Visual techniques for revision

Developing visual material can help your recall and also be a quick way to show lots of information.  Practise drawing diagrams if this suits your course, and make sure you provide clear labels as these can earn you marks in the exam. Visualisation helps you remember - two examples are trying to picture where you’ve left your car in a car park, and thinking what's inside your cupboards when writing a shopping list.

Mind maps

Mind maps help you to generate ideas and make associations. They can also act as a powerful memory aid in an examination because they are visual.

The main principles are

• note down points in a spray pattern, starting from the centre and working outwards
• keep your points brief – use key words, authors, theories or processes
• use lines to show connections between things
• be prepared to re-work the map until you are happy with the organisation
• include colour, symbols and pictures to make it more memorable.

You can see how mind maps are made by watching this mind map animation, and you’ll learn how to develop your own.

An example mind map. Here's a bigger version.

Learning posters

You may find that, rather than reducing notes to small summary cards, you prefer to produce large posters detailing key points on particular topics. Use flip-chart paper or stick several pieces of A4 together.  Use pattern, colour, diagrams and drawings in your posters and display them in parts of your home where you might have an opportunity to gaze at them for a few minutes now and then and absorb the information. One student we know put them around the bathroom!

If you have a strong visual memory then lively posters really help the remembering process.

Related pages
Summarising for revision