A
female
age
22-25,
anonymous
writes:I really want to take my education seriously now. I want to revise a lot more maths but I always find myself getting distracted or bored and I end up just sitting there staring at the book or something! I NEED to stop doing that! Does anyone know some good revision strategies to help me revise? Reply to this Question
Share |
Fancy yourself as an agony aunt? Add your answer to this question! A
male
reader, anonymous, writes (26 August 2015): try to think of everything as really interesting. For some people the more they know about something the better it is for them because it makes more sense, so just cramming a load of facts into a young mind isnt useful unless you have one of those 24 hr memories where you can memorize ten fascinating facts and spit them out the next day for an exam and forget them by the evening.Thats known as cramming and some people attend specislly devised cramming classes before exams.You learn the facts,you test yourself ten times at different times of the day, you go to bed early,hoping your memory holds ,you do the exam, you claim you revised, and you forget it all by your first meal as soon as you get home! I find i get overloaded to fast that way and i finally realised that if something is interesting you can think about it a bit and find out a bit more..for example why was hitler so murderous..well you find out his mother died of breast cancer when he was only fifteen or so and he got very bitter and because he had a jewish doctor he decided to blame all the jews and later got together with his friends and went to prison and wrote a book.You see lots of extra info there.On a real life level i couldnt drive a car until i knew what the clutch did, just being told wasnt good enough for me and i failed my exams three times but finally i got to see a car engine and a worn out clutch and then it made sense to me,because i could see it, and touch it and see the deep grooves in it.Then i found out i was interested in mechanics because you can see all the bits of the car...and so on. Maths drove me to distraction,i was always hungry and like homer simpson could think of nothing but "meat pie".. yum with thick juicy gravy inside and a crusty pastry top.The teacher kept writing on the blackboard saying "it" goes here ..and here..and here.. so i had no idea which it she meant other than meat pie.Finally one day i found a maths book about stuff i didnt know and it was very interesting.Lots of explanations,no its,just examples of questions and examples of answers and then a little test for each bit and then a little revision test at the end and bingo ,i could do maths and not a meatpie in sight.Of course i didnt learn it all in one mega go but the more i looked at it the better i understood it and i always had something to eat nearby for when i was hungry.So when you switch off and start staring at the walls..get a drink and a bite to eat..and do small portions of maths at a time..like a caterpillar you will chomp through a lot of maths....just keep testing and correcting..and if it doesnt work out this time you can always try resits.But dont work on revision every hour because you must switch off now and again.
A
male
reader, IanHenryCooper +, writes (25 August 2015):
 It's called "displacement activity", what you are doing - look it up!
You aren't buckling down to revising/practising maths because you find it boring and it's a solitary activity. Can you not find a like-minded friend to work with you - and I mean WORK, not mess about - and make the activity more sociable and enjoyable?
Obviously it needs to be someone at your level and also committed to working.
...............................
A
female
reader, anonymous, writes (25 August 2015): Write a timetable that includes breaks every 20 minutes. Set a timer up and you make yourself work for 20 mins and when the timer goes off you can reward yourself - read a bit of a book, have a snack etc...then go back to studying. Try BBC GVSE Bitesize. They have revision pages that are more interesting that staring at a book. Ask your teacher for areas that they think you need to brush up on, they should know and I they don't they should find out. They might even offer to help you revise and sit with you maybe 2 break times a week.You don't have to force yourself to sit for hours to make progress. Start with little bursts and gradually increase the time between your breaks x
...............................
A
female
reader, anonymous, writes (25 August 2015): It's hard - but whatever you do - stick at it - cause once you pass your exams - you have them for life & you won't need to resit them!!
...............................
A
male
reader, Peterk5699 +, writes (25 August 2015):
 Before beginning your revision, make sure you have a drink and some snacks near you and don't go in with an empty stomach. Keep away from the energy and fizzy/sugary drinks here, as they'll make you need the toilet a lot and you'll begin flagging, which is not a pleasant experience. Also, don't study straight after eating as the food needs to digest which, when mixed with other activities can cause you to feel tired.Some background noise such as quiet music or nature recordings are good as well because (I find) silence can be deafening and claustrophobic and causes me to lose concentration easily.Thirdly is the most obvious one: Sleep! Don't try and pull all-nighters as they will mess up your body clock and cause you to feel tired throughout the day. Different people survive on different sleep times, but I find about 7 hours is a good length. If you begin feeling tired or sluggish in the afternoon, have a short nap for an hour or so and your batteries will soon be charged.Be active in an extra-curricular activity such as exercise or learning an instrument. When you have nothing to do or your life becomes monotonous it's easy to lose sleep because all that energy you didn't use up just continues to build within you and keep you awake causing you to become easily distracted.If you study in your bedroom, keep the door closed and all forms of communication away from you - phone on silent and hidden away, Facebook/internet shut down/closed and only allow your parents to come in if it's important. Write out a timetable and strictly keep to that timetable. Reward yourself if you manage to stick to it. That way you have something to work towards and look forward to. You'll also learn discipline by doing this which is essential in academia.
...............................
|
