How to revise effectively in 3 steps with revision sheets?
From the baccalaureate to a speech in front of potential investors, through exams or competitions in the context of higher education, opportunities to use our memory and our ability to restore information can arise at any time. moment of our life.It is therefore important to know the mechanisms and to take the time… to learn how to learn.We have identified three essential phases in any memorization and revision work, in addition to the final test of restitution: capturing the information, memorizing it and knowing how to find it.Let's see how to approach each of these steps calmly and effectively, in particular thanks to the revision sheets!
Step 1: how to capture the information? Effective note taking
Your revision and memorization work begins the moment you take out your computer or, better, your paper and pencil.Why “better”? From a completely objective point of view (yes, yes, yes), manual note taking already allows many of us to begin a process of memorization.
Here too, it is the quality of the information that takes precedence over the quantity.Whether you're jotting down a teacher's lesson or working from a book, video, or even your own experience, there's no point in being exhaustive.
You can now start sorting information and prioritizing it.If you are not used to it, it will require some gymnastics at the start and you will certainly be afraid of missing out on important information.But in the medium and long term, the results will be worth it.
Apart from these tips for everyone, it is also important to understand what works best for you: can maybe you prefer to make a first draft and then put your notes back to the clean, by associating them why not with diagrams or other more elaborate visual elements.If you have time, that's great! The key is to experiment with different methods before finding your own.In three words: trust yourself.
So concretely, how do you take notes effectively?
- Prefer paper and pencil to the computer.Ideally, take your notes on review sheets,
- Sort the information: don't copy everything!
- Prioritize the information: do not hesitate to highlight certain elements, to use visual symbols such as arrows, crosses, “+” or “-”,
- Perfect your method by testing different techniques to find the ones that work best for you.
- Practice again and again.
📌 Taking notes also means reclaiming information, by reformulating it according to your own words but also by reorganizing it according to a story that makes sense to you.One of your teachers may choose to present a problem or a subject to you from a certain point of view, or according to a certain path of the mind.However, in order to better retain this information, you can choose to reorganize it in an order that seems more natural, more logical to you.This is where Foglietto comes into its own: unlike a notebook, you can move your revision sheets and test different constructions.
Step 2: how to retain the information? Test different memorization techniques with review sheets
It is now a fact: our brains do not all work the same way.Some retain better what they see, others what they hear, others, finally, what they feel.
However, beyond that, two mechanisms of our memory are common to us all: we retain better what we understand and we tend to forget over time.
Revising lessons for an exam or memorizing a speech for an event goes far beyond simple memorization.And in order to move past silly, nasty rendition — and survive the test of questioning — it's imperative to understand what we're talking about.A complex subject to grasp must therefore be studied, dug and mastered before being really memorized.To do this, three tips:
- Contextualize the information: you cannot understand, for example, a historical fact or the result of an experiment? Find out about the context in which it happened.Try to visualize it.
- Look for the structure or mechanism of information: do you have to save a five-page speech for tomorrow? Impossible mission ? Not so sure: and if you start by dissecting it in order to understand how it is built.It will indeed be easier to retain the five main ideas that structure it rather than each sentence word for word.
- Take a step back: try to have a global view of your subject.Is this information that you are unable to retain essential? Does it articulate with other notions that you master better? Make connections.
Do you understand? Great ! Now let's move on to memorization as such.Here, your Foglietti will be of great help to you.Do not hesitate to assign a color code to the information, which will also allow you to use your visual memory:
- Write down a question or a word on one side of your Foglietto review sheet and the corresponding information to remember on the other.
- Do this for all the information you need to remember.
- On the first day of your revision, all your cards will be in the same pile.
- Pull out a card and try to use your memory to find the answer you wrote on the back of it.Right answer ? Place your card in a second pile, to the right of the first.Wrong answer ? Put your card back under your original pile.
- Continue like this with all your review sheets.
- During your second revision, you will take all the cards from the first pile, according to the same principle.You will then move on to the second stack.If the answer is correct, you will place your card in a third pile.If the answer is false, the card will return to the first pile, and so on.
- Over the days, you will establish a revision schedule: you will revise stack no. 1 (the one containing the concepts that you have the most difficulty in retaining) every day, stack no. 2 every two days, battery #3 every 3 days, etc.
- As you go, all of your cards should move into the last pile and the distances between your revisions will become wider.This will mean that all this information will have been saved in your long-term memory.
This technique is absolutely simple and works for everyone and for all kinds of information.
Step 3: how to find the information? Choose an intuitive filing system with review sheets
Let's go a little further.It is not the same thing to answer a specific question, which is moreover formulated in your own words, than to call on scattered knowledge, on sometimes varied subjects.To do this, it is necessary to structure your knowledge and classify it.Several systems can be useful.
Mind maps, or mind maps, are one of them.Having taken your notes on your Foglietti will also help you to build one: all you have to do is arrange them together visually, on a wall or on a large sheet using masking tape.However, mind maps can be complicated to manage if you have a lot of information to remember.
This is where our Tesoro box and our sheet dividers come into play! As in the image below, you can easily classify your cards according to three different levels.For example, a first thematic level (here “History”), a second geographical level (“France” or “Italy”) and a third temporal level (“1789”, “1830”, etc.)And all this in addition to your usual color code.You can also number in the section provided for this purpose to ensure continuity in your records.
By physically structuring your knowledge in this way using a filing system, you will be more easily able to know where to find information in your memory when the time comes.If you find yourself faced with a dissertation topic such as: “Protesting practices in 18th century France”, you will know how to concretely locate the information likely to provide you with answers, both in your Tesoro box , but also in your memory.
The final test: how to restore the information? Articulate ideas and knowledge
Don't worry, once you get to this stage, the hardest part is over.You now have (caution, easy word game…) all the cards in hand to succeed in your competitions, exams and other presentations! However, having memorized information is one thing, knowing how to transmit it is another.
To do this, you need to be able to articulate ideas, knowledge and notions.Here we can give you some tips to achieve this, although this issue deserves to be the subject of an entire article on its own.
Thanks to its great modularity, Foglietto can help you work on this point.Here is a suggested exercise:
- Imagine several likely questions you might receive during your exam or presentation,
- Write them down on a card,
- Draw a card then try to answer the question by creating a mind map using all your review cards.
- Then translate this form in writing or orally, depending on the nature of the test you are preparing.
Mind maps will also be the subject of an entire article, as they are invaluable tools that can be useful in a myriad of different situations!
To summarize, to revise effectively:
- Take active notes: sort and prioritize the information you want to keep, all with pen and paper,
- Adopt an effective memorization technique for your short, medium and long-term memory,
- Physically classify your knowledge using a simple and intuitive system,
- Train yourself to articulate these newly acquired notions in order to perfectly master your subject.
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