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Types of Revision: Ranked

Spoiler, recall is king.

Studying with friends.

In 2025, effective revision is going to be all the rage, because who wants to spend more time studying than they need to? That's why we've put together a list of all the most popular forms of revision, along with our ranking on how effective they actually are — so that you can make better use of your time.


However, remember that different things work for different people. So if something really works for you, don't discount it!


Mnemonics and memory tricks

Up first is a classic one, in which you use a mnemonic like an acronym, rhyme, or associations to remember more complex strings of information.


An example used for remembering the order of operations in maths:

"BODMAS"

Brackets

Orders (Exponents)

Division

Multiplication

Addition

Subtraction

(Or PEMDAS in the US: "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally")


Our rating: 8/10

Mnemonics are great for remembering stuff, but all it takes is misremembering one word and substituting it for the wrong one for things to go upside down!


Group study

Revising with your friends and classmates is a great way to get some socialising in during exam time, and it's important not to dismiss the impact a healthy mind makes on how much you can remember and learn. That said, if we're honest, we've never had a productive group study session. Probably you haven't either.


There are ways to make group study more effective, though:

  • Try to organise it with people who are taking the same exams as you

  • Perhaps add in a pomo-focus timer (more on that later) to make sure you have a balance of chatting and working.


Our rating: 7/10

Although not the most effective, it's important to keep socially active during stressful periods.


Highlighting

We've definitely gotten carried away with colour-coded highlighting in the past.


Highlighting has its uses in the first stage of revision, when you're working out what's important to memorise. But highlighting as a sole form of memory work is nearly useless; you won't remember much because it's too passive.


Marking key points must be paired with active engagement to work, like summarising the highlighted material.


Our rating: 3/10

Good for months away from an exam, but it won't help you memorise it.


Teaching someone else

If you can find someone willing to listen about the history of English economy under Henry IV's rule, it's definitely worth doing. (If not, explaining a topic out loud to yourself works, too). Bonus points if they can ask you follow up questions, as that can really work your linking memory and push your understanding of the subject deeper.


Teaching other people forces you to clarify your understanding and identify weak points. This method aligns with the Feynman Technique, so there's real backing behind this!


Our rating: 9/10

This is an underrated form of revision, but it can be really effective for understanding difficult concepts rather than just rote memorisation.


Pomodoro technique

Also known as the pomo-focus technique, this is when you set a timer to work for 25 minutes, set a break timer for 5 minutes, and repeat. You can adjust the exact timings to suit yourself, but the idea is to break your working up into very manageable chunks.


Research suggests the average adult can only focus properly for 20-25 minutes at a time, making the pomodoro technique ideal for working with the brain's natural wiring.


This can really boost focus during longer study sessions, but try not to just scroll on your phone during the 5 minute break. Getting up from your desk, looking outside a window, or getting a snack are all more beneficial for keeping your brain active without overloading it with an easy dopamine hit.


Our rating: 9/10

It's excellent for motivation and breaking your work up into intervals. We would caveat that some people work better without regular 'interruptions', and sometimes are more productive when working in one long burst (within reason).


Spaced repetition revision

This one's more about how you organise your revision timetable, but it's still good to mention that spaced repetition (reviewing the same material at increasing intervals over time) is a great way to lock information into the long-term memory.


Based on Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve, this technique helps combat memory decay by reinforcing information just as you’re about to forget it.


Lots of apps, like Anki or Quizlet, automatically build spaced repetition into their platforms as a feature.


Our rating: 10/10

In our opinion, this is the best way to organise your revision (as long as you're using our most effective forms of memorisation)!


Rewriting notes or note taking

Whether you're condensing information or just writing up your notes into a more organised fashion, rewriting notes gets a bad rep in the scientific world of revision techniques. Does it deserve it?


In our opinion, this depends on whether you're rewriting your notes by hand or just organising them on your laptop. A recent study in Frontiers in Psychology monitored brain activity in students taking notes and found that those writing by hand had higher levels of electrical activity across a wide range of interconnected brain regions responsible for movement, vision, sensory processing and memory.


Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity.


Our rating: 6/10

It's good to organise your notes if you have months before your exam, and there is research to suggest that handwriting things improves your recollection of it, but don't rely on it to fix information into your long-term memory.


Active recall

The king of kings! Active recall is anything that involves your brain 'filling in a gap' or testing yourself on material from memory without looking at notes.


This can take many forms, the most popular of which is flashcards.


We recommend adding in a little colour coding to your active recall. A great way to use active recall is by writing everything that you remember about a topic in green pen, then looking at your revision resource (perhaps a mind map, or a highlighted page) and filling in what you didn't remember in red. Focus on the red and repeat, until you can write all of it in green. It helps the brain recall 'harder' information to remember by logging it as red.


Our rating: 10/10

The only way to remember information accurately and effectively, in our opinion. It's also the most time efficient. Win-win!


Past papers

This should be a later-stage revision type, once you've already started working on memory, but doing past papers is a great way to identify gaps in your knowledge.


It's also good to familiarise yourself with the time constraints of the exam environment, which can easily throw good students off. Sadly, there's no use knowing everything there is to know about Of Mice and Men unless you can write about it in under an hour for the examiner to see it.


Our rating: 10/10

Should definitely be included in your revision timetable. The only way to truly test your working knowledge under uncomfortable conditions.


Sleeping with your books under your pillow

Now this one's an oldie and not a goodie.


Our rating: 0/10

We don't think we need to elaborate.



Interested in others ways you could boost your learning in 2025? Avalon's team of expert subject tutors could be the perfect addition to your revision timetable.


We're here to help; get in touch today.


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