What is Revising? A revision is a process of editing your notes and getting them in shape to STUDY for your exams. This is not Webster’s definition. It’s how you must think about formatting and organizing ALL those notes to flow and make sense, so you can retain MASSIVE amounts of information in a tiny bit of time.
Why do Revisions Matter?
- Best for content that’s very dense or difficult
- It forces you to stay focused, especially if your mind frequently wanders
- Helps you NOT get bored with content or studying
- Quickly improves your understanding and organization skills
- Review packets are fun to make
- It truly helps with subjects that you don’t like or find complicated…so now you know there will be a purpose to your madness, let’s go!
5 steps for Revising Notes
Revision Tools
- That 200 PowerPoint slide lecture your teacher put up the day before class.
- MS WORD: the best and easiest program to customize your notes, other apps are too frustrating. Your school should provide MS Word for free.
- A laptop computer, preferably Windows, I love apple and always use their products but for SCHOOL, it’s just too much tedious work and VERY time consuming to convert everything but it’s not a requirement.
- Evernote or One Note application: some things are premium but the main functions are free, which is to make your notes more mobile. Other great apps include Zoho and google docs. (update Evernote is too glitchy, I’ve been using Google Drive for just about everything).
The Process
STEP 1. Copy and past every slide into Word and make an outline of:
- The header or title of that slide
- Its content: this is the part where you start including mnemonics and other memorization techniques
- Extra notes: talking points or pictures pertaining to that slide. Most of the time, you must enlarge the picture to see the entire graphic, so this could easily take up half of the page or an entire one.
When you’re getting done with the first revision, you may have more than 20 pages of lecture notes but it’s legible and it FLOWS to help you simplify and retain the information. Whether you took notes before or after the actual lecture, that will mark your process towards your 2nd revision or step 2
STEP 2. The Next Revision:
- Add the notes from your lecture and put them in BOLD letters in your document. Italicize extra content that you don’t know or need to be familiar with like lab values or something critical. This will also be useful in your next revisions.
- Do not use too many colors: use a RED font for things that are increasing or alarming. Hyperkalemia; lab value, signs, and symptoms will be in red for example. Use a BLUE font to represent things that are decreasing i.e. hypoxemia, hypotension. Consider ONE extra color i.e. GREEN for patient safety/implications or for key terms/definitions (although key terms are better learned as “concepts”). This is the color code system that I always used but do what you feel can help you remember and just try to stay consistent.
- Highlight your professor’s repeated words or statements such as “you need to know this” or “that will be on the test”.
- Refer to your syllabus, required readings, or objectives for that particular lecture to add what’s necessary or helpful.
- Revised notes can be long, mine were usually more than 30 pages so always try to edit out information. Sometimes the teacher would give history lessons, statistics, trivial information that can be thrown out of your revisions.
Step 3. or the THIRD revision:
- Print your outline out or copy/paste it into OneNote or something similar. Therefore, your notes are ALWAYS with you and mobile.
- This revision consists of eliminating WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW such as lab values, normal blood pressures, or anything that you DO NOT need to study any further (but you already know by heart).
- Extend or elaborate the content (with more pictures/content) that you are not familiar with. Maintain your mnemonics or memorization techniques.
You should be reading THIS outlined revision at least once a day until the exam but by this time, the information should become more repetitive and easier to reiterate 🙂 Step 4. the LAST revision or the FUN part
- Take your final revised outline, a beautiful notebook, and pens and highlighters especially red and blue.
- Run to a library or somewhere quiet
with your favorite relaxing music, and write out the MOST important information for your exam, especially those parts mentioned by the teacher or last min. information. - The format: header/main topic ->bullet points, then the related subheadings/topics -> bullet points. Examples of what to write out in the notebook:
- Pathophysiology/Health Assessment: (THE HEADER) simple information about the body system/topic/organ (i.e. heart)-> A&P (what’s normal i.e. circulation, the chambers, venous vs arterial) -> assessment (heart sounds, rhythm, measurements) -> general signs and symptoms of diseases or conditions (CHF, MI,) -> treatments/procedures/medications -> teaching/implementations -> complications
- Pharmacology: drug class -> typical medications -> dosages/levels -> indications -> precautions/side-effects
- Anatomy: the functions and names of the organ system -> organ -> tissues/muscle/bones -> cells i.e. the nervous system it’s function of CNS and PNS -> the brain (lobes, its parts/functions) -> skull, spinal cord, gray/white matter -> neurons -> neurotransmitters
Step 5. It’s almost over. The purpose of step 5 is to help you understand and retain information. It’s a continuation of step 4 until the day of the exam. Once again you are not revising everything, ONLY the content that you are struggling with since the first revision (i.e. a certain class of medication, diseases, or body system)
- Headline: any “Subject”
- Subheading: (ab)normal findings and precautions
- Bullet: key points (implications/the standard of care)
- Summarize/supplement related information with pictures/text
Your exam may cover +10 chapters! What’s beautiful about revising is how you can do one step or all 5 and still cover all your bases until the examination. Sometimes I’ll do only step 4 or 5, especially if the final exam was accumulative.
Remember repetition is key with learning tons of information & keep your colors consistent or less than 3 because it helps with memorization.
Find additional study tips on Pinterest. Most of the time only revisions worked for me, but alternatives do help in other situations like using a study partner to teach the notes or to quiz each other.
Doing practice questions can help with getting comfortable with answering test questions and content but always focus on the professor’s lecture/notes and PASS… good luck in your studies 🙂
Read about Studying for Difficult Content!
