1. Revision and Exam Preparation A workshop and presentation for parents/carers of Year 8 students

2. The conversation……… Why should you revise? Where should you revise? When should you revise? How should you revise? How often should you revise?

3. What the students say:  Keep your nose out ‘coz it’s so annoying  Stop nagging  Leave us alone – if s/he left me alone I might actually do some revision  Keep the house quiet and siblings under control  Don’t force us to make a revision timetable  Money/biscuits to revise please!

4. What the school is doing...  The Learning for Life lessons have already covered revision techniques and learning styles in year 7 and 8.  Tutors are supporting students in preparing revision timetables

5. What the school is doing...  Subject teachers will make crystal clear, to students, what is exactly required in each subject.  Revision topic handout.

6. Learning Performance Techniques: How to Revise:  Highlighter pens for Key Words  Spider-diagrams and flow charts  Interactive revision and lap books  Mnemonics  Suitable educational internet sites with animated diagrams

7. Give your child responsibility!  Give them choices  Allow them to work out strategies which best suit their preferred learning style  Talk through their plans with them to allow them to reflect on and modify them  Suggest and monitor group revision sessions

8. How should they revise? If you just sit down to revise, without a definite finishing time, then your learning efficiency falls lower and lower, like this:

9. How can they improve this? If they decide at the beginning how long they will work for, with a clock, then as the brain knows the end is coming, the graph rises towards the end

10. How can you improve this even more? If you break up a 2-hour session, into shorter sessions, for example 20 minutes, with a short planned break between each session, learning is more efficient. Compare the next 2 graphs:

11. One solid session 4 shorter sessions The yellow area shows the improvement.

12. The Curve of Forgetting! Look at the graph below: It shows how much your brain can recall later. It rises for about 10 minutes …and then falls. How often should they revise?

13. if they quickly re-revise after 10 minutes, then it falls more slowly! This is good. Analyse the new graph: However,

14. if you quickly re-revise again, after 1 day, then it falls even more slowly! Good ! Analyse the new graph: Even better,

15. if you quickly re-revise again, after 1 week, then it falls even more slowly! Great! Analyse the new graph: And even better still,

16. 10 minutes 1 day 1 week …and then 1 month So the best intervals for ‘topping-up’, by reviewing or briefly re-revising are: When to Revise?

17.  START WITH THE HARDEST. When freshest tackle the subject that they find hardest.

18. What you can do to help...  Plan around your child e.g. family activities  Cut back on some extra-curricular activities  GET THE BALANCE RIGHT!

19. What you can do to help...  Treats e.g. food, TV at lunch  Motivation – goals and ambitions  Short term/long term treats  Rewards for revision and not results

20. Reinforcement ‘We remember: 10% of what we hear, 20% of what we read, 50% of what we do, 75% of what we discuss 90% of what we teach.’