This guide on how to prepare for GCSE exams has been developed in collaboration with our team of expert tutors, mentors and consultants, where we lay out the best revision methods and learning styles – with tangible examples.
When should I start revising?
Revision should be a part of a student’s daily routine at school. Revising throughout the year will help students stay on top of their school and revision work, whilst also providing enough time to consolidate their understanding of the syllabus. Digesting content will be easier when revision is broken up, into small sections.
Consistently revising will also train students to develop their own learning styles and manage their time more effectively.
A student’s revision schedule should start as early as possible. April and Easter break will also play a big part in the run up to the final exams. Whilst students should rest, they should also take this time to rectify any revision they have missed.
Getting this sorted early on, will relieve cramming later. It is also the time to understand how comfortable a student is with past papers, the syllabus and get to grips with their time management for the summer term.
Tutors and mentors should set up their own mock exams with students, tailored to their areas of weakness, giving them constructive feedback and pointing out areas to improve. This will make the final exams seem more familiar and less overwhelming. Contact our tutors for a bespoke revision plan.
Tutors and mentors are also a great way to develop metacognitive learning processes that stretch far beyond their ability of helping with a particular exam or syllabus; mentorship for study skills is a way to advance how students understand their own learning processes, their revision techniques, and contextualising their learning. Learn more on metacognition here.
Best methods and learning practices
Knowing how to revise is equally as important as knowing what to revise. Students are encouraged to identify the revision methods that are the most effective for their personal learning style. This will make revising content-heavy material much easier to deal with.
For example, visual learners will differ from tactile and auditory learners in that they process and remember information differently. Visual learners depend more on visual cues when learning, whereas tactile learners are contingent with a ‘hand-on’ approach to studying. Auditory learners focus more on voice, sound and hearing to effectively take in information.
People learn through all these different ways, but many of us have preferences in how we learn, fostered by past experiences, our balance between thinking practically and theoretically, and the complexities of one’s cognition.
Regardless, being open to different techniques and revision methods will help a student discover methods that resonate with them. Encouraging them to be conscious of their learning practices will save them invaluable time to the run up to their exams.
Visual Learning
Visual learners make up 65% of the population. Visual information takes on many formats, such as images, diagrams, flowcharts, graphs, cartoons, colours, PowerPoint presentations, films, artwork, games.
More recently, AI and Augmented Reality has also been seen to enact on visual learning processes, given the highly immersive visual experience created within these paradigms.
The Journal of Education and Practice published a paper on the role of visual learning in improving students’ high-order thinking skills. The paper analysed how visual learning helps students improve their problem thinking skills through a high-order thinking framework.
Essentially, the paper concluded that students were able to increase their problem solving and collaborative skills through visual cues and representations.
These buzzwords and theorised ideas are a good starting point to get students to think about their learning practices in a theoretical way. But how do they translate in the real world? How do students know which visual cue or medium best suits them?
Practising revision with different visual representations and media might be the easiest way to understand how information is better processed. Overtime, students will naturally gravitate towards their preferred learning method, and will surpass their need to consciously think about their metacognitive processes.
The following is a list of useful visual learning methods and techniques to help students get started:
- Emphasise notes by underlining and highlighting using different colours.
- Create mind maps, flowcharts, and infographics when constructing arguments or exploring complex topics.
- Use flashcards when memorising facts and statistics.
- Utilise the use of images and diagrams in curriculum books and articles.
- Find relevant videos on the subject.
Tactile Learning
Whereas visual learning is highly location specific, tactile learning uses movement, spatial parameters and a sensory approach processing information.
Tactile learners have a ‘hands-on’ approach to their learning processes. This means that they work best when they experience and practice first-hand with information or material.
Passive learning has no place in the tactile learner. They are active participants of all their information processes. This means moving around, actively using their hands during revision etc.
A study which compared the learning style of different students found that students that relied more on one style of learning were outperformed by students that developed a combination of learning practices.
Yet it is important to understand with which learning style students can get the most out of their revision. The following list include some methods and practices for tactile learners:
- The use of movement or movement patterns when revising – Chewing gum, walking around the room, fidgeting.
- Matching physical movement with certain answers or moving revision notes into patterns can work well.
- Explore other mediums which require active participants: such as attending live performances of the syllabus & books or incorporate games and props.
- Physically creating notes, art or shapes to represent ideas for revision. Reading on a screen simply won’t cut it.
Auditory Learning
Auditory learners incorporate speaking, listening and verbal forms of communication to process information. These types of learners are able to recollect spoken information at a higher rate than tactile and visual learns. They are also subject to increased scoring in verbal exams and have a skill for speaking.
Auditory learners prefer learning that incorporates a high level of discussion and requires active forms of listening. A study by the Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences found that student’s ‘skills, attitudes and predispositions to Auditory Learning Style are significative and determinative factors for learning effectively’.
Essentially, this means that students in their survey confirmed that learning through sonically emphasised communication has a significant impact in their studies and schoolwork.
The following is a list of real-term methods in enacting upon an auditory learning practice:
- Play background music when revising, linking certain music with certain information.
- Participate in group discussions and debates. Talk through an answer or question with a peer or tutor.
- Watch videos on the subject.
- Read aloud.
- Memorise through mnemonical practice (using songs, rhythm, acronyms)
- Listen to lectures, talks and podcasts on the required topic.
Learn your learning style
Students might find that one learning style will benefit them more than another, or that certain parts of each will resonate with them. Whatever the style and methods chosen for revision, that feels right, students often struggle to know if their revision is effective.
This consciousness in learning style and techniques will help students far past their GCSE exams, and past their university graduation – into their career and everyday adult life.
Academic mentors and tutors and a great way to aid in the development of student’s learning styles by accurately assessing their learning.
Gabbitas mentors and tutors have a high degree of subject, pedagogical and metacognitive knowledge, a combination that can help students through their revision and exams – whether that is to prepare for GCSE exams, A-Level or Higher Education.
To contact our mentors and tutors here. Alternatively, email info@gabbitas.com, or call [].
