Effective Revision Academic Skills Enhancement

Effective Revision Academic Skills Enhancement

Learning Outcomes Create an effective revision timetable Raise awareness of effective revision strategies Distinguish between levels and depths knowledge Evaluate your revision progress

Effective Revision Needs Planning: Revision Timetable 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 subtopics you are going to study - at what time.

What does an effective revision timetable look like? Monday Monday

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

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?

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)

What is effective revision? Involves actively using, manipulating and engaging with information. Moves knowledge from surface to deeper levels. Engages ‘higher order thinking skills’ (Bloom, 1956)

3 Effective Revision techniques Interrogate Practice Draw

Interrogate We can learn material by asking ourselves questions about it. By asking the right The best questions questions, we are ones that integrate the new require information with the explanations or knowledge we draw have already. comparisons. Image by brodyquixote (redbubble.com)

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)

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?

Practice Past papers, problems from a textbook, using flashcards – any form of testing will improve your learning Practice testing This retrieval forces you to creates a pathway search your you can use to memory to find and access that retrieve the knowledge more information. easily. Cultofpedagogy.com

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

Practice Be creative with your testing! Use flashcards, make mindmaps 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

Draw 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. mysimpleshow.com

Draw: You can be artistic. Image via Learningscientists.org

Draw: .make a timeline or diagram. Image from Wikimedia via Learningscientists.org

Draw: .or just a simple table. Image from Improveism.com

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.

Revision Progress: Where are you? At deeper levels I can At surface levels I can Define PASSIVE REVISIO N ? Label Remember Give examples ACTIVE REVISIO N Evidence Analyse Explain connections and synthesize Compare and contrast Apply rules Demonstrate cause and effect Summarise Critique and evaluate LOWER ORDER THINKING SKILLS (LOTS) HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS (HOTS)

Academic Skills Enhancement This guide was created by Academic Skills Enhancement at Queen Mary, University of London. To find more resources, access workshops and one-toone support, visit: http://qmul.ac.uk/library/academic-skills