Heads' Tips - more revision ideas...

In addition to our Heads’ Tips – revision & exam time try some of these unusual tips to sustain your daughter’s interest and ease the process along:

• Try Mind Mapping to show the links between topics. A useful book is Tony Buzan, Mind Mapping for Kids. Rather than being a specific subject guide, it explains why mind mapping can help revision, teaches the skills of mind mapping and gives examples from different subject areas.

• Revision games – these are useful for when she is revising with friends (even revision sleepovers if you’re feeling brave).
  - Take a pack of old playing cards, on one side you could have questions and on the other the answers. Deal them out around a table and then the recipient asks the questions on the cards. You can even use a scoring system and some Monopoly money/ matchsticks to add a competitive edge. Asking questions on revision topics is a great way for her to consider what she knows and what she still needs to revise.
  - Board games: simple games that girls can make for themselves as part of the revision process or adapt games that you already have, e.g. Ludo. It could be a simple move around the board game and every time you land on a particular square you have to answer a question. Great for quick ten- minute revision sessions for any subject.

• Use a pack of multi-coloured Post-it notes (bigger ones) to stick key facts/ info around the home e.g. on the fridge, loo, TV, computer. Any member of the family using these facilities takes the Post-it and interrogates the hapless victim. Very effective in subjects like Maths and Science where terms and formulae have to be committed to memory. Extra benefit is that the whole family gets to learn too!

• Take a subject that she struggles with and suggest she divides the topics into three lists:
  - Can do this pretty easily and have learnt it already.
  - Finds this challenging and still doesn’t fully understand it all
  - Finds this perplexing. Need more help
  When planning her revision of this subject, she should start with a session from the middle group, and finish with one from the first group. Suggest short bursts – 20 mins to 30 mins, and that she finds past exam questions to refer to when she has finished learning the material.
  Then she should ask her teacher for help with the third list. Showing the teacher the three lists will suggest that she is actively working to improve her own learning. This will enable the teacher to see where the gaps are and how they might help put the whole jigsaw together. This is especially true of the “pyramid’ subjects such as Maths, Sciences and Languages where one thing builds upon another.

• Does her school run revision clinics at lunchtimes? If so, encourage her to make time to attend.

• For Languages, suggest she finds a large picture/photograph, e.g. of a shopping centre and labels it and practises asking and answering questions about it in the chosen language – this will help both with vocabulary and tenses.

• Suggest alternatives to writing out her notes repeatedly: creating a power point presentation or leaflet is an active (and enjoyable!) way of revising and learning information

• ‘Teaching’ somebody else can help her review her learning and understanding – so find family or friends who can make some time to be taught…

• Hearing information is sometimes a better way to learn than reading it. Encourage her to record information and play it back via her ipod or via CD or using a Dictaphone. Put on accents, it will make listening more enjoyable and memorable!

For more practical help see our guide to useful revision sites and guides in Heads’ Tips – a guide to revision guides

With thanks to the Heads & staff at the following schools:
Hethersett Old Hall School, St Andrew’s School, St Catherine’s School Bramley