Steps to Start The Revision Classes

We all have had those days when we struggled extremely hard to recall during the exam what we read. We dream that knowledge is etched in our minds forever! There are some people with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory(HSAM) who can remember even the minutest of details most accurately. They’re just gifted or they have done their revision classes.

Quite often, a good memory, amongst students, is a consequence of constant multiple Revisions. Quite often than not, we tend to forget what we read. When someone ask us something we ate weeks ago, how many of us can answer in a jiff and correctly? Most of us can’t, of course. We even sometimes forget what we crammed a few minutes, in the worst cases seconds before. This isn’t harmful in random scenarios, but a nightmare if it happens during exam time.

Importance of Revision during exam time: 

Exam time is dreadful both for students and their parents. The kids struggle with their comprehension and memory while their parents with apprehension and anxiety. Revision for exams is as important as oxygen is for life.

During exams, many students go for tuition or revision classes to ace their tests. For that, you have to study no matter what and present it in the exam too. It’s not unusual for a child to fantasize about having a super memory, to avoid cramming over textbooks constantly. One sure-shot way is Revision. 

Our brain is a wonderful organ wired amazingly. When we input new information into it, the brain cells or neurons come together as a chain called a ‘Synapse’. These synapses activate Hippocampus, a complex brain structure, which plays a pivotal role in learning and memory.

But the hippocampus is like a machine that gradually stops working if left unattended and needs oiling to keep it working. Here, oiling is to revise the input we fed to the brain, called retrieval. Each time we retrieve information the hippocampus gets activated.

The more retrievals, the more activated the Hippocampus is, meaning, agile memory. Multiple revisions spark our brain synapses making our memory sordid. So during exams, it’s essential to revise, so our brain wires out the information required ad hoc to present in the exam. 

Ways Of Revision: 

Revision, oftentimes, is boring but inevitable. It can be exciting though. Let us look at some interesting ways of doing the same.

1. First things first, know what to read. The primary job before revising a subject is to pick a reliable source and read it for the first time. At least one fresh reading of a subject is a must. Having too many sources makes it difficult to revise. Limited resources are the key. 
2. Make notes, annotations, snippets, and like so the next time you visit a subject you will simply read the short, crisp notes and not the entire material. 
3. Use given examples, experiments, and activities suggested in textbooks. They’re your revision tools.  This is called conceptual learning. These things focus on the application part of a concept and help you understand the subject better. 
4. While revising a topic, update it with current data or facts. This helps in analyzing the topic in real time and strengthens your essays. 
5. Teach. A study proved that 70% of the students who teach or discuss a topic after learning it with their parents, peers, or friends showed a greater memory retention capacity. 
6. Be artistic. Use FHDs (Free Hand Diagrams), summaries, mind maps, flowcharts, graphs, lists, etc. Doing this activates the creative cerebral centers and our brain is attentive to what catches our eye. Use colors and creativity to make revision exciting.
7. Go for quizzes, past papers, and mock tests. Attempting tests or quizzes boosts confidence and you feel at ease during the exam. 
8. Make lists for mathematical formulae, tables, etc. Do multiple run-downs before the exam. This is called Rote learning useful for remembering factual information. 
9. Use techniques like the Pomodoro technique for better concentration with short breaks. This gives your brain the time to relax and absorb information. 
10. A good 7-8 hours of sleep works wonders. The brain sorts and organizes information when you are asleep so you wake up with a fresh mind, are tidy and organized and remain active during the exam. Sleep deprivation affects your focus and retrieval badly during the examination. 

Schedule for Revision before exam & during the exam:

Often, students pick up revision tasks at odd times. This affects their routine and brain’s pattern-making ability. The brain observes the patterns of work, analyzes them, and creates new patterns using them. Without a proper revision routine, the patterns in the brain get affected leaving it disorganized and chaotic. Having a fixed time for revision generates exceptional results.

Usually, revising at a fixed time every day or on specific days gives a satisfactory outcome. Some students revise during their prime hours of learning. For instance, a child’s prime hours are 6 am-10 am. This is to learn something new, not to revise.

The brain is the most active during the prime hours so, learning a new or a difficult topic should be done during those hours. Revision requires less effort than learning a new one. Revising at prime hours will push a new topic to when you’re less active. This strains your brain which is exhausted and affects your focus. Save revision for when you’re less active. 

You can use some given revision schedules online and customize them or make an organic timetable. Some of the most popular revision rules are:

1. The 1-2-4-7 Rule: Read a topic for the first time on day 1. Revise on day 2, then on day 4, then on day 7. This way, a topic is revised 3 times after the first reading, and there is an increasing gap between the two revisions gradually.

2. The 2-3-5-7 Rule: This is similar to the above-said rule, only here you revise a subject or a topic on alternate days. 

3.  The Backward Rule: Begin with the end in mind. Say, your exam is on Monday, the 16th. You have 7 subjects and 15 days to prepare. The day before the exam will be a full-length revision. Start backward, subject 1 on days 1 & 14, subject 2 on days 2 & 13, and so on, and finally subject 7 on days 7&8. This way each subject can be revised twice before the exam, provided you have studied all the subjects at least once before revision. 

No matter how you revise, the goal is to revise effectively without distractions. For this, mobile apps like the FOREST app help reduces phone usage.

How Litera Centre can help students with revision classes?

Litera Centre is a global online education platform catering to the educational needs of students of grades 6-12 providing tuition, training, and guidance for IB and IGCSE AS&A level curriculums. this platform also provides Exam Retake tuition. it pivots on making learning easy by breaking down complex topics, then integrating them holistically for detailed learning.

Their subject experts use exquisite pedagogies and real-time-based learning styles to focus on preparing their students for boards and competitive exams, gaining expertise in subject matter, handling time and stress, and guiding the students toward their dreams. 

The platform provides exclusive world-class teaching and the subject experts go the extra mile to teaching students through carefully crafted pedagogies to meet students’ learning preferences. Further, if you’re a study-abroad aspirant preparing for the Scholastic Assessment Test(SAT) or a parent looking for solid and reliable SAT preparation guidance for your child, then Litera Centre SAT is the perfect go-to.

The services are reliable and affordable. Whether it’s one subject you want to take tuition for, or your complete IB, IGCSE curriculum.

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Happy Learning.