How to revise in a way that actually works
Ten write-ups of the study techniques that have held up under testing — what each one is, why it works, what it costs, and where it falls over.
There is a large gap between what psychology has found out about learning and what gets taught as "revision advice". Most of the advice is about neatness and effort. Most of the findings are about difficulty: the things that feel hardest while you're doing them tend to be the things you still know in June.
These guides are an attempt to close that gap without dressing it up. Each one is written to be read in one sitting, states plainly how confident the evidence actually is, and ends with something you can do differently tomorrow. Where a technique has a real cost — and they all do — the cost is in the guide.
Start here
2 guidesRetrieval practice: why testing beats re-reading
Pulling something out of your head strengthens it more than putting it in again. If you change one thing about how you revise, change this.
The illusion of fluency
Why highlighting and re-reading feel productive but aren't, and how to tell recognising a fact apart from knowing it.
The methods
3 guidesHow spaced repetition actually works
Why forgetting a little between reviews is the point, how to space reviews without an algorithm, and the cases where spacing is the wrong tool.
Interleaving vs. blocked practice
Thirty of the same question type feels like mastery. Mixing them up feels worse and works better. Why, and how far to take it.
Elaboration: asking why until it sticks
Turning a list of facts into something you can reason from. The technique that works best on the subjects you find dullest.
Doing it
5 guidesWriting flashcards that don't waste your time
Most bad revision is bad cards. What goes on one, what to leave off, and the specific mistakes that make a deck unlearnable.
How to use past papers properly
Sitting the paper is a fifth of the value. The rest is in what you do with the marked script.
Note-taking you'll actually reuse
Notes are written once and read never. Writing them as future questions fixes that.
A revision timetable that survives contact with real life
Why the colour-coded hour-by-hour plan collapses in week one, and what to build instead.
The last week, and the exam itself
What's worth doing in the final days, what isn't, and how to spend the first five minutes of a paper.
These techniques all need material to work on. YourSubjects keeps a subject's notes, flashcards, practice questions and past papers together, so testing yourself on Tuesday what you read on Sunday doesn't require rebuilding anything first.
Open the app