Eat breakfast and drink water

Brains need energy to focus and retain information. Eat and drink a good breakfast before you start your day of successful revising.

 

Put your phone away

It’s difficult to ignore calls, texts and notifications so let your friends/family know you’ll be studying for some time and won’t have your phone on. This way you can focus entirely on doing all the things in this article without worrying about getting distracted or missing calls.

 

Start early and spread it out

If you have a good idea of what the assessment requires, it’s very useful to start reading, researching and preparing as soon as you know. This way the learning will feel less pressured and more enjoyable.

 

Test yourself

You can test your memory by talking about what you’re learning, by looking at possible questions and testing your knowledge.

 

Teach someone

This is really useful, speaking out loud to someone about your subject and passing on your knowledge can help consolidate your learning. It also helps you to recognise where your gaps in knowledge may be when people ask questions and you realise you don’t know the answer.

 

Listen to concentration music

This music should be without lyrics as you might be tempted to sing along.

 

Get 7 hours sleep a night

This is important. You can enhance your concentration levels and the amount of patience you have for any challenges that arise during your preparations.  Matt Walker gives a Ted Talk about the benefits of sleep and how it impacts memory and learning. You can find his 6 Tips for better sleep by clicking here

 

Start an exam day with exercise

A 30 minute walk, the gym, swimming, anything you can manage that gets you moving. Exercise improves your ability to learn, particularly when you start learning immediately after exercise.

 

Get some fresh air

Just as exercise improves your cognitive functions so too does fresh air. The more oxygen in your lungs, the more you have in your blood which helps you feel more energised and enhances your ability to concentrate.

 

Avoid burning out

Sometimes exam/ assessment pressure can feel overwhelming, and you may feel you need to work constantly to do well. It is essential to remind yourself that breaks, good sleep, a rest and exercise are as valuable to your success as revision.

 

Small bursts and balance

If you achieve a good balance between intensive study and breaks, you can really improve your exam/assessment success. Learn in short regular bursts, eat well, go for a walk, teach a friend, then get back to it.

 

For more information and to check out the sources for this article please explore these links:

https://www.theuniguide.co.uk/advice/student-life/game-changing-revision-tips-we-tweeted-you-may-have-missed

https://www.whatuni.com/advice/sixth-form-life/21-alternative-ways-to-revise/72112/

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/may/17/struggling-revision-exams-cramming-experts

https://www.bolton.ac.uk/leaponline/Documents/Preparing-for-Exams-Booklet.pdf