Revision Techniques

1. Revision Techniques (for your geography exams!)

2. It is important that you revise in a way that supports your preferred learning style If you don’t, then you may end up wasting lots of your time, and - worse still - you may end up remembering nothing!! This is a guide to help you decide which is your preferred learning style

3. There are 3 main preferred learning styles: • Visual • Auditory • Kinaesthetic (practical) You may be a combination of any of these, but more than likely one type will be more predominant than the others

4. Visual Revision Techniques: • Mind map e.g. for geographical processes of erosion, transportation and deposition • Form a ‘mental picture’ to try to ‘see’ the whole topic e.g. Population growth rates… causes…. How do they all link together? How do they link with what is happening next? • Make a poster • Create a picture in your imagination e.g. population pyramids colour-coded to show LEDC and MEDC

5. Visual learners • Allow white space between points • Use coloured pens / highlighters • Use pictures, video • Make a diagram e.g. for cave, arch, stack etc. sequence of erosion • Surf a revision site on the Internet e.g. Bitesize Geography

6. Auditory Revision Techniques: • Record key ideas on tape/disc e.g. listen to causes of rural urban migration before you fall asleep • Say key ideas out loud e.g. characteristics of pressure systems • Tell key ideas to someone else or the dog e.g.positive and negative effects of the One Child Policy in China • Get someone to test you • Play soothing background music e.g. classical, Jack Johnson, Dido, etc.

7. Kinaesthetic Revision Techniques: • Moving information on a page e.g. create sorting cards for key words and definitions for erosion processes and match them up • Associate information with actions e.g. Coastal Kung Fu for types of wave erosion • Explain using gestures • Flash cards • Walk around • Use the rooms space e.g. one side of the room for good points, the other side for bad points

8. Flash cards Practice questions Internet Revising with / testing friends Labelled diagrams Writing notes Writing lists Underlining in notes Star diagrams Mind maps Mnemonics What strategies can you use?

9. Writing notes • It is better to rewrite notes than to simply read through work • Don’t rewrite everything, you need to cut down on the amount of information • Do make sure you have enough detail! Summarise!

10. Writing lists • Lists are a good way of remembering information or advantages / disadvantages for a topic • Write lists as bullet points • Use small pictures to help you e.g. Advantages Disadvantages  Lower fertility rate  Female infanticide

11. When writing lists……. • If you use a colour (e.g. green for good and red for bad) use the same colours every time • 5 points is a good number to remember • Little drawings are a good way of helping you remember points, even a silly drawing will help!

12. Using numbers! You may be able to remember numbers more easily than names. If this is the case try to put figures with points where you can. E.g. ‘Higher salaries’ would become ‘Higher salaries, factory workers can earn 3 times the wages of farm workers’

13. Using labelled diagrams • An excellent way to learn especially for visual learners!

14. Underlining in notes • Its difficult to remember a page of notes if they are all the same font and colour • Use colour / different sizes for heading / key points • Underline key points or draw borders round them like this! • Use diagrams, lists and pictures to break up pages of notes

15. Mind maps • Like a star / spider diagram but contains much more detail and demonstrates links between material more clearly • Can have whole topic on A3 page • Geographical processes of erosion, transportation and deposition

17. Revising with friends ADVANTAGES: can talk about the work can test each other easier to remember facts if spoken out loud DISADVANTAGES Too easy to talk about something more interesting instead!

18. Exam questions • Use past questions as you revise to make sure you have the notes / case studies necessary to get full marks • Test yourself under exam conditions

19. Mnemonics • Use the first letter of a series of words to create another word • The sillier the better! E.g. Bring Soccer Balls Tomorrow • Depositional landforms • Beaches Bars • Spit Tombolo • Mnemonic website http://library.thinkquest.org/C0110291/tricks/mnemonics/index.php

20. Revision cards • Put separate topic / case study on each card • Keep topics together • Don’t try to put too much information on each card

21. Revision card example • Population pyramids • Transitional stage: • Decreasing death rate • Gradually decreasing birth rate • Longer life expectancy • E.g. Brazil

22. Other points! • DON’T leave it all until the last minute • Organise yourself • Plan a revision timetable • Take breaks when revising e.g. 5-10 minutes every hour • If you are worried speak to someone!