How to Revise Successfully?

1: Organizing Your Revision
2: Revising Actively
3: Finding Support

Part 1 of 3: Organizing Your Revision

1. Find Good Place: Find a quiet, well-lit place to work that will be comfortable and free of distraction. Choose whatever works best for you and your habits.
   Some studies show that studying information in different places allows you to compartmentalize the information, making it easier to recall at a later date if you can associate the information with the location.
   • Some students find studying in public to be more effective, making it more difficult to watch television or fiddle with other distractions found in the home. Know yourself and head your bad habits off at the pass.
   
2. Draw Up a Timetable for your revision and stick to it. What do you hope to cover by the end of the week?, By the end of the day?, Revision plans can reduce anxiety, reassuring you that you’ve taken the necessary steps.
3. Set Reasonable Study Targets that you know you can reach. Going over all Auditing standards the night before a big exam is probably going to do more harm than good. Likewise, trying to revise all the Tax or Corporate Law several weeks out before being tested might not be the best way to remember the information by test-time. Organize in the most effective way to remember the most important information you’ve got to study. You could revise throughout the year by spending 15 minutes each day making notes you’ll be able to rely upon later. By doing it in short stretches, you will remember more and feel less stressed. A month before your exam, you will have finished all your notes so you can spend a few hours a day reviewing notes and doing timed writing practice.

Part 2 of 3: Revising Actively

1. Engage Your Texts. Rather than simply reading quickly over mark up your book, highlighting, and asking probing questions of the text. Ask open-ended questions of each text or subject you revise by writing questions in the margin, or on a separate sheet of paper. Whether it is accounting or auditing, small changes can make big differences and your thinking process is the important part.
2. Recall & Summarize. As you’re studying, stop every few minutes to recap what you’ve read. Use your own words. A good way of recalling is writing your notes down from memory and then going back over them and filling in the gaps with another color of pencil or pen. You’ll know the different color refers to information you might have trouble remembering. Periodically, try and repeat the process of summary, writing down on a separate sheet of paper what you know about a given topic or subject without consulting your books or your previous notes. Compare your new notes to your old, finding what you’ve left out and what you still need to memorize.
3. Draw or Doodle Freely while you study. For a visual learner, it’s important to break down information into drawings or diagrams, to make recall easier in the long run.
4. Find Someone Who Knows Nothing about the topic and explain to them. Even if it is explaining to the mirror, just take the time out to talk to someone as if the person is learning about it for the first time, and you are the teacher. It is hard to forget information once you have done this, and also forces you to clarify the information and lay it all out in the most concise and simple way possible.
5. Try and use a study guide or old test. Answering past exam or test papers in the same time limit, as the real exam or test will be gives you an opportunity to test yourself under the same constraints. Do the practices under timed conditions by using a timer.
6. Take Breaks Periodically to give your concentration a boost. If you take breaks regularly, your concentration will be better and you will find yourself retaining more information than if you try to plow straight through. Try and stick to your schedule. Make sure to check off topics and subjects as you accomplish revising them.

Part 3 of 3: Finding Support

1. Talk to your teachers. Look on your teachers and professors as part of your support network.
2. Revise with other classmates. Studying in a group can be a great way of reducing anxiety levels and making revision fun, as well as productive.
3. Let your family help you. Your family can help support you even when they cannot understand what you are learning. You may need emotional support as much as other support.
4. Stay relaxed. Spend time doing something relaxing each day, such as listening to your favorite music, going for a walk or talking with a good friend. These activities will help you to feel relaxed and connected to others and the world as you keep working through the revision.