Are you looking to improve your year-on-year exam results? Do you find yourself struggling to teach the higher-order skills required because you’re spending too much time learning content? Do you often reach Easter holidays only to find that you haven’t even started some topics? If so, we can help you with Tier 3 memory techniques.
While most schools have already mastered Tier 1 and are making progress with Tier 2, effective learning requires the use of Tier 3 techniques right from the beginning of the course. Fortunately, not many schools are in Tier 0, where students attend lessons and quickly become overloaded by content, leading to cognitive overload, the cram-and-forget cycle, and poor exam results.
Tier 1
In Tier 1, knowledge organizers are available for each topic area, and students have some prior knowledge before entering lessons. However, cognitive overload can still occur, and content is often only revisited during frantic cramming sessions in the weeks before exams. As a result, students can become overwhelmed by the amount of content to remember, and their knowledge can become confused and truncated.
Tier 2
In Tier 2, pre-teaching and generalized spaced retrieval are used, with knowledge organizers available for each topic area. While this approach reduces the need for cramming before exams, it still requires revision lessons and can take time away from higher-order skills development. Additionally, spaced retrieval is not personalized or gamified, making it less efficient for long-term recall, and timelines and chronological understanding can remain insecure, leading to poorer exam performance.
Tier 3
In Tier 3, pre-teaching is made memorable using visual mnemonics that wrap up the most difficult information first, such as dates, and secure it as a solid timeline in long-term memory. Individualized spaced retrieval is used, and cramming is not required. Regular revisions of the timeline are done using Quizterix flashcards or Sproc’s History Quiz online, which uses AI to intelligently interrupt forgetting and increase memory strength.
By using these Tier 3 memory techniques, learning is never lost, and content only needs to be learned once, reducing the time needed for content revision. Both Quizterix card games and Sproc’s History Quiz app are gamified, making learning more engaging and enjoyable for students. Students can even perform speed runs of date recall on Sproc’s History Quiz, with some users recalling 30 dates in under 2 minutes! Recall under stress further enhances long-term memory strength.
Students who use Tier 3 techniques start each topic with a sound chronological framework and a wide range of facts, enabling them to develop higher-order skills. They enter the room feeling like historians, with knowledge at their fingertips, generating confident questions and debate. As learning is never lost, students also bring knowledge from other topics into new ones, enhancing their long-term memory strength and overall academic performance.
In summary, if you want to improve your exam results and spend more time developing higher-order skills, Tier 3 memory techniques can help. By using visual mnemonics, personalized and gamified spaced retrieval, and regular revisions, students can master content more efficiently, allowing them to focus on the development of higher-order skills and achieve better exam results.
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