Are you feeling a little unmotivated at the moment, even though exams are just around the corner? Everyone goes through this! Here are our top tips on how to stay motivated in your revision.

Maybe you’re just fed up of sitting at your desk and rereading the same notes over and over again. Then it’s time to change your method! Varying revision methods will help you stay focused for longer and allow you to stimulate different parts of your brain.

Everyone has their own preferred learning style, whether visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. The best thing is to work with all three! A technique you may never have tried before: revising with audio recordings. All you have to do is record your lessons on a dictaphone app. You can then listen to them again later, during a break or quietly at home. This method allows you to stimulate your auditory memory, which sometimes gets forgotten during revision.

Of course, audio revision should be combined with other learning methods. So, as well as recording your concepts on a dictaphone app or writing out your usual revision notes, you can create FLASH 2.0 flashcards! The principle is simple: you write a question on one side and the answer on the other. It’s a super-efficient technique for learning in a fun way, on your own or with others!

To immerse yourself fully in your revision, there’s nothing like an environment conducive to concentration. To do this, choose a calm, quiet place where you won’t be disturbed. This could be your bedroom, the library, or an empty classroom at the school where you’re studying! The best places are university libraries, where you’re already in a working environment and have plenty of reading material around you.

Once you’ve chosen your place, keep away from potential distractions such as your phone or the television (a problem that’s easily avoided if you go to a library). You can, for example, put your phone on mute to avoid being interrupted by your notifications.

Next, make sure that your work environment and your lessons are properly organised. If they’re organised in front of you, they’ll be organised in your head too! For example, you can use an OXFORD sorting file to organise your lessons and revision notes.

If you find it hard to motivate yourself, why not join a study group? With a few of your classmates, you can organise revision afternoons – what better way to motivate yourself! You can also use the opportunity to discuss any concepts you haven’t understood with them!

Revising is good but drawing up a revision schedule is even better! You can organise your time efficiently by creating a detailed revision timetable. And don’t forget to make time for breaks!
Spaced repetition:
This learning technique involves going over your course material at regular intervals. You spread your revision sessions over several days or weeks. As time goes by, you revise at increasingly shorter intervals, so that you only revise the concepts you haven’t mastered!

If that sounds a bit complicated to organise, with the scribzee app and the Leitner algorithm[1], you always know which flashcards you should prioritise. Here’s how it works: on the app, scan your flashcards and when you study them, scribzee automatically tracks your progress. After every study session, scribzee records which cards you answered correctly or incorrectly, so the next time you revise, scribzee prioritises the cards you still need to learn.

As you’ve probably realised by now, the scribzee app is also one of your best friends when it comes to staying motivated! Once you’ve scanned your revision notes, you can track your progress using the dashboard. If you have a tendency to procrastinate, you can also set reminders to ensure that you don’t miss any more revision time!

Finally, you may find that you’re less attentive during a lesson or, for whatever reason, you simply can’t attend. With scribzee, you can receive your friends’ revision notes! This saves you a lot of time and gives you a different point of view on the course material.

Another advantage of having your revision notes on your phone is that you can revise anywhere! All you have to do on your journey to school, or during a break, is pull out your phone and start revising. Practical, isn’t it?

Last but not least: give yourself some time off! Maybe the reason you’re not motivated is because you’ve spent too much time revising over the last few days. It’s important to take time for yourself, and it’s even recommended if you want to be more productive during your revision sessions. It will help you maintain a balanced lifestyle and relieve your stress.

How do you make time for yourself? Simple things like going for a walk outside to get some fresh air, exercising, reading a book or even taking a bath! In fact, by taking time out for yourself when you’re not revising, you’ll be able to concentrate better when you have to study!
Power naps
You’re hunched over your notes and have no choice but to revise, despite the fatigue that’s taking over your body. It’s not easy to give yourself some free time. But it’s going to be hard to remember anything without getting some rest! Don’t hesitate to take a twenty-minute power nap. That way you’ll be better equipped to work. What’s more, it’s been proven that power naps can increase intellectual performance and brain capacity!

So, to stay motivated when you revise, it’s important to vary your methods, get organised and take time for yourself! The most important thing is to find the pace that suits you.