· Avoid writing in block text where possible! Make notes look like notes! Use bullet points or tables, graphs or even little sketches to show your work. Arrows and diagrams also work well, it depends entirely upon what your preferred style is and how you best like to set out your work. (As long as everything is all still understandable to you when you come to revise!)
· Use Highlighters and Coloured Pens to emphasise particular areas or things you need to remember, is a good idea. This way when you come to revise you can easily see what areas you may need to pay closer attention to.
· Summarise large passages where you can- this really makes you focus on what it is you need to remember without trying to remember lots of words that have little to do with what is important to remember!
· Put headers on paragraphs so that everything is clearly marked for when you come to revision and are looking for something in particular to look up and revise! It makes the task of revision easier and far more satisfying as you have already done half the work!
· Circle important passages with bubbles and different shapes to show they mean different things. This is a great way of differentiating between different meanings and concepts.
· Revise in ways that make sense to you! Don't feel you have to be regimented into using plain paper and black pens and standard paragraphs in your revision notes!
· Make your notes eye catching so you can quickly skim read and still be revising the key important points. This way if you find something you feel unsure of you can look into those in more detail and not have to waste time reading detailed notes on a subject you already know!
· Detail is sometimes necessary to achieve the highest marks in an exam but make sure all the key points and important facts to remember jump out at you on the page. This breaks up the detail. makes the page look more manageable to revise from and less overwhelming!
· Use post-it notes - put a key word on each note and stick these on your mirror, fridge (or where ever you are likely to see them often) and try to recall from memory everything you can when you see a particular word. This will test your memory and you can change the words daily to ensure you cover as much as possible during revision!
