Revision Techniques to Improve Learning during Exam Preparation

[Admin Note: Very useful tips from our guest author Gaurav. We hope these would come in handy for any student preparing for any exam- whether school exams, board exams, entrance exams or even while learning new skills. Since learning is not about memorizing, these tips actually help you understand the concepts better, in a more efficient way!]

Students Preparing for Exams are always bogged by Revision to be completed and how much to Revise. I had found these Revision Techniques to be profound in actual getting good exams scores during my school days.

Let us see what effective Revision Techniques can be used to improve Learning

1) If Time is King, an effective Timetable is Key to Kingly success

At times, students starts revising without making any timetable of what to revise and when to revise. A Lot of Times, it is last few days revision before the exams which puts more pressure on the students.

Always make a timetable for revision well before the exams. A Timetable can include which topics to revise on which dates so that you can througly focus on them. Hence work towards the exams dates with the timetable and then divide time accordingly for all the subjects one by one.

Dont forget, this timetable can include other events also like Birthdays and other social functions which you might have to attend.

Take Mock Tests or Use Previous Year`s Papers as part of the Timetable revision

so that you get familiar with type of questions which can possibly come.

2) Summary Cards for Your Notes

A Lot of Students take notes and then again make more notes in different notebooks. Eventually Students tend to have 4-5 notebooks of notes on different topics on same subject. Scattered Notes are usually not that helpful.

Making Summary Notes for each of important topics so that brain tends to remember from key portions and tend to focus more on the larger picture.

Always remember, in order to make effective summary notes read through then the entire section of a subject. Then make the summary notes 1 page at a time so that the section in that page is adequentely represented. Underline the key points in sections.

3) Visual Maps for the Mind (Mind Maps)

One of the subjects that I was really interested during my studies was Organic Chemistry. Organic Chemistry has lot of Chemical equations and reactions to remember.

Visual Maps depicting a Tree like structure for chemical equations are really helpful in remembering complex chemical equations. Entire Process of making Visual Maps is simple.

Take a clean sheet of paper. Start in a Tree like Structure having different branches. The Trunck of Tree to represent a certain form of chemical havingh its chemical formula. Hence the branches could represent reactions of the base chemical with other chemicals and end of the branch can have the answer to the chemical reaction.

Same way for other subjects like Biology, Visual Maps can be made to understand the details of the specific topics like Circulatory system, Nervous system, Digestive system etc. Likewise you can co relate and can make Visual Maps for all important subjects

4) Group Revision

I recall one of my classmates during my school days who used to do Group Revision with another classmate. Eventually he was able to bring up his learning curve as he joined the session a bit late.

Group Revision has some really good pro`s which includes a joint discussion to understand crucial bits in a subject. In a group while revising you can understand the subject in a easier way that taught at school. At times, the subject gets covered much quicker in a group as division of work can happen to explain and revise the subjects in a group.

However Group Revision is recommended if you are comfortable in revising in a group then it is more beneficial. If you prefer study alone then also it is perfectly fine as long as you are able to revise properly and on time.

5) Managing Stress – Do take Breaks & Have Enough Sleep

At times, students forget to take Breaks and eventually end up in revising for longer stretches of time. Eventually it leads to fatigue and next day of revision gets impacted thereby leading to Stress of not meeting the revision completion. Take breaks at regular intervals of time and ensure that you get lots of sleep. Having Less Sleep could impact your next day revision and could lead to less concentration for further revision. Research has shown that lack of sleep leads to clogging of brain and makes us forget sooner.

Revise in a room that is quiet and you don’t get distracted from outside noises.

Regularly Drinking Green Tea can lead to improved Memory over period of time along with reduced stress levels.

Be Confident before the exams with all the revision you have done.

Lastly, remember revision is a skill that leads to improvement of memory and enhances learning ability of any student.

The above Techniques for revision can be helpful for students looking to improve their revision skills. However if you find 1 Technique to be more effective for your as compared to other one then you can stick to that for more better results.

To conclude, Effective Revision Techniques could project a student to new boundaries of excellence. Practice makes one perfect but effective Revision Techniques put excellence in ones perfectness.

Gaurav

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