Four Revision Rules to Share With Your Students by @RichardJARogers

Rule #3: Use more than one textbook for each subject

I didn’t have a lot of money when I was a GCSE student. I couldn’t buy a lot of books, but that didn’t matter. I had some great textbooks that school provided, and my dad bought a great maths book for me, but I needed more.

My local library in Flint, North Wales, was well stocked with great books. My Easter strategy in 1999 was simple: Spend every day at the library using every textbook I could find to revise every topic I could.

Going to the library had two advantages for me:

I couldn’t fall asleep at home, or have a midday nap, or get distracted by TV. I was in the library and I had to work.
The library was quiet and very stimulating – there’s something about sitting amongst rows and shelves of books that’s really soothing and conducive to studying

flint-library — *Flint Library: The place where I made my dreams come true*

The strategy worked – I came out with A’s and A*s across the board.

But here’s the sad thing – I was the only kid at the library that Easter (that I can recall). No other kids were revising there. I was alone.

It seemed to me like scores of high school students in Flint had really missed out on the opportunity to enrich and discipline their revision that year.

Students need to get the same information from a wide variety of sources. My best students over the past 12 years of my teaching career have been those that used at least three textbooks per subject to study from.