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Creating a Revision Schedule

This post was written by Taylor Jeoffroy (PhD Candidate in English, and ASC Tutor)

Do you enjoy the structure of your weekly timetable throughout the semester but feel lost when it comes to exam season? Do you need an extra boost of organisation to sort your revision for exams and final assessments? Making a Revision Schedule for those final weeks of the semester can help reduce stress, avoid procrastination, and keep you on track with everything you need to accomplish during this busy time!

So how do you make a Revision Schedule?

Step One: Gather Information

Ensure you know when your deadlines are and that you’ve reviewed all the information your module has given you about your exams and final assessments.

Exams:

  • How many exams do you have? When are they?
  • What style are your exams? Essays, multiple choice, short answers? Can you bring any materials into the exam with you?
  • Have you been given specific information about what content will appear on the exam? Is it on particular week’s content, chapters, or books?

Final Assessments:

  • How many assessments do you have? When are they due?
  • Read over the assignment information. What materials do you need to complete these?

Once you’ve answered these questions, go and gather your materials. This could include lecture notes, books, articles, online resources, My Dundee pages, etc…

Step Two: Planning

Take these things into consideration when making your schedule:

Evaluate how much time you need to revise for each exam:

  • Which areas are you most confident in? Which areas do you need more time to review the content?
  • For each exam, break your revision down into different topics or styles of revision (reviewing notes, flash-cards, preparing for an essay question)
  • Be realistic!

Evaluate how much time you need to complete an assignment:

  • Break each one down into sections: research, reading, writing, editing, etc.
  • How long will each section take you?
  • Be realistic!

Think about how you’ve revised well in the past.

  • Time: Do you prefer mornings? Evenings?
  • Setting: Do you work well with someone else? Do you need silence or a loud environment?
  • Structure: Do you like to dedicate one day to one exam topic? Or switch between different things?

Step Three: Make your Schedule!

Select a Design for your Schedule

You can make a hand-drawn schedule, use a template, or your digital calendar. A digital one is more convenient to have on your phone and allows you to make changes easily, but a hand-drawn one is fun and lets you design it any way you want!

If you’re a visual learner, it can be helpful to colour-code your calendar. Use a different colour for each subject or assignment you’re working on, breaks, and other commitments. This will give you a good visual overview of your time and allow you to see if you’re spending the right amount of time per subject and pinpoint which topics you need to allocate more time to.

Fill in your Schedule

Using the information you gathered in Steps 1 and 2, create your schedule.

Tip: Work backwards, starting from your exam, to give yourself sufficient time to review all the material!

  • Start by adding any scheduled exams and other commitments you have (events, meetings, work, etc.). Putting essential things in first will ensure you don’t accidentally double-book yourself when scheduling revision sessions.
  • Divide your allocated revision time across several days/weeks to allow yourself to come back to the same material several times with breaks in between.
  • Schedule Breaks: short breaks every 25 to 30 minutes will allow you to vary what you study throughout the day. You should also schedule larger breaks, including rest days and rewards, to keep you motivated over the full revision period.

A final tip: Be Flexible! When creating your schedule, it’s good to plan more time than you’ll need so you can move things around if something comes up or if a topic is trickier than you expected. Remember: a plan is a tool, so use it the way that works best for you!

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Effective Revision Techniques

This post was written by Clara Seyfried (PhD Candidate in Psychology, and ASC Tutor)

All procrastinators know how easy it is to trick yourself into feeling like you are being productive. This could be by cleaning the house or doing the laundry rather than focusing on your exams.

When it comes to revising for exams, it is tempting to fill hours going through your notes, highlighting, and adding pretty post it notes, which might be fun, but these are likely not the best preparation for your exams. However, knowing how to revise effectively can help studying feel more useful and interesting. Here, we introduce three evidence-based techniques that can help you revise more effectively.

Spaced Repetition

Also called Spaced Practice, Spaced Repetition is a learning technique that connects how frequently you study a topic to how well you already know it. Effectively, the more you already know or the better you understand a topic, the less you need to prioritise it in your revision. Once you have spent more time on a tricky topic, it might actually be fresher in your memory than the one you had previously known very well.

Spaced Repetition can be particularly easily implemented with flashcards, which you can sort into piles based on how well you know them (this is referred to as the Leitner System). The idea is that you always focus most what you find hardest at the time, and revisit what you know best the least frequently.

The open-source software Anki is an easy way to implement this flashcard system digitally, as the program automatically tests you more on questions that you indicate you are least certain about. In practice, incorporating Spaced Repetition into your revision could also mean beginning your revision by testing yourself, then focusing the most time on your weakest areas.

The 7 ± 2 Rule of Working Memory

When it comes to information you need to memorise, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of topics you have covered over a semester. Other people look so good at memorising, but how will you be able to remember all of this?

It might help to bear in mind that while individual differences exist, most humans share approximately the same capabilities when it comes to memory.  The cognitive psychologist George A. Miller found that most of his participants were able to judge and remember up to 7 ± 2 (i.e., 5 to 9) stimuli or pieces of information in a range of experiments, leading him to call 7 “The Magical Number Seven”.

Of course, humans are not only able to remember seven facts at a time, otherwise no-one would pass their exams! Miller’s law of the Magical Number Seven also applies to larger pieces of information, such as several smaller bit of information “chunked” together. For instance, you might not be able to remember a list of 18 words after having a brief look at them (that would be equivalent to 18 chunks, so much bigger than Miller’s 7 ± 2), but if they are structured into six subcategories (a chunk of 6) with three words each (a chunk of 3), you might do a much better job.

This shows how important it can be to structure your notes properly when you start revising for an exam – by chunking effectively, keeping the limits of your memory in mind, you can learn to memorise even very large amounts of information.

Dual Coding

Another way in which you can increase your chances of being able to retain information, either when you encounter it for the first time (e.g., when you are taking notes) or when you are revising, is to draw on Dual Coding theory. Dual Coding theory suggests that your mind channels information in two different ways: through language and through images.

This is in line with the most common model of working memory, which proposes that humans encode information auditorily (primarily language) and visual-spatially (e.g., images). What this means is that you learn best if you employ different sensory systems.

Generally, studying a topic from many different angles and perspectives can helps you understand it better, giving rise to the related revision technique of “interleaving,”, i.e., switching between ideas when you study.

Also bear in mind that different forms of describing information have their own benefits and disadvantages. Studies have repeatedly shown how effective drawing can be for remembering information, often much more so than writing things down.

On the other hand, not everything is suitable for a visual depiction, so trying to draw everything might just be confusing. That is why it can help to combine text and visuals where possible. Why don’t you try linking information to little drawings next time you are trying to memorise something?

Conclusion

Although you don’t have to use them every time to revise for something, it can be useful to bear these three techniques in mind:

  • Spaced Repetition: prioritising what you know least before what you know best.
  • The 7 ± 2 Rule of Working Memory: do not try to remember long unconnected lists of information, but rather organise and chunk effectively in chunks of no more than 9 subpoints.
  • Dual Coding: consider using different modalities such as language and visual information (e.g., drawings) when you are revising to give your brain a chance to grasp a concept form as many different perspectives as possible.

The right type of revision always depends on your subject area and type of exam, but if you stick to these three, you will probably have a better chance at succeeding than when you’re procrastinating by busying yourself rather than actually studying!

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Can AI Help me Revise?

This guest post was written by Emma Duke-Williams (CTIL)

Revising, as all students know, can be challenging. It’s difficult to re-read notes, while making sure you understand what they mean, as staff rarely ask you to just regurgitate facts, they want you to show that you understand the content.

So, could Artificial Intelligence tools help you?

Hopefully you’ve seen the Use of Generative AI for Students published in September. This guidance summarises many points about Generative AI (GAI), including a list of (some) potential uses and some points to be aware of.

I’ll start with a few things you should know:

  • Generative AI does not know facts; it simply generates content based on existing content. It can’t validate the accuracy of its information.
  • Some sites require you to sign up and supply an email or phone number, which you may not be comfortable doing.
  • There are concerns about various ethical practices of these tools.

If you’re doing coursework or any graded assessments the University’s position is that you must NOT use GenAI unless its use has been specifically authorised by your lecturer in the assessment brief. This includes remote online exams (i.e. when you’re not invigilated on campus).

However, today we’re looking at your revision. Alongside your highlighter pen and flip cards, could GAI be another tool in your revision kit?

Let’s take some of the ideas for potential use of GAI and think about them in context of your revision.

If you’d rather not share your phone number with external bodies, then we suggest going to Bing.com, signing into it with your University Account and using Microsoft CoPilot. You may, of course, already have an account on ChatGPT, Bard, Claude, etc., in which case you can use that instead.

Once you’ve logged in to your GAI of choice, here are a few potential ways it can help you with your revision.

Summarising

GAI can summarise longer texts and documents to help you check your own understanding of the key messages and concepts presented.

There are a number of ways to do this, but I’d recommend following Nathan Beel’s advice. He reminds you to check what is generated, and make sure not to use it for your coursework. He also talks about using GAI to generate some multiple choice questions; perhaps you and a friend could both generate sets of questions from two different papers you should have read, and then swap.

There are other tools that will summarise pdfs, such as ResearchRabbit. You’ll have to create an account, and the free accounts are limited to 3 uploads a day.

Debating

GAI can act as a conversational or debating partner to develop your ideas and thinking. GAI is very good at answering questions you pose it. If you’re not sure about something, why not start a discussion with an AI?

Martin Compton has made a useful video demonstrating GAI discussions. You might also like a previous video of his looking at enhancing any lecture notes you might have made.

Understanding

GAI can help you understand tricky concepts. Hopefully, at this stage of the semester, you have covered the basics, and you do understand them! However, if you are very unsure of some of the content, then a quick question about some of the basics could help you. Remember, GAI can make errors, so perhaps using what it’s generated to “spot the ‘deliberate’ mistakes” could act as a useful tutor for you.

What other ways have you found to use GAI in your revision? Do you think it was useful, or do you have other ways you have found more useful?

Finally, remember, revision is critical; GAI can help you, but it shouldn’t be the only way you revise. You don’t have to use it at all, and if you choose to, it’s most effective alongside a range of strategies.  

Good luck with your exams!

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How do I Manage my Time in Exams?

When we talk about exams, we often explore strategies for effective revision, such as active learning or making a revision plan. It’s true that strong revision techniques are the best way to do well in exams, but there are also strategies that can improve our performance once we’re actually in the exam itself.

In this blog, we’ll explore seven top tips that will help you do your best in your upcoming exams.

  • Read the Instructions: Before diving into the questions, take a moment to carefully read all instructions provided by the examiners. Make sure you have a clear understanding of what you need to do in each section. For instance, do you need to answer all questions in a section, or just choose one or two? Are your markers looking for lengthy answers, or just a full bullet points? Getting clear on these points before you start writing will save time later on.
  • Skim the Questions: Begin by quickly scanning through the entire exam paper. Identify questions that you find relatively easy and can answer quickly. Getting an overview of the whole exam helps you mentally prepare and boosts your confidence by reminding you how much you know!
  • Create a Time Budget: Break down the exam into manageable segments, considering how much time you have for each section. Prioritize your tasks based on the point value of each question. A common mistake is to spend too much time on a single question, meaning you run out of time to answer the others. For example, if a two-hour exam has four questions, all worth 25%, then you should spend approximately 30 minutes on each of them. It may help to write a little timeline for yourself, then keep an eye on a clock throughout the exam to make sure you stick to your schedule.
  • Start with What You Know: Once you’ve scanned the exam, start with the questions you are most familiar with or find easiest. This strategic approach work for two reasons: first, it helps build confidence as you work on a familiar topic; second, it makes sure you don’t spend all your time working on difficult problems while you run out of time to put down the information you already know.
  • Stay Calm: Exams can be a stressful experience, but staying focussed will help you do your best work. Try taking a few deep breaths to calm your nerves, or close your eyes and meditate for a minute. If you can’t think of what to write, pull out some spare paper or open a new document and try writing down whatever comes to mind, in any order. An ideas dump at the beginning of an exam can help you get important facts out of your head, then you can structure them into full answers later.
  • Flag and Return: Don’t let yourself get stuck on difficult questions. When you find something you can’t answer right away, flag it and move forward. Returning to challenging questions after completing the rest of the exam ensures that you make the most efficient use of your time. As you answer other questions, the your mind will be working on the original problem in the background. When you come back to it at the end, you may even find the answer has already come to you!
  • Review Your Work: If you have time, save a few minutes at the end to review your answers. Pay attention to areas where you might have made errors or could provide more detail. A thorough review not only helps catch mistakes but also allows you to refine or add material that can make your answers even better.

Doing well in exams is mostly about good revision, so make sure you check out our other resources on revision techniques! Once you’ve got those down, though, the strategies here will make sure you do your best in your exams and truly demonstrate everything you’ve learned.