Supercharging PE GCSE exam revision for teachers: Reviewing content

Welcome to the second instalment in our comprehensive blog series designed to support teachers in guiding their students through PE GCSE exam revision. As educators, you play a crucial role in preparing your students for academic success, and we’re here to provide you with effective strategies to enhance your teaching.

Our series began with exam preparation tips, offering insights on how to help students set up productive study schedules and create conducive learning environments.

This insight will focus on reviewing content, providing structured approaches to breaking down key topics and concepts essential for the exams.

Making notes

The first step in any successful revision regime is to make notes. The importance of review for memory is well documented.

It is best to think of memory as a storage system divided into sensory, short-term and long-term. The process of information retention is called the information processing model.

Sensory Memory: This has unlimited capacity as it lasts for seconds at most. This retains an exact copy of what the senses have transmitted to the brain. 

Short-Term Memory: This is the brain’s filing system. Selective attention will choose whether to transfer information from sensory memory to short-term memory. STM is most often stored as sounds, especially in recalling words, but may be stored as images. We can normally retain approximately seven items in our short-term memory.

Long-Term Memory – This type of storage is fairly permanent. Information is stored based on its meaning and significance.

Figure 1: Information processing model adapted from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/learning/memory.html

If your students understand how memory works, they may feel more motivated to revise.

Approximately 80% of content learnt in class will be forgotten within 24 hours. Therefore, the most important step to successful revision is reviewing notes at the end of the day after class, and then again at the end of the week. Ensure your students incorporate this into their revision timetables.

Lesson idea

There are all sorts of ways of demonstrating this to students. For example, ask them details about their dinner the night before. Can they remember what they ate? If not, maybe they were using their phones or watching TV and their sensory memory was engaged elsewhere. Therefore, they didn’t rehearse the information coming through their sensory memory. If they can remember, what did it taste like, what was memorable about it? It’s likely that they remember the taste or smell, or that they made it, or it was a favourite recipe and so by being mindful to their senses, they logged the meal into their short-term memory. Ask them to discuss the meal (or for students who couldn’t remember, then their most recent snack/meal) using their senses with a partner. Then write their description down. Return to this in the following lesson and see how many details they can remember. It is likely they would have logged quite a lot into their long-term memory because they ‘rehearsed’ it.

Homework idea

There is no one method of taking notes. Students should find the one that works for them or mix them up if preferred. Cornell university have provided a useful exploration of note-taking systems that students can progress through to identify their favoured system. Click here to access.

Here are a few examples of ways to review content:

The Cornell Method

This can be adapted to suit the student’s purposes but relies on hand written notes as they help with retention. Each page is divided into a main section for notes, a margin for prompts/keywords/questions, and a summary at the bottom. Click here to view more.

Mindmaps

These are a great way to link concepts together visually and reduce the cognitive load of reading a series of information.

Example mindmap of the major muscle groups

This provides an example of how to link concepts and could be added to as further content on the Muscular System is explored. Students could also use images or colours to make the concepts more memorable.

Diagrams

Diagrams are particularly useful for PE to help students visualise content such as the skeletal, cardiovascular and energy systems.

Charts

Charts are great for recording particular components of a topic, skills required for a activities, or tactics that can be applied in situations.

Below is an example chart for some of the fitness components. Students can start of charts and fill them in as they learn more.

Component of FitnessDefinitionExamples
Cardiovascular EnduranceAbility of the heart and lungs to deliver oxygen-rich blood to working muscles over a prolonged period of time.Running, swimming, cycling.
Muscular StrengthMaximum force a muscle or muscle group can exert against a resistance in one maximal effort.Weightlifting, resistance training.  
Muscular EnduranceAbility of a muscle or group of muscles to sustain repeated contractions against a resistance for an extended period of time.Circuit training, bodyweight exercises.  
Fitness components chart

Flashcards

Write key terms and concepts on one side and questions to ask themselves on the other. There are great apps like Quizlet and Anki that students can use to create their flashcards and come back to regularly to revise them. PE Scholar also provide ready-made GCSE flashcards and other GCSE resource packs.

Conclusion

Guiding students in effectively and regularly reviewing lesson content is crucial for enhancing memory and retention of knowledge for the PE GCSE exam. Encourage students to include regular reviews of key concepts and skills in their revision timetables. By incorporating note taking that suits them including mindmaps, diagrams, and charts, students can reinforce their understanding and solidify information in long-term memory. By prioritising these strategies, you’ll equip your students with the tools they need to excel in their exams and beyond, fostering a deeper understanding of PE principles and practices.

Further insights in this series

Next week, discover active learning and revision techniques to make your lessons and students’ revision more engaging and impactful.

To ensure your students can effectively apply their knowledge, we’ll then discuss how to use past papers and construct answers.

Additionally, we’ll focus on wellbeing strategies, emphasising the importance of your students maintaining a healthy balance during the revision period.

Read more

Read about designing GCSE theory curricula here

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