Roding Valley High School exam success. Advise for parents to help them prepare their children for the examinations.

1. Top Revisiontips for Parents or Guardians
Why do we need to revise?
All of us forgetthings,andsome of us forgetthingsquickerthanothers!
Typicallywe forgetover50%of knowledge within24 hoursof learning
somethingnew.
Regularrevisionallowsustorememberthingswe have learnedby
revisitingthemuntil theyare committedtolongtermmemory (shown
below).

2. Revisionis fundamentallyabouttwo things:
1. Memory
2. Recall
There are twotypesof revisers:

3. Revisionplanning
In order for revisionto be effective,some keyrulesshouldbe followed!
1. Childrenneedto planrevisionand have 2typesof revisiontimetables
- For a School Day
- For the Weekend/Holiday/StudyLeave
2. The timetable needstobe realisticandfocussedonwhatyourchild
needs!
3. Work on a 3:1:1 Ratio(forevery30 minutesof worktheyneed10
minutesof ‘play’and10 minutes of rest)
4, Childrenneedtohave aspace to revise withoutinterruptions.
5. No phones/tablets/computers
School day timetable
Day 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Weekend/Holiday/Study leave timetable
Time Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
08:00
09:00
10:00
11:00
12:00
13:00
14:00
15:00
16:00
17:00
18:00
19:00
20:00
21:00

4. Structuredrevision
Interleave revision
Whenwe structure our revision,itisbettertointerleave topicsas
opposedtoblockingtopics.
“Blocking”yourrevision –focusingonone topicfor a longtime then
movingonto the nexttopic– isinefficient. “Interleaving”yourrevisionis
far more effective.
Interleavingand chunking
• For interleavingtowork,youhave tobreakdownyour revision
into“chunks”.
• It isno good putting“Biology”intoyourrevisioncalendar –you
needtobe specific
It’sbestto deal witheach elementortopicof the course.E.g.
Day 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm
Monday Physics:
Forces
English
Lit:
Poetry
Maths:
Trig.
Tuesday Physics:
Energy
French:
reading
PE:
Muscles
Wednesday English
Lit:
Poetry
Geog:
Volcanoes
Thursday Physics:
Forces
English
Lit:
Poetry
Geog:
Plate
tectonics
Friday

5. How shouldmy childrevise?
1. Flashcards
Because a flashcard issmall,youneedtoboil downyourlearningtoa
key,easily-revisedsummary.
How to use flashcards?
1. Write keyquestionsonone side of the card
2. Write the answerson the otherside of the card
3. Testregularly!
4. Adda tickeach time yougetit right,anda cross eachtime you
have to turn overto check
5. Aimto getten ticksnexttoeach question!
Organise your flashcards:
Your childwill buildupanarray of flashcards,itisimportantto colour
code themto classifybytopicor examsection.
P.S.It alsoworkswithpost-its!

6. 2. Mnemonics
Mnemonicsuse the initial lettersof agroupof wordsto helpremember
theminorder.Theyare reallygoodforremembering sequenced
information.Here are some examples:
3. FLORIA
FLORIA is a technique thatprovides“hooks”forinformationinyour
memory.Lookat the listof words below for40 seconds,thensee which
youremember:
SHOE
GARDEN
GOOSE
MUSIC
TAYLOR SWIFT
CAR
HERB
WORM
SPIDER MAN
BOXING
WATER
GLUE
HERB
TURTLE
Nowtry for yourself usingthe FLORIA techniquedetailedbelow:
 Put the mostimportantinformation FIRSTandLAST
 Whenpreparingrevisionmaterials,think abouthowyoucan
make keyinformation OUSTANDING
 REPEAT importantfacts
 Make keyinformation INTERESTINGusingimages,mnemonics,
stickingiton a post-itinan unusual place,associatingitwitha
personor event.
 Make linksbetweeninformationsothe ASSOCIATION leadsyou
fromone fact to another

7. 4. Mindmaps
A greatway to organise yourrevisioninawaythat worksfor you!
 Start withthe theme inthe middle of the page.
 Developyourmainidea.
 Each sub-branchmustrelate to the branch before it.
 Use onlykeywordsandimages.
 Keywordsmustbe writtenalongthe branches.
 Colourcode the branches.
 Make thingsstandout onthe page so theystandout inyour
mind.
 Designimagesyoucanrelate to whichwill helpyouremember
keyinformation
Mind mapscan be a mixture of textandimages:
Mind mapscan be mostlytext:
Mind mapscan also be mostlyimages:

8. 5. Cornell Notes
OriginallycreatedinAmerica,thismethodencouragesyoutosummarise
keypointsanduse themto create examquestionsforyourself.
Thismethodcan be usedto capture keyinformationinalessonandcan
be usedlongafteryou finishyourGCSEs!
Next steps
Q. Nowthat you r childhas completedtheirnotes,howdotheykeepitall
inthere?
A1. Theyshoulduse PQRST.
PQRST isa self-testingtechniquetobe usedonce youhave reviseda
section.It’salsohelpfultohave someone else torevise with –a friend,
familymemberetc.Here’showitworks…
 P Preview– Read throughsectionheadings.Readthe final
summaries.If you’ve usedflashcardsthiswill help!
 Q Question– Turn each sectionheadingandsubheadingintoa
question
 R Read – Read yourquestionsandthenanswerfromthe text.
Mark or highlightthe keywords/points
 S Say – Say your answerandexplainyourkeywordsaloudto
yourself orexplaintosomeoneelse.
 T Test– Go over the questions andtestyourselfagaindayslater–
whatcan youstill recall toanswereachof the questionsthatyou
wrote?
A2. Askyourchild‘Why?’
One of the bestwaysto supportrevisionistoask your childto explain
why an ideaor conceptistrue. Rather thanjust learningfactsbyheart,
askingyourchild why theyare true will help themrememberand
understand ideasorfacts.

9. Developing Examtechnique
Nowthat yourchildhas the knowledge,theyneedtogetusedtoexam
questions!
Findingpastpapers – findoutwhichexamboardis usedbyaskingyour
childor yourchild’steacher.The three mainexamboardsusedatRVHS
are shownbelow:
• AQA:http://www.aqa.org.uk/exams-administration/exams-
guidance/find-past-papers-and-mark-schemes
• OCR: http://www.ocr.org.uk/i-want-to/download-past-papers/
• EDEXCEL: http://qualifications.pearson.com/en/support/support-
topics/exams/past-papers.html
RevisionMaterial and Practice Testing
• English– Mr Bruff http://mrbruff.com/
• Maths – CorbettMaths https://corbettmaths.com/
• Science – Tassomai https://www.tassomai.com/home
• General – https://www.bbc.com/education/levels/z98jmp3
- https://diagnosticquestions.com