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Understanding dyslexia
Understanding dyslexia

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4 Review

Review is an important step for retaining the ‘big picture’. 80% of detail is forgotten within 24 hours – so it’s important to review a book, study notes, lecture slides or other materials quickly to help you embed the information.

How to review

Skim over the information quickly – you don’t need to spend much time. Ten minutes on day 2; five minutes on day 7; two to four minutes on day 30. This will help the information to stay fresh in your mind, so you won’t have a huge mountain of revision to climb later.

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Figure 3 Reviewing will help the information stay embedded (Adapted from Knight, 2016)
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This is a graph with time plotted along the x-axis, and memory retention plotted on the y-axis. It’s a visually demonstrative diagram, rather than being supposed to communicate any exact figures. On day 1, memory is at 100%, the top of the axis. From here, two lines diverge. One line curves back down sharply on day two, continues to lower (less sharply) by day 7, and tapers off at a low point by day 30 (visually this would be estimated at approximately 10% on the y-axis). The other line is labelled along the top to show the effect of review: ten minutes on day 2; five minutes on day 7; two to four minutes on day 30. In each case where the line has just begun to curve down, the review brings retention back up.

Figure 3 Reviewing will help the information stay embedded (Adapted from Knight, 2016)

Review is an excellent return on investment. A few minutes can potentially save you hours of time when you come to the exams (Knight, 2016).