Effective revision strategies at undergraduate level
The difference between school and university can often seem stark.
For some, it is the moving out of home, or perhaps getting into the routine of cooking for yourself each night.
One change that is common for everyone starting university, however, is the difference in teaching style and expectation. Gone are small classes of 30 students, and the opportunity to ask questions every two minutes, with a knowledgeable person always on hand to provide support.
Instead, you’re thrust into a world of lectures, with extensive reading lists, and suddenly expected to thrive academically without the same levels of structure and support that you were familiar with.
One area where this has a major impact is revising for exams. Too often, strategies that are used for GCSE and A-levels no longer work.
Perhaps, copious past papers to work your way through are not as available as they may have been with those other qualifications. Or perhaps the significant increase in quantity of work means that summarising notes, as you were so familiar or comfortable with, just doesn’t work anymore.
Fortunately, a number of effective revision techniques are available that you can very quickly become comfortable with, transforming your approach to university revision from ineffective and overwhelming to something that is highly efficient and supports improved grades.
This article will explore a number of different approaches that you can use, and some of the times where they will be most effective in supporting your revision.
Flashcards
This may be one of the better-known revision techniques, and is certainly one of the most effective. Typically used for definition and key words, this technique involves writing down a key word or question on one side of a flashcard, and the correct answer on the other side.
You are then able to test yourself on these definitions, answers and so forth, and determine which pieces of information that you already know, and which you need to learn.
So far, so good, right? However, there are some crucial things to think about when using flashcards.
The first is that the act of creating revision flashcards is, in itself, not an effective revision technique. All too often, students will take a significant amount of time producing “pretty” flashcards, with multiple colours, neat writing and beautiful diagrams, but then run out of time to actually use the flashcards and learn the information.
Instead, acknowledge that the creation process is itself somewhat “wasted” time, and get them made as quickly as you can. Multiple colours and stunning handwriting will make very, very limited impact to your revision and learning, but they will reduce the time that you have available for the most important thing – using them.
The second must-know fact about flashcards is that you shouldn’t do them in your head. Again, when using flashcards it is very easy to “say” the answer in your head, using your internal monologue. With this technique, it is very easy to turn over to the answer too soon, and reassure ourselves that we really did know the answer, or that we would’ve changed our answer had it been an exam.
This is not useful, reducing the accuracy of our own judgements on what we do, and do not know.
So, what should you do instead? Whenever responding to flashcards, you need to verbally state your answer (whether this is to yourself or a friend), or write down the answer. This way, there is no opportunity for you to “believe” that you know the answer, or to turn over to the answer too soon.
Verbalising or writing down your response ensures that you are able to determine whether you do, or do not, know the information on the flashcard.
The final consideration with flashcards is the strategy you have to use them. Here, I would suggest using the Leitner Method.
Further details are available online, but in short, you begin by testing yourself on all flashcards every single day. If you get the flashcard correct, it goes into a pile that gets tested every third day.
When going through this “third day” pile, if you then get an answer wrong, it returns to the pile of flashcards that you self-test on every single day, and if you get it correct, it goes into a pile that you test weekly. Once again, in the weekly pile, if you get a flashcard incorrect, it returns to the daily pile. If you get it correct, this time, it remains in the weekly pile.
This is a wonderful technique to ensure that the most time is being spent on information that you are weakest with, which is what revision is about.
Self-quizzing
This strategy may appear very similar to the aforementioned one, but with the noticeable difference being that you do not produce flashcards.
This strategy is used where you need to test that you know the answer to a question, but there is too much information to summarise on to a flashcard.
This may be a combination of medicines required to treat certain conditions, or key points from a certain case study that you know is going to come up in the exam. Crucial knowledge, but too much for a flashcard.
In this method, you would ensure that you collect all of the information that you need to know in one place. This could be a PowerPoint, a Word document or even a physical notepad.
Once all of this information is there, you then self-test against it. But how?
The easiest way is to be able to see the question, but cover up the answer. Then, self-test against it, by either verbalising the answer, or writing it down.
If you do decide to go for the former method, it is sometimes nice to have a study partner who is able to give you instant feedback. If you do this, though, ensure that your study partner does not give you hints too soon, or give you too much of the answer, otherwise you can sit there and just wait for them to tell you, making the study arrangement an ineffective use of time.
If you decide to go for written responses, then do not worry about the quality of your writing. Don’t fret about neatness, punctuation, spelling and so forth. This is about getting the core facts written down and getting through as many topics as possible. It is not a neat writing contest.
In fact, once you have written down responses, I would recommend recycling them, thus making their neatness even less relevant.
Elaboration
This technique does rely on having a study buddy – which so many people like to have. It is also the only strategy that allows you to channel your inner seven-year old.
This method involves talking to someone else (knowledgeable or otherwise; so, you could use your non-vet student partner here, as well) through a given topic.
You could be responding to case studies, exam questions or just saying everything that you know about a certain topic, it doesn’t really matter.
Here, though, your study buddy has a crucial role. They need to keep saying “why?” This provides you with an opportunity to justify and elaborate on what you are saying, which is typically what an exam asks you to do.
Every so often, an exam question will ask you to state a fact, but typically, justifications and elaboration are required to the points that you are making. If the first time you attempt to do this type of question is in the exam, it is unlikely to go well.
Therefore, revise with this in mind, and ensure that you spend as much time answering the “why?” question as you possibly can.
Interleaved practice
Here, we are not looking at a specific revision strategy, but more at how we should build our revision together.
During GCSEs and A-levels, we very often revise in discrete chunks – maths here, biology there, chemistry after. However, at university level this is more difficult, because we are studying just one subject area (typically). We do sometimes have distinct units, but again, there are likely to be crossovers between content.
Research shows that if we try to interleave topics, that we are likely to improve our understanding of topics, and thus improve our outcomes.
In practice, this means that instead of spending a morning on unit 1, then an afternoon on unit 2, and so on and so forth, we actually do an hour of unit 1, then maybe an hour of unit 4, then 30 minutes of unit 3.
Where we can develop connections and understanding between units, we should do as well. The better we are able to move seamlessly between discrete units, and still be able to understand and recall information, the better our learning is going.
Verbalising
The final strategy is somewhat a conclusion of all of those mentioned so far, and it is the power of oracy – or verbalising – our revision. Too often in school, and when revising, we believe that it should be silent. Loud revision is ineffective revision, right?
Well, it certainly can be. Revising along to Natasha Bedingfield at full volume is unlikely to an effective way of concentrating on the content at hand. However, talking through a topic, explaining it to someone else, elaborating on it, providing justifications, and verbalising key words or case studies are all super-effective ways of writing.
In fact, and I steal this quote from a colleague called Michael Walsh, oracy provides a voice to half-form, fleeting and confused thoughts in our head.
In effect, all of those things that we think in our heads, which don’t quite answer the question, or don’t quite yet make sense, just need to be verbalised in order for them to grow and become helpful. Try it, it really does work.
Conclusion
One thing that this article hasn’t really got into (and will be covered in a subsequent article) is how effective revision is linked to us pushing ourselves out of our (mental) comfort zones.
Revision shouldn’t be easy. It should force us to think, recall, connect, justify. What it must be, though, is effective. So, if revision is easy, are you doing the right thing?
Note-making, highlighting, having a chat and looking at a mark scheme as you answer a past paper are all easy. They won’t lead to effective learning, and you won’t make the progress you want.
Self-quizzing, flashcards, verbalising and so on aren’t easy. They’ll make your brain hurt, but they are effective – and you will make significant progress.
Good luck.
Nathan Burns
Nathan is an expert in the area of revision, effective learning and metacognition. He supports schools and universities across the UK in developing effective learners.
He has published two books on the area of metacognition, and written extensively for publications such as Oxford University Press, Schools Week and First News. He can be found on X at MrMetacognition, LinkedIn as Nathan Burns and through his website, www.mrmetacognition.com