What is the purpose of revision?
Before you start making study plans, I think it’s important to understand the purpose of revision.
Revision is the process of going over your work in order to remind yourself of material you may have forgotten, identify any gaps in your knowledge, check your understanding and reinforce what you have learnt.
Let’s take a closer look at the many reasons why revision is important.
Remind yourself of subject material you may have forgotten
Most examination courses are long and contain a lot of content.
It’s highly likely that by the time you approach the end of your course you will have forgotten some material from the beginning.
Revision is a crucial if you want to remember that content from ages ago.
Check your understanding
You need to make sure that you still understand the material that you have covered. Not just facts and figures, but the deeper stuff too.
Part of your revision should definitely focus on checking that you still understand all the concepts you have been taught.
Reinforce what you have learnt
Reinforcing your knowledge and understanding will help you to recall it easier in the exam and generally make you feel more confident beforehand.
See how your topics fit together
Towards the end of your course you have the advantage of seeing how all the elements of the subject fit together and interplay with each other.
Seeing this bigger picture can be very beneficial, so try to incorporate it into your revision.
Identify and fill gaps in your knowledge
Through revision you may notice gaps in your knowledge and understanding.
Ideally these should have been addressed during your course but it’s better late than never (see below).
Revision is not the point where you should be learning your subject material
Revision is not supposed to be the point at which you learn your subject matter. That was your lessons!
During my exams, I did some solid revision. However, when I talked to some of my classmates I started wonder if I was doing enough. They seemed to be doing way more work than me.
But, the truth was this, they were spending all that time trying to learn the material that they didn’t fully understand (or actually missed) from their lessons over a year ago. Not a great strategy.
So, to avoid this situation:
- Make the most of your contact time with teachers
- Ask questions if you are unsure about something
- Don’t move onto another topic if you aren’t confident with the current topic
- See your teacher at break or lunch if you need help achieving this
Sticking your head in the sand isn’t going to make the topic any easier, in fact its likely to be even harder to understand if you try to come back to it at the end of the course.
Deal with it now, outside of class time if necessary.
Finally
Remember, revision is proven to work best when it occurs regularly over longer periods of time.
This means that doing a little bit each week throughout your entire course is better than a last minute binge session at the end.