Assessments are an opportunity for each student to show themselves and their teacher the wonderful things that they have learnt, understood and can now apply to a variety of questions. I know that when facing exams it may not quite seem like it (I just sat a 2 hour exam in some study that I am doing!) And yes, they also provide marks for reports and authorities.
Playing the long-term
game
Whilst it may seem to a student that cramming will pay off
in the short term by quickly storing information in their short-term memory,
this will not assist them with the end of course Examinations.
How to regularly revise
Research
has shown that revision that involves some processing of the information – such
as creating a mindmap, creating a summary of a summary, or aligning pictures or
diagrams to understand complex ideas helps to develop deep processing and hence
retention of information in the long-term.
Don’t plan to cram!
It’s important to practice writing out answers to questions
with pen-and-paper and not solely rely on the use of a laptop. In fact, research
has shown that when taking notes, students may take too many verbatim notes
using a laptop, particularly in the tertiary lecture setting. To overcome this
and get the benefits of collaborating with peers whilst studying, students
should print their notes, and then type up a new summary of those notes and add
pictures to assist recall. By simply remembering one key word, the brain often
recalls much of the associated information with the key term.
It is through the organisation, synthesis and summarisation of content that students learn best.
