Welcome

Welcome to your Religious Studies Revision website made just for you! Here you can find revision materials, past paper questions and even some top tips. 

This website is for you to get started with your revision. You must make revision notes and do something with your revision. Remember, reading isn't revising... it's just reading. In order to revise, you have to make notes and little quizzes!


Here's some useful websites:
How to revise - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL2EBmknPpg
Buddhism - https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z8tb4wx
Christianity - https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z6bw2hv
Christianity - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUIYcXuvdY8&list=PLO9sTSBHwEDYdpV_SZ9KcVmpYmmRIzPTC
Christianity - https://app.senecalearning.com/classroom/course/51878f8c-8e65-4845-b772-86ba6ffa7942/section/deb88ab5-c56f-47dc-9465-ec30250df577/session

Read

Read over the notes that are given and work out the areas that you know well and the areas that you aren't sure on. 

Revise

In order to revise, you have to actually make some revision notes. Either on flash cards or spider diagrams.

Test

After you have made your revision notes, test yourself to see how well you have actually remembered them!

Revising for Religious Studies

Sadly many methods students use to revise have been shown to be ineffective. This means all the hard work you are doing, will not lead to exam success. Researchers have found the following methods to be ineffective:

• Highlighting notes.
• Simple re-reading of notes.
• Producing written summaries of text.

 
For further information on this, read this article http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22565912
 
INSTEAD, try the following…
 
Retrieval Practice
 
Select a topic you wish to revise.
 
Get a piece of paper and write/sketch everything you remember. Try really hard to remember. You may wish to focus this on the demands of the exam, for example, for GCSE think about the 5 questions, what information is needed for each? Definitions, scriptural references, challenges, scholars?
 
Once you have done this, grab your notes and fill in any gaps, it may be helpful to use another colour, this will help the gaps in your knowledge standout. Repeat this (overtime) until all the gaps are filled!
 
Practice answering examination style questions. Full answers are not necessary, detailed plans will do. Try them without your notes, then use your notes to fill in the gaps. You can use the website, question lists provided or create your own. Remember the exam structure!

Make flashcards. Use for definitions, key pieces of scripture/church/religious teachings/key concepts, strengths, weaknesses. Get friends/parents/careers to test you. If you don’t want to use physical cards, there are lots of good Apps available such as Quizlet, Brainscape, Memrise etc.
 
A slight adaption of flashcards could be to make ‘’Match Cards’, for example, one piece of card has a term e.g. omnipotence, another card has the definition, e.g. the attribute of God suggesting He is all powerful. You could also do this for Bible verses e.g. Genesis 1 ---- ‘the world was void and formless’.  Even scholars and key quotations e.g. Richard Dawkins --- ‘scripture is based on ill-founded evidence.’  Want to try another flashcard method? Research the Leitner System: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C20EvKtdJwQ&feature=youtu.be
 
You could create quizzes for yourself/peers. These quizzes should be true/false or multiple choice.

Organise It/Dual-Code

Select an area of study and transform your notes into graphic organisers. This could be as simple as breaking down your notes into different topics on a mind-map, again consider your exam structure, what do you need to know? Definitions, examples, influences, contrasting/similar ideas, teachings, scholars, concepts and challenges. Each branch could be linked to a different aspect.
 
You could also explore other ways to organise your notes visually. Lots of methods explained and discussed here: http://pdst.ie/sites/default/files/GraphicOrganiserFinal.pdf
 
Another visual approach you could take to revision is to ‘dual-code’ your notes.
 
Look at the text included in your notes, can you transform/change this into pictures. Does it work the other way? Can you translate an image into words? For example, look at an image of a Buddhist Shrine? Can you identify and explain the items? How might you depict the different means a Christian has to salvation?
 
Could you create a comic strip to explain the 4 sights of the Buddha and how they influence Buddhists today? What about the act and influence of creation in Christianity?

Rather than revise one unit in one chunk, separate your revision so you are mixing and matching different topics and units. For example, try spending 15 minutes on Attributes of God, followed by 15 minutes on the 3 Marks of Existence, followed by 15 minutes on Creation.  Can you see any links between the topics? Ensure you regularly change the order of recall.
 
It may be a good idea to group your units together, one way to do this could be: A: Christian Beliefs B. Living the Christian Life, C. Buddhist Beliefs, D. Living the Buddhist Life. During a revision period, for example, an hour period (with breaks), you switch between A and B, C and D, A and C and B and D. This may help make links between Belief and Practices and your two religions. Leave Themes for another session.  When interleaving, make use of the methods above, during your session.
 
More Information: http://www.learningscientists.org/

Revise

Don't put it off, make a start and you'll feel so much better.

Mr Grainger

Lead teacher of Religious Studies at Spen Valley High School and expert in Buddhism. 
Went to Leeds University and studied Theology (2008). Trained at Leeds Trinity (2009) to be a teacher. 

Mrs Cole

Teacher of Religious Studies at Spen Valley High School and expert in Christianity. 
Went to Leeds University and studied Theology (2008). Trained at Leeds Trinity (2009) to be a teacher.