Revision - Maximising Recall

How about another way to help your revision. In the last post I said that you can forget what happens in lessons because you haven’t created an interesting image for your mind to remember. When I say 'image' I don't mean a perfect photographic image in your head. You remember things by association, so by creating extra links to things you have learnt your brain can easily find that piece of data again. 

If you have a single neuron or an idea on its own then it is impossible for you to access it because it is not linked to anything else. If however you create a few links then you will be able remember that piece of information. If you create even more links then it will almost be impossible for you to forget it! Something which enables this process is repetition. Repetition allows you to create more links which you haven’t thought of before and also strengthens existing links. In other words you will be able to recall information much more easily. The times at which you should review what you have learnt are as follows:

1. Review what you have learnt immediately after you've learnt it.
2. Review it again 24 hours later
3. Then a week later
4. One month later
5. Three months later

By reviewing your story or notes then you will be able to recall the information you learnt much more easily and won't have to spend hours reviewing everything before an exam. It might seem more effort reviewing it in this pattern, but it is much less compared to the amount of stress you could go through revising everything before an exam. Teachers try to replicate some of this with homework. You’re practising what you have learnt after you have learnt it first time. The problem is that after that some of the information is lost because you haven’t reviewed it for weeks. 

This is another major point. You already know most of what you’re revising. To save time and avoid 'relearning' a topic you should think about what you already know about a topic. If you have a revision guide for the subject your revising look in the contents for all the topics you’re covering. If you don't have this then looked it up on the internet or look in your exercise book. Then on a piece of paper jot down what you know about the first topic without looking in the revision guide. This should take no more than five minutes to get the main ideas down. Once you have made a list turn to the page in your revision guide and see if you missed anything. If you did read over that topic (most likely you’re going to say 'oh yeah! I forgot about that!'). 

Doing this could save you a lot of time and effort over your revision, and help you to remember all the facts after you have completed the exam. Remember even though you have done the exam it doesn't mean you can forget everything you've learnt!