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What is Metacognition with Adam Robbins

Exam preparation can be challenging with multiple GCSE subjects to revise for.  Watch our video with Adam Robbins expert author for Oxford Revise and science teacher talk about metacognition and how it enables successful revision.
Video Transcript
Hi, my name is Adam. I’m an author for Oxford Revise and science teacher and I’m here to talk to you about something called metacognition.

Now, metacognition is a word that’s quite technical in some ways, but actually it’s an incredibly simple thing. Metacognition simply means thinking about your own thinking.

And what’s that really mean? Well, first of all, we’re going to need to look at the knowledge that you need. And when it comes to revision and improving our metacognition in our revision, what we need to do is we need to have knowledge.

We need to know what we need to know. We need to know if we know that or not. And that’s not just a reflection on oh I feel like I’m really good at this subject, so I must know it. Or I’m familiar with it or anything like that. It means I need to actually prove I know things, so quizzing and testing are really, really important.

And these are strategies and we can pick strategies that we use, and it’s our job to pick important strategies that work.

We don’t want to pick highlighting and things like this. We want to pick retrieval practice. We want to pick exam practice. We want to pick mind mapping. Things we know that have tangible benefits to improving our ability to recall and retrieve information when needed in an exam.

And metacognitive learners are also really, really good at reflecting on their progress. So what they do is they think back at what they’ve just done, and they try to measure, you know, do they now know more? Did it work? Was it a good strategy to use? Could they do something different? And where are they going to do next?

So if I was going to give you 5 tips for being more metacognitively successful when you revise

Tip #1 would be make sure you know your specification OK know what you need to know in the first place.

Tip #2 would be don’t rely on your feelings, OK? Make sure you quiz yourself and test yourself and prove you know things

Tip #3 would be be organized. Know how long you’ve got, know what you need to know. And know how you’re going to learn it.

Tip #4 would be remember learning is difficult. It’s awkward, it’s uncomfortable because we’re doing new things. Things are not very. Good at if. It’s too easy. It’s not learning.

Tip #5 would be check regularly with yourself. Is it working what you’re doing? Are you improving? If you’re not, talk to a parent, talk to a teacher. What could you do differently?

Good luck!

Revision books

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