Each year we are all faced with the nerve-shredding, tolerance-stretching spell that is revision. It never seems to get any easier. Each group of students proves a unique, gnarly challenge as we go about training, convincing, supporting, and more.

It has proven a consistent topic for me to write about, and has drew a lot of readers, and it has helped to store and filter through my ideas on the topic, from insights from cognitive science, to the subtle psychology of independent study and revision… Oh – and the frustrations of being a tired teacher!

Here is my blog collection which I hope proves useful:

Top 10 Revision Strategies. This does what it says on the tin! It has proven very popular, likely because it is shareable. There is a wealth of links to evidence and other useful resources.

The Long and Winding Road (of Revision). This 2017 blog, written for Teach Secondary magazine, has a sequence of practical evidence-based revision strategies to survey.

Exam Revision and Overconfidence. This 2017 blog observes the crucial important of accurate judgements of learning in the revision process, looking at some handy strategies.

Eat, Sleep, Revise, Repeat. This 2016 blog, again written for Teach Secondary magazine, surveys the available evidence.

Have you got revision all wrong? This TES article is fresh from March 2017 and questions our approaches to after school revision and more and looks at how better to arrange revision.

Why I Hate Highlighters! This 2015 blog is one of my most read and most debated. It is based on the evidence that highlighters are badly used as a learning tool (despite our beliefs!).

Effective Revision Strategies. This 2013 blog is my first attempt at collating and translating the mass of cognitive science evidence on memory and learning.

‘Revision – what revision?’ This blog from 2014 looks at the evidence around students actually doing some revision – or not, as the case may be.

Effective Exam Revision – Drill Baby Drill. This blog from back in 2013, looks at the importance of ‘deliberate practice’ and ‘drilling’ in the revision process.

Boring but Important. This blog from 2017, admits the truth that not all children are inspired to learn all the time – revision is a particular area of weakness. I go onto share some ideas.

Memory for Learning – Top 10 Tips. This blog from 2016 does what it says on the tin. It has lots of evidence-informed strategies that you can consider, apply and evaluate.

The Trick of Teaching. This 2015 post looks at the singular strategy of getting students to teach other students (or at least prime them to think they will) to better remember the content.

Confidence Tests and Exam Wrappers. This 2016 post presents what I think is an essential revision and learning strategies: exam wrappers.

And finally, though it isn’t on my blog, I am very proud of this Star Wars inspired revision article for the TES – ‘How Star Wars Can Teach Students To Master Exams‘.

This is the revision reading you are looking for!