Five best revision techniques

A young man with dark brown hair in twists with lighter ends, who appears to be black sits behind a laptop looking at a book thoughtfully. He is probably studying or working. His laptop is decorated with lots of stickers which are out of focus.

Do you have no idea where to start with revision? Or find you can't get anything you learn to stay in your head? We've scoured the internet and TikTok for you to make a list of the best revision methods to use for any exam or assessment. These will help you learn the information you need, and be able to access it better during a test, you're welcome.

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Here's our list of the five best revision techniques:

1. Pomodoro for focus

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Pomo what? This is a great technique if you're having trouble concentrating. The Pomodoro method follows a basic pattern of 25 minutes of studying followed by a five-minute break. If you do four of these in a row you can then have a longer break. It works because you learn better in short sessions, and you don’t have to punish yourself with unbroken hours of revision. Find out more about using the Pomodoro Technique.

2. Spaced repetition and the 2357 method

Spaced repetition is a scientifically proven method that involves reviewing information at closer intervals, boosting your memory, and making it less likely you’ll forget everything. The 2357 method is a way to plan out your revision sessions as you get closer to exams.

3. Flashcards for the win

Flashcards, or revision cards, are a tried and tested revision technique and there are so many ways to use them. You can use them to remember words and definitions, facts, quotes and more, but generally smaller chunks of information. Learn how to use flashcards to revise effectively.

4. Blurting

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Blurting is a great revision technique you might have seen all over TikTok. It's all about testing yourself repeatedly and it engages active recall to help you remember. Find out how to blurt your way to success with our step-by-step process.

5. The Feynman Technique

This technique was developed by an award-winning physicist, Richard Feynman, who said the secret to his success was using his very own study method - The Feynman Technique! There are four simple steps to his technique:

Choose the topic you need to learn and try to remember as much as you can from your notes.
Teach it to someone else in simple terms, only referring to your notes when you really need to. You can do this by explaining the concept to a friend or family member or pretending to explain it to a child. The idea is that if a child can understand it, then you know the topic enough to simplify it.
Review and learn any gaps in your knowledge.
Teach it or pretend to teach someone else again. Use your notes less and less as you repeat the process.

Simplifying the topic over and over helps you memorise its key points and recall them during an exam.

Which one works best for you?

Testing out different revision techniques is key to find the right method for you. If you have ADHD or Dyslexia, you might find that alternative revision techniques work better. Check out advice from our Student Support Team on revising with ADHD and Dyslexia.

What type of reviser are you?

Everyone learns differently so a technique that works for your friends might not be right for you. Take our quick quiz to find out what revision methods could be the best for your learning style.

The revision timetable inside the Exams and Revision guide

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[Music] there are so many different kinds of revising techniques out there and a quick Google about revision techniques and you'll you'll see you know five or six different articles here in contrast and views and contrasting opinions and saying you know just sit down and crack for it just do everything that you can just find out what works best for you.

[Music] This technique is is more of a short structured way of going about the revision process and it is picking a topic or picking particular tasks that you want to accomplish and working on that for 20 to 25 minutes very intense very focused work either reading or note-taking and then at the end of that time period you take a five-minute break which you might be able to have a drink, get a bite to eat, mess about on your phone or even you know close your eyes and recharge the batteries and what this does is and resets the the focus and attention of the mind so that when you do come back to revising again you're maintaining that very high level of focus which creates those real connections and really reinforces those memories. Those things that you're trying to call upon, you do this for about maybe three or four cycles and at the end of the let's say the fourth cycle, for example, you then take a 30-minute break you take a larger break which allows you to recharge even more and by doing this over and over again you can really get in hours worth you know four or five hours worth of work in a day and you don't even realize how much work you've actually done and it's also very structured the work that you're doing you can tick off topics one by one so it could be a very interesting and effective method to try.

Balance is key, get making sure that you're you know taking taking breaks even if you don't feel like you need a break and then sticking to the routine itself because it's a particular technique so you know there's research got into why you know why you take break at certain times but don't overdo, don't overdo it and don't push yourself and of course you know regular water breaks can also help and eating in balance is definitely very key and an important thing in in executing the technique. [Music]

0:00 So finding the right revision technique for you can be a little bit daunting but I'm going to

0:08 show you one that really helped me when I was revising it's called blurting but don't worry

0:12 I'm going to take you along for the ride and show you everything that you need to do

0:17 so the first step in this process is to get any revision material that you need

0:21 so I'm just going to use a pen a highlighter a piece of paper but

0:25 you could use your notepad as well then I'm going to write down everything I need to know

0:29 and can remember about the topic that I'm revising so I'm just going to do that now

0:39 And remember this technique is called blurting so you're literally blurting

0:42 everything out onto the paper that you can remember about the topic it

0:45 doesn't need to be neat it can be a bit messy if you need it to be

0:50 so now I've got my page of notes and I'm going to look in my textbook and

0:54 see if there's anything that I've forgotten that I need to add as well

0:59 so I noticed there are a few little things that I forgot so I've added them at the bottom of my

1:02 page and to help me remember them even more I'm going to do some past exam papers on them or

1:07 I'm going to look at some extra reading just so it can really stick in my mind

1:12 once you've done all this repeat the process over and over again until you're able to write

1:16 down everything that you need to know about the topic that you're revising this technique

1:20 will probably be better towards the later stages of your revision process just so

1:24 you have all of the content that you need in order to remember and write this stuff down

1:30 Also it's really important to remember to have breaks during your revision process if you don't

1:35 have these times of relaxation it's going to be really hard to focus when you need to.