Study skills

Set yourself a series of small rewards after completing 20 minutes of revision and at the end of each day, these will help keep you motivated.

The Learning Ladder. We only recall what we remember, we only remember what we have learnt, we only understand what we pay attention to and we only pay attention to what we are interested in! If you miss a rung your learing will suffer!

If you are struggling with a topic, try and link it to something that does interest you. For example, you may link percentages in your favourite shop, or the percentage chance of your team winning the league.

• Make important things bright. Highlighting key words draws your brain to their importance and helps with recall.
• Think positively and always use positive language. If you tell yourself you can learn something, then you will!
• Calligrams are a novel way of making words stand out.
• Using images instead of text can help make things more memorable.
• Mnemonics are an excellent way of remembering lists or items in a sequence.

Make sure you feed your brain with plenty of water and healthy food. Treat it as a powerful learning tool. You wouldn't put chip fat in a Porsche so don't put rubbish in your body!

Take a small break (about 90 seconds) every 20 minutes, this will help refresh your brain and improve concentration.

Take time out to exercise, this will help you relax and eliminate stress. If you aren't particularly sporty even dancing to your favourite song will help!

Make sure you get enough sleep and maintain a regular sleep pattern so you are well rested.

Break difficult topics, words or titles down into chunks, this will help you to process the information more effectively.

Try a range of different learning techniques. Make your notes visually appealing (visual), say them out loud (audio) or even try adding actions (kinaesthetic) to strengthen memory.

Continuously reviewing notes over a period of time improves recall, revisit each topic on several occasions.

Memory is strongest at the start of each revision session. Being with the topics you find hardest, so you'll be more likely to remember them.