How do you teach someone to revise?

[lechatnoir]

DS is in year 10 at grammar school so pretty bright and generally hard working when not distracted by the xbox but did badly in recent mocks. There's a few gaps in learning & he could definitely put more effort into homework & mid term tests but we've realised he doesn't actually know how to revise.

School's advice is 'do past papers, make flash cards/mind maps & take notes' but that's about the extent of it. The reality is more like flitting from subject to subject with no real plan, writing out but not actually using the flash cards, doing past papers then going through with a tick or cross. He has very little in the way of revision notes and the only plan is a basic timetable eg 'Monday - physics & maths' . He's mainly just sitting reading his own notes or GCSE textbooks and not much is going in!

What would a decent but realistic GCSE revision plan would look like and more to the point, how is it actually implemented? So when he sits down for 2 hours revision, what does he actually do? Should he have a revision folder for each subject and be writing literally every topic detail down (a whole 2 years worth?) and then reading back or rewriting again then next day? Things like quotes, equations etc presumably this is where flash cards are used - but how? Appreciate this might sound dense but if you've never revised or been told, it's hard to know what effective revision actually looks like.

I did wonder about asking lovely neighbour's son who is at uni and apparently extraordinarily hard working & diligent if he could help but feel I should have a crack first and not sure what to ask him!

I’m not actually going to be much use so I will start with an apology!! Sorry.
What works for one doesn’t another which is half the issue to there actually not being a set way.

for me writing (not typing) the cards out worked. It forces you to go over and condense it so you have to have an understanding to do that. You’ve made them so take that batch in before the exam to quickly flick through to refresh this is the one to remember.

my teens type up notes they’ve made and re listen to the English books on audible. Theirs doesn’t look particularly affective to me, but, what do I know?

If you look on Etsy there’s revision note flash cards people have made for each subject. They look really useful for getting started.
its not everything in detail unless he doesn’t understand it. It’s writing down key points to that E.g one card would be cells. Key differences between animal, plant and bacteria cells. Drawings of each. I’d make each one a different colour so it’s pleasing to look at and easier to differentiate.
next card would be another subject within biology

Find the specifications on the exam board website. Use this as a red/amber/green checklist to see what he thinks he is confident in. Then start re writing and condensing notes on cards or note paper on the 'red' topics. Then try exam questions on the red topics. Then move on to amber etc etc

Reading notes and copying notes is passive and ineffective.
Working through past paper questions, self-marking and then checking back notes is best.
Do in stints if 30-45 minutes.

I didn’t know where to start either and my son is year 10 too.

He and I found these books useful:

New How to Revise for GCSE: Study... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789082803?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

BBC Bitesize GCSE Revision Skills... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1406685917?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Lots of great advice and tools for him to find which things work best for him. My son had started with flash cards but since looking at this, he now does mind maps and he’s finding they work better for him.

Spaced repetition and testing what you know - so going over and over stuff often in different ways - on-line resources books their notes (if they have them) and the answering questions -past papers or work books for that topics (amazon have a load) or questions in revision guides. Helps work out what has been retained.

So yes going though notes - condensing them - or if notes are poor bought revision guides - going through chapters - make notes condense to main points.

https://senecalearning.com/en-GB/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize

free ones - also you tube may have subject board stuff on there - good start then with DS used guides (his notes were poor) DD2 prefers the school booklets then questions.

With DS didn't have a detailed plan so it was Monday physics/maths - start easy then do a chapter in revision/course guide then end with questions - keeping an eye on what needed to get done before exams - do solid couple of hours. However DS was doing so many (in Wales 13 GCSE ) he did prioritised in end subjects and he asked for help because he was getting overwhelmed and some subjects were easier to revise than others.

DD2 Y10 so facing some GCSE exams this year - trying to do similar - solid block of time - go though topic then questions - then hopefully come back round to do same topics again -she has fewer exams than next year - next year is just a silly amount of exams.

I am a Maths teacher! In terms of Maths specific revision - we always focus on students 'doing lots of maths' as part of their revision. This is much more effective than note-taking/re-reading etc.

I would expect/encourage a student to:

• identify a topic they are not confident with
• go to MathsGenie or Corbett Maths (both free, require no log in details)
• try answering some practice questions
• if they are unable to do the practice questions, watch a video (via MathsGenie or Corbett Maths!) and then re-attempt

-importantly, any questions they try they MUST self-mark! You do not want to be doing lots of questions and getting them wrong - hence the self-marking is incredibly important. -repeat this process for a new topic

As students get closer to their GCSEs, use of past papers is highly recommended but I wouldn't suggest trying full past papers at this stage of Year 10.

Ineffective? Writing condensed notes is how I got through every set of exams ever! It isn’t passive - you have to read, understand, summarise, manipulate. It works for many, many people.

I used to rewrite notes sometimes but didn’t need to revise much at all, DS is the same. It is so different for each person, some just retain information so much more easily. The small amount of revision I did had to be in short bursts, an hour max.

I didn’t have a plan but did end up at a Russell Group University as a mature student so must have done something right. Personality is innate but when you as a parent are very different to your child it’s hard to get your head round. Be very careful forcing a child to study in a way that doesn’t suit them, both DH and I work/worked in an educational setting. DH can sit for hours studying so really struggled with DS not being like him, I was fine as recognised myself. DS did better than me and got all A grades at A level.

I do agree with the testing and marking - read somewhere it's most effective strategy, it is why I like the revision/course guides/workbooks questions as answers are there (though found a shocking number of errors with DS - our science background came in handy)

With maths we are super lucky with our board- I don't know who but they set up a webpage

https://www.mathsdiy.com/level-2-additional-maths/

Has past papers with answer but also topics with answer booklets.

Though obvious you do have to recap material or learn it first and condensing notes is one way of doing that.

I always did 45 minutes then a 15 min break (go to the loo/have a snack/walk around the block).

Each 45 min block you want to check you understand the topic, condense information down into whatever format helps you to remember it (some do flash cards, mind maps, lists, some just highlight key words in their notes). Then do a quick self-test quiz of the facts.

Then in other blocks you can do practice exam questions, take the time you’d actually have available in the exam and see how you do.

My parents spent many many hours quizzing me on my flash cards!

Revision is quite personal. There's no need to revise things he already knows, so identifying this first will focus revision on the gaps.

I used to make notes with pictures to help me remember. I'd highlight key words in colours that would help me recall it in exams.
I found writing things out in simple ways helped commit it to memory.

Mind maps are amazing - they can help you construct an essay all on one page. Again drawing little pictures and use colours to help with memory.
He could have a look at a few to get the idea but drawing your own is by far the very best way to commit to memory.

Little tips: 10 min study of a concept you find tricky just before bed - while you sleep your brain will ponder on it and it helps to embed it.

I struggle with helping DC with this too, they are clueless.
One thing I read which makes sense to me is that feedback is crucial...so whether that's self marking past papers, or doing quizzes or just turning over the flashcards.

I sat my GCSEs in 2018, so I was part of the first year to do 9-1 graded GCSEs in all subjects. This is the process I used for Biology, Chemistry, Physics, History, Geography, and RE:

1. Buy the CGP revision guides corresponding with my exam board.
2. Use the exam board specification to break down each subject into topics.
3. For each topic, I read the corresponding chapters of the revision guide, then set the revision guide aside.
4. I put the topic heading in the middle of an A3 sheet and wrote down everything I could remember about the topic, loosely grouped into sub-topics/themes.
5. I compared my mindmap to the chapters in the revision guide, underlining in the revision guide in pencil anything I missed out.
6. I made Quizlet sets (online flashcards - really useful because it has a ‘test’ function where it shows you one side of the flashcard and you have to type what’s on the other side) relating to the information I had underlined.
7. I repeatedly went through the flashcard set for that topic until I got 100% three times in a row.
8. I did exam-style practice questions specific to that topic and marked them using the mark scheme. Any questions I got wrong (or for History and Geography, any details I had forgotten to include) were then added to the Quizlet flashcard set for that topic - I would go through the flashcard set three days after, one week after, and three weeks after initially doing the exam style practice.

This gave me the confidence that I at least knew the content for each topic - so from the above method I then moved on to doing and marking full length practice papers to build up my stamina - again any questions which I got wrong I added to the relevant Quizlet flashcard set.

Languages - the exam board publishes a list of all the vocabulary that you need to know for the GCSE. I made a Quizlet flashcard for each of the words on the vocabulary list and learnt 50 flashcards a week from the beginning of year 10 until exams. Additionally, I picked two verbs a week from the list to learn how to conjugate.
After completing a topic in class, I made a list of the common questions which are asked for each topic during the oral exam, wrote out answers to each one, and asked my French teacher to proof read my answers for grammatical errors and to record himself saying the answers aloud so I would get the pronunciation correct. I then memorised those answers both to speak and to write, as learning how to write them meant I could draw upon them in the writing exam too.

Admittedly I did start quite early and revised as I went along, but given your son is still in year 10 he’s got plenty of time. I found it hard to do practice questions when I didn’t feel secure in my knowledge of the content, but it can be hard to know how to revise the content without just flipping through the revision guides - I felt this method enabled me to actively revise the content until I felt I knew it well enough to make a start on practice questions.

Podcasts, bbciplayer, there's quizzes online for various syllabus if he doesn't find writing stuff down helps. I'm surprised a grammar school child needs to do much revision for gcses at Y10 tbh they're not even half way through the course.

Another teacher here.

Effective revision involves quite a bit of pre revision prep. Helping him organise exactly what and when he will revise would be really valuable.

Often subject teachers will be trying to help with this so it is worth seeing if he has been given resources which perhaps he hasn’t really taken notice of before you reinvent the wheel.

List the subjects he needs to revise for in priority order- things to consider include most important to him/ most time consuming to revise. Make your plan with this in mind.

Look at the child in front of you- realistically how long per day will they work effectively, what time of day is best, what other commitments do they have. Achievable revision schedules are more likely to be stuck to.

Use content lists for each subject (lots of schools provide these) or go on line and look at the syllabus, and divide the subject into topics . Revision guides are also helpful here as you can flick through and identify most wobbly areas. Write into a revision plan exactly what topic needs doing - eg ‘required practicals paper 2 biology’ or ‘key quotes from love and relationship poems and a past paper question’

Flash cards / mind maps etc are not without their uses for recall but nearer exams revision has to be biased towards past paper questions. Exam technique and questions interpretation is a significant number of marks. Forced recall - asking yourself a question and finding the answer, is the most effective memory technique - lots of ways to do this which would include actually using flash cards to test yourself or trying to recreate a mind map. Seneca is free and essentially lots of interactive questions. There is some research that suggests learning something, testing yourself the next day after a sleep is effective for consolidating recall. Plan to revisit content at intervals. If he is willing to work with you, get him to give you the flash cards and you test him- get him to explain what he has learnt at the end of a revision block.

For my year 11s I have ready made revision blocks focussed on core practicals . They are designed to be done in an hour and include - watching the relevant free science revision video / read the relevant page on the reactions guide/ doing some Seneca/ going through 3 or 4 past paper questions with the mark scheme. It’s a transferable format that I hope they can then use for other sections of the syllabus . It did bring it home to me how many hours just doing that package for each required practical would take them. GCSEs are very time consuming. If he can get into an ongoing routine now, even small amounts will add up to hours of consolidation by this time next year.

(thankyou to @RhubarbAndGingerCheesecake for that maths link- I’ve just found the A level section for my DD and she is very pleased!)

How to revise also depends on what the desired outcome is. If facts need to be memorised, then self-testing is essential.
The act of trying to remember something, even if it can't be remembered, then makes it easier to remember that thing in the future as it sticks an 'IMPORTANT, REMEMBER THIS' flag into it.

So instead of reading a page of a textbook about some historical event and then making notes, the pupil should try to list what they know about that event first, then read the textbook and augment.

Instead of copying a diagram of a cell, try to draw a diagram of a cell, then look at one and add in the forgotten bits.

Flashcards are good for self-testing if they have a question on one side and then answers on the other.

If it's a skill, then writing notes about the skill, or watching a video of someone doing the skill is relatively useless on its own. What is needed is then actually practicing the skill, getting feedback, and then doing improved practice. In maths this involves maybe watching a video, doing some similar questions, marking answers and going through the solutions where something has gone wrong, to see where it went wrong, and then having a go at some more questions until they are correct.

If information needs to be understood and linked to other, relevant information then things like mind maps or timelines can help.

Secondary English teacher here. I’m a great believer in condensing notes and don’t regard this as passive at all.

For English Lit he will probably need to learn quotations. Start by listing these by theme/character and then write them out and stick them on post-its where he can see them.
I don’t know what boards he’s doing but there will probably be texts he needs to prepare for English Lang too (non-fiction probably?). I’d recommend reading through his existing notes for each, then printing a blank copy (on the exam board website probably) and then re-annotating. Next, he should go back to the original and compare.

He will need lots of technical terms for English (and other subjects) - flash cards work well for this. Term on one side, definition and example on the other.

In all honesty though, I’m not sure what/why he is revising at this point in yr10? I teach at a top independent school (academically selective) and would not expect my 4th yrs to be revising this holiday. I have set an essay and some reading…

Be careful about pushing him to revise at this point unless there is something specific to revise for as you could well cause resentment and/or burn out.

My 5th yrs, on the other hand, have been sent away with lots of past papers and revision advice. I would expect them to be doing approx 6 hrs per day across all their subjects this holiday.

I hated studying, however, one thing improved my grades significantly.

I literally wrote out every chapter of the text I was studying. Somehow, the physical act of writing the words down, sort of imprinted them in my mind.

I drew out all the diagrams and charts, all the chapters and reports. Everything.

I still do this at work.

Try it, I think it will help dramatically. It's a way of revising without thinking about it.

Just re-read that - HE must do all of the above. I made it sound like you should be finding quotations for him. 😂

People learn differently - some will remember things just by reading it, some will need to write it down, or sketch things down e.g. mindmaps, flowcharts type notes, some people might even use audio scripts or record voice notes. So partly he needs to find what suits him but he definitely needs to split his revision timetable into topics or subject areas. Past papers are useful for identifying weaker areas so he can focus on revising those.

if you search the Secondary Education board for revision tips or revision timetable you will find some useful back threads.

Thank you all for some really fantastic advice, links and practical suggestions.

He's not revising now but recently got his 'mocks' results and conscious he needs some help. We have parents evening coming up so I will be speaking to teachers about his work but it's more about trying to set him up for exams next year. The rest of Year 10 he's agreed to focus on filling in the knowledge gaps, revisiting tricky topics and getting into the habit of more regular 'revision' rather than trying to cram a few weeks before so hopefully this will put him in a better place to start year 11. He has end of year tests in a couple of months so will go over some of the suggestions on here and see if I can get him to make a start on some and see what works best. I'm happy to take a more proactive role by testing him, sitting with him and go through thing but he's generally quite reluctant to accept help plus work FT so can't stand over him 24/7 - he really does need to be on board with it which is what I'd like to work on now!

In terms of revision timing, 45/50 min, take a break then repeat sounds a better idea than 2 hours with focus wondering about an hour and like the 10 minutes before bed suggestion. He is not a 6/8 hours a day student so no point in even attempting to suggest that!

Again, thank you very much, lots to digest but some great advice especially the detailed responses of how to actually tackle topics and individual subjects.

The only thing that worked for our son in similar situation was buying him the CGP revision books for each subject and we got him to work through them.

He just couldn't get anywhere at all using his school text book, school exercise book, various worksheets, etc., as it was all disjointed and he couldn't piece it all together as he hates disorganisation and randomness of different resources. He tried so many times to make flash cards, do mind-maps, etc., but he was just wasting his time and got stressed, so counter-productive. He couldn't do past papers as he hadn't "revised" the topics, so they'd be a waste of time and demovational.

The CGP revision books really clicked with him. He loved being able to pick up a book for an hour or so, "revise" the particular topic (usually broken down into page size topics), answer a few questions on it, and move onto the next topic. He did them in page order, and just worked through the books. They're not too big, so quite manageable. He basically ended up ignoring all his school work!!

Ended up with a string of grade 9s at GCSE, so worked well for him!

Always have an aim for each session. Not 'revise Chemistry' but 'learn the properties of covalent bonds' or whatever.

By 1st Sept 24 aim to have good revision notes in whatever form for all of y10 work. He'll be grateful later.

For DD1 we had 1 revision card (A6) per page of CGP guide for most of the science.
For DD2 we had 1 large (A5) per topic for RE, some with notes, some with mind map type diagrams.
Eng Lang cards for each question on each paper, plus some general cards on imagery, I C DA FOREST etc.