6 memory-boosting videos for Christmas revision

Tim is the Editor of the Innovate My School Magazine. Before joining Innovate, he worked for five years in the software industry, occupying every role from tea-making technical support specialist to programmer and project director. He writes about a range of subjects, including education, technology, history and religion.

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The Christmas holidays should be a time for mulling wine and pulling crackers. But many teachers will spend at least some of the festive period wondering - and worrying about - how well their pupils are preparing for January exams.

To assuage the anxiety, here are six YouTube videos that should help your pupils maximise their memories.

1. The “Method of Loci” or memory palace

In this video, Andi Bell demonstrates a simple technique for easily memorising and recalling information. His example involves memorising a sequence of random words, but the approach should work equally well for learning mathematical formulae, abstract facts, or a sequences of dates and events.

2. Memory pegs

This video explains how to associate numbers and keywords with revision material and thus make detailed information much easy to recall.

3. Tips for remembering what you read

Dr Cynthia Green explains how to use the SING method to better remember the contents of books and articles.

4. Using rhymes and rap

For some, converting information into a poem or song can be the best way to memorise and recall it. This highly enthusiastic history teacher gives a fine example of how to do this, rapping Russian history from the first World War to the October Revolution.

5. Study habits

There's more to revision than remembering things. This video outlines six key study habits and a memory technique to help you remember what to memorise!

6. Different memory tricks for different types of learners

Taking the example of GCSE history, this video describes mnemonics for visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learners. These approaches are covered by the other videos in this article, but the examples here are useful.