Study Skills
Revision That Sticks
Re-reading feels productive. Testing yourself actually is.
Re-reading notes produces familiarity, which feels like knowledge right up to the exam hall. Retrieval — closing the book and writing what you remember — feels worse and works better. Spread it over weeks, work on what you get wrong, and use past papers early enough that the format is boring by the time it counts.
What you get
- Past papers early, not as a final check
- Closed-book recall before opening the notes
- Spacing across weeks rather than one long night
- Explaining the topic aloud to someone else
- Time spent on what you get wrong, not what you know
Related reading
Study Skills
Reading for Research
You do not read forty papers. You read four and skim the rest properly.
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