Use both sides of your brain for GCSE revision
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008This week’s blog comes from Helen Nurton, author of forthcoming geography titles on coasts, global warming and more.
Have you found your ideal GCSE revision technique yet? When I ask students how they revise the most common answer I get is “I read through my books”. Do you know you will only learn about 10% of what you read? Not exactly time-efficient revision is it?
Your brain is amazing and has scope for learning more than you’ll ever need to know, but in order to use it most effectively you need to get both hemispheres of your brain working together. Basically, the left side of your brain deals with logical and analytical thinking while the right side deals with the creativity, feelings and colours.
Have a look at the dancer here.
If you see her moving anti-clockwise then the left side of your brain is more dominant and vice versa.
The most effective revision will engage both sides of your brain so try to be creative in your revision.
Make notes or revision flash cards to summarise your work. Listen to the GCSE pod titles for your subjects. You know the words to your favourite songs don’t you? That’s because you have heard them over and over again so you learnt the words without really thinking about it! Use mnemonics to remember key words. These are where you take the first letter of each word and make a new one. It doesn’t matter how silly (or rude!) your new word is, as long as it helps you remember. For example, CHAP RUT are features formed by glacial erosion:
Corrie
Hanging valley
Arete
Pyramidal peak
Ribbon lake
U-shaped trough
Tarn
Be creative and find a revision technique that works best for you.
Image: The Unnnamed @ Flickr:cc
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