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Revising for exams

Eleanor

Hi my 19yr old daughter has always struggled with revision for exams.  Her executive functioning is not great and she says she doesn't know how to revise.  I have tried to give her suggestions but I can only give her my ideas from a none autistic mindset.  Can I ask people how they have handled revision if they have found it a constant struggle?  Every year she gets in a tizzy and we have always helped her but now she is doing her degree she is adamant she wants to be more independent but I don't want her to do badly just because she struggles to revise on her own.  Failing or not achieving the standard she has set for herself will dent her already poor self esteem, and she already has poor mental health, so I'm trying to head it off at the pass.  Hope you can offer some advice for her.  Thanks.

  • A lot of revision is review and information condensation. You go through your notes with the relevant textbook open and you try to rephrase things in a way that is as simple and condense as posable in your own words. If the lecturer has phased things or given examples that don't make sense look at what the textbook or even better multiple books have to say and when you think you've got it rephrase it in your own words in a few bulet points and equations. once you've done this for a subject re read your condensed notes and try working through a past paper on a timer. Re read (and if needed refine) your notes before each past paper. Aim to do 2 to 3 past papers for each module. Try to break your work into blocks of time, maybe 3 or 4 a day, and plan what you'll do between blocks to recharge (eg get food plus watch 30 minuets of cartoons) If a particular type of question is hard for you go find examples of it in your notes / coursework and work through them but otherwise ignore examples in your notes for the most part.

  • Hi Elanor,

    I was in the same situation as your daughter when I was in school, I'm autistic so I kind of know how she's feeling I didn't do well but nobody knew I was autistic so that's a good thing that you know you I would suggest if you haven't already speaking to her school and see if she can get extra help to tackle the revising techniques problem I don't really know what to suggest for her actual revising techniques I wouldn't know myself but if she needs help with scheduling things and just keeping her self on top of her bad exec functioning like myself I have a hard time with it as well.

    There's a great app called tiimo (with two i's) its a daily planner and you can schedule anything you want on there and make literally as personal as you want and it's cheap somewhere around £20.00 a year. 

    I highly recommend it it's been a life saver for me if you need it to help her out with just keeping on top of her daily tasks.

    O