Issue 23
How to teach revision The Guardian Teacher Network
Exam time can be very stressful for students, teachers and parents and the Guardian Teacher Network has resources and advice on how to cope. From general advice to neat interactives offering specific subject revision, the following resources should help make the process as productive and painfree as possible. First of all find these fantastic exam tips which have been shared by Doctor Wellgood, a website dedicated to helping teenagers and young adults manage their health and wellbeing. From planning, knowledge and memory to dehydration, fitness and sleep - the list gives essential tips to help students through the next few weeks. Staying calm and mindful during exam time is vital. Five minutes to a calmer classroom gives practical advice on how teachers can deliver a simple breathing meditation that students of any belief system - or none – can use. These tips give advice what's needed to get started and include guided meditations and video tutorials. And here is some more guidance to not getting too stressed. GCSEs don't exactly arrive at the best time for any teenager, but hormone driven teenage boys can find it particularly tough. Here psychologist Steven Biddulph provides invaluable tips aimed at parents to guide their teenage sons through the GCSE revision period. Once students are feeling calm and in control they can get on with reviewing the work of the last year or two and remembering what they need to for the exams. All revision needs planning and here is some simple advice on how to effectively plan revision. Where to revise will help students create the right kind of study area to revise in and How to revise explains six key revision skills from using mnemonics to revising with friends. Working on these skills will give students more confidence in their revision. Thanks to SEN specialist Matt Grant, the teacher behind the Humans Not Robotsblog for some really helpful planners he uses to help his key stage 4 and 5 students who present with organisational difficulties and/or anxieties related to their studies. Here is a weekly planner and here's a fortnightly version. Matt advises that these can be shared with parents. Teacher Ross Morrison McGill has put together this thought-provoking presentation of some simple revision techniques and inspiration for his
year 11 students which also includes a personal example of his performance at GCSE and university. When the day of the exam dawns, students need to make the best of all that hard work, see prepare for the dayfor help. There's nothing worse than missing out on marks because of silly exam day mistakes - for example spending ages answering questions that are not worth many marks or vice versa, or even, horror of horrors, missing out a whole page of the exam. Here is some great guidance to run through on what to do in the examwhich will help students avoid classic pitfalls. Many exams will call on students to tackle questions using tables of information and graphics. How to get the best of them? Teacher Garrett Nagle has shared sometop techniques. The Guardian Teacher Network also has specific exam topics and subjects. For example, here's one on Hamlet and here's a great maths revision top trumps gameincluding cards on simultaneous equations, inequalities, gradients between points, shared by maths teacher Mel Muldowney who points out this 'game' is certainly not for the faint hearted! Find more in the Guardian Teacher Networksearch. And for more inspiration do catch up with an interesting live chat on revision techniques which we ran last month. There are some excellent ideas from teachers on imaginative and effective ways to prepare students for upcoming exams, from creative live flash cards using study blue to the energising (and hilarious) Youtube video Playtime is over campaign - it's time to work like a beast! Essential viewing for all. http://www.theguardian.com/education/teacher-blog/2013/may/07/howto-teach-revision