2. • Create an effective revision timetable
• Raise awareness of effective revision strategies
• Distinguish between levels and depths knowledge
• Evaluate your revision progress
Learning
Outcomes
3. • Planning a week of study means deciding what you will
study every day for a week.
• Planning reduces stress because it helps us know that
a task is doable.
• Make a timetable and decide what topics and sub-
topics you are going to study - at what time.
Effective Revision Needs Planning:
Revision Timetable
4. What does an effective revision timetable
look like?
Monday Monday
5. Effective revision
timetabling
Interleaved study is better
• Helps you find links between topics
that can lead to critical thinking
and novel ideas.
• Helps with motivation because you
can mix up what you like more with
what you like less.
• Builds in time for going over
previously learned material again so
that you reinforce your learning.
Monday
6. What is ineffective
revision?
Highlighting!
• Easy to highlight too much
• Highlighting is passive – you
are not processing the
material.
• Highlighting is a form of
procrastination – why are you
saving the learning for later?
7. What is ineffective
revision?
Re-reading!
• Reading twice is OK – more
than twice has little impact on
learning (Dunlosky et al. 2013)
• Other techniques such as
practice tests are much better
at improving grades (Roediger
and Karpicke, 2006)
8. • Involves actively using, manipulating and
engaging with information.
• Moves knowledge from surface to deeper levels.
• Engages ‘higher order thinking skills’ (Bloom, 1956)
What is effective revision?
10. • We can learn
material by asking
ourselves
questions about it.
• By asking the right
questions, we
integrate the new
information with
the knowledge we
have already.
• The best questions
are ones that
require
explanations or
draw
comparisons.
Interrogate
Image by brodyquixote
(redbubble.com)
11. Interrogate
"Why should that apple always
descend perpendicularly to the
ground? Why should it not go
sideways, or upwards? But
constantly to the Earth's centre?"
- (Attributed to Isaac Newton in Connor,
2010,‘The core of truth behind Sir Isaac
Newton's apple.’ The Independent)
12. Interrogate
When studying a topic –
facts, concepts, ideas –
ask yourself questions.
• Why is this fact correct?
• How is concept X similar/different
to concepts Y and Z?
• How does this idea relate to other
ideas I’m learning about?
• How would I structure an
explanation to my peers?
13. • Past papers,
problems from a
textbook, using
flashcards – any
form of testing will
improve your
learning
• Practice testing
forces you to
search your
memory to find and
retrieve the
information.
• This retrieval
creates a pathway
you can use to
access that
knowledge more
easily.
Practice
Cultofpedagogy.com
14. Practice
Check that you really know!
• Do as many past papers as you can
find.
• Make your own test questions from
your notes that simulate the exam
• Share practice tests and questions
with your friends and classmates
15. Practice
• Be creative with your testing!
• Use flashcards, make mind-
maps and delete the labels.
• When you are reviewing lectures
on Q-Review, pause the
video and try
to predict the information coming
next
bookwidgets.com
?
16. • Visualise your knowledge by
turning your notes into graphical
images.
• Our minds store verbal and visual
information separately (Meyer and
Anderson, 1992)
• Dual coding (Paivio, 1996) your
information through verbal and visual
channels improves mental
organisation of information.
Draw
mysimpleshow.com
17. Draw: You can be artistic....
Image via
Learningscientists.org
18. Draw: ...make a timeline or diagram...
Image from Wikimedia via
Learningscientists.org
20. Revision Progress: How deep is your
knowledge?
HOTS vs. LOTS
• Because the assessments are
take-home and open book, you
will be given questions that test
your HOTS rather than LOTS.
• Questions will test your ability to
analyse, argue, evaluate and
synthesize information to create
novel opinions and ideas.
• Questions will have
best answers rather than right
answers.
21. Revision Progress: Where are you?
At surface levels I can…
• Define
• Label
• Remember
• Give examples
• Apply rules
• Summarise
At deeper levels I can…
• Evidence
• Analyse
• Explain connections and
synthesize
• Compare and contrast
• Demonstrate cause and effect
• Critique and evaluate
? HIGHER ORDER
THINKING SKILLS
(HOTS)
LOWER ORDER
THINKING SKILLS
(LOTS)
ACTIVE
REVISION
PASSIVE
REVISION
22. This guide was created by Academic Skills Enhancement
at Queen Mary, University of London.
To find more resources, access workshops and one-to-
one support, visit: http://qmul.ac.uk/library/academic-skills
Academic Skills Enhancement
