Book excerpt: In Exam Literacy: A guide to doing what works (and not what doesn't) to better prepare students for exams, Jake Hunton focuses on the latest cognitive research into revision techniques and delivers proven strategies which actually work. Foreword by Professor John Dunlosky. 'Read, highlight, reread, repeat if such a revision cycle sounds all too wearily familiar, you and your students need a better route to exam success. And in light of the recent decision to make all subjects at GCSE linear, so that students will be tested in one-off sittings, it will be even more important that students are well equipped to acquire and recall key content ahead of their exams. In this wide-ranging guide to effective exam preparation, Jake Hunton casts a careful eye over a wide range of research into revision techniques and details the strategies which have been proven to deliver the best results. With plenty of practical suggestions and subject-specific examples, Exam Literacy provides teachers with user-friendly advice on how they can make the content they cover stick, and shares up-to-date, evidence-based information on: - The nature of learning and the various types of memory. - How to improve students' retention of knowledge and recall of content. - Why popular revision techniques, such as rereading, highlighting and summarising,may not be as effective as you think. - How revision strategies that have been identified as being more effective such as interleaving, elaborative interrogation, self-explanation and retrieval practice can be embedded into day-to-day teaching. - How students can be encouraged to make use of these winning strategies when revising independently.