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Planning Reading Memory Exam Skills

Planning Reading Memory
Exam Skills

Planning Reading
Memory Exam Skills
All of the libraries shown on the map are within a couple of miles of Tynecastle
OPENING HOURS
Bedroom ?
Study ?
Dining room ?
Local library ?
Maths
• Keep it tidy!
• Make sure you have all of the equipment you require close at hand: pens highlighters pencils
PE
Music
French only £6.97
sticky notes paper
• Allocate a box, file, folder or drawer to each of your subjects. Check out your local supermarket!
• Group your notes by topic. Keep them organised.

Planning Reading Memory Exam Skills
A study plan is vital to ensure you don’t become overwhelmed with all of the work you need to do for each subject… or leave everything to the last minute!
Use this guide to help you develop your own study plan:
These templates use Microsoft Excel. If you do not have this software at home use the computers in school, or print off the pdf file and complete it by hand.
Find these templates on the webpage.
Example
Study Plan
Study Plan
Template
Blank Sheet
(pdf. file)
If you have an iPod or iPhone you may wish to use
MySQA Study Plan available free from the AppStore.

Planning Reading Memory
Try this online quiz to determine your preferred learning style.
After the quiz look at the study tips for your preferred learning style.
Exam Skills
Alternatively, if you already know your preferred learning style click on the icon to take you directly to the study tips for your preferred leaning style.

Planning Reading Memory Exam Skills

Planning Reading Memory Exam Skills
Lots of the knowledge you require to pass exams comes from books, online texts or your own class notes. Therefore reading skills are vital to successful exam preparation and revision. Use the tips below to help you when revising and also when reading exam questions!
• Identify the purpose of your reading:
• For fun/pleasure
• Fact finding
• For understanding
• Highlight key words in one paragraph to obtain an overview of the whole passage
• Focus on
HEADINGS and emboldened words
• Underline key ideas, names and words
• Look up any words you don’t understand
• Read-Cover-Recall
• Check what you understood by hiding the text and recalling the information you remember
• Read-Cover-Record-Check
• Memorise facts by reading, covering, recording (on voice recorder or written note) and then checking against original text

Planning Reading
Memory Exam Skills
Successful students use a range of reading strategies. For example if you are looking for a piece of information then it is not necessary to read a book in detail from cover to cover – scanning would be a more appropriate strategy. Read the descriptions of the reading strategies below. The last three are VERY useful for studying and revision.
Strategy Description
Detailed reading
Reading for enjoyment
Reading at whatever pace suits you. The more you read the better reader you become.
Skimming Finding out what a passage, extract or book is mainly about.
Scanning
Reading the whole text carefully and thoughtfully. This can be a challenge if you lack interest in the topic.
SQ4R
Looking for specific detail by running your eye down the page quickly.
A combination of the above strategies following six steps: Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Record, Review.
Purpose
Complete understanding
Pleasure
General impression
Fact finding
Understanding and studying

Planning Reading
When you skim a page you get an idea of what it’s about. You only need to read:
1.The title and sub-headings
2.The first sentence from each paragraph
3.The last sentence of the passage
4.If the chapter you are reading contains a summary then read that first
Memory Exam Skills
ENERGY
Everything that happens involves a transfer of energy. The sun has provided most of the energy which is useful to us.
Forms of energy transfer
There are many forms of energy transfer. These pictures show examples of the types:
Nuclear
You should also pay close attention to any diagrams, graphs and charts.
Sound Heat
Energy can be stored in the forms of chemical, nuclear of potential energy: it is harder to store other forms.
Light
Your turn:
Skim the passage opposite then try answering the questions below.
1.What is the passage about?
2.How many forms of energy are there?
3.Complete the sentence:
Machines are devices which ________
Energy transfer
One form of energy transfer can lead to another. If you clap your hands, chemical energy stored in your muscles is converted to movement then sound. When you travel on a bike or in a car and the brakes are applied, movement is converted to heat in the brakes. What energy transfers take place when some paper is burned? Machines can control the rate of transfer of energy and how much useful work it does. A human is an example of a machine in which energy transfers take place.

Planning Reading Memory Exam Skills
When you scan text you are looking for a specific piece of information. You do not read every word but instead you should run your eye down the page fairly quickly.
Task 1 Scan the Periodic Table of elements to see if you can find gold (Au).
H
Li Be
He
B C N Ne
Na Mg Al Si P Ar
K Ca Sc Ti V Cr Mn Fe Co Ni Cu Zn Ga Ge As Kr
Rb Sr Y Zr Nb Mo Tc Ru Rh Pd Ag Cd In Sn Sb Xe
Cs Ba La Hf Ta W Re Os Ir Pt Au Hg Tl Pb Bi Rn
Task 2 Scan the passage ‘The Lady with the Lamp’ so you can fill in the missing words in the sentences below. Read the sentences first.
1.Florence Nightingale was named after _______ .
2.Florence’s parents expected her to _______ yet in
1851 she went to _______ for nursing training.
3.Florence’s nursing team in Scutari, Turkey improved the_______ and reduced the _______ .
The Lady with the Lamp
Florence Nightingale was born on 12 May 1820, and named after the Italian city of her birth. Her wealthy parents were in Florence as part of a tour of Europe. In 1837, Nightingale felt that God was calling her to do some work but wasn't sure what that work should be. She began to develop an interest in nursing, but her parents considered it to be a profession inappropriate to a woman of her class and background, and would not allow her to train as a nurse.
They expected her to make a good marriage and live a conventional upper class woman's life. Nightingale's parents eventually relented and in 1851, she went to Kaiserwerth in
Germany for three months nursing training.
This enabled her to become superintendent of a hospital for gentlewomen in Harley Street, in 1853. The following year, the Crimean War began and soon reports in the newspapers were describing the desperate lack of proper medical facilities for wounded British soldiers at the front. Sidney
Herbert, the war minister, already knew Nightingale, and asked her to oversee a team of nurses in the military hospitals in Turkey. In November 1854, she arrived in Scutari in Turkey. With her nurses, she greatly improved the conditions and substantially reduced the mortality rate.
Extract from BBC History Florence Nightingale.

Planning
Reading Memory Exam Skills
SQ4R is a well known reading strategy. It is a great method that helps you read and remember the information contained within a text – perfect for studying and revision!

Planning
Reading Memory Exam Skills

Planning Reading Memory Exam Skills
Task Use the SQ4R strategy to learn about the principles of Greek Architecture.
History of Greek Architecture
The history of art and architecture in Ancient
Greece is divided into three basic eras: the
Archaic Period, the Classical Period and the
Hellenistic Period. About 600 BCE, inspired by the theory and practice of earlier Egyptian
The Parthenon, on the Acropolis.
THE PRINCIPLES OF GREEK ARCHITECTURE
(eg. the Parthenon) or more rarely at the front and rear only. Roofs were laid with timber beams covered by terracotta tiles, and were not domed. Pediments (the flattened triangular shape at each gable end of the building) were usually filled with sculptural decoration or friezes, as was the row of lintels along the top of each side wall, between the roof and the tops of the columns. In the late 4th and 5th centuries
BCE, Greek architects began to depart from the strictly rectangular plan of traditional temples in favour of a circular structure (the tholos), embellished with black marble to highlight certain architectural elements and provide rich colour contrasts.
These buildings were famously adorned with a huge range of Greek sculpture - pedimental works, friezes, reliefs and various types of free-standing statue - of a figurative nature, depicting mythological heroes and events in Greek history and culture.
Classical
Orders
Doric stone masons and builders, the Greeks set about replacing the wooden structures of their public buildings with stone structures - a process known as 'petrification'. Limestone and marble was employed for columns and walls, while terracotta was used for roof tiles and ornaments. Decoration was done in bronze.
Greek Building Design
The typical rectangular building design was often surrounded by a columns on all four sides
Classical Orders
The theory of Greek architecture was based on a system of 'Classical Orders' - rules for building design based on proportions of and between the individual parts.
This resulted in an aesthetically pleasing consistency of appearance regardless of size or materials used.
There were three orders in early Greek
Ionic
Corinthian architecture: the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian.
The Doric style was common in mainland
Greece and later spread to the Greek colonies in
Italy. The Ionic style was employed in the cities of Ionia along the west coast of Turkey. Where the Doric style was formal and austere, the Ionic was less restrained and more decorative. The third style, Corinthian, came later and represented a more ornate development of the
Ionic order. The differences between these styles is most plainly visible in the ratio between the base diameter and height of their columns. Doric architecture (exemplified by most surviving Greek structures, like the
Parthenon and the Temple of Hephaestus in
Athens) was more popular during the Classical age, while the Ionic style gained the upper hand during the more relaxed Hellenistic period.

Planning Reading
Memory Exam Skills
Use Reciprocal Reading to help obtain information from text . Follow these four stages when reading to help develop your comprehension skills!
Predict the content of the text.
What do you think the text will be about?
What do you already know?
Ask yourself questions about the text.
Identify central themes and ideas that warrant further consideration.
Make up questions on unclear parts, puzzling information or connections to other concepts.
Clarify all unclear, difficult or unfamiliar aspects of the text.
Look up any unfamiliar vocabulary in a dictionary.
Find answers to your questions from the previous stage.
Summarise the important information from the text.
Highlight or underline important information.
Re-write the main ideas in your own words to promote understanding.

Planning Reading Memory Exam Skills

Planning Reading Memory Exam Skills
Memory is the process by which information is encoded, stored and retrieved. Cognitive function and brain efficiency can be improved through simple lifestyle changes such as incorporating memory exercises, healthy eating, increased physical fitness and stress reduction.
Stress Management
Meditation has been shown to increase the control over brain resource distribution, improving attention, concentration and self-regulation.
Memory Exercises
To improve recollection you should group the items to be remembered in threes and then concentrate upon the central member of each group.
These foods can improve your memory!
onions leeks broccoli parsley celery citrus fruit tomatoes green tea blueberries cocoa grapes

Planning
Reading Memory Exam Skills
A mnemonic can be used to help you remember a single thing like a rule, equation or a short list.
Try making up your own mnemonics to remember information for your subjects:
• Use the first letter of a series of words to create another word or short sentence.
• If you make it silly, rude and downright distasteful you will remember it!!!
• It may also help to link the letters to things you know e.g. people, places, addresses.

Planning
Reading Memory Exam Skills
Using flash cards and sticky notes helps with information recall.
On one side of your flash card write a question or statement.
log b
(m n ) Maths
n · log b
(m)
Aspects of fitness
PE
Physical
Skill related
Mental
Beveridge's
Five Giants
History
Squalor, Disease,
Want, Idleness,
Ignorance
On the other side write the answer or accompanying information.
You can also use flash cards and sticky notes to learn important vocabulary.
• Write the vocabulary you need to learn on sticky notes.
• If possible stick them to the corresponding objects in your house.
• Otherwise display them in a prominent place so that your brain frequently processes the information.
• Use different colours and shapes of sticky notes for different topics – this will help group your thoughts together.
Available from la botte

Planning Reading
Both sources below show notes a pupil has made on Coastal Scenery.
Memory
A picture speaks a thousand words…
Exam Skills
Do not be restrained to writing, using pictures and labelled diagrams is often a much more effective way to learn!
COASTAL SCENERY ON CHALK HEADLAND
Weathering and erosion can create caves, arches, stacks and stumps along a headland.
Caves occur when waves force their way into cracks in the cliff face. The water contains sand and other materials that grind away at the rock until the cracks become a cave.
Hydraulic action is the predominant process.
If the cave is formed in a headland, it may eventually break through to the other side forming an arch. The arch will gradually become bigger until it can no longer support the top of the arch. When the arch collapses, it leaves the headland on one side and a stack (a tall column of rock) on the other.
The stack will be attacked at the base in the same way that a wave-cut notch is formed.
This weakens the structure and it will eventually collapse to form a stump.

Planning Reading Memory
Exam Skills

Planning Reading Memory
Exam Skills
 Bullet points and abbreviations
(abbr.) will help to minimise reading and writing time
A different colour of pen for each topic will help you visualise the topic
Drawing boxes around any key words will make them stand out
Underlining or highlighting key words will deepen your understanding

Planning Reading Memory Exam Skills
When you are making up your own revision notes don’t just copy from a textbook, class notes or online material – it will not help you to understand or remember the material!
• Read the text
• Look for key words
• Look for HEADINGS, bold etc.
• Cover the text by closing the book, hiding your class notes or minimising your browser
• What you can remember?
• Try to order your thoughts
• What are the key points?
• Take notes on the key points
• Have you missed anything?
• Review and edit if necessary

Planning Reading Memory Exam Skills
A mind map is like a spider diagram but with much more detail.
A good mind map shows:
• Clear links between related information
• Pictures and diagrams
• 5 or 6 key facts branching from a central topic
• Different coloured branches
• Words on a line same length as the word
You can fit a whole topic on an A3 page
It will look different for each person
– it’s how you link information together!
The mind map below was made in two minutes using the Wise Mapping website.
Sign up here for free!

Planning Reading
These items of stationary could prove really useful for note making purposes!
Memory Exam Skills
And you can buy them here:
(in-store or online via the links below)

Planning Reading Memory Exam Skills

Planning Reading
Past Papers
Look at past exam papers to familiarise yourself with the type of questions you will be asked and the structure of the exam. You can access past papers and marking instructions on the SQA website .
Key Question Words
Make sure you understand the meaning of key question words. Check the table to find any you are unsure of.
Equipment and Timing
What are you allowed to take into the exam with you?
Exactly how long is the exam? Take note of the number of marks for each section and then calculate how much time you have for each question. Practice past papers under timed conditions.
Prelims
Prelims help you to discover the weaknesses in your subject knowledge, how effective your study skills are and identify your strengths and weaknesses under pressure.
Memory Exam Skills
Calculate Work out mathematically.
Compare Are the things alike or are there differences? Which do you think is best? Why?
Contrast Look for differences.
Define Give the meaning.
Describe Write in detail.
Discuss Write about the important aspects of the topic. Are there two sides to the question? Consider the arguments for and against.
Evaluate Judge the importance or success.
Explain Make clear.
Illustrate Give examples which make the point clear.
Interpret Explain the meaning in your own words. For example, you may be asked to interpret a graph.
Justify Give reasons to support an argument or action.
State Write briefly the main point.
Summarise Bring together the main points.

Planning Reading
Swot Up Get Organised
Sort out everything you need so as to avoid a rush in the morning.
 SCN card
 Pens and pencils
 Spare pens and pencils
 Sharpener and eraser
 Correction fluid
 Highlighter
 Ruler
 Calculator
 Protractor and compass
 Dictionary
 Watch
Double check the date, time, location and level of the exam(s) you will be sitting the next day.
Memory
Some students prefer to take a complete break the night before but most people do some last minute revising. By briefly reviewing the main points in your notes you can prepare yourself mentally.
Exam Skills
Get a good sleep!
Don’t stay out late with friends or stay up to watch a movie. It not any better staying up all night trying to cram in lots of last minute studying – you need a good sleep to provide you with energy to be focussed and alert during the exam!
Even if the exam is in the afternoon a disrupted sleep pattern the night before won’t improve our performance.

Planning Reading Memory Exam Skills
THE EXAM DAY
Get up the first time your alarm goes off. Don’t hit the snooze button!
Eat a healthy breakfast.
Dress comfortably. Layers are useful as exam halls tend to switch from roasting to freezing quickly!
Get to school early.
Ignore other people’s fears and worries. Remind yourself of all the great studying and revision work you have done! 
Visualise the end of your exams if you feel nervous.
BEFORE THE EXAM
Check the paper for the correct subject and level.
Fill in all personal details.
Read all instructions carefully, highlight important instructions.
Note the start time of the exam and work out when you are due to finish.
DURING THE EXAM
Highlight key words in the questions to focus your attention on what you are being asked.
Plan how you are going to answer.
Re-read difficult questions or come back to them later.
If you get stuck, go on to the next question and come back to the unfinished one later.
Stay until the end of the exam and check your answers.
THE FIRST FIVE MINUTES
Read through all questions.
If there is a choice of questions circle the ones you intend doing.
Decide how long you will need for each question.
PRESENTATION
Write legibly, keep your work neat.
Show all working and underline final answers. Score through anything you do not want to be marked.
Ensure all graphs and diagrams are accurate and clearly labelled.

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