7 revision strategies for maths GCSE to teach and learn

Teaching revision strategies to your students is a great way to set them up for success when they go home and sit down at the kitchen table to revise.

Based on our Sidekick video on Revision from Sue Heys.

Whilst revision commonly strikes fear and trepidation in most students' minds, a jam-packed curriculum has put a lot of onus on independent study for success in exams. Teaching revision strategies to your students is a great way to set them up for success when they go home and sit down at the kitchen table to revise.

It could be argued that maths is harder to revise for than most subjects. Creating a knowledge organiser for maths isn’t going to be as effective as one for science. So how can students revise for maths GCSE? In this blog, we’ll delve into best practice for maths revision and what strategies to share with your students.

What are revision strategies?

Revision strategies are methods of understanding and recalling important information, often for the purpose of a test or an exam. Revision strategy has come a long way since we were at school, cramming for our own GCSEs. With improved knowledge of cognitive science, methods of revision have also become more effective and strategic.

Research behind revision strategies

Information needs to make its way from short-term memory to long-term memory. In order for this to happen effectively, short-term memory can’t be overloaded: quality over quantity.

Stress, the complexity of information, distractions, and the quantity of information all have the potential to overload short-term memory. To avoid this, relieve the pressure on short-term memory by minimising useless information. Dual coding can be used to increase the likelihood of the information making it as far as long-term memory.

That means, the information needs to be repeated many times (rote learning) or it needs to be presented in an interesting and meaningful way using a range of strategies.

Sadly, that’s not the end of the story. Once in long term memory, a person also needs to be able to retrieve the information - when it is needed. We rely on cues to access information in our long term memory, so it helps if there are multiple cues to call on with any one piece of information.

Revision is mostly about creating robust and meaningful cues, so that information can be retrieved at the opportune moment.

But revision needs to be active. It has to be more involved than just reading a page from a text book. Revision should involve a lot of brain power for students - there is no silver bullet for this. But we have some top tips and strategies to be used.

3 top tips for maths revision

Before we dig into strategies, let’s take a look at some maths-specific tips for getting the most out of independent revision.

1. Choose the right topics for maths revision

The right topic to revise is different for every student. But, there is a temptation for students to only revise the topics they’re comfortable with. Revising something they don’t know or don’t feel confident with is off-putting - what do they do if they get stuck?

It’s helpful to encourage students to have the resilience to revise the topics they don’t feel confident with, and if you’re not there to support them, point them in the direction of YouTube to help. You could also push them to ask you about topics they’re unsure of the next time they see you.

2. Organising after-school revision sessions

After-school revision sessions can be very helpful for students to do independent study; they provide dedicated time to do so, in an environment conducive to learning. Your being there is a happy bonus, but your involvement can be as much or as little as you can afford.

Always consider your work-life balance first before hosting revision sessions. If you do decide to host them, perhaps split the responsibility across the department. Doing this might expose students to different approaches to subject content, helping to deepen their understanding.

It might be worth hosting a session a week dedicated to foundation students and another session for higher. However, if you do have a mix, ensure there are resources available for both tiers. Learning by Questions is perfect for this situation as multiple resources across different tiers and topics can be used at the same time.

Find out more about Maths GCSE resources with LbQ.

3. Begin with the formulae

A lot of the maths GCSE exams rely on students’ memory of particular formulae. Memorising them creates the perfect foundations for a student to be successful in the GCSE exam. Even with a formulae help sheet, applying them and understanding the context can help with confidence levels and speed during the exam.

Because learning formulae is remembering facts, it might help to display these in areas that the student spends a lot of time in. Suggest they write them out and stick them up in the kitchen, the living room, on the front of their exercise books - wherever they will subconsciously look. This should be done in addition to active revision, but it will help the information go in and could help build some memorable cues.

7 revision strategies to teach and use

Whether you’re a student or a teacher, these revision strategies will help you better prepare for a maths GCSE exam.

Retrieval

Retrieval is what is traditionally understood as ‘revision’. Retrieval is coming back to something you previously learned. We felt it was worth mentioning because a simple revisiting of a topic or skill could be enough to jog memories and create those all-important cues needed to smash the GCSE. Students could spend time looking over previously-made notes, and then do a brain dump of everything they remember from the topic. Simple, yet effective.

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Practise practise practise

There’s nothing better for maths revision than doing practice questions. Once you have a basic understanding of facts and topics, practice is key. Whether it’s a single question or a whole paper, exercising the skills of answering GCSE-level questions is perfect for embedding important information into long-term memory.

Ideally, practice questions will be marked so that the student can double-check their understanding, and get to know their own common misconceptions.

Exposure to exam questions

There’s nothing like exposure to the real thing. Experienced teachers can almost certainly recreate exam-style questions for students, and past exam papers are available (if they’re not being used for a mock, or in class). Students need to get used to the particular wording and style of questioning found in exam papers.

If you’re looking for exam-style questions, Learning by Questions has resources aimed at foundation and higher students, as well as specific crossover questions. On top of that, students get individualised feedback immediately that tells them if they have it right, and if not, how to correct their answer. Perfect for independent study, and it cuts down your marking workload. Winner!

Learning by Questions for GCSE maths students

Visuals and text

Flashcards are fantastic for dual coding. They help students make deep connections between different concepts. They might seem a bit more unusual for maths, but students can create flashcards for formulae and brain dumps they have about specific topics.

Quizzes

Everyone loves a quiz! They’re especially good when you want to gauge the progress of students in your class, and the low-stakes nature of a quiz helps relieve some of the stress caused by tests or mocks.

Encourage students to quiz even when you’re not there. They’re still able to use the method of revision either in pairs or with parents/guardians. Quizzes in maths are particularly good for remembering formulae.

Teach to another

The deepest level of learning is to teach. Encourage your students to teach each other or family members the skills and knowledge needed for the exam. The student will need a true understanding of the topic to be able to communicate it to another in a way that is accessible to them. It is the ultimate revision technique, but possibly one of the hardest. Those who can teach!

Exam technique

Finally, exam technique is incredibly important for revision for the maths GCSE. Students need to get a feel for how long they should spend on a single question. A good rule of thumb is 1 mark = 1 minute. If a question is worth 3 marks, they should spend 3 minutes on it, etc.

The inability to get through a paper could be the downfall of many students. Students should have a go at exam-style questions and time themselves completing them. Speed comes with practice!

These revision strategies are a great place to start with GCSE maths students. Just make sure you explain and model each one to students to ensure that they understand how best to approach their independent study. But also make it clear to students that everyone works differently and they have to revise in the way that best works for them.