Strategies for how to revise should be built into the course, as opposed to being bolted on at the end. Students should be expected to experiment with strategies that ‘stretch their memory’ as they begin to revise during the course itself (see Principle 6). Different revision techniques work for different students. Over a course the teacher can model different techniques, building a revision toolkit for students.

Mnemonic Devices help retrieve what you have learned and serve as handy ways to store information and find it when you need it These are useful for remembering specific events such as the key terms of a treaty. The acronym LAMB can be used to remember the key terms of the Treaty of Versailles (Land taken away, Army cut, Money to be paid in reparations, Blamed for the war). Visual techniques can be surprisingly effective as imagery helps to contribute vividness and make connective links.  Humans remember pictures more easily than words so associating vivid mental images with verbal or abstract material makes that material easier to retrieve from memory. To continue the above example, students can visualise Germany as a vulnerable lamb at the mercy of the allies.

See example Page KP7-a

Photo revision can help pupils revise the key features of a period or the importance of an individual in an engaging way. In this case it’s not simply the visual product that helps memory but the process of creating a picture through identifying necessary content and its significance, thinking of and collecting props and visuals and the process of setting up the visual image, plus the impact on emotional memory of the satisfaction of creating an effective summary image.

See example Page KP7-b

Summary circles can help pupils revise the key events of a period in a visual and engaging way.

See example Page KP7-c

A memory palace is more useful for organising and holding larger volumes of material in memory.  It involves associating mental images with a series of physical locations to help cue memories.  You imagine yourself within a space that is very familiar to your (for example, your home or school) then you associate prominent features of the space with a visual image of something you want to remember. For example, as we study Medicine through Time our Middle School becomes the location for the Middle Ages and we visit the RE room to stress how religion played an important role in shaping medical practices. We then move on to the Art department for the Renaissance whilst the discovery of DNA is located within the biology labs. Walking round the school in this order helps pupils to reinforce chronological understanding and the background provided by the rooms triggers important contextual knowledge and creates a sense of period.

A key point with all of these techniques is that for the students to be able to construct effective mnemonics or memory palaces, the content needs to have been thoroughly covered in class so that they understand it.  The value of memory strategies to raise attainment comes after mastery of new material.