Download Focus of the Month April 2016 Revision

Focus of the Month
April 2016
Revision
This month, with GCSE, A level and other examinations drawing ever closer, our focus is
revision. Here, attention will primarily be drawn to revising for GCSE examinations; help for
mathematics AS and A level revision can be found by reading the Further Mathematics
Support Programme’s (FMSP) Focus of the Month for March. In addition, helpful advice is
available here regarding common errors found by examiners in A level Mathematics papers.
Everyone has their own ideas about the best way to prepare for examinations; revision
timetables, highlighter pens, cards and post-it notes are popular examples, but which are
the most effective?
Revision advice
A 2013 article, featured on the BBC website, refers to research into the effectiveness of
different approaches to revision. A team from the US reviewed 1000 scientific studies,
looking at 10 of the most popular strategies.
From their findings, the two strategies which appear to be the most effective are ‘practice
testing’, described as “self-testing to check knowledge – especially using flash cards”, and
‘distributed practice’, meaning “spreading study out over a period of time”.
Three further strategies are described as moderately effective; these are: ‘elaborated
interrogation’, “being able to explain a point or fact”; self-explanation of how a problem was
solved; and ‘interleaved practice’, meaning “switching between different kinds of
problems”.
Mathematics in Education and Industry (MEI) has written this useful guide to preparing
students for examinations, which forms part of a contextualisation toolkit
Revision resources
Video clips can prove incredibly useful to students struggling with a question. There are
many good websites which collect such clips. The FMSP has produced some recordings of
online GCSE revision sessions that work through solutions to GCSE Mathematics examstyle questions:
• GCSE Algebra & Simultaneous Equations
• GCSE Algebraic Fractions & Shape
• GCSE Graph Transformations
• GCSE Statistics & Probability
1 of 2
AE 16/03/15
Version 1.3
MEI, funded by the Education and Training Foundation, has also produced some video
clips of work solutions to some GCSE Mathematics exam-style questions:
• Trigonometry
• Statistics
• Standard Form
MEI was also involved in the development of videos, demonstrating worked solutions to
GCSE and A level Mathematics exam questions, for Keele Video Solutions. These
resources are free until August 2016 if you sign up using the voucher codes displayed on
their homepage.
Other helpful ideas
Most examination boards offer past papers and other resources and advice as part of their
service. Check out their website or contact the subject support team.
The KS3 SATS contained some good assessment questions most of these can be found on
the emaths website.
2 of 2
AE 16/03/15
Version 1.3