Memory techniques for HISTORY
exams and assessments
Why are memory techniques important?
• They are a crucial part of effective revision for
History exams and assessments in order to
achieve high quality, precise evidence based
answers to questions
• YET memory techniques are something that too
many History students, even those who work
hard, either forget to do or carry out
ineffectively
• contextual knowledge is being prioritised in
the new specification mark schemes – this is
the strengthening of GCSE History!
SOUND
SECURE
SOPHISTICATED
HISTORY - where are we now?
1. Controlled Assessment has
now been completed and
marked
2. The final topic will be
finished just before Easter.
Class based revision will
begin after Easter.
3. Pupils should be revising
approximately 25 hours for
History between now and
the exams.
What support is being offered by
the department?
Monday after school revision sessions
Tuesday lunchtime drop in sessions
PPQs – class and home
Model answers
Revision Guides
- Department designed
- Exam Board sponsored
History department’s TOP TEN TIPS
1. Past paper questions: The best final method and a must for everyone. This
stage should only be attempted when the knowledge is learnt through effective
revision. http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/gcse-history-b-modern-worldj418-from-2013/
2. Cover and Recall: Re-read your notes, cover them over and try and write
them out again but in a summed up and briefer version! Not the most fun but
essential when self-testing and checking!
3. Topic summaries: Take each topic of the course, highlight the key
points/dates/facts on it in your book, then produce a summary card or sheet
with only the key points on it. Good starting or final revision task for all topic
areas. Especially useful for an area you are struggling on.
4. Mind Maps: Put the main sections of a topic in the centre of a large plain
page and allow your mind to make links putting down brief phrases, words or
pictures. If not much ends up on the paper you know what to re-study.
5. Verbal tests: Get your parents/friends to test you on your factual knowledge.
How? Write a series of quiz questions with the answers on it – try this on the
way that life changed for Women from 1939-1975.
History department’s TOP TEN TIPS
6. Put up lists: of key events, words, people around your room at home e.g 10
facts per area such as the Battle of the Somme 1916 OR the impact of the
NHS on the youth of Britain from 1948! The back of a door is a good place to
leave them! Have a topic wall!
7. Use useful websites: The best ones are http://www.johndclare.net/ OR
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/ OR
http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/
AND https://sites.google.com/a/st-pauls.me.uk/history/past-papers/year-11
8. Journey and Peg: ONE way to remember a chain of information is to peg
each bit on a landmark from a familiar journey or from your bedroom to the
front door. Try this with the causes of the First World War.
9. Cartoons/pictures: try and draw a cartoon/picture strip (i.e. a storyboard) of a
major event you have studied or a cartoon that sums up an event or topic.
Especially useful for revising the chronology of events E.G. The events of the
Cuban Missile crisis.
10. Revision games: make up and try out different games such as Pictionary or
Taboo. Really good for vocabulary memory.
Follow the 3 phases rule of
HISTORY revision
1. Acquisition Phase
Learn the knowledge
2. Application Phase
Use the knowledge
3. Reflection Phase
Fill in your gaps