This blog post will help you with practical techniques you and your friends can use to help you stay focused and revise as a group…
Term 3: when your laptop becomes a natural extension of your body; when time appears to be constantly against you; and you spend more time reading lecture notes than you do watching Netflix. So why not make your hard, solitary days less monotonous and potentially more productive with group revision? Everyone has their own learning methods and you might prefer individual revision but the advantages of revising with each other make it worth trying. Do you remember the Library Study Buddies you hunted a while ago? The next step may be finding your personal, flesh and blood study buddies.
Depending on the subject, group revision (from pairs to larger groups) has been found highly effective as a study method during exam periods. It increases motivation and mutual support, feeds similar expectations and allows the occasional joke and laugh. You’re all here for the same thing: to nail the exam and get good grades, so why not help each other along the way?
Here are some suggestions for different study group techniques:
Allocate topics and share your ideas
Assign different members of the group one or more topics to revise and present to each other. No competition involved, just the desire to help yourselves and each other in view of the exams, and even enrich theory with personal observations that show a critical approach to studying. Winner.
Become a teacher
Revising with each other makes exam preparation an even more serious business, because your knowledge has to be transferred to somebody else. It is not just about knowing the subject, but also being able to deliver your knowledge in an organised, understandable, interesting way, like what is required from a teacher. The result? Consolidation of your knowledge through different ways of presenting concepts.
Keep each other in check
Group revision is made to be efficient and effective, and wasting time is not allowed. The objective is so important that no indulgence like social media chilling time is accepted. You are accountable to each other and this means punctuality, preparation and concentration for the benefit of the whole group.
Go online
Although face-to-face group study is normally seen as a better option, why not use the media and organise a video-conference? Or take advantage of a forum full of ideas on the topic you are revising on the lecture’s learning platform? If you haven’t found a space for your group work at the Library, your think tank can still work well from a comfortable corner of your house.
Try new techniques
Group study can be a brainstorming exercise that broadens your horizons on the topics covered in the session. There’s no limit to creativity: you can even revise by quizzing each other on the topics you covered that day. A bit of healthy competition never hurt anyone.
If you have any more tips for group study, make sure you share them with us in the comments or tweets us @WarwickLibrary. Happy revising!
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