Re-Wise

The Importance of Revision for Your Board Examinations

Board exams are a significant milestone in a student’s educational journey. They play a crucial role in determining the future career paths and opportunities that students pursue. To perform well in these exams, thorough revision is essential. This document highlights the importance of revision before board exams.

Board exams, may CBSE, ICSE, IGCSE or any State Board, can be stressful and overwhelming for students. Revision helps mentally prepare students for the exam by boosting their confidence and reducing the anxiety associated with test-taking. By revising regularly, students can familiarise themselves with the exam format, question types, and potential time constraints, enhancing their ability to handle the exam pressure effectively.

Students don’t generally need to be reminded of the importance of revision. Most students work hard at it, but they don’t always work well at it. As with any other aspect of your studies, you need to organize your time and plan your revisions in advance.

Revision is a continuous process.

Revision should not be a last-minute attempt to make up for poor study habits throughout the year. It should instead be a habit. As courses are vast and there is a need to cover one topic after another, previous work tends to be soon forgotten. Even though there seems little time to revise, students should work with one eye on the revision process to come.

• Make sure your notes are easy to follow and well organised. Keep things neatly filed together with clear labelling. Keep your lists of readings and references. Collect lists of past questions and past papers.
• Note down what you have not yet had time to do and the key issues you have not yet investigated.
• Don’t let work pile up. Even if you make the time to catch up, it may be impossible to get a hold of readings for topics a few weeks before the exam.
• Try to read through your notes periodically. Use them to form an overview of the course so far. Make connections between what you have studied and what is to come.
• If you are particularly confused by one aspect of your course, set aside time to look at your notes, key texts, and past exams. Try to make sense of your course as a whole. Introductory lectures and seminars may help, as will talking to your tutor. Don’t leave too late.
• Final lectures in courses may give useful summaries and tips.

Planning your revisions

As always, you need to think through your work in advance. Here are some key points for you to think about:

• Revision method. Where are you going to revise? Do you work best in short, intensive stretches or over longer periods? Is it a good idea to work with other people? Whatever method you choose, stick to it and organize your revision around your method.
• Balance the time you have available between your various courses. Do not neglect courses you find particularly easy or difficult.
• For each course, you need to select topics to revise. At the very least, you should cover twice as many topics as the number of questions you need to answer (e.g., six topics for a three-essay exam). Select topics based on:

• • The content of the course
  • Past examination papers
  • Your own interests and abilities

• Revision Timetable. This should start at least six or eight weeks before your exams are due to start. Allocate topics to days, and make sure you have enough time for everything you want to revise.
• You will have lecture notes and seminar class notes, your own notes from books and journals, essays with your tutor’s feedback, handouts, and other photocopies and references. You will also need textbooks, other books, past exam papers, etc. Arrange to have everything you need well in advance.

 A few revisions strategies 

There are three key revision strategies: taking notes, answering questions, and memorising. We will look at each of these in turn:

• Note Taking: When it comes to revision, the main objective is to slim your notes down to manageable and digestible proportions—to make them memorable. Concentrate on the key points and arguments. Don’t try and remember large chunks of factual narratives; try and link factual information with the argument it supports. Work out and summarise outline answers to the questions. Don’t only prepare for one question, however. Try and work out the different questions that might be asked on a given topic by using past papers, etc. Recombine your key points and ideas to cover these possibilities.
• Catching up on any missed topics: Board exams cover a vast syllabus, and it is natural for students to miss certain topics during the regular course. Revision provides an opportunity to catch up on these missed topics and ensure that students have a strong grasp of the entire syllabus.
• Time Management: Revision before board exams involves prioritizing and allocating time for each subject strategically. By practicing time management techniques, students can optimize their revision efforts and ensure that they have sufficient time to revise all the important topics adequately.
• Mock exams and Practice Tests: Revision is incomplete without taking mock exams and practice tests. These mock exams simulate the actual exam conditions and provide students with
• an opportunity to assess their preparation level. By solving mock exams, students can identify any areas for improvement and enhance their speed and accuracy.
• Strengthening Weak Areas: Revision allows students to identify their weak areas and work on strengthening them. By targeting these areas, students can improve their overall performance on the exam. This can involve revisiting difficult concepts, seeking clarification from teachers or peers, and practicing questions repeatedly to reinforce understanding.

Memorising

The perpetual bane of any examination is the need to memorise the material. There is no way around this problem; to do well, you will have to remember your material. In the end, you will have to work out the most effective way of doing this for yourself. Some of these approaches may help:

• Look at your notes for a topic on three or four occasions. This will fix them in your mind better than a once-and-for all approach.
• Predict a page of notes in your mind before you look at it. What you have forgotten will bring itself to your attention as you read.
• Mnemonics, or using the letters of a word or the initial letters of a phrase, trigger associations. For example, Figures of Speech: “Most People Sing in Harmony”
  Metaphor, Personification, Simile, Irony, and Hyperbole
• Last-minute revision of notes, now reduced to minimal levels, is generally helpful. However, attempting to learn new material the day before the exam is harmful, as it can displace the material you have already learned and lead to a sense of confusion and panic.

How to answer all those questions

Working out model answers to questions should be central to your revision process. It is a process through which you remember your material, develop your critical skills and practice for the exam. The following stages could all be practices:

• Analyse the question. Using past exam papers, think about the wording of the questions. What are the problems or key words? What approach is being asked for? You could practice rephrasing the question in your own words to highlight the exact meaning.
• Generate ideas. You are going to need at least five or six major points or arguments with which to answer most questions. Often, these will be fairly obvious from your seminar or lecture notes and from your reading. If not, try to generate ideas based on who, what, why, where, and when.
• Authors and controversies. What are the main schools of thought on a given topic? Are there any major developments between them? If you can summarise these briefly, it will improve your essay, especially if you can work out a position for yourself.
• Other angles. Some topics are dealt with from one particular perspective. You could improve your essay and catch the examiner’s eye by introducing an alternative perspective where relevant.
• Go over your outline answers, looking for errors, irrelevant points, and ways to improve the argument.

And, on the day of the examination, keep your cool and attempt the questions. Remember, if you have given your best during the last year, you need not fear anything. Ultimately, only effort, not the result, is in your hands. Which you should do to your maximum capability as outlined above. Rest is your destiny or luck. So go ahead, give your best, and leave the rest!

In conclusion, revision before board exams is of utmost importance. It ensures that students have a strong understanding of the syllabus, develop effective study habits, catch up on missed topics, strengthen weak areas, mentally prepare themselves, and practice time management skills. By investing time and effort into revision, students can maximise their chances of performing well and achieving their academic goals.

For any help or guidance, do contact our teacher at your study center.

Stay confident and believe in your abilities.