How to maximize your English review sessions
my name is alicia and in this week’s
live lesson we are going to talk about
how to maximize your review sessions i
talk a lot about how important it is to
review review all of the things that you
study but we don’t often talk about what
to do and how to get the most out of
your review sessions so that’s what
we’re going to look at in this week’s
session okay so as you join please
please please make sure to hit the like
button and of course share this lesson
so that other people can find it that
would be super super cool
uh as we wait for people to join us live
as always a couple of quick
announcements super quick announcements
first announcement is about this banner
at the bottom of the screen it says win
a lifetime premium account for the end
of the year or for thanksgiving time the
team put together
this uh contest so
if you click the link in the description
uh on youtube below the video on youtube
or above the video on facebook you will
find this page
and if you scroll down on this page you
will see
the entry information so you can enter
to get a free lifetime account if you
want to study with us so if you are
already a member you can still enter for
this and if you don’t win you still will
get all of these ebooks too so check
this out uh you can find of course the
entry for the contest there will be a
bunch of good stuff that you can
download right away there too so check
this out if you want to uh get this
stuff and or to enter for a lifetime
account the premium account
uh forever pretty cool huh okay so
that’s announcement number one
announcement number two is as always if
you have questions for me if you have
questions for me about grammar
vocabulary whatever culture
prepositions whatever you can send them
to me for our weekly question and answer
series called ask alicia this is an old
screenshot it is now out on the youtube
channel every week again so you can find
it there uh you can send your questions
to me at englishclass101.com
ask hyphen alicia there is a link in the
youtube description for this too so if
you have a question after today’s live
stream just send it to me i will
definitely read your question and i will
maybe answer your question in this
series okay cool it looks like
everything’s rolling i don’t see
facebook yet maybe facebook is a little
bit slow today
so let’s get in to today’s topic uh some
people on youtube hi youtube mta
enthusiast hey victor fatima fenu oh
danier hello alfonso hi juan hello good
okay it looks like that is working okay
so let’s get to today’s lesson boards
this is what we are going to talk about
in today’s lesson
so uh today’s topic today everything
today is about review we’re going to
focus on reviewing in today’s lesson so
the first thing i want to talk about is
what is review and why should we do it
second we’re going to talk about tips
for review and third we’re going to talk
about some ideas so some maybe ways that
you can review
that hopefully so hopefully everyone can
find something there okay so if you are
just joining uh and if you haven’t
already please please please make sure
to like this video and share it so other
people can find the lesson okay let’s
get into it let’s start
okay let’s start with
reviewing what is review what is review
so a review session or a review study
block is um when you look at information
you have already studied you look at
information you’ve already studied so in
a textbook for example that means you
look at old information again you
refresh your mind or you look at old
vocabulary words again you look at
something you studied once in the past
so this can be vocabulary it can be
grammar you can do listening review you
can do speaking review you can do
writing review so i talk a lot on this
channel and like in live streams about
reviewing and why it’s important so
let’s talk about why you should review
in your study sessions okay so
first thing maybe the most important
thing
with review if you review your study
topics you remember information better
long term so this means if you study
just once like a vocabulary word just
one time you’re probably going to forget
it unless you use that vocabulary word a
lot in your daily life
if you review something so that means
you study it again and again and again
the chances of you remembering that
information in the long term not just
the short term
but in the long term months and years
you have a better chance of remembering
the information if you review
okay so this is super super important
you remember information better long
term if you review it okay
so second thing
you can refresh your brain on the
details of something so that means if
you studied like a really really kind of
complicated or difficult grammar point
and you review the grammar point later
then you can remember the details of
that grammar point okay so you can
refresh your brain on the details of
these things
all right
then next one you can use review to
check your progress i think maybe many
people don’t think about this one but
you can use reviewing
to check your progress what do i mean by
that i mean the first time you study
something maybe it’s difficult or it’s
kind of challenging for you yeah so
you review it like a week or two weeks
later and see how much did i learn like
did i learn this is this easy for me now
so you can use review
to check your progress like if you
review something from last month and you
think oh this is easy now that means you
improved right so review is a really
good way to check your progress okay
the next thing you can do with review is
find new points for study find new
points for study so that means
when you review maybe you find some new
vocabulary words you didn’t see the
first time or maybe you realize like oh
i need to study this other grammar point
too that’s
like that’s related to this review point
so you can find some new points for
study
and finally you just get more practice
right so with your review sessions
you’re practicing more too so it’s super
super important to review this one as i
said is so important you can remember
information better in the long term if
you review it okay
cool all right uh a laratam says i
barely have time to review yeah we’re
going to talk about how to put your
review inside your study sessions yeah
okay
cool so this is part one what is review
and why should we do it looks like
facebook made it yay facebook is here hi
facebook uh evariste and oscar jose
joy hi wch marek lami hello welcome
facebookers okay good everyone is here
so this is part one about why we should
review we’ll take a super quick break
and then go to review tips okay so if
you missed it earlier uh about this
banner at the bottom of the screen there
is a free lifetime premium account there
are 34 of them that our team is giving
away for thanksgiving for this uh kind
of appreciation season right so if you
missed it you can check the link below
the video on youtube or above the video
on facebook i showed you earlier but if
you enter
if you have an account already you can
still enter for this one that’s okay if
you enter you will you can get these uh
ebooks too these pdf ebooks too so if
you don’t get the premium account that’s
okay you can still get these there are
nine of them so check them out uh it’s
pretty cool pretty good deal so and i
think oh the entry for this is until
november 19th okay so make sure if you
want to enter for this do that as soon
as possible okay so that is our big
announcement for this week okay go to
part two then about review tips and if
you haven’t please please please make
sure to hit the like button and share
this video so that other people can find
the lesson i’ll do that now facebook is
working so i will do that now
like share buttom okay cool
all right so let’s go to review tips now
let’s talk about some review tips
so uh let’s go to the first one here
i’ll share some examples uh in this
section so you can see what i mean and
see how you can use these tips for your
study as well so first tip just review
often review often uh so that means
maybe like you have a once a week review
session or
my preference what i try to do not just
for language study but for anything i’m
trying to learn
i
uh review inside my study session always
i make some time inside my study session
for review so we’ll talk about that a
little bit later
so the tip review often review often
okay
second when you review
try to use the information in a
different way when you review try to use
the information in a different way this
is super important for language studies
specifically so for example
let’s say you review a grammar point in
your textbook okay great so one grammar
point and you check the sentences you
wrote so you open your textbook and you
look at the sentences you wrote the
first time you studied this grammar
point okay good so you reviewed the
grammar in your brain then what the next
step for example
use the same grammar and say
some sentences okay so what’s happening
here
the first one the first point you are
reading right you’re reading the grammar
you’re reading the information you’re
understanding it like from an input
kind of uh thinking right you’re
inputting
then
you review the sentences you wrote so
that’s output right you’re creating
sentences you’re creating something with
your hands right you’re writing and
putting the information together to make
a sentence
then you use it in a new way so you use
the same grammar to speak right so try
to use the information in a new way one
problem i sometimes see with review in
students they just read
all their review is just reading and
it’s great to review uh like to read
things again of course
but with especially with something like
language make sure you use it as well so
find different ways to use these things
okay
all right cool so that is a point two
here then
next
if you can make the review process
automatic if you can make the review
process automatic so what do i mean by
that someone earlier said uh that they
don’t have time to review so
this i think the best example of this is
with vocabulary study so you can do this
with spaced repetition flashcards i talk
about this a lot on this channel so
spaced repetition flashcards are
flashcards on your computer or on your
phone your smartphone and they are there
it’s a group of vocabulary words you
study right but what’s special about
spaced repetition flashcards
are when you get the answer wrong
the app or the program remembers which
word was wrong and they’ll show it to
you the app will show it to you again
really soon
so you don’t need to remember which was
hard and which was easy the app
remembers for you so it’s it quizzes you
you you get tested on the hard ones the
challenging words more often so these
are super super good vocabulary tools if
you use our website if you use
englishclass101.com we have um spaced
repetition flashcards that you can use
there and of course there are other apps
that do this as well but this is a super
super good one i used these a few years
ago um when i was studying japanese
language i use this i talk about this
sometimes i use this on my commute my
morning and my evening commute like 15
minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in
the evening every day like every working
day and my vocabulary went like this so
i really recommend this this is super
super good and it’s automatic you don’t
have to think about it
then
use a 5 to 10 minute review session as
your study warm-up this is another thing
i like to do not just for language study
i do this for like music as well when
i’m practicing a piece of music
i use this review session as my study
warm up so when i sit down like to to do
my studies or to do my practice for the
day i look at what i looked at the
previous session the previous practice
time and that becomes my study warm up
so you could do this with grammar you
could do this with listening with
speaking whatever your previous study
sessions topic can become the warm-up
for this for your next study session so
that’s like five to ten minutes to
review your previous things right so
check this out check out this uh you
might try this out rather instead of
check this out okay
okay i’m looking for your questions what
are the flash cards oh these are called
uh spaced repetition flash cards spaced
repetition flash cards
if you are an english class 101.com user
you can find them the the flash cards on
the website or if you google space
repetition flash cards you can find some
apps as well there too
spaced what is the meaning of spaced oh
yeah so we can talk about this uh i talk
about this sometimes spaced repetition
and this is the whole point of review
actually so space means you study
something and you leave a space like one
day or a week or something and then you
study it again so this theory this
learning theory is that you give your
brain you give your mind some time
to understand the information and as you
start to forget
you study it again and you refresh your
brain again so this is the type of
learning uh this theory of learning
is very very popular and it’s very uh
very commonly taught and used now so
this idea of giving your brain like a
small break between study sessions
improves long-term memory okay yes so
this is what this is the idea behind
these review tips okay
uh arun says what we learn in the
previous topic is important because that
makes things easier it makes things
easier to learn new things yeah so as
you if you review and really understand
your previous topic you’ll
be able to carry that you’ll be able to
use that as you move forward in your
studies okay
all right that’s all for part two okay
so these are a few tips a few tips
general tips about learning and then in
part three we’re going to talk about
some specific ideas some more specific
ideas okay cool so if you missed it
earlier this banner at the bottom of the
screen talks about the free lifetime
premium account so our team put together
for uh this season this thankful season
34 people 34 people will get a free
lifetime premium account check the link
below the video on youtube or above the
video
on facebook to enter for this i showed
you this page earlier uh so if you click
the link you will find this so to enter
just put your email address here if you
have an account you can still enter but
the deadline is right here it’s very
small the deadline is november 19th so
if you want to enter for this please go
very very quickly and do that and if you
enter you get these free ebooks there
are nine of them here so nouns
adjectives conversations so just from
entering you can get these too so check
this out uh and good luck i hope you win
okay all right so let’s go to the last
part for today’s lesson some ideas some
ideas for your review
as well says do you have online courses
yes at englishclass101.com the website i
just showed you that is where we have
our our english lesson so check it out
there are lots of videos by me
okay let’s go to the last part for today
and if you haven’t please please please
make sure to like and share this video
so other people can find the lesson
okay let’s go
to
the last point review ideas so this is a
big list of some ideas you can use to
review in different ways to review
different content in different ways okay
first study vocabulary words again okay
so we talked about vocabulary study with
spaced repetition flashcards so this is
an easy one a really easy one study your
vocabulary words again of course if you
don’t use spaced repetition flashcards
that’s okay like maybe you have a list
you keep a list in a notebook or a list
in like a journal just review that you
know once a week or every couple days so
make sure you study your vocabulary
words again i see lots of you in the
chat and lots of you write to me too
about how to remember vocabulary words
and the answer is to study them again
and again and again
okay
then next idea look at previous grammar
points and create new sentences and
questions look at previous grammar
points create new sentences and
questions so if you’re using a textbook
or maybe you do like uh video lessons
like grammar lessons look at the
sentences you wrote the first time right
make sure to practice yeah with writing
these two and create some new sentences
and create
questions i often see like learners
often don’t practice question making so
practice using that grammar to make a
question if you can
okay so previous grammar points create
new sentences and
we talked about it before
practice writing and practice speaking
too so don’t just read this is also very
very important
okay
next one
here’s another one if you are uh if you
want to review something you read before
you can read articles and parts of books
again
especially
parts with new vocabulary words so read
articles parts of books maybe a
newspaper depending on your level
whatever so
focus i said especially parts with new
vocabulary words so for example if
you’re reading a book or an article
and you found a page or two pages where
there are lots of new vocabulary words
for you go back and review that page or
go back and review that part and check
like did i learn the new vocabulary
words no okay i need to study this again
so that’s a really good way to check
your progress and see do i need to study
more or should i move on so
especially check those parts with new
vocabulary words okay
alrighty onward uh okay the next tip for
listening if you’re building your
listening skills uh listen to the audio
again
uh of course so if you have like a
practice uh practice audio files like
mp3s or something or just podcasts maybe
too of course you can listen to the
audio again but i really recommend
you use a script to help you catch new
words so if you’re using like a
listening textbook or if you have a
podcast or some other audio file that
has a script great so check that script
if there’s no script then maybe it’s
difficult so that’s why it’s good to
have an audio practice some audio
practice materials with a script but
check the script to help you catch the
new words so when i was teaching um
listening lessons the students would
often say it’s really hard to catch all
the words and that’s okay so a
kind of a flow a review flow for your
listening practice
is like the first time you listen once
and then
listen a second time listen a third time
reading the script and then come back
later and listen again so try a few
different times and ident or look for
the words that are really difficult for
you okay
all right uh then one more
is listen to recordings of yourself
speaking and think about what to improve
this one scares a lot of people a lot of
people are really like nervous about
recording themselves so when i say
record yourself i mean you can just use
your phone like use your phone to do
audio just audio recording or take a
video if you like lots of people say i
don’t like it i don’t like to hear my
voice i don’t like so this video or this
recording is just for you for your
studies so it’s actually
very helpful to check yourself and you
can check those old videos later and see
your progress too
you might be surprised actually when you
listen to your pronunciation or when you
see like the way you’re speaking or
something you might be surprised what
you find when you check a recording of
yourself i use this uh for music
practice a lot actually i review the
videos and check to see like what could
i do better
uh like what parts did i think sounded
good but actually were kind of strange
so
you can use these recordings
to help yourself a lot so don’t be
afraid to record yourself and listen to
it later you can compare that to a
native speaker as well
okay so these are a few ideas of course
there are many many different ideas for
your review sessions the key is to make
sure you refresh your brain on the
information you’ve already studied
that’s the key here so don’t study just
one time lots of people write to me
about having trouble remembering things
and
my first like mental medicine for that
is make sure you review review review
okay
all right uh i’m looking for
other points aloratem is active recall a
good idea yes of course active recall is
extremely important what is active
recall active recall is uh using your
brain actively to try to remember
information so not just reading
information and remembering what it is
but like actually trying to create
something like remembering the
information and creating with it yeah
super super important
lots of people are saying that they feel
they sound terrible when they record
themselves and again if this it’s not
about how you think you sound right it’s
about listening to your grammar to your
pronunciation and so on so you have to
kind of let go
let go of that and also you are the only
person listening to it right you don’t
have to share your recording with anyone
it’s just for you to practice right it’s
a tool for yourself so try to see it as
that yeah
okay
cool so i am near the end of my time for
today oh my gosh so i will wrap up
today’s lesson so that was all about
review why we should review some tips
for reviewing and how to review so if
you missed it here are today’s lesson
boards you can take a screenshot
all right so review why should we review
we talked about this here are a few tips
for your review sessions and some ideas
for how you can review if you like okay
cool so that was a very nice topic
please don’t forget the importance of
reviewing okay uh sunny says how am i
going to improve my writing you can
apply the same tips for sure so look at
the things that you wrote in the past
and try to write new things and again be
use those new grammar points you’re
learning in your writing too okay so the
same ideas can apply
okay uh
next lesson next lesson so i have to
finish today’s lesson but i will of
course be back next week next week is
november 24th that will be the date for
our lesson that is wednesday 10 p.m
eastern standard time that is new york
city time if you don’t know your local
time please google it or you can set a
notification on youtube or on facebook
or if you follow me on instagram i
always share a topic link and a reminder
in my story so check that out you can
follow me uh the link is in the youtube
description next week i’m going to focus
on the thanksgiving theme we’re going to
talk about how to say thank you and
express appreciation so how do we
express that we feel grateful or how do
we express uh appreciation for someone
or something else this will be the focus
for next week’s lesson so please join me
okay uh we have to wrap up this lesson
oh my gosh i’m on time that’s amazing i
have one more minute i will check your
questions
um
let’s see
some someone writes no matter how much i
listen to myself it’s always perfect
really i’m not perfect everybody makes
mistakes sometimes surely so think of if
you feel that you’re perfect maybe that
means that you need to level up right so
find some new vocabulary words find some
new grammar find something to challenge
yourself yeah
which artist uses better grammar you
mean like a singer
everybody most people use grammar i
think in it correctly though some
artists maybe use it differently there’s
no such thing as the better grammar in
that case uh anyway let’s wrap this up
before the conversation goes all over
the place so uh again that will be it
for this week thank you very much for
joining me don’t forget to join me again
next time uh if you want to get the
banner promotion
here is the information again
you can win this free lifetime account
check the link below the video if you’re
watching on youtube or above the video
if you’re watching on facebook to enter
for this and you can also find my social
media accounts there and you can send
your questions to me for ask alicia
there too so check the description uh
for all of that okay so i will say
goodbye for now so thanks very much for
joining me for this week’s live lesson
enjoy the rest of your day enjoy the
rest of your week and i will see you