Textiles+-+Revision

toc = = =Introduction = We all understand the importance of revision. Most work hard at it, but we don't always work well at it. As with any other aspect of your studies, you need to organize your time and plan your revision in advance. **Revision Strategies** The main purposes of revision are:  To enable you to do this, you will need to organize your notes, essays, handouts etc. into a convenient and coherent set of material. This section includes advice on: =Making a Revision Plan = As always, planning is key. Here are some tips: > You should start revising at least five or six weeks before your exams are due to start. Do be realistic about the goals you set in the time you have available, and remember you need to allow breaks now and then. > Allocate topics to days, and make sure you have enough time for everything you want to revise. Balance the time you have available between your various courses. Do not neglect courses you find particularly easy or difficult. > For each course, identify which topics to revise. At the very least, you should cover twice as many topics as the number of questions you need to answer (e.g. 6 topics for a 3-essay exam). Select topics based on: > You will have lecture notes and seminar class notes, your own notes from books and journals, essays with your tutor's feedback, handouts and other photocopies and references. You will also need textbooks, past exam papers etc. Arrange to have everything you need well in advance. =How to revise: = Julie Boyd a lead Textiles and Design Technology teacher from the UK has this covered on her website: @http://www.textileshotline.co.uk/5-min-thinkdo-revision/make-revision-easy.html @http://pomodorotechnique.com/ - How to revise
 * to understand the topic for which you are sitting an exam
 * to commit what you have learnt and understood to memory
 * to practice planning and writing answers to questions
 * making a revision plan
 * how to revise
 * revising all year round
 * Create a Revision Timetable
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Balance your subjects
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Identify key topics
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The content of the course
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Past examination papers
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Your own interests and abilities
 * **Arrange your revision material**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">There are three key revision methods: Throughout the academic year you will have been taking lots of notes - from lessons, reading that you've done. Now that it's revision time, the main objective is to work on your notes in various ways to make them more memorable: When it comes to note-making for revision purposes, less is more! There is no way around this task - to do well in exams, you have to remember your material. Ultimately, you have to work out the way of doing this that works best for you. Some of these approaches may help: Working out model answers to anticipated questions should be central to your revision process. This technique will work on you remembering your material, developing your critical skills and practicing for the exam. The following stages could all be practices: > Using past exam papers, think about the wording of questions (see //**Key Words**// for help on this). What are the problem or key words? Highlight these. What approach is being asked for? You could practice rephrasing the question in your own words to highlight the exact meaning. > You are going to need at least five or six major points or arguments with which to answer the design questions. > Some topics are dealt with from one particular perspective. You could improve your essay and catch the examiners eye by introducing an alternative perspective, where relevant. > Go over your outline answers looking for errors and irrelevant points and ways to improve the argument. > Practice writing at speed under exam conditions. It is useful to get someone else's opinion on these fully written answers afterwards. Your tutor may be prepared to do this, otherwise, ask a friend to look at them. =<span style="color: #0c8b8b; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Revision all year round: = <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Revision should not be a last-minute attempt to make up for poor study habits in the previous eight months. As one topic quickly succeeds another in each course, it's easy to forget previous work all too soon. There seems to be little time to revise. Nevertheless, throughout the academic year you should work with one eye on the revision process to come: =<span style="color: #0c8b8b; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">What to revise: = If you want to get some revision books I recommend the book depository with its free postage [] or from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com These books are also available on Kindle. Other Revision books by Collins are good and can be purchased in addition:
 * 1. Note-Taking/Note-Making**
 * Physically organize your notes so that they are clear, logically ordered and easy to find your way around
 * Then read them through, underlining key words, highlighting different themes
 * Devise your own colour coding system - it may seem childish, but associating different colours with different topics or themes will help you to memorize and compartmentalize things in your mind
 * Write-out more and more concise versions of your notes, whittling down the content to manageable and digestible proportions - aim to reduce each topic to an index card. At this stage, your notes are an aide memoir, not a full repository of facts and arguments.
 * You may find [|Spider diagrams], [|Mind maps] and [|Concept maps] helpful ways of summarizing a lot of information onto a single page. (They are also visually memorable, too.)
 * 2. Memorizing**
 * Look at your notes for a topic on three or four occasions. This will fix them in your mind better than a once and for all approach.
 * Predict a page of notes in your mind before you look at it. What you have forgotten will bring itself to your attention as you read.
 * Using the[| Cornell Note-Taking System] helps memorization, as you can cover up half of the page where your detailed notes are made, and focus on recalling information triggered by the key words/questions.
 * Mnemonics. Use the letters of a word, or the initial letters of a phrase, to trigger associations.
 * Think of a picture of the topic.
 * [|Diagrammatic notes] e.g. Spider diagrams, Mind maps and Concept maps are more visually stimulating and therefore more easily remembered than a list of points.
 * Last-minute revision of notes, now reduced to minimal levels, is generally helpful. However, attempting to learn new material the day before the exam is harmful, as it can displace the material you have already learned and lead to a sense of confusion and panic.
 * 3. Drafting Model Answers**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Analyse the question**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Generate ideas**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Other angles**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Check**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Write under exam conditions**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Make sure your notes are easy to follow and well organised. Keep things neatly filed together with clear labeling. Keep your lists of readings and references. Collect lists of past questions and past papers.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Note down what you have not yet had time to do, and the key issues you have not yet investigated.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Don't let work pile up. Even if you make the time to catch up, it may be impossible to get hold of readings for topics a few weeks before the exam.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Try to read through your notes periodically. Use them to form an overview of the course so far. Make connections between what you have studied and what is to come.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If you are particularly confused with one aspect of your course, set aside time to look at your notes, key texts and past exams. Try to make sense of your course as a whole. Introductory lectures and seminars may help, as will talking to your tutor. Don't leave it too late.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Final lessons in courses may give useful summaries and tips.
 * GCSE Design & Technology Textiles AQA Revision Guide by CGP Books Paperback £5.95
 * GCSE D&T Textiles AQA Exam Practice Workbook by CGP Books Paperback £4.95
 * GCSE D&T Textiles AQA Exam Practice Answers (for Workbook) by CGP Books Paperback £2.00
 * Textiles Technology: Revision Guide ( [|Collins GCSE Essentials] ) (Paperback) GBP 4.74
 * Textiles Technology: Revision Workbook ( [|Collins GCSE Essentials] ) (Paperback) GBP 4.74

=<span style="color: #0c8b8b; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Revision 2015 Design Question 1 =

Revision topic PowerPoints: @https://stantgcsetextiles.wordpress.com/2014/04/28/revision-powerpoints/

Exam Question from Julie Boyd: @http://www.textileshotline.co.uk/5-min-thinkdo-revision/example-questions-revision/ Think Do activities - take about 5 minutes each: @http://www.textileshotline.co.uk/5-min-thinkdo-revision/drip-feed-revision-textiles/ Techdoodles - these revision activities take a little longer: @http://www.textileshotline.co.uk/5-min-thinkdo-revision/techdoodles-revision.html

=<span style="color: #0c8b8b; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Key Words & Terminology: = When answering the questions remember: 1. If a question says //**‘annotate’**// it means that you should label the design, diagram etc. For example - details of fabrics, design ideas, components, explanations etc can be written on. 2. Questions that contain words such as **//state, list, identify, name//**, only require one or two word answers. 3. Questions containing words such as //**explain, justify, analyse, describe**// require a more detailed answer. 4. //**Avoid**// using phrases such as ‘quick and easy’, ‘nice effect’ ‘strong’ and 'cheap'. Be much more precise. 5. //**Design features**// are a particular aspects of a design e.g. the pockets on a shirt. The embroidery round a hem of a skirt. 6. //**Performance characteristics**// are what a fibre, fabric or product can do. It could be crease resistant, durable or very absorbent etc. 7. The exam will contain questions about aspects of our project work such as research, designing, product analysis, specifications, testing, and evaluation. 8. Take **drawing equipment** to the exam, you may have to draw a design.

=<span style="color: #0c8b8b; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Flashcards and quiz makers: = www.studystack.com - Flash cards & quizzes quizlet.com flash cards Type in **"textiles"** and you will come across a large number of textiles quizzes, flashcards and other games based on the key words used throughout the course. @https://www.examtime.com/exam-revision/ now known as (@https://www.goconqr.com/en-US/users/sign_in)

=<span style="color: #0c8b8b; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; line-height: 1.5;">Revision Help Sites: = These sites are selected for the quality of their content, however please note I am in no way linked to the writers of these sites and gain no monetary or any other kinds of gain by recommending these sites: @http://www.memrise.com/course/45122/textiles-technology-gcse-aqa/ http://textiles4u.wikispaces.com/ @http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationadvice/9823789/Revision-techniques-The-secret-to-exam-revision-success.html From Manchester University .humanities.manwwwchester.ac.uk/studyskills/assessment_evaluation/assessment/revision_strategies.html