With GCSE mock exams about to start students need to make the most of their revision time. Revision is all about quality. Lots of students think that reading a revision guide with their music or a TV on in the background is good revision – unfortunately for the vast majority it’s almost always the opposite. Student’s need to turn music, TVs and any other distractions off and focus 100% on their revision, doing exam questions or making revision notes (from memory after reading a section in a revision guide and CLOSING the book – copying out sections is nowhere near as effective).
Revision needs to be active and involve 100% of the brain if it is going to really be effective. Yes, the usual argument is that this is boring, it is more boring than listening to music at the same time but its so much more effective. It’s far better for students to do shorter periods of really effective revision with breaks in-between than spend hours casually reading a revision guide with all sorts of distractions going on around them.
Lots of students tell us they ‘work better’ while they listen to music, the majority of the time what they really mean is they ‘prefer’ working with their music on. We’ve seen students try revising and doing exam papers with their music on and it’s so clear that only half of their brain is concentrating on their work and the other half is listening to the music. When they turn the music off they generally get on so much better.
So, if you’re a year 11 revising for your mocks, ditch the music, TV (and even your phone if you can) for short periods and get some really good quality revision in, you’ll see the results in your exam grades!
