When it comes to exams, the main thing to work on is remembering all the information you have been taught over the past year. This can be extremely hard considering the amount of content you have gone through! Exam season can be a tough time, so finding techniques to help you with your revision process can be very helpful.
There are a few different techniques you can try, some work better with different courses so try a few out and see which are most helpful to you!
Flash cards
Flash cards are one of the best ways and most common ways to help you remember content for your exams. Of course, you could spend ages writing out all of the flashcards with the answers yourself, or you can use Jamworks’ new quizzing tool. This feature is able to generate flashcards from the lectures you record so that you can use them for revision. How cool is that!
If you are interested in how it works, basically, AI software is used to create a summary based off the transcript of your recorded lecture. This summary is then turned into a question with an answer.
The cool thing is that when you get shown the question, if you are unsure of the answer, then you can click on a link that takes you back to the lecture recording where you can watch the video and find the answer for yourself. Alternatively, you can simply click to view your answer that has been generated.
Rhyming techniques
Rhyming words are an easy way to remember things. So, putting your revision into little rhymes is a really useful way to retain the information. Try and make mini sentences about 5/6 words long with a rhyming word at the end of every other sentence. You can google rhyming words so that it makes it a little easier. Of course, this may only work for certain people, so the other alternative is to create stories with the information instead of trying to make it rhyme.
Story telling
This is slightly similar to the rhyming technique, but a different way to go about it. Another great memory technique is to put the information you need into a story. We remember stories better as they are more interesting to us. This technique is great for subjects like history or law, where you can create a story of what happened to remember the facts.
The idea is that your story is made up of short sentences and links together pieces of information. If things like math formulas and science formulas are hard to remember, then you can rename the letters with names. For example, H can turn into Harry. For certain people this way of recalling information can be much more memorable.
A good idea is to tell this story to friends and family so that you can continue to go over it and repeat it.
Voice memos
When you speak out loud and repeat things to yourself, it can help you remember it. This technique is really useful if you need to remember a specific fact or numbers like dates. For example, if you need to remember law cases and their dates or historic events and their dates, then try recording yourself saying the dates and listening to yourself say the dates.
Group study
Going over certain topics with a group of course mates can be really useful when remembering that topic in your exam. When you connect a topic to a memory it can make it easier to remember. You will be able to think about the conversations you were having on the topic and the information should be able to help you in your exams.
Chunking
When looking over notes, it can be quite hard to retain all of the information as there is usually so much of it. To make this easier for yourself, the best thing to do is to set out your information into chucks. Focus on the most important chunks only.
Jamworks is a very useful tool if you want to try and chunk your information. You can use the tool to record 10 second clips that you view as the most important. You can then use Jamworks to create a summary of these clips that you find most important. That way you are cutting out all of the less important information and only focusing on the bits you need to know. Then it is up to you what you do with the summarised information. You can use it for writing down mind maps, or you can use the flashcard tool as mentioned earlier.
Additional Tips:
Asides from the little techniques you can use to remember information, there are a few things easy things you can do to look after yourself and help your memory.
- Eat healthy foods – a healthy body is a healthy mind. Eating good foods and staying healthy will help you have a clear mind and stay on track with your revision.
- Sleep well – this doesn’t just mean before your exam; it means throughout your revision period so that you can stay energised and on top of everything. If you’re tired all day every day, you will let things slip out of your mind and forget them!
- Exercise – any type of cardio whether that be a just a simple walk a few times a week can be very helpful. It not only can help put you into a good study routine and give you a break from revision, but it also increases blood flow to the brain which is really helpful for your memory.
- Stay hydrated – the most important thing during the revision period is to make sure you stay hydrated and look after yourself. Sleepless nights with no water will do more harm than good for your revision.
Final Thoughts
If you have your exams coming up, my biggest tip is to revise in small chunks. Building your memory is key to acing your exams so try and give some of these techniques a go when revising. Make sure to try out the Jamworks quizzing tool and see if the flashcards are something that helps you.
Lastly, keep yourself healthy during your exam period. Try not to mess up your sleeping schedule and look after yourself as this will be the best thing for you in the long-run!
