Exam Readiness: How Effective Are DSA-Funded Strategies?
3 minute read
When I was a DSA needs assessor, exam conversations often focused on specialist study skills or mentoring. Occasionally, I’d suggest contacting Disability Services to arrange extra time or a computer.
Rarely, however, did I talk about software—except to note that features like text-to-speech or mind mapping could also help with revision.
While not wrong, this approach overlooked the real reasons why many students struggle with effective revision.
Research has highlighted a troubling connection between test anxiety and poorer performance, along with a clear link between exam proximity and rising mental health challenges, which raises an important question:
Is DSA funding truly equipping students to tackle exam preparation effectively?
The Two Truths of Revision
There is evidence that consistently shows which revision methods work most effectively, namely active recall and spaced repetition.
An awful lot of students don’t use those methods - they don’t know about them, don’t know how to implement them, or think that doing so would take too much time and energy.
That’s why we developed Luna—to make effective revision accessible to all students. Here, briefly, is how:
To Test is Best
Active recall, such as testing yourself with flashcards, is the gold standard for effective revision. But traditional flashcards take hours to create.
With Luna, you can turn study materials into flashcards in about a minute. Students who wish to adjust wording or switch question types can do so if needed, but it’s still much, much faster and easier than manual methods.
The Power of Reps
Combining active recall with spaced repetition is the ultimate revision power up. This means test yourself a number of times, and gradually increase the time between tests. This has been repeatedly proven to supercharge retention.
Using Luna, students can quickly create a schedule based on spaced repetition to help maximise retention. Plus, it calculates when to review cards so students focus more time on the areas they are less confident with, ensuring they are using their study time as effectively as possible.
Evidence-backed revision, plus...
Additionally, Luna is really simple to use, can be accessed on any device with a web browser, uses AI to only convert learning material into flashcards rather than generate potentially inaccurate information, and finally, can adapt the frequency of reviews to suit different learning profiles.
So, if this sounds like it makes sense, and that your students might benefit from this approach, Luna may be an option to discuss with them.
If you’d like to see how Luna can transform revision for your students, book a walkthrough.
Book before 18th December 2024 to be automatically entered into our prize draw to win a Christmas hamper!
