A Recipe for Revision Success

You wouldn’t try to stuff an entire pizza into your mouth all at once, would you? (Well, apart from that one time after a night out in your first term at uni…) A far wiser and more conventional approach is to cut it into slices so you can enjoy and digest every last morsel properly. 

Attempting to consume large quantities of information effectively when you’re studying for important exams is no different. You know well in advance what the exam date is going to be, and you have a good idea about how much you have to learn before that date. So rather than attempt to cram all those facts into your head in one fell swoop two days before, it makes more sense to adopt a ‘bite by bite’ approach to your learning. Here’s one way to approach the revision of large quantities of information.

Step 1: What size is the pizza?

Compile a comprehensive overview of absolutely everything you need to cover before the exam, including lists of all the course topics and/or units.

Step 2: How big is each slice?

Depending on how much information every unit/topic of course material contains, estimate approximately how many hours (or part-hours) of revision you’ll require to cover each individual section thoroughly.

Step 3: How much time have you got?

Get out your diary – be it digital or a good old-fashioned paper one – and count up how many months or weeks (assuming you’ve not left your planning until a few days before the exam…) you still have available for revision before the exam date(s). Make a list of these revision slots.

Step 4: Factor in time for digestion

Do not include in your list of revision slots any days/part-days (or, especially if you’re working full-time, evenings) when you know you’ll be unable to revise because of pre-arranged or unavoidable professional or personal commitments. Then allocate appropriately sized units or topics to each ‘slice’ of time available, ensuring there is sufficient time over the course of the entire revision schedule to work through all the topics you’re likely to be questioned on in the exam.

Step 5: Follow your revision recipe!

Provided you have started planning your revision schedule well ahead of your final exam dates, you should have plenty of time to cover all the necessary sections. So once you’ve allocated all your topics and units to the time available, you simply have to stick dutifully to your schedule and you’ll feel far more confident that you’ll be able to cover all the information comfortably. Good luck!