PRIME Revision Campaign

Hello. My name is Lisa Bates, and I'm, uh, one of the assistant principals here at QE.

I've created this short video to hopefully help you

to get prepared for your upcoming assessments or examinations.

I hope you find it for some use.

So what you're gonna notice in the next few weeks

is our prime campaign and you'll see posters going up

and banners et cetera.

Uh, with this this word prime this prime is an acronym,

and I'll go into more details as to what that stands for in this presentation.

But before I do that,

I just want to talk to you a little bit about the concept of space practise.

So space practise is almost the opposite, or is the opposite to cramming.

And when we cram for exams,

that means that we stay up all night and we try to get as much information in our

heads so that when we do that assessment that

hopefully that's all there for us when we,

uh when we need it.

The reality is,

um with level three qualifications with the content that you're having to cover,

it's quite likely that a lot of that information is not going

to be there for you when you need it the most.

And the reason for that is because of this.

This is the ebbing Hauser's forgetting curve.

So when we le learn new information, uh,

the research indicates that within about 20 minutes

we've already forgotten about 40% of it.

Within an hour that goes down to Fif, 55% of it's gone.

Within a day you're looking at about 70% of it's now missing, only 30% remaining,

and within a month it's quite likely you've forgotten everything altogether.

So if you have started your revision,

it's quite likely that you're going back to content

maybe from September or even before then.

And you're thinking, I can't even remember being in lessons for that.

It's quite likely that this has happened, and it is quite natural

how to combat the forgetting curve then.

Well,

the first thing you can do going forward is

you can start to review your notes more regularly.

So, um, at the end of each day, certainly in the first day, you know, go home that day,

review the notes from the the the the Day of Learning

and try and help that go into the long term memory.

Then you can get

yourself a bit longer, maybe three days and maybe six days.

And before you know it, that information then starts to stay in the long term memory.

It's the same thing with retrieving and testing yourself.

The more you do it, the more you revisit topics, the more likely it's gonna go in.

So leaving everything to the last minute is not a good idea,

because it does not give you the time to do this.

This is further supported by a piece of research, uh, by car pick.

And what you can see here is two groups of students going for the same assessment.

One group of student studies, uh, has eight study sessions on one day.

The other group of students has eight study sessions over four days,

and you can see here they can recall significantly more information by spreading

it out over four days rather than trying to clamp on one day.

So what we want you to do, then we want you to start planning your revision.

OK, so this is, uh, a weekly revision planner. It's nothing special.

It's just a standard straightforward.

Um ta timetable.

Um, you put your key topics that you need to do that week varies a bit, So don't have a,

you know, all be one subject or one topic area,

but try and break it up into little bits.

Um,

block out the time that you're in lessons

and that you've maybe got all the commitments

and make sure you put some time in there for when you see your

friends or if you go to the gym or or whatever else you do.

But make sure that you pop in there specific times that you know you're

gonna revise and stick to it very important that you stick to it.

And if you start that early,

then you'll get into a good routine so that you're in a better position for your exam.

Um, there are online versions of this, um, so this is a get revising app.

Um, we would absolutely say, Do not pay for anything that you come across online.

Um, this is a fairly reliable source so that QR code works,

and we'll take to that a little bit more intricate.

But if you prefer to use, uh, electronic versions,

um that might be the way you'd like to go.

So I mentioned at the top of this video the idea of prime a case of Prime,

uh is an acronym, as suggested, And it stands for, um so peep stands for prepare.

So the first thing you have to do is get yourself ready to study.

So when you're preparing for a study period,

we would suggest anywhere between 45 minutes to 60 minutes

is probably long enough for a concentrated study period.

You probably can extend that to about 90 minutes, should you need to.

But beyond that,

you really are gonna find it difficult to concentrate for that amount of time

and to have a bit for it to be of use to you.

So prepare yourself for that 45 minutes to an hour session.

Um, make sure you put all your distractions away from mobile phones not in sight.

Cos even having it out on the desk is enough for you to be distracted.

Make sure you've got somewhere quiet to do some studying.

So obviously use the spaces around college or,

if you prefer to study at home that you've got somewhere

quiet to do that and you've got everything that you need.

So you've got access to the resources that you're gonna use to study with, uh,

exam papers, success criterias, Uh, notes, et cetera.

So that's all available for you.

The second thing, and then it is to reflect.

So what you need to do now is you need to consider what it is.

You're going to actually focus your study session on.

Um, and quite often, what we tend to do is pick up, uh,

on things that we actually find quite easy.

So we'll look through the list of things that we need to know.

We'll pick out the things that we know quite well already.

Um, and ignore and put those more difficult topics to the side. Quite the opposite.

Go back to that idea of how our memories work.

You need to give yourself longer on the topics you struggle with,

so you actually need to bring them to the front of your revision.

Um, and then you've got more time to revisit it before the exam.

So focus on the areas you find more difficult initially.

Then you've got the I stands for implement.

This means doing something active in your revision.

OK,

so not re reading and highlighting but actually doing

something where you actually have to actively recall.

So you have to go back and actually remember something.

Um, and that be through, uh, might be through, uh,

mind maps that might be through free recall.

That might be through, um

uh, doing, uh, kind of, uh,

any kind of research that requires you to actually have to think.

Then the M stands for monitor.

So when you're monitoring, it's important to take regular breaks.

So you maybe have studied for 45 minutes or 60 minutes.

It's a good time now to take a bit of a break.

Um,

have a think about, you know, has it been effective?

Do you feel like you now know more about that topic than you did before you sat down?

Um, because if you don't, it's potentially that your strategies are not working.

Um, if you do,

then you could potentially go on to the next step after you've had a break,

and then check the accuracy of your work.

So go back and actually make sure that what you've just done is accurate.

Um, if there's some bits that aren't,

then maybe that's gonna be the focus of your next study period.

So it's basically going through prime as a way of structuring anywhere between, uh,

45 minutes to potentially 90 minutes, but really no longer than that

retrieval practise is what we would be strongly suggesting.

So that's the active recall bit that I was talking about.

So this is the bit where you're having to genuinely think about the material.

Um,

the reason for this is there's been lots of research into this is this is a research,

As you can see here that two groups of students,

uh so three groups of students One group, uh, studied four times,

and within five minutes, we're able to recall about 80% of the material.

Um, but then a whole week later could only recall 40%.

Uh,

the second group studied for three sessions

and then tested themselves and straight away,

you can now see after, you know,

one week they could recall significantly more information,

and the third group studied.

Just did have one study session and tested themselves three times,

and they were able to recall slightly more than, um than the third.

The second group could.

So what this is saying to you is that testing is absolutely essential.

If you're not testing yourself on the material,

then you're probably not gonna be able to remember it for the long period.

Uh, that you need it to,

um,

this is all down to the idea of the difference between recognition and recall.

OK, so quite often we can recognise things when we're using flashcards,

for instance, we might turn the cards over before we've truly tested ourselves.

We might recognise a key word on there and convince ourselves we know

it and therefore then believe that that information is already in there.

Unfortunately, in the exam, you don't have any cues.

There's no way of knowing that we, you know, is accurate. There's nothing there.

There's no posters. There's no questions. There's no structure.

There's a teacher helping you,

so actually, you're kind of on your own.

So what you need to do is truly test your understanding, um,

complete recall so that you're having to know what

you do know and what you don't know.

And what you don't know is as valuable as what you do know.

Because then you know how to, uh, structure your revision sessions.

So in a in a nutshell,

then recognition is is where you can identify a piece

of information from memory with the help of external cues,

whereas recall is when you retrieve or recall

information without the help of external cues,

which is what you've got in the exam.

So it's really important that you're not using your notes.

You're not, um, turning those cards too soon.

Um, and you're not relying on those cues to help you.

One way of doing that and this is just one of many,

uh, effective ways to revise in a really easy way is free recall.

And that's literally taking a large sheet of paper and taking one colour pen,

having another colour pen next to you next to you,

writing everything you can on the topic with one colour pen or writing down

what you can remember and checking your notes and seeing what you're missing,

see maybe what you've you've done in incorrectly and then

changing that with a second colour pen so popping in

all the new information that you need around it.

It's a really simple thing to do It's one of many, um,

revision strategies that are more effective.

Um, uh, but it's one that you can start using straight away.

Um, don't forget that you've got the library. The library are there to support you.

Um, you can go along and borrow some resources that might support you as well.

And obviously, you can also,

um, communicate with the library staff. And if there are things you need,

um,

the main takeaways from this, I suppose, is,

if you haven't started your revision yet, get it started.

Uh, check that. You've got access to all the resources that you need.

Create that study plan and then stick to it.

Remember to use active recall revision strategies rather than passive.

Um, you know, revision strategies such as reading and highlighting.

Check your revision strategies are working and do that against exam papers,

mark schemes, success criteria.

Use the college study spaces to help you. And don't forget we're here to support you.

OK, so they're the main takeaways from this message.

The very last thing I've got to say, though,

is that there are some resources available for you

today and for the rest of this week,

so and going forward.

We've got a student study guide,

which takes you through lots of ways in which you can structure your revision.

But then also ways in which you can actually use effective strategies.

So there's at least 10 strategies in there that you could use

to help you with the revision and QR codes embedded into those.

Um, we've also got the weekly revision planner, which I mentioned before,

So you can obviously use that and start planning your revision.

If you would like to use that version.

Uh, and the prime, uh, posters.

These will go up and around college in the next few weeks,

and you'll see lots of this happening around college just

to remind students of the support that's out there.

And your teachers will be talking to you about effective ways to revise.

So that's the end of my presentation. Thank you so much for listening.

I will be out and about and chatting to you at different times over the next few weeks.

Remember, we are here to support you,

and I hope that you are successful in your revision

and then go on to be successful in those,

uh, assessments and exams.

Thank you for listening.

PRIME Revision Campaign

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