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

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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

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part two then about review tips and if

you haven’t please please please make

sure to hit the like button and share

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the lesson i’ll do that now facebook is

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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

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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

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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

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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