Module: Study Skills
to discuss an aspect of one
Level: Master One
Revision Skills
What is Revision?
Revise v.t. to study anew, to look at
again; revision the act or product of
revising. Revision, then, is looking
again at something that you have
previously studied, usually with a
view to learning it in order to pass an
exam.
How to Revise: Revision
Tips and Techniques
There are some important aspects
specific to revision including:
1) Be Honest With Yourself
Be honest about what you are doing.
If it is useful and vital preparation,
then go ahead. If you are doing it in
order to postpone the evil moment
that you will actually have to do
some revision, then stop it and get
on with your revision. Now. You
will feel better once you have started
to revise. Really. Just getting half an
hour of actual work done will feel so
much better than the ‘black cloud’
worry of ‘I still haven’t started my
revision and the exams are only x
days away’. Go on. Just do it.
2) Have Lots of Options for
Activities
Revision doesn’t just have to consist
of sitting reading over your
textbooks or notes. For example:
 Why not get a group together
particular course that you all
find interesting and/or
difficult? If you’re on study
leave, the chances are that
your teachers will have
lighter timetables than usual,
so might be prepared to
facilitate an extra discussion
group and keep you all on
track.
 There are almost always past
papers or sample papers
available, either through your
school or college, or online. If
you’re finding it hard to
concentrate on reading, why
not work your way through a
practice question or two?
 There are also plenty of
resources online, such as
example answers. Ask your
school or college for some
ideas for suitable sites, or
look at their learning center
or VLE.
3) Take a Break
If today just isn’t your day for
revising, and you really can’t settle
to anything, then take a break. But
don’t just sit around looking at
Facebook, or distracting your friends
from their revision by messaging
them.
Set yourself a time limit, maybe
an hour, maybe two, and do
something constructive. Fresh air is
very good for concentration, and
exercise will help your brain relax. something non-screen-based
Or do some cooking: maybe make that helps you to relax and do
supper, or bake a cake. that for a while. You will
sleep better, and wake better
When you’ve finished, go back to
able to face another day’s
work and try again. You’ll probably
revision.
find the break and distraction have
Revision Skills and Learning
done you good and you can think
Style:
more clearly.
It is suggested that it may be
4) The Importance of Exercise
easier to learn if you tailor your
 You can be revising all day,
study to your preferred learning
and feel exhausted, but still be
style. The most effective learners use
unable to sleep if you haven’t
multiple styles. Recognizing and
taken very much physical
using your preferred learning style,
exercise all day.
and varying your experiences, can
 Try to balance mental and
make revision easier, and more
physical activity, even if your
effective.
physical activity is only a
walk around the block at the Learning Styles Revisited:
end of the day. If you can take
Honey and Mumford identified four
some real exercise
basic styles of learning, which they
periodically, a run, a swim, a
characterized as:
bike ride, or a decent walk,
then do. You will feel better,  Activists: learn by doing,
and work better, for it. getting, and trying things out.
5) Switching Off…
 You need a chance to switch  Pragmatists: are chiefly
off before you try to sleep at interested in how ideas can be
the end of the day. Don’t stop
applied in the real world.
revision and go straight to
bed, but give yourself at least  Reflectors: like to reflect on
an hour in between. their experience and that of
 Research suggests that it may
be even worse to stop revision others.
and turn straight to the internet  Theorists: like to understand
or TV, because there is
how their study fits into a
evidence that the light of the
screen switches off the broader theoretical
neurotransmitter that helps us framework.
to sleep. Instead, find
Very few of us are a pure ‘type’, but
each of us has one, or more often
two, preferences of learning style
and therefore activities which we
prefer to do in order to learn.
Tailoring your revision to your
learning style can help you to learn
more easily.
Revision for Activists
Activists like to ‘do’ in order to
learn. They don’t care much for
reading or looking at their notes.
 Writing practice essays or
exam questions (and you will
almost certainly find that your
tutor or teacher will be
delighted to mark your
practice essays for you if you
ask them nicely). This will
also work for kinesthetic
learners.
 Summarizing notes in the
form of mind maps or other
memory-jogging diagrams.
 Taking part in a group
discussion or debate on the
subject that allows you to
explore the ideas and subject
with other people, which will
be helpful for auditory
learners.
 Especially if you’re revising
a subject like English
Literature where you’re
studying a play or poem,
walking around the room
reading it aloud, or acting it
out, neither alone nor with a
friend, can be a great way of
getting parts of it to stick in
your mind.
Revision for Pragmatists
Pragmatists, more than any other
group, are interested in what works.
That’s the case for the subject that
they’re learning, but it’s also the
case for the style of learning too.
One good way for pragmatists to
revise is to try to find out what the
exam will be like, and then prepare
for that.
 Working through old exam
questions (your teacher or
tutor will probably be happy
to mark them or comment on
them for you).
 Working out what topics
might come up in the exam,
based in previous years’
papers, and preparing practice
answers for those topics.
 Case-based learning can also
be a useful way to check
whether you’ve understood
the principles and are
applying them sensibly in
practice, which will appeal to
pragmatists.
Revision for Reflectors
Reflectors like to read, and think, c) Building your own models, or
and read some more. They like to applying known models to
reflect on their experiences and fit case studies as practice for
things together. More than any other exams.
type of learner, a reflector staring out d) Discussion groups may be a
of the window may still be working! helpful way to work through
the application of theories
a) Reading over notes and
with like-minded colleagues.
textbooks, and thinking about
Asking a tutor to facilitate
the content.
will ensure a more practical
b) Writing practice essays or
and less wholly theoretical
exam questions, but only on
focus!
subjects on which you’ve
Beware of ‘Comfort Zone’
already done some reading.
Learning.
c) Summarizing your notes and
thoughts into a page, perhaps Learning styles are not fixed or
as a mind-map or similar absolute, and we should not think of
picture. them as limiting what we can do.
Revision for Theorists Most of us will change our learning
style in response to different job or
Theorists like to go back to first
course requirements, although we
principles and really understand the
may always retain a preference for
theoretical framework into which
one particular style.
their work fits.
Learning also happens in a cycle:
a) Additional research around a
we need to try things out, explore
subject to explore theoretical
ideas, and work out how they fit
background and set your
with existing knowledge, before we
work in better context. It will
can fully put them into practice.
make you, as a theorist, feel
Limiting yourself to one particular
more comfortable that you
style means that you may
understand the subject and
inadvertently miss part of that cycle,
can work out the answers
and make your learning less
from first principles if
effective.
necessary.
b) Creating structured notes that Remember that variety is the spice
fit everything together of life, and look out for new ways of
logically, which may help learning to broaden your experience.
you to build the connections
in your mind. Mind-mapping
may be a helpful technique
for this.