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7. The Revision Questionnaire

We’ve found there is a strong link between the kind of revision someone does and the outcomes they
get. So, which student will do better in an exam?

» Student 1 does fifteen hours’ revision – all of it reading through class notes.

» Student 2 only does ten hours’ revision – two hours making mind-maps, two hours creating flash cards
of key terms, three hours writing timed essays, two hours working through past papers and looking for
patterns in the questions asked, and half an hour doing the hardest question they could find, followed
by half an hour talking it through with their teacher. Then they spend five hours shopping with their
friends and watching TV.

The second student will perform better, despite revising for fewer hours! You too can make less mean
more. Try this questionnaire:
Maths AI
Subjects: ___________________________
Physics

1
Chemistry
How many hours Ab
Spanish of independent
intio work do you do on your subjects outside of class? Please state the
English
time spent lit and
on each lang
subject.
History
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2 What sort of activities do you do? Use the table below, ticking in the column which best describes
your revision and preparation:

Always Sometimes Never

Reading through class notes C

Using resources on the school’s VLE C

Using course textbooks C

Mind-maps/diagrams C

Making/remaking class notes C

Highlighting/colour coding C

Flash cards C

Using a revision wall to display your learning C

Writing exam answers under timed conditions S

Reading model answers S

Using past exam questions and planning answers S

Marking your own work to a mark scheme F

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Always Sometimes Never

Studying mark schemes or examiners’ reports F

Working with other students in groups/pairs F

Comparing model answers against your own work F

Creating your own exam questions F

Handing in extra exam work for marking F

One-to-one discussions with teachers/tutors F

3 Additional activities not mentioned above:

4 Write a brief account of what you do if you can’t understand something (e.g. try again, read
textbooks, check the school’s VLE, see teachers, see other students).

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Now check over your answers. You will notice some activities in the table have a ‘C’ next to them – these
are the content techniques. Some activities have an ‘S’ next to them – these are the skills techniques.
Others have an ‘F’ next to them – these are the feedback techniques.

Notice in our example that student 1 only does content revision, while student 2 does all three stages and
then takes some time off. In our experience, student 2 will pretty much always get a better grade than
student 1. And they put in fewer hours.

Make sure you do some revision for each of C, S and F! Aim for three of each; nine methods in total.
Make a note of your current scores here:

» C score: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

» S score: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

» F score: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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We’ve found that students who get the best grades at A level practise in a wider variety of ways. Our top
performers had over ten ticks in the always column, and these were evenly spread across C, S and F.

However, students who got grades D, E or U had far fewer ticks in the always column – often only four or
five. They were very restricted in the way they practised, often spending hours repeating the same limited
range of activities.

Aim to increase the ticks in your always column to ten.

List three activities that you currently don’t do, that you could add to your repertoire:

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Final Thoughts
The following is a list of practice strategies suggested by John Dunlosky, a professor at Kent State
University in the United States. Dunlosky and his colleagues (2013) carried out a meta-analysis to
evaluate ten popular learning techniques and their effectiveness. (We’ve adjusted his language to make it
more accessible in the table below.)

The tasks towards the top of the table had the largest impact on learning and the tasks at the bottom had
the smallest. There’s a time and a place for all of them – but it’s worth checking which ones you’re using
most of the time and which ones you’re never using:

Technique Always use Sometimes use Never use

Practice tests – moving in and out of exam
conditions, practising what is required in
the time you’re given.
Spaced practice – scheduling practice
tests and revision sessions over time;
snacking instead of bingeing.
Elaborative interrogation – explaining
complex concepts and ideas to others –
teaching someone else the material.
Self-explanation – writing out
explanations. Explaining how new
information is linked to old information.
Clarifying connections between
information.
Interleaved practice – designing study that
moves you from topic to topic, task to task
and subject to subject rather than blocking
out long sessions of the same activity.
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8. Three Types of Attention

Everyone’s day moves through phases, and you’re probably no different – there are times when you’re fired up
and raring to go, there are times when your energy levels are just average and there are times when you feel
your attention is low and your motivation dips.

These three phases happen to everyone during a working day. You’re not unusual if you have low energy
levels or can’t concentrate; if you catch yourself looking around you and seeing others hard at work,
remember they’re no different to you – they’re just in a different phase of their day.

Some people can predict when they’re going to be feeling fired up (it might be the mornings, it might be after
breakfast or after exercise) and when they’re going to feel slower. Others haven’t noticed a pattern, but once
they pay attention they see one emerging. For others, it’s totally random.

Graham Allcott, founder of Think Productive ([Link] uses the following definitions for the
three states:

1. Proactive attention (fully focused, fired up, feeling fresh).

2. Active attention (plugged in, ticking along nicely).

3. Inactive attention (flagging, fried, foggy).

He argues that really successful people get work done in all three states. They don’t give up when they’re in
state 3, they just switch tasks.

Make a list of all the tasks you’ve got on your plate at the moment. Think of everything – homework, reading,
essays, revision, upcoming tests, college interviews, etc.

Now categorise them. Complex and challenging tasks go in ‘proactive attention’. When you feel fully focused,
fired up and fresh, you tackle those. Regular tasks go in ‘active attention’. They’re tasks to get on with when
you feel you’re ticking along nicely. Repetitive tasks that are pretty easy go in ‘inactive attention’. When you’re
feeling fried or foggy, you switch to those tasks.

Proactive attention Active attention Inactive attention

.......................... .......................... ..........................

.......................... .......................... ..........................

.......................... .......................... .........................

.......................... .......................... ..........................

Keep the list with you for a week or two. Whenever you’re about to start working:

» Check your energy levels. Sit still for a second and listen to your body. Decide which attention state
you’re in.

» Review the list of tasks you’ve got to do that suit your attention level. If there are none in that column, find
one from the next column and tackle it.

After a week or two, see whether you can observe patterns in your attention levels. Really good learners have
noticed these patterns in themselves and sequence their tasks beforehand.
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Final Thoughts
One way to log your attention is by colour coding. Use green for proactive attention, amber for active
attention, and red for inactive. You could use a grid that looks something like this:

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

8–10am

10am–
12pm

1–3pm

3–5pm

6–8pm

8–10pm

We’ve found that certain people move through predictable phases of attention. Some start the day full of energy,
but dip slowly as the day goes on. Others respond to food (!), feeling more sluggish after lunch, for example.
Others have worked out ways to jump into proactive attention before doing an important piece of work.

This last skill is really valuable. If you can boost your attention, you can get more work done in less time. Try
experimenting with boosting attention. We’ve spoken to students who do the following:

Exercise just before work: A run, a walk, a quick jog around the block, even an intense burst of star jumps!

Listen to music just before work: A loud burst of motivating music with headphones on.

Other pre-work rituals: Some students talk about tidying their work spaces to get ‘in the zone’, or having
a hot shower, or getting changed or a quick ten-minute burst of game-playing (bright, colourful puzzlers work
way better than long, complex strategy or role-playing games).

Use the space below to record your experiments and plans:

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