandana, International Business Finance and Economics
“Before starting on revision, I work out how much time I have, how much I need to revise and what other commitments I have, so that I can plan my time more effectively and leave a few days to do a final quick run-through. Try to keep the evenings free so you can have some downtime and that will also help you to sleep more easily, giving your brain the best chance of functioning optimally when the real thing comes around!” Olivia, Psychology
3. Find revision methods and times that work for you
We all work differently and so, what works best for your friend may not work as well for you. Maybe you find mind maps an effective way of revising whereas your friend likes to make notes galore. Or perhaps you’re a night owl who works better in the evenings. You could be someone who likes to make use of a variety of revision methods. Revision can feel like a chore at the best of times, so whatever makes it more bearable (or even enjoyable, if that’s possible!) is a win!
“I found that I don’t have to remember everything about every course I studied at once, I need to study my notes on different courses at different times and also test my understanding at different times.” Fatimah, Law
“I like to focus on my weakest and strongest subject as the weakest allows me to develop my limitations while the strongest gives me the motivation and confidence to keep going. I also go over my lecture notes and podcasts to ensure I didn’t miss any important information throughout the semester. For online exams, I have a lot of essays, so I do practice essays and get feedback from my lecturers and peers.” Simone, Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology
“You not only have to find a method of revision that is most suitable for you but also change and tweak this method to suit the different modules you’re undertaking.” Nandana, International Business Finance and Economics.
“I would pull information from my notes and readings and make a mind map on a big A3 sheet that was focussed on each theme. I then hung this up in my room and would refer to it in the mornings to jog my memory.” Kerry, History
4. Take breaks
We all need to give our brains a rest sometimes to help them store what we’ve learned more effectively. We’re humans and not machines, after all! Taking a break every so often can be great for the mind. Go for a walk and come back refreshed and ready to begin revising again.
“If I try to spend a large period of time revising in one sitting, within half an hour to an hour, I start becoming less focused and more distracted, making my revision a lot less effective. As soon as I start to feel distracted, I take a quick five to ten minute break to recover. This way I can come back to my work with more motivation and maintain my concentration over a greater amount of time, making the revision session much more effective than if I had just tried to endure it.” Kane, Computer Science
“For every hour of revision I’d allow myself 10–15 minutes of watching part of an episode, so it would take me a full day to watch an episode of Made in Chelsea, which took my mind off of my work and allowed my brain to rest. I’d also would regularly take a tea break to give my brain 5 minutes to cool off when getting really stressed” Jas, Mathematics
5. Learn actively
While we all learn differently, when it comes to needing to recall information for exams, it can help to find methods which require your brain to work a little bit harder. For example, rather than simply highlighting your study or lecture notes (a passive method), try to apply your newfound knowledge on past paper questions (or your own test questions)! This way, you’re simulating the conditions you’ll be retrieving the same information under in the real exam.
“It really helped me to spend more time during the revision period on “active learning”. This is when I don’t read and “study” my materials but rather do past paper questions, worksheets, solve problems and put all the things I have learned to test. Of course you can’t do “active learning” without studying your materials so my last tip would be to start early!” Nandana, International Business Finance and Economics
“I read somewhere — probably during my degree! — that we remember things best at the start and the end of a study session. With that in mind, I would usually start off each study session by testing myself on the questions I came up with at the end of the last session for the lecture I revised, and go over any that I found tricky to understand or remember. Testing yourself is a good way to revise as it forces you to actively recall material in response to specific questions, so it’s basically a practice run for the actual exam (with open-ended questions)!” Olivia, Psychology
We hope these tips will help not only get started with your revision, but also to optimise it and to maintain your focus and wellbeing through exam season. We know it’s not the easiest thing to do but we know you can do it! Keep in mind the end goal and the bigger picture, then you can go forth and smash those exams! Good luck!
Further support and resources
Guide to revision: from Start to Finish
Now or never? Overcoming procrastination
