Revision guidance
Throughout school students are taught Metagognition in tutor time. Metacognition means 'Thinking about your learning'. Within these sessions, particularly in Year 11, we teach the most impactful ways to revise. These methods are scienctifically proven to support good outcomes.
We encourage students to use three revision techniques and apply these within the Central Academy POWER HOUR.
Flashcards – This technique is excellent for revising content. This method is good for revising things like historical dates for History, poems in English and word definitions in Science. We have handed out a lot of flashcards and students have been taught to use the Leitner method. Test what you do not know daily, the rest – test three times a week.
Read, cover, write, check – This is used to revise knowledge in greater depth. The idea is they spend time reading a short paragraph of information, they then cover it and attempt to write what they have read down. The final, most important part is that they check what they have missed and repeat the cycle.
Exam question practice – This is the most important methods! Students must practice the final output of the subject. Exam questions get them used to reading them, interpreting them and, most importantly, checking their answers are correct. Every previous exam paper and mark scheme is available online and can be accessed on the exam board website. Links can be found on our website and students have been given a lot of these as hardcopies.
Central’s Power Hour – The final part of metacognition is ensuring that students don’t revise for too long. We have taught students to shape their revision using the power hour. This ensures they have time learning content, apply it, feedback and then have a rest. Before moving onto more of the same subject or the next subject they plan to revise.
Prior to assessment weeks and Year 11/13 mock exams, we will practice these revision techniques. Independently, students should be using these revision stratagies at home.
Past papers can be found on the exam board website or using the links below: