Top 10 Most Effective Learning Strategies 10. Imagery for text

Test. Mark. Check. Repeat

It is not enough to go through your flashcards once. Students need to test themselves frequently so that they really consolidate the knowledge. So they should go through them once and add a mark on the flashcard that they are not sure about the answer. They can check their textbooks and notes to learn the full answer. A few days later, they should go through the flashcards again paying attention to see if they are more confident in responding the ones they marked the last time. The aim is to be confident with all answers and have no marks left.

Add visuals

Neuroscience research suggests that we are better at remembering information when it combines words and visual elements. So pupils can try adding an image to some of the flashcards. Here are some ideas
History - timeline of events Literature - portrait of author or character Geography - map Maths and sciences - graphs and diagrams

Mix with instructions

To add a twist on the usual flashcards, students can create a second stack of them. On those new flashcards, they should write instructions. These instructions are supposed to make pupils think even harder about the answers, strengthening memory for the content. Ideas of instructions are

Relate the concept to a personal experience Explain the concept to a friend not taking the same subject Answer the question in different words Draw the concept Use the concept to explain a current situation in the world Give 3 examples and 1 non-example of the concept

How Spacing And Interleaving Help Students Prepare For Exams

Spacing and interleaving are two effective learning strategies based on cognitive sciences. They both involve planning one's study schedule ahead and sticking to it. Simply put, spacing is the opposite of cramming. And interleaving is the opposite of revising an entire subject at once.
Imagine you decided to run a half-marathon in 6 months. What would you do to to prepare for the race? Option A is to watch videos of past marathons for the first 5 and a half months and then run 15 hours a day during the last two weeks. Option B is to work out only legs for the first three months and then work out only arms for the final three months. Option C is to have a training schedule where you shift between running, working out arms and legs and you spread out your time over the entire preparation period.

I think it’s very logical to assume that Option C is the best one. It is the same idea with our learning. To be even more prepared for their GCSE and A Level exams, students should not wait until the last minute to start studying. Instead, they should do small chunks of studying spread out over time. When they cram, not only they get tired, but they also do not learn as much as they could. Secondly, pupils should swift between different topics or subjects. Instead of revising the entire Chemistry content in a week, and then moving on to the entire English content, they should plan to do a bit of each interleaved. As Prof Doug Roher has discovered, this technique is particularly good when studying Maths and Sciences..

As Jonathan Firth says, “The key thing is to mix up lots of different types of problems/questions rather than present them categorised by type”