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Boost your performance with our comprehensive guide to revision and exam techniques, designed to help you study smarter and excel in your exams.
It is not uncommon to approach exams and revision feeling negative and this can make preparing for exams feel like an uphill battle.
Here are three positive things about the process of revision and exams.
Before you begin to digest learning material spend time figuring out how to focus what you are revising. This is called a "Needs Audit".
Lets look at this paragraph from a module handbook.
In seminars, you will be given exercises to undertake in groups. These exercises will give you the opportunity to identify and address the key issues that arise in each topic. Feedback and guidance relating to these exercises should inform the manner in which you approach corresponding examination questions.
In this module the lecturers emphasise that exercises from group activities in seminars will provide a solid foundation for responding to examination questions. Students approaching this module would benefit from revising themes, topics, and content covered in seminars. As well as reviewing feedback from their group work activities.
A marking rubric is like a mark scheme which helps to guide examiners in grading student submissions. It is helpful to read over assessment rubric in the module handbook to get an idea of the kind of content that you might need to revise.
Here is an example rubric.
Academic Understanding | Unacceptable 0%-39% | Poor 40%-49% | Good 50%-59% | Excellent 60%-69% | Exemplary 70%-100% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Engagement with reading and resources | Little evidence of having engaged with course resources or other relevant resources. | Evidence of having engaged with the course materials (including core textbooks) but not with other relevant books and resources. | Evidence of having engaged with the course materials (including core texts) and with a small number of other relevant publications. | Evidence of having engaged with the course materials (including core texts) and with a healthy number of other relevant publications. | Evidence of having engaged with the course materials (including core texts) and with a wide range of other relevant publications. |
Synthesis | Little evidence of understanding relevant reading materials. | Evidence of understanding of relevant literature. | Evidence of understanding of relevant literature and makes connections between a small number of texts cited in the work. | Evidence of understanding of relevant literature and combines elements from cited publications to develop their argument/position. | Evidence of understanding of relevant literature and uses wider theories and ideas to bring coherence to cited publications. |
Criticality | Little evidence of thinking critically. | Identifies some strengths and weaknesses of arguments and cited publications. | Provides clear explanations of strengths and weaknesses of arguments and cited publications. | Provides well-argued evaluation of ideas within any referenced books and other publications. | Provides well-argued evaluations of all ideas presented in the work and in supporting publications. |
Use of evidence | Makes statements/claims without any evidence. | Provides limited evidence (e.g. personal experience) to substantiate claims. | Substantiates claims using logic. | Substantiates claims with references and/or data. | Substantiates claims with weighted evidence from the literature and/or robust data. |
To achieve the highest marks in exams, you will be expected to demonstrate a familiarity with the wider literature in your subject area, and not merely an ability to re-produce your lecture notes. Your reading list will often contain “must read” books, journals and articles. They are good places to start when it comes to revision. Hopefully you have done some groundwork in that reading. Your lecturers will have embedded this preparation into your course workload so that each week you will have had readings to undertake. Which will include make notes on and evaluate. Now in your exam you can refer to that work. But do not panic if you have missed readings or have not had the opportunity to engage with some of these texts. If you know now that they are going to be important to draw on as you come into your exam, add them to your revision list.
Your module handbook may contain a description of how your exam will be structured. It will let you know if you have any seen questions. A seen question is one that you know will appear in the exam. These questions are gifts and will let you know exactly what you need to revise for.
When you access previous exam papers for your module you will get an idea of the kinds of themes, topics and ideas that you need to be prepared for. Remember that revision should help you see what aspects of your course you are strong in and what still needs work. Past paper questions can help you start to see that.
They are right behind you in all that you are doing. Very often they give really good guidance throughout the year around topics that you should focus on. Do not ignore their advice.
To summarise, targeted focused revision means looking at the following.
This is your Needs Audit.
Once you have made a good list of everything that you need to cover ahead of your exam, read through that list and think about what will be asked of you. Consider your knowledge strengths and the things that you need to work on and then begin to build a revision timetable.
Sometimes we are intimidated by our workload, and sometimes we just do not have motivation, but we end up wasting time.
Here are three pieces of guidance that, when combined might help you to make the best use of your time.
Parkinson’s Law: Cyril Parkinson was an historian who identified the principle that “work expands to fill the time available for its completion.” What he meant by this is that if you have a deadline for 11th April, the chances are that most people will submit on 11th April. The work will fill all the available time. The few times that you might submit before 11th April are the times when, for instance, you know that you are going on holiday on 11th, so you need to have it finished by 10th. You set yourself a deadline because, in that case, your workload can not expand into 11th. When you prepare your revision timetable, do not just block out Monday and write “revision.” Set yourself deadlines. 09:00-12:00 could be reviewing your seminar notes. 13:00-15:00 after lunch could be revising a particular article. 15:00-17:00 after a break could be practising past-paper questions.
The Pomodoro technique: Pomodoro is Italian for tomato and the technique gets its name from the tomato shaped kitchen timer that its designer used to measure time. When you sit down to study, set a twenty-minute timer on your phone and switch it onto airplane mode. Study until that timer goes off. When it does, take a break – even just three minutes. Distractions can wait until your timer goes off. Repeat this process four times – four twenty-minute chunks of uninterrupted study, perforated by short breaks. After your fourth twenty minutes, take a longer break of twenty or thirty minutes. Go for a walk, make some lunch or watch an episode of your favourite show. Some people find that twenty minutes is not enough. Make it work for you. If you want to take thirty minutes, that’s okay. The key is that while you are studying, you are studying. No distractions. They can wait.
Eat That Frog: Apparently someone once said “Eat a live frog the first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” That is the idea behind this last principle of revision time management. Get the worst material out of the way first thing in your day. Identify the things that intimidate you, the tasks you are dreading, the themes and topics that seem the hardest to you, and do them first. By the time you get to the afternoon, energy will be waning and your concentration lower. That is the time you want to be revising the content that you are most interested in or that you find you understand the best. Trying to tackle material that is difficult later in the day will be demotivating and make you more likely to leave it.
We are not taught well as human beings that we absorb information in different ways. Your friend’s revision technique might not work for you because you are wired differently.
When you come to revise reach into this toolbox and find the tool that works for you.
Consider this scenario:
Imagine that you have to use an online database that you’ve never used before. You open your computer, you set up your account, you login and the screen in front of you is very complicated. There are boxes, lists and fields that don’t make sense to you and you don’t know where to start.
There are four ways that you could solve this problem. Which of them do you identify with most?
If you identified with option one, watching an instructional video, you might prefer to learn visually.
Visual people are often easily captivated the things happening around them. You will need to find quiet environment to study in to avoid distractions and stay focused on your tasks.
If you identified with option two, having a friend explain it, you might be someone who learns audibly – through what you hear.
As someone who is stimulated by sound, you might find that you like to study with noise in the background. Try to avoid podcasts or music with lyrics as there will be too much information competing for your brain space. Music without lyrics can be helpful to keep you focused on the task at hand and avoid distractions.
If you identified with option three, using a PDF guide. You might prefer to learn through reading and writing.
Whether you read digital materials or physical ones, just make sure that you keep them well organised in files and folders so that you can quickly and easily find the material you are looking for. Similarly, some of you will enjoy typing or marking up digital documents while others prefer the tactile sense of writing. Find what works best for you and embrace it.
If you identified most with option four, click buttons and learn by doing, you might lean towards kinaesthetic learning.
Kinetic learners can find it hard to absorb information while seated so make sure your studying and revising incorporates opportunities for you to move around otherwise you’ll find yourself distracted really easily.
There might not be just one thing that will change learning for you. Most of us will effectively learn through some combination of these different styles. Remember that these are tools in your toolbox that you can pull out when you start revising. You may have used some of these techniques in the past with success so start with them. If some of those things resonated with you, give them a go. Remember that we are all wired differently, and you may process information and learn in a way that is completely different to the other people around you. That is perfectly normal. Try different things and find the strategy that works best for you.
Regardless of what learning style suits you best or what memory recall techniques you are employing, revision is usually accompanied by the organised recording of information. It might be pages of notes, it could be on flash cards, or it could be in diagrams or mind maps, but you will have to commit to recording information in some way.
Our memories thrive on organisation so here are two ways that you might consider structuring your information so that it’s easier to remember.
If you were asked, what do you know about ‘trees’, your mind might start to go through the conceptual identity of a tree in a logical and systematic way.
A tree has branches. They are the bit above the ground. Branches have the leaves on them. A tree also has roots. They are below the ground. They are how a tree feeds itself. This is a concept pyramid.
When you are making notes, preparing flashcards or drawing mind maps. Think about and list all of the ideas that you are trying to capture. Then organise them into a concept pyramid. General information at the top, granular specific details as you move down.
The most general information or the most inclusive heading goes at the top of the pyramid and then linked aspects and ideas are placed below that.
Be creative with you content to suit your learning style and your memory recall techniques. Colour-code different levels of your pyramid. Include shapes and drawings. Box, circle, underline and capitalise important words and details.
Two examples of this:
We can do the same thing when organising information for revision.
For example, these two groups of words:
| Fruit | Animal | Home | Body |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plum | Giraffe | House | Foot |
| Banana | Puppy | Apartment | Knee |
| Apple | Donkey | Bungalow | Elbow |
| Cherry | Pony | Caravan | Hand |
Taken from Cottrell, S. (2013). The Study Skills Handbook. 4th ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Both lists contain the same words. List B, however is much easier to remember than list A. The information is organised, it’s grouped and it’s symmetrical. Revision notes, flashcards, diagrams etc. can be prepared in the same way. Break them up into smaller connected chunks and you’ll find it not only easier to digest, but easier to remember too.
If you go into an exam feeling like you remember your material, it will build confidence and reduce nerves massively.
It is also going to be a good skill for the future as you find yourself having to remember details in whatever comes next in your life and career.
Our brains take in much more information than we actually need. The problem is that if we do not make active use of that information. The path to it in our brains gets lost making it hard to access. We have to work to build roads in our mind – create easy to walk pathways to help us find the information that we need when we need it.
Try this exercise. Ask an online AI to generate a list of twenty words. Study it for one minute, try and remember as many words as you can and then scroll away so that it is off your screen.
Next, take one minute and write down as many words as you can remember. The list of words that you remember might give you some clues about how your memory works.
Revision can not be passive. We can make beautiful flashcards, organised flowcharts, colourful mind maps. We can associate words and phrase, link them to places or arrange things visually. Those things are helpful. If we simply do them as passive activities, we will find that we do not get anywhere with our revision.
We must be active in the way that we revise.
There are three common pieces of feedback that examiners often give in terms of what they are looking for in an exam answer. Thinking on these three points can help to guide you when it comes to preparing for exams.
There are a few steps you want to undertake when approaching an essay in an exam and it starts with the question. Sometimes you will be given a choice of essay question. Sometimes you will just have to answer a set question. Either way, it is crucial that you take time to fully understand exactly what the question is asking of you. Read them, and re-read them, and then start to break them down.
Here are examples of two essay style questions. One from History and the second from Law. Even if you do not study either of these subjects, read them as good examples of the wording of essay style questions. Your subject will most likely use similarly structured essay questions for assessment.
‘Insensitive to cultural change, and without much respect for sources, Machiavelli used history primarily to supply answers to current political problems.’ Discuss this assertion with reference to his Florentine Histories.
Critically evaluate the importance of judicial discretion to exclude evidence, with particular regard to evidence unlawfully, improperly or unfairly obtained and consider how, if at all judicial discretion has been affected by the Human rights act 1998.
The first thing that you need to do is take note of instruction words within the question.
These are instruction words and they tell you what it is that you need to do to get the best marks in the question.
Here are some other instruction words –
Once you have underlined and understood the instruction words, next look for the key aspect of the question. This is the primary thematic focus of the question. The topic or theme that you will be talking about in a way befitting your instruction words.
The key aspect of the essay will tell you what knowledge you need to recall in order to answer it. It can be helpful at this point in your exam to pause and start to write down a few things that you’re going to draw on that you know relate to the key aspect.
Finally, you need to look at the context that is presented in the question. Essay questions limit themselves by telling you the specific circumstances that you’re being asked to address the key aspect within.
Every essay has and needs a focus. If you were to write everything about a topic even about a particular aspect of a topic you would be writing a whole book. The context represents that focus and gives you direction about the scope of the essay.
If your essay question is asking you to refer to the Florentine Histories or unfairly obtained evidence then that ought to form the bulk of your conversation. Arguments that press into related topics are often useful but if your essay fails to focus on the context that your question has given you. Then you are not answering the question.
Once you have understood your question, you need to plan how you are going to answer it.
Jot down your initial thoughts. Ask yourself –
With those thoughts considered, step back and make sure that what you have written down answers the question. Sometimes we get excited and begin a frantic mind dump, but on second consideration we see that everything we’ve written isn’t totally applicable to the question. Re-focus. Get rid of the things that are irrelevant.
With whatever is left form your argument and summarise that argument into key points. These points will form the paragraphs of your essay so decide on a logical order to those points that flow well from one to the next.
Having a clear and logical structure will help ensure that your essay stays focused and does not stray from the question being answered. Each paragraph should add value to the argument you are presenting. As you are planning it is good to ask yourself. What value does this section add? How does it link to my overarching argument? If you find that you can not answer those questions, there is a high risk that you have strayed from your core argument, and you may want to reconsider the path you are taking.
Next, map your essay plan to the time that you have. If you have an hour to write your essay, you should be spending around 6-8 minutes on the introduction and conclusion leaving you 45 minutes to convey the points of your argument. Consider how you are going to divide that time up so that you will have the space to start and end your essay well.
How you present your argument is nearly as important as the argument itself. Which is why it is imperative that your essay follows a logical structure.
A classic piece of advice is to "tell them what you are going to tell them. Then tell them. Finally tell them what you told them". This summarises the core introduction, main body, and conclusion structure of your essay.
“Tell them what you’re going to tell them.”
Following your plan, make sure that all the different parts of your essay fit together as a cohesive and logical whole and that the transition from one argument to the next is fluid.
The PEEL paragraph method is a technique used in writing to help structure paragraphs in a way that presents a single clear and focused argument, which links back to the essay topic or thesis statement.
It’s good practice to dedicate each paragraph to one aspect of your argument, and the PEEL structure simplifies this for you.
Start your paragraph with a clear topic sentence that establishes what your paragraph is going to be about. Your point should support your overall essay argument.
Here you should use a piece of evidence or an example that helps to reaffirm your initial point and develop the argument. That might be a case, an argument from a source, a specific piece of legislation etc. Remember to appropriately attribute any evidence that you present including the names of authors and dates of their work.
Next you need to explain exactly how your evidence/example supports your point. Giving further information to ensure that your reader understands its relevance.
To finish the paragraph off, you need to link the point you have just made back to your essay question, topic, or thesis.
A paragraph responding to the History question on Machiavelli, as shown above, might be structured like this -
[POINT] Machiavelli's primary motive in writing "Florentine Histories" was deeply political. [EVIDENCE] Evidence of this political motive is found throughout "Florentine Histories". Machiavelli’s detailed accounts of events such as the Pazzi Conspiracy and the rise and fall of various factions in Florence serve as cautionary tales or models to be emulated. His focus on the practical applications of historical events, rather than a mere chronicling of facts, underscores his utilitarian approach (Banfield, 1988). [EXPLAIN] Engaged in the politics of his time, Machiavelli saw his histories as part of a broader project to influence contemporary governance (Hale, 1961). By documenting Florence’s past, he aimed to provide political leaders with concrete examples of strategies that had either succeeded or failed. This approach was inherently prescriptive. Machiavelli’s analysis of factionalism, civic virtue, and leadership was designed to critique current political practices and offer guidance for the future (Najemy, 1982). [LINK] This didactic purpose demonstrates how Machiavelli used history as a tool for political instruction, seeking to distil lessons that could inform contemporary and future political conduct.
Finally, “tell them what you’ve told them” by ending with a conclusion.
In our section on Positives About Exams, we discussed how stress can be a good thing. Motivating us to accept a challenge and overcome difficulties. Stress can, however, veer into unhealthy levels. If that happens you might need a little bit of support and encouragement. To keep stress at healthy levels, here are three things to pay attention to in exam season.
Our bodies need the right food to function well. Please remember to eat and drink well as you prepare for your exams. Caffeine can help with alertness temporarily, but it also causes dips where your focus will wane. It will also impact your sleeping habits and that is not a good thing. Sugary foods and drinks provide a burst of energy but it is not long lasting and you will crash. Limit the caffeine to two cups of tea or coffee in your day. Focus on wholegrain foods like porridge, wholemeal bread. Eat berries, or nuts if you can eat them to have as little snacks. These are packed with slow release energy which will sustain your energy levels for longer.
You need sleep to revise well. Research shows that sleep is when memories become more stable. When you fall asleep, some memories are strengthened. We often make the mistake of trying to power through the night to cram everything. But that will actually be less effective than revising well through the day and then having a solid eight hours of sleep through the night where your revision memory will take root in your mind.
Exercise oxygenates your brain, keeping it working. It’s also linked to the release of positive hormones which keeps your wellbeing balanced which keeps you relaxed and helps you to focus. Find what works for you, but it does not have to be a 10k every day. Take a ten-minute walk on your breaks.
