Revision nightmare

[Seltina]

Year 7 DD, a good student, is struggling with her revisions. She's making revision cards but not memorising. She's working hard but it's not getting into her head. She won't accept help. Anyone else struggling or doing well and could offer tips?

On another note, I grew up in France where all kids had a lessons notebook where lessons had to be clearly laid out with titles in red, definitions in green etc. It made learning and retaining so easy. My daughter's notebook is a mess of notes. Whatever happened to lessons notebooks in the UK?

On the notebook, most teachers in the UK use exercise books as they see fit. There might be department or school wide policies but it would vary.

There are many ways to revise depending on the task/ knowledge. For instance:

• self quizzing
• full timed practice questions
• 5 minute essay plans
• verbally explaining a concept
• skim reading previous material
• producing timelines or process flow charts
• applying the mark scheme to their own/ sample answers
• revising the assessment criteria

What is she revising for in year 7? My DS year 7 has tests next week and has revision set by school as in packs on class charts. We have been helping him read through this and testing him.

My class notebooks looked like your daughter's too, part of my revision was to copy out the notes to something more of your style.

Thank you for your replies. She's revising maths, English, history, geography, Latin, French, sciences, religious studies and computer sciences. We have revision packs which include questions or simply topics to revise. She's been reading through her materials and making flash cards but when quizzed on geography today couldn't answer any questions. She doesn't seem to be able to relate questions to what she's learnt.

DS didn't find notes a particularly useful way to revise (just as well, as his books were even worse then your daughter's sounds). He found interactive learning - so answering questions, interactive quizzes etc much more useful. What does she use at school? Schools usually have loads of online resources that she may find more inspiring than looking at flash cards. In Year 7, revising is as much about experimenting with different ways of learning to find out what works for you, than actually learning. So think of it more as her getting into good study habits than necessarily remembering everything.

@Seltina

Thank you for your replies. She's revising maths, English, history, geography, Latin, French, sciences, religious studies and computer sciences. We have revision packs which include questions or simply topics to revise. She's been reading through her materials and making flash cards but when quizzed on geography today couldn't answer any questions. She doesn't seem to be able to relate questions to what she's learnt.

Has she been diagnosed with any process g issues? My DS need to watch, listen, read and write in order to memorise. I usually help him by finding short videos on the topics, starting in BBC bite size, then he often does the quiz, then we write notes etc.

I found this company a few years ago www.oakabooks.co.uk/pages/the-oaka-system

They have been amazing!! I highly recommend Oaka. My sons prep school had some we could borrow but in the end i decided to buy them for most subjects.

I think a lot of it is indeed about getting into good study habits. I think she will definitely rewrite her notes in my style next year...

She's been using the school's online tools but when she tried to answer the mock questions the teachers included in her pack, she didn't have the foggiest.

Thank you, Whattodo. No processing issues that I know of but Oaka seems brilliant. I will look into it in more details.

Breaking it down:

• is the info on her revision cards the right info at the right detail (has she picked out the key important things)
• is she managing to learn the info on her cards (being tested by you would be one way, writing a question on the other side of the card - '5 reasons for English Civil War' and self testing would be another
• is she understanding what the questions are asking for, and how to structure answers
• is she then able to formulate answers using her knowledge

Which of the above steps is going wrong?

For some KS3 subjects you may find the CGP revision guides helpful, maths & science especially.

'Reading through and making flashcards' isn't the same as actively learning the cards. She needs to read the cards, try to recall them, read them again, recall them, wait a day, try again etc.

BBC bitesize website is pretty helpful
Senaca is a great site for revision

Uni lecturer (and mum) here: How many times is your DD trying to quiz herself? It's repeated question answering practice that helps with retrieval - every attempt helps form a stronger pattern in her memory.

There's some really good psychological research about the science of successful learning that you might like to share with your daughter:
blog.apaonline.org/2020/02/19/takeaways-from-make-it-stick-the-science-of-successful-learning/

Ds also revising for year 7 exams next week. I’ve no idea how much is sticking in his head he seems to have a very haphazard approach, despite us trying to help. I’ve been browsing the CGP books today on Amazon.
Going to have a look at that Oakabooks site though.
Oh and his notebooks are horrendous! I can’t even look

DS apparently had all his last week🤦‍♀️ I didn’t even know and as far as I’m aware he didn’t revise-so it will just be a measure of what he has retained. It’s only year 7 though so really not to be worried about.
DS in Year 10 though who has mocks when he goes back, seems to think he can do the same...😱 Hoping a shock will give him a kick up the bum for year 11🤞

Trouble with ds is he has trouble getting the knowledge in his head down on the exam paper. He waffles repeating the same thing over again, then doesn’t make all the relevant points and loses marks.

We are hoping the revision schedule we’ve got him on will make a difference. But I’d forgotten about making the revision cards. Think we could definitely do that for History and Science.