One of the big challenges in creating an effective revision plan is knowing how to make best use of the finite time you have available for studying.
Many people will try to cover everything, apportioning an equal amount of time to each topic covered on the course. However, this is rarely the best strategy, and is likely to lead to relatively shallow engagement with a lot of the material.
A more strategic approach is to identify areas of particular weakness and to devote the bulk of your time to studying these topics, whilst keeping the others ticking over.
But how do you identify these gaps? Here are a few potentially useful techniques.
Trust your instinct
Whilst you’ll also want to try some of the more systematic approaches below, the fact is you’ll probably already have a fairly good idea of your strengths and weaknesses.
A good way of thinking about it is to ask yourself which questions or topics you hope will come up in the exam, and which you really hope don’t appear. The honest answers to these two questions will tell you a lot about your learning to date and the areas you need to prioritise.
Knowledge dump
When you’re thinking about individual topics, a useful first step is to get down on paper (or screen) everything you can recall about that particular topic. Don’t think too much about it or worry about being neat and tidy – let it pour out onto the page.
The idea is that you can then go back to your notes and identify the areas that have stuck and those that need more work, and then focus your time on the latter.
Use Intended Learning Outcomes
Every module will have a set of Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) – you should be able to find them in the module handbook and/or on My Dundee.
All of your assignments, including exams, will be aligned to these ILOs. Judging the extent to which you are currently able to meet each of the ILOs can therefore give you a very good idea of the areas you need to focus on.
Module ILOs can, however, be quite broad, so look also at any ILOs or aims and objectives for individual topics or lectures. In some subjects, the handbook or My Dundee may contain weekly ILOs/aims. And most lecturers will have a list of aims at the start of their classes (on the PowerPoint for example).
Can you see how these could be useful checklists to help you prioritise your revision?
Use feedback
Tutor feedback on any previous assessments you’ve done on the module can be a useful source of information. Look back carefully over any such comments, especially if the exam will follow a similar format, and try to note where the tutor points out specific strengths and weaknesses in the work.
Think about feedback more widely as well – for example, comments tutors may have made in tutorials or practical workshops, points or questions that were emphasised or repeated in lectures, and even moments in class where you felt a little lost or less inclined to contribute. All of these things can help you identify areas that need more work.
Sample Questions
There are lots of different ways you can use sample questions or past papers as part of the revision process. One thing you can use them for is to help identify your strengths and weaknesses.
This might simply be a case of looking over a past paper and ranking each question in terms of your level of confidence. Obviously, you would then want to spend as much time as possible on the topics you felt less confident about.
Alternatively, you might try a short quiz, flashcards, or multiple-choice questions, to give you a quick sense of your strengths and weaknesses in a particular topic. You can source questions from past papers, online searches, or even Artificial Intelligence tools.
These are just a handful of ways you might go about prioritising your revision. You may have other ideas about how you’d do it as well – it’s about finding what works for you and, more perhaps importantly, what gives you the most confidence that your strategy is effective.
After that, it’s a case of drawing on the active revision techniques and review and recall processes that we’ve discussed elsewhere in Exam Essentials to ensure that your revision is as focused and effective as it can be.
