Why you need to revise
This page summarises what revision is, why it is needed and outlines how to go about it as I feel students are more likely to do the revision if they understand why they need to.
What actually is Revision?
Revision literally means to see something again. It is the act of looking at something and seeing something new, a fresh perspective, a new insight.
Exam Revision should probably be called Exam Preparation, as really it is just learning. It is reviewing what you already know on a topic, comparing it to what you need to know and then fixing any gaps between the two.It is a process or method that helps you remember, recall and understand the information better.
Why do I need to do it?
Put simply, you are very unlikely to get the grades you are capable of without effective revision, for many of you, you are unlikely to pass all your exams without it.
You need to revise because the human brain is not great at remembering everything information the first time it meets it, and the less you understood about the topic that first time the less you are going to remember it.
Look at the model diagram - there are four main places to lose information:
- lack of attention when you are getting the information in the first place
- losing it from short term memory by not doing the "rehearsal" - that means going back over the information , doing something with it, eg a piece of work based on it
- Not doing the elaborate rehearsal to store it in long term memory - this is the "revision bit"
- Failure of retrieval - not able to recover the information from long term memory
