Revision

[Martel]

Possibly the worst about education, even more so than the exams, are preparing for them. I'm a second year university student, and it was only last year I finally found a revision style that didn't bore me to death and actually made things stick in my head. Since this has been controlling my life since the Easter, and I didn't see a topic in this area on it, I figured I'd post one so people can share their experiences~

So, my questions are thus:

How far in advance of your exams do you tend to start your revision?
When you finally do sit down to revise, what is your methodology?
How much time do you tend to spend on revision?

I've always tended to start two weeks ahead of my exams...depends on how worried I am about things. Last year I did a half-arsed job in the week before, since it didn't count to my degree and I already knew most of the stuff from my A-Levels. I started in the first week of Easter this year; about six weeks beforehand.

My personal strategy is always to abridge my notes first, regardless of what the subject is. It puts me in the right frame of mind for it, and means I've always got some notes on-hand if I don't feel like doing anything else. After that...practice questions. By the truckload. Over and over and over and OVER. This probably only really applies to math-based subjects; I find the only way I'm going to really learn the layout and rules for things (and there are a lot of them in my degree) is to practice applying them. Repeatedly. To try and eliminate the number of mistakes I will no doubt make and at least try and appear as though I know what I'm doing.

I find working under exam conditions is quite helpful, as well - printing a past paper off , or tackling the questions one at a time in the time limit (as I've been doing this year, since my exams are three hours long) I'd face in the exam itself.

Time spent on revision for me tends to be about five hours a day, at most. Its probably close to four. I have an hour-on, half-hour-off policy for the morning, since my concentration dies away completely in the afternoon and I'm half-dead in the evenings. I doubt I get more than 30 hours a week done, which I suppose is pretty poor for a university student, but...eh, quality over quantity. I tend to take Saturdays off, because stress makes me even less productive.

 

[Linnaete]

Q1: How far in advance of your exams do you tend to start your revision?

I give it about a good month before the actual exam itself. That's probably when I start revising seriously on a regular basis. The length of time per revision sessions become gradually longer the closer to the exam I am. As I've learnt the hard way with one of my internal school exams in Year 10, it really isn't a good feeling when you realise a week before the exam that you haven't even started revising yet. Seeing as I'm doing my AS levels now (which are pretty demanding), I have to make good use of time.

Q2: When you finally do sit down to revise, what is your methodology?

I take regular breaks. I may take a 5 or 10 minute break every 20-25 minutes of revision. Earlier on in the revision period I would read over books and my notes to get a general familiarisation with things. Then - phase 2 in a kind of way - I have pens and paper in front of me to just write down notes, re-familiarise with them and test out what I know or don't know. I also attend regular additional sessions with my teachers. I've been attending Politics extracurricular sessions in the mornings and afternoons so the teacher can extensively go over things. I find that really helpful.

Q3: How much time do you tend to spend on revision?

If it's a weekday evening, I may clock up about 1 and a half to 2 hours rotating around with the various subjects I have. In weekends, I may manage about 3 to 3 and a half hours. I have a really short attention span so I never tend to do anymore than that. I'm not really big on revision - most of my exams are more to do with skill than anything else.

 

[Dionysos]

How far in advance of your exams do you tend to start your revision?

That would depend on what else I have to do at the time... When I was doing my A-levels I started revising months before hand, and during my GCSE's I started before that. I wouldn't get down to serious full-day revising until later on though.

With Uni this year I couldn't start revising until about a month and a half before my exams, and couldn't dedicate all of my time to revising anyway. I had my dissertation to hand in just before the Easter break, and then I had 2 assignments, a presentation and two exams to prepare for over Easter. I had to allow myself to spend time on each of them, so that meant that I couldn't really give all of my time to revising. All of those things came at once, within a week of each other, so I couldn't just focus on one and not the other.


When you finally do sit down to revise, what is your methodology?

My method was pretty lame and only served to turn me insane. I tend to go very mad during the exam period. I guess everyone does to an extent, due to the stress, but I literally do go loopy and shut myself out from everything. I rarely go out of the house unless I really have to.

With Uni this year we had to do a lot of our own reading. Reading the lecture notes is meant to get us very low marks (that said, to my horror when I turned up for the exams a lot of people said that they had only read the lecture notes, and I felt as if I'd wasted time ). I grabbed loads of articles and such from the reading list and picked the topics I was going to revise and started reading them. I probably should have read the lecture notes first, so that I understood and was familiar with the basics before I got into reading various different things. It took me a while to piece things together.

Eventually I did though, and I made spider diagrams for each topic and added all of the relevant information I had from each article / book to it, but condensed it (to an extent... I had to write really small).

Usually I never got to the spider diagram stage though. I rarely ever have time to get that far in my revision. I never feel as if I know anything, so then struggle to set time aside to make something like that. I know now that the act of making a spider diagram is revision in itself as you learn it as you build one.

As for practice questions... I rarely ever found time for those either. No matter how much work I do I never feel as if I know anything at all, and when I look at past exam questions they only tend to stress me out. If I set time to really think about them, in exam conditions, then I could probably make use of practice questions. It's hard to answer some questions without the stress of having limited time and being tested on your back.


How much time do you tend to spend on revision?

I always feel as if I don't do enough, but I know it is likely that I do too much instead. If I set a day aside for revision, and that would be most days, then it really would be for most of the day. There will be distractions too every now and then, though, and my mind wanders a lot of the time. It would probably be about 6 or 7, or more hours a day that I am officially sat there revising.

I'm quite a slow reader so it would take me a long time to read what some people could skim through in a few hours and get the basic gist of it. I end up having to spend a long time doing it because of that, which sucks. I only seem to be abe to skim read when really stressed, so that is much further along and near to the exams.

I probably should have taken more regular breaks, and gone outside for some fresh air. Not taking breaks, and not breathing actual air for weeks is NOT healthy. You'd think I'd learn.

Then again, I say that I needed more breaks, but then it would feel as if I hadn't done anything since the last break. 5 minutes for a break as well is not a break at all really, as it is over in a few seconds. 5 minutes is barely enough time to think about relaxing. I think that's just me though. Other people seem to have a hold on time, whereas with me I'm completely out of control and do not understand where time goes. It is simply over too fast, and I never seem to keep track of anything or manage to get much done, whereas some people have other commitments, are married, have kids, have a job, and manage to revise only for a few hours in a day, but still manage to be in the same position as me. I never understood that.

I think allowing yourself too much time to do revision is a killer, and it is not good for your physical or mental health.

 

[Toshiya]

How far in advance of your exams do you tend to start your revision?
I tend to start a couple of weeks at most before the actual exam. I can't revise far away from the exam because I'll basically forget all that I revised before the actual thing, which isn't helpful I've just started revising for the exams I have in a week and 2 days and I'm still fairly confident I'll do well in them.

When you finally do sit down to revise, what is your methodology?
I generally read over my books/notes, make notes on them and copy some stuff, and do practice exam questions. Revision cards and fancy methods just don't work for me. I need to understand stuff before I can remember it.

How much time do you tend to spend on revision?
About half an hour to an hour at a time, my attention span isn't that great. But it works for me, and I'm yet to fail an important exam. Hopefully I can continue that.

 

[VinnieJones]

How far in advance of your exams do you tend to start your revision?

I give 20hrs or so for each module, so depends on how many exams I have. I'm currently studying maths and have 6 modules per semester, all exam-only. So in my case around 3 weeks prior to the first exam.

When you finally do sit down to revise, what is your methodology?

I try to stick to spending 30% of my time looking back at lecture notes and understanding by reading it, and the other 70% doing examples (tutorial questions, past papers). Doing examples only is not the best way to understand something, but it's the best way to pass an exam.

How much time do you tend to spend on revision?

Before the lectures end I try to get about 2hrs revision a day. After lectures finish, I aim for 9 hours a day, three 2hr sessions and a 3hr one with breaks inbetween. My daily routine just before an exam goes: Breakfast, study(2hr), Lunch, study(3hr), break, study(2hr), Dinner, study(2hr), sleep.


Mind you this is what I try to aim for, it's not what happens all the time.

I also prepare playlists on my I-pod for revision; one that contains familiar favourites of mine so I don't concentrate too much on the music, and one consisting of instrumentals and soundtracks of FF and other games to create a relaxing atmosphere.

Good luck to all those revising now :cid:

 

[Kandy-Sugar]

How far in advance of your exams do you tend to start your revision?

When I was in highschool I would start about a couple of nights before the exam. If it was science I would always study a week in advance and I always got top marks.

I could never study weeks or months before an exam. It sunk in better if I read it right before.

When you finally do sit down to revise, what is your methodology?

I would read the required sections and then make up some practice questions and give them to one of parents so that they could ask me the questions.

I'd even get them to help make some up as well.

How much time do you tend to spend on revision?

I wouldn't spend more than an hour and a half, that's for sure.

I don't like to sit for too long and studying isn't my favourite thing to do, hence why I never went to TAFE or University once I left school.

 

[Phase Delta]

How far in advance of your exams do you tend to start your revision?
Generally I tend to start about a couple of months in advance, at least I did for A-levels. Havn't experienced any Uni exams and won't until January, so I guess I'll see how that goes!

When you finally do sit down to revise, what is your methodology?
I read over notes, highlight areas I need to memorise more, and go over and over until I do. I then would move on to practise questions.

How much time do you tend to spend on revision?
Depends on how good I am at the subject, but generally not enough! =P

 

[Marquis of Granby]

1. i always fully intend to start months before but usually i leave it til the last minute.

2. generally i just stare at things and hope they stick in my head. i'll read over something a million times but not actually read it if that makes sense.

3. usually if i enjoy the subject then theres no much revision required, if i dont particularly like it then i dont revise nearly as much as i should.

i always seem to get by though

 

[Rydrum2112]

I am the worst, I always last min. prepare (so please DO NOT DO what I did). I read things one or two times to make them clear and then i may write a few notes down and if there is a lot of information just take it chunk at a time and memorize. I think by revision you mean review, if that is so then as I said previously- at the last min so as much time as I can afford the day before.


P.S. highlighting doesn't work (there is research to support this) so if that is what your method is- switch to taking notes, the act of writing it and doing so in your own words helps learn the material.

 

[SaShman]

I generally start revising about a week or two before the exam. Although this can be an issue if I have several exams cluttered together as I hate revising for multiple courses at the same time.

Although my method for revising differs depending on what kind of exam I am studying for, my usual method involves me rewatching all of the lectures and taking new notes. Then trying to memorize them by standing up, walking around and reciting them out loud until I can recall them without needing to look my notes. For some reason just reading them over and over doesn't work for me.

Rewatching all of the lectures takes approximately 24hrs. Memorising my notes takes about 12-16hrs depending on how tedious the content is and how motivated I am.

 

[Lirael]

How far in advance of your exams do you tend to start your revision?
It really depends on how much I have to learn... If there's a lot, I'll start a month in advance, and re-revise everything as I go along. When I only had one exam last year at Uni, I started about a week before the exam, although I had gathered most of the info two/three weeks in advance.

I wasn't able to estimate how much time I'd need when I was younger. I always left it too late and did badly... As I got older, I applied myself completely and worked hard and was rewarded with good grades. As I got EVEN older, I learnt how to revise effectively, so that I could learn all the necessary info - and sometimes more - in less time.

When you finally do sit down to revise, what is your methodology?
Gosh, I don't know whether I have a particular method. I will read things, write them down, cover them, re-read, make notes using coloured pens, make notes from those notes... I'll make prompt notes, which are really brief. In these, I may only have one word here and there, and I'll use those to test my memory.

How much time do you tend to spend on revision?
Again, it's difficult to say... Probably a lot. If my friends were telling the truth, I did far more than them, but that's how I work. I do a lot because I become completely involved in the topic. Becoming involved is what helps me remember... I don't think I really did anything but revision in the week leading up to my Chaucer exam. I may have watched a thing or two... but...yeah... I made notes and plans and re-wrote them... Having said that, I do remember taking a lot of breaks in the final two days because there was nothing left to learn. I made plans from memory once or twice each day, but didn't do anything new.

 

[Benrir]

1. Erm, whenever I know about the exam, then I'll start revising and hopefully get it stuck it in my head.

2. I don't have a method really, I just read it a few times then stop looking and remember it in my head. Read, sink and soak is my method, simple as.

3. an hour or 2 hours a day at most, in a quiet zone where no distractions are available, so then I use my method and just get stuck in.