Revision Skills

Revision skills

At Debden Park High School revision is based around 5 fundamental principles that all effective revision will include. We call these our ReVision Big 5.

Here is a brief breakdown of these 5 components;

1. Teachers and students at Debden Park High School are well versed in the principles of the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve and understand that in as little as 20 minutes, we begin to forget newly learned information. We design our lessons to constantly ‘interrupt the forgetting’, so it’s important that student revision does the same. We recommend revising in 20-25 minute chunks, rather than for hours on end. After a short break, return to revise a new topic/new subject.

2. At DPHS our lessons begin with a short Retrieval Practice task, this is because we know that knowledge retrieval (better known as quizzing) is far more effective in recalling information than re-reading, highlighting or making mind maps.

3. Cramming the night before an exam is counter productive. Not only will it increase exam stress because you won’t get a good night’s sleep, but it has also been proven to not be as effective as longer term spaced practice. Start your revision early, well before your assessment. 

4. Did you know that just seeing one single notification pop up on your phone, it takes on average 23 minutes to regain your full attention? And from what we have learnt in point 1, when revision takes place in 20-25 minute chunks, this has a significantly negative impact. We strongly recommend putting your phone on silent & in a drawer, under a pillow or give it to a parent whilst revising.

5. The Mozart effect proves that the human brain cannot listen to music and revise at the same time. You will just end up doing both things to a poorer standard. If you want to maximise the impact of your revision time, you need silence. This is the reason assessments are conducted in exam conditions.

Our Year 11 and 13 students learn how to use the Revision Big 5 at the Learning Conference in October of each year, in preparation for their GCSE and A-level exams. We recommend our students use revision cards with a question on the front & answer on the back. Then once these have been created, quiz themselves sorting the cards into 2 piles: correct and incorrect. Then returning to the incorrect pile more frequently or asking parents to quiz them on these. This will help move this knowledge into their long term memory.