English Rewind - Weekender: Exam revision

Hello! The programme you're about to listen to

was first broadcast in June, 2006 on the BBC Learning English website.

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Hello, I'm Jackie Dalton.

For many people, this time of the year gets a bit stressful.

For those who want some kind of qualification or certificate

to prove how good their English is, this means exams.

This programme is about revision and how to prepare for exams.

Even if you don't have any kinds of tests to do,

much of the advice in here could be useful to you

because it's important to look back over everything you have learnt regularly —

as if you were preparing for an exam, so that it stays in your memory.

An important part of revision is planning.

Experienced English teacher Diarmuid

is going to share three top tips on how to go about revision.

What are they?

OK, first of all, make a sensible revision plan, include times for breaks and meals.

Your concentration lapses after a couple of hours, so take regular breaks.

Know your strong and weak subjects and mix them up on your timetable,

don't do all the difficult topics at once.

Write a list of targets that you know you can reach

and tick them off as you accomplish them.

Did you get those three pieces of advice?

Make a revision plan and make sure you include breaks,

so you don't lose concentration.

Don't try to do all the things you find most difficult at once —

mix them up with the easier things.

And make a list of things to do

and put a tick next to each thing once you've done it.

Now we're going to hear advice from Rachel,

another experienced English teacher, who was at this year's IATEFL Conference,

an international meeting for English teaching experts.

What's her tip?

My top tip for revising for exams is using small pieces of card,

write the words or sentences or phrases that you're trying to learn

on one side of the card and write either a translation or sentence using the word

or the phrase in English on the other side and practise turning over the cards,

trying to memorise the English word, phrase or sentence.

An excellent tip there from Rachel —

use small pieces of card to write words or phrases on one side,

and their translation — or examples of their use — on the other.

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Now we're going to hear from Diarmuid again.

Make your own revision notes.

You'll learn as you write and, once you've got them, you're halfway there.

Check the syllabus or ask a teacher

to make sure you've got the key areas covered.

And, if you can, look at past exam papers and see how questions could be asked.

It may seem obvious, but it is important to make your own revision notes.

Even though you may not realise it, you learn a lot just by writing them.

Don't just read things — write!

And check the syllabus, in other words, the topics covered in the course.

Make sure you know what areas will be tested, so you don't miss anything out.

And it always helps if you can look at previous exam papers.

What about preparing for speaking exams?

Here's some advice from another teacher at the IATEFL Conference.

How does she think you can become better at speaking English?

Hello, I'm Elona Mandes and I'm from the Netherlands

and, for anyone preparing for a speaking test,

my advice would be just speak to yourself,

which sounds silly, but today with mobile phones, and car kits and everything,

it's not so strange or embarrassing to be talking to yourself.

In the car, imagine someone sitting next to you and just tell this person —

in English of course — what you see,

what you're going to do, what you did today and so on.

I think that's a very good fluency practice activity.

Well, Elona says talk to yourself — and don't worry about feeling silly,

getting good at speaking is more important!

And finally, we're going to hear from another English teacher, Manon.

What two bits of advice does she give?

My name is Manon Reiber, I'm from the Netherlands

and my advice for when you have to do a test

is to start thinking like the teacher.

Really ask yourself what kinds of questions you would ask,

if you were the teacher, and prepare for those.

Try and relax before taking the exam,

so do not spend the entire night studying, but really relax.

Did you get that?

The first bit of advice is to ask yourself

what kinds of questions you would ask in the exam if you were the teacher.

And secondly. relax and get some rest.

All your hard work preparing will be wasted if you stay up all night before

and come into the exam too tired to think.

If you're someone who tends to worry a lot,

try to put your exams into perspective — they are only one aspect of life

and they're not the most important thing in the world!

BBC Learning English dot com.