How to revise effectively (without turning into a human highlighter)

There’s a particular kind of optimism that appears every term.

It usually arrives at about 8:30pm, armed with brand-new highlighters, a packet of sticky notes, and a tragic belief that “rewriting the textbook” counts as revision.

I love the enthusiasm. I really do.
But if revision were a sport, highlighting would be the warm-up jog… and most students are doing it for three hours, then wondering why they still can’t answer a 6-marker.

So here’s a practical, no-nonsense guide to revising effectively — the stuff that actually moves marks — with a bit of humour, because otherwise we’d all cry into our flashcards.

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1) Revision isn’t “taking in information” — it’s practising getting it out

If you only do one thing, do this:

Test yourself. Early. Often. Slightly annoyingly.

Because exams don’t ask:

“Have you seen this page before?”

They ask:

“Can you retrieve it under pressure with a pen that suddenly stops working?”

Best tools:

• Blurting (write everything you know, then check)

• Practice questions

• Flashcards (done properly — see below)

• Past papers + mark schemes

If it feels a bit uncomfortable, good. That’s your brain lifting weights.

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2) Start with the topics that make you go “yeah… I’ll do that later”

Everyone has a “later” topic.
It’s usually algebra, electricity, enzymes, or that one poem where nobody knows what’s going on (including the poet).

Do a quick traffic-light audit:

• Green: I can answer questions without notes.

• Amber: I sort of know it, but I wobble.

• Red: If you asked me now I’d leave the country.

Then revise in this order:
Red → Amber → Green (quick check only).

Green feels nice.
Red gets results.

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3) The “45–15” method (because humans aren’t built for 3-hour marathons)

Try:

• 45 mins focused work

• 15 mins break
  Repeat 2–3 times, then stop.

On the break:

• Move

• Drink water

• Snack

• Do not “just quickly check” social media unless you fancy losing 40 minutes to a video of a dog reviewing hotel rooms.

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4) Make revision active: turn notes into questions

If you have notes already, brilliant — now convert them.

Instead of:

• “Ohm’s Law: V = IR”

Make:

• “If V = 12V and R = 4Ω, what is I?”

• “What happens to current if resistance doubles (voltage constant)?”

• “What’s the difference between resistance and resistivity?”

Your goal is to create something you can test yourself on.

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5) Flashcards: the right way (and the way that wastes your time)

✅ Good flashcards:

• One question, one answer

• Include examples and common mistakes

• Used with spaced repetition (coming up)

❌ Bad flashcards:

• A whole page of notes squeezed onto a card

• “Define photosynthesis” with a paragraph answer you never actually say

• Cards you read like a tiny textbook (adorable, but no)

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6) Spaced repetition: revise little and often (instead of panic and chaos)

Spacing is revision’s secret weapon.

A simple schedule:

• Day 1: learn it

• Day 2: quick test

• Day 4: test again

• Day 7: test again

• Day 14: test again

Short, repeated retrieval beats one massive “revision day” every time.

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7) Interleaving: mix topics like an exam does

Students love revising in neat blocks:

“Today I do only waves. Tomorrow only electricity. Friday only suffering.”

But exams don’t work like that. They bounce.

So mix it:

• 20 mins topic A

• 20 mins topic B

• 20 mins topic C
  Then circle back.

This forces your brain to choose the right method, not just repeat the same one.

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8) Past papers: how to use them without fooling yourself

A past paper is only useful if you do it like this:

1. Do questions without notes

2. Mark with the mark scheme

3. For each mistake, write:

   • What I did wrong

   • What the examiner wanted

   • A model answer (or corrected method)

4. Re-do the same style question 2–3 days later

If you do a past paper, look at the mark scheme, and say “ah yes, makes sense” — that’s not revision. That’s mark scheme appreciation.

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9) The “two-page rule” for every topic

For each topic, aim to end up with:

• One page of key facts / equations / definitions

• One page of exam-style questions you can answer

That becomes your personal “exam pack”.

It’s also a brilliant way to stop revision turning into a stationery hobby.

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10) What to do the week before the exam

• Daily: 30–60 mins retrieval + practice questions

• Rotate weak topics

• Do timed questions

• Sleep like it’s part of your grade (because it is)

The night before:

• Light review only

• Pack kit

• No “I’ll just learn the whole of organic chemistry from scratch” heroics

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A simple revision plan you can copy

Mon–Fri (60–90 mins):

• 10 mins: quick flashcard review

• 40 mins: weak topic retrieval + corrections

• 20 mins: exam questions (timed if possible)

Weekend (2 hours):

• 1 past-paper section (or 2 shorter sets)

• Mark + make corrections

• Make 5–10 flashcards from mistakes

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Final thought

Effective revision is boring in the way that winning is boring.

It’s not about motivation.
It’s about a system that works even when you can’t be bothered.

And yes — you can absolutely do it without becoming a human highlighter.

Just how many spare camera batteries do you need?

There are two kinds of filmmakers:

1. The ones who carry one battery and “trust the universe”.

2. The ones who carry eight, plus a spreadsheet, plus a small solar farm.

I have been both. Usually on the same day.

Because here’s the truth: the number of spare batteries you need isn’t “a number”. It’s a relationship between (a) how long you’re filming, (b) what you’re filming with, and (c) how likely it is that the universe will choose today to teach you humility.

The simple rule (that actually works)

Bring enough battery for your expected filming time… then add one extra battery “for chaos”.

Chaos is: wind, cold, 4K/8K, image stabilisation, autofocus, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a mic receiver you forgot was powered, and that moment when someone says:
“Could you just do that again, but… better?”

Start with a quick battery reality check

Ask yourself:

• How long will I be rolling for real? (Not “how long will I be out”.)
  A two-hour sailing session can become 30 minutes of actual recording… or two hours if you’re capturing everything “just in case”.

• What are you filming on?
  Phones sip power until they don’t. Mirrorless cameras can be efficient… until you add external monitors, IBIS, high frame rates, and continuous AF. 360 cameras have their own special talent for eating batteries while you’re distracted by “how cool this looks”.

• Can you charge during the day?
  Car charger? USB-C PD? Power bank? Solar? If yes, you can carry fewer batteries and more charging capability.

A practical “how many spares?” guide

Use this as a starting point (then adjust for your own kit and habits):

A) Short shoot (up to ~1 hour of actual recording)

• Minimum: 1 spare

• Comfortable: 2 spares

• If it’s cold / you’re filming 4K/slow-mo: add 1

B) Half-day shoot (2–4 hours of mixed filming)

• Minimum: 2 spares

• Comfortable: 3–4 spares

• If you’re using an external monitor or lots of AF: lean to 4

C) Full day / event coverage

• Minimum: 4 spares

• Comfortable: 6+ spares or a power solution (USB-C PD / dummy battery / V-mount style setup)

• If you cannot charge at all: assume you’ll need more than you think

D) Boats, sailing, outdoor winter filming

• Minimum: take your normal number and add one more
  Cold weather can make a perfectly good battery behave like it’s nearing retirement.

The hidden battery killers (a short list of villains)

If your battery life feels “mysteriously short”, it’s usually one of these:

• High resolution / high bitrate recording

• High frame rate (50/60/120fps)

• Image stabilisation working hard

• Continuous autofocus and face tracking

• Bright screens (especially external monitors)

• Wireless features (Wi-Fi/Bluetooth)

• Long “camera on, not recording” time (the silent assassin)

A smarter approach than hoarding batteries

Sometimes the answer isn’t more batteries. It’s a plan.

1) Power bank + USB-C PD charging
Great for breaks between takes (and for phones/360 cameras). Even better if your camera can run/charge via USB-C while operating.

2) In-car charging
If you’re travelling between locations, that car becomes your mobile power station.

3) One “big battery” option
Depending on your setup: dummy battery to power bank, or a larger external pack for longer stints (especially for video).

4) Label and rotate
Number your batteries. Rotate use. Retire the “problem child” that always dies early.

My “leave-the-house” battery checklist

Before you go:

• Batteries charged ✅

• Spares packed ✅

• Charger packed ✅

• Cable(s) packed ✅

• Power bank / car adapter ✅

• Batteries stored safely (caps/case, no loose batteries rolling around) ✅

Because nothing says “professional video workflow” quite like rummaging in a bag for a battery while your subject drifts away downriver.

So… how many do you need?

If you want a one-line answer:

• Casual filming: 1–2 spares

• Serious filming: 3–4 spares

• All-day / mission-critical / cold / boat day: 4–6 spares or spares + a proper charging/power strategy

And always, always pack one extra battery for chaos.

R&D — From test tubes to tell-tales: building an electronic burgee

 

R&D — From test tubes to tell-tales: building an electronic burgee

There’s a myth that R&D only happens in white coats, surrounded by fume cupboards and the faint smell of “who left the hotplate on?”. In our world, research and development is just as likely to happen in a buoyancy aid, crouched in the bottom of a dinghy, wondering whether that “slight breeze” is actually a wind shift or just your hat trying to make a break for it.

Because here’s the thing: sailing is basically applied physics with occasional splashing. And once you’ve spent a lifetime building experiments, teaching students to measure the unmeasurable, and persuading sensors to behave themselves, it’s only a matter of time before you look at a masthead burgee and think: Yes… but what if it had data?

The problem: the masthead knows… but the helm doesn’t

A traditional burgee and wind indicator are brilliant—simple, reliable, and they don’t need charging. The only snag is that the truly useful information is happening at the top of the mast, while the people making the decisions are down below doing impressions of a human washing line.

On rivers (hello Thames), wind can be wildly different even a few metres up. Trees, banks, moored boats, bridges—everything interferes. So the burgee might be telling the truth, but it’s telling it to the clouds.

The R&D idea: an electronic burgee you can actually see

So the concept is this:

• A combined weather vane + anemometer at the masthead

• Measurements relayed down the mast (wire or wireless)

• A screen at the foot of the mast showing:

  • Wind direction (relative to the boat’s heading)

  • Wind speed (and ideally gusts)

  • A “trend” indicator (strengthening / easing)

In other words: the masthead’s gossip comes down to deck level, where it can be acted on without a crew member performing an interpretive dance while staring upwards.

Why this matters (especially for learning and coaching)

This isn’t just gadget-lust (although I admit gadgets have a strong pull, like biscuits). An electronic burgee could genuinely help with:

• Training: showing new helms how wind direction relates to boat trim and course

• Tacking and gybing: timing manoeuvres when the wind is behaving oddly along the river

• Sail setup: helping the crew see what changes in downhaul, kicker/gnav, outhaul actually do

• Safety: spotting gusts building before they smack you like a wet duvet

It turns sailing into something you can observe, measure, and learn from, rather than “feel vaguely and argue about afterwards”.

Practical design thoughts (before we invent a new type of disappointment)

If we’re doing this properly, it needs to survive real sailing life, which includes: water, shocks, UV, vibration, and that special kind of accidental abuse known as “launching”.

Key R&D questions:

• Power: small battery? solar trickle? or run a thin cable down the mast?

• Data link: wired (reliable) vs wireless (neat but fussy around masts, water, and interference)

• Ruggedness: waterproofing, salt resistance (for coastal), and impact survival

• Display: sunlight readable, simple icons, big numbers, minimal menus

• Calibration: direction needs a reference (boat heading / mast alignment) so it doesn’t lie politely

The dream is something that’s useful in 3 seconds, not something that requires a PhD and a laptop on a spinnaker bag.

The bigger point: R&D is a mindset, not a department

This is why R&D leaks out of science and into sailing. Once you start asking “how could this be better?” you can’t switch it off. The lab and the boat are both environments where small improvements make a big difference—and where the real world happily punishes sloppy thinking.

So yes, we’re looking at building an electronic burgee. Not because we need more screens in our lives… but because if we can make wind behaviour clearer, training quicker, and sailing safer (and maybe reduce the amount of shouting during a tack), then it’s exactly the kind of R&D that’s worth doing.

And if it all goes wrong? Well… we can always fall back on the traditional system: lick a finger, hold it up, and pretend that was “data”.

 

Using AI tools to help with video editing (subtitles, effects, colour balancing)

There was a time when “post-production” meant tea, biscuits, and the slow realisation that you’d filmed everything… except the bit where you explain the thing. These days, AI has barged into the edit suite like an over-helpful assistant: occasionally brilliant, occasionally confident-and-wrong, but almost always faster than doing it all by hand.

Used sensibly, AI can take the boring, repetitive bits of editing (transcribing, syncing, rough selects, basic colour matching) and give you more time for the bits that actually matter: storytelling, pacing, and making your video look like you planned it that way.

1) Extracting subtitles: the fastest “instant upgrade”

Subtitles are no longer just for accessibility (although that’s reason enough). They’re also for:

• viewers watching on mute,

• short-form platforms that love on-screen text,

• anyone trying to follow a technical explanation at speed.

Typical AI workflow (10–20 minutes instead of 2 hours):

1. Auto-transcribe your timeline or selected clips.

2. Clean up names, jargon, and units (AI always butchers “DaVinci”, “spectrophotometer”, and any student’s surname).

3. Turn transcript into captions and choose a readable style.

4. Export SRT for YouTube, or burn captions in for socials.

If you’re using Adobe Premiere Pro, Speech-to-Text will generate a transcript and create captions directly from it.

If you’re using DaVinci Resolve Studio, the Neural Engine features cover a lot of AI-assisted workflow (and Blackmagic explicitly positions AI as part of Resolve’s toolset).

And if you want a very “edit by typing” approach (especially for talking-head, tuition, or voiceover-heavy videos), Descript is built around transcription-first editing and quick caption creation.

My rule: subtitles from AI are draft subtitles. Always do a quick skim before publishing. One wrong word can turn GCSE chemistry into interpretive poetry.

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2) Graphical effects: letting AI do the donkey work

This is where AI can feel like magic—particularly for tasks that used to mean frame-by-frame misery:

• Smart reframing (turn wide shots into vertical without chopping heads off),

• Object tracking / region tracking (so text or blur sticks to the right thing),

• Background removal / masking assistance (especially for quick explainers),

• Auto “rough cut” helpers (finding pauses, removing silences, assembling selects).

Resolve’s AI tooling (Neural Engine) includes features like object detection, smart reframing, and more—useful for turning one master video into multiple platform-friendly versions.

For more experimental or generative workflows (and the “how on earth did you do that?” factor), platforms like Runway lean hard into AI-powered video creation and manipulation tools.

Practical tip: use AI effects to get you 80% of the way quickly, then finish manually. That last 20% is where “professional” lives.

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3) Colour balancing: AI as your first pass, not your final grade

Colour is the sneaky time thief. AI can help you:

• balance exposure and white balance,

• match shots from different cameras,

• get a consistent “base look” before you do your creative grade.

Resolve’s Neural Engine includes auto colour and colour matching among its AI-driven features.
That’s ideal when you’ve got (say) a Canon on a tripod, a 360 camera doing its own thing, and a phone clip your son grabbed at exactly the wrong colour temperature.

A sensible grading approach:

1. AI auto-colour / shot match to normalise clips.

2. Check with scopes (waveform/vectorscope) because your eyes lie.

3. Then apply your creative grade (warmth, contrast, “sunny day optimism”, etc.).

AI gets you to “not embarrassing” fast. You get yourself to “that looks lovely”.

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The “don’t let AI ruin your life” checklist

• Check proper nouns (people, places, boat names, science terms).

• Watch for confident hallucinations in captions (“jib” becoming “gym”, “gnav” becoming “navy”…).

• Keep a house style: caption fonts, sizes, safe margins, brand colours.

• Don’t overdo effects: if the AI effect is the most interesting part, your story has a problem.

• Archive your transcript: it becomes blog material, revision notes, worksheet text, and searchable video metadata.

 

The Leitner System for Flashcards (aka “Spaced Repetition Without the Spreadsheet Panic”)

Flashcards have a bit of an image problem. They’re either seen as the magic key to top grades, or as tiny bits of card you’ll lovingly create… and then never look at again.
The truth is: flashcards are brilliant, but only if you use them in a way that matches how memory actually works. That’s where the Leitner System comes in — a gloriously simple method that turns “random revision” into a routine that builds long-term recall.

What is the Leitner System?

The Leitner System is a spaced repetition method for flashcards. Instead of revising every card every day (which is exhausting and unnecessary), you sort your cards into boxes (or piles). Cards you find easy are reviewed less often. Cards you struggle with come back more frequently.
In other words: you spend your time where it actually helps.

The basic setup (five boxes, zero drama)

You can do this with proper flashcard boxes, envelopes, a set of labelled food tubs, or five piles on the kitchen table (if your family don’t mind living in a stationary shop).

• Box 1 (Daily-ish): New cards and ones you got wrong.

• Box 2: Cards you got right once.

• Box 3: Cards you got right a few times.

• Box 4: Cards you mostly know.

• Box 5 (Victory Lap): Cards you know really well.

A common review schedule looks like:

• Box 1: every day

• Box 2: every 2 days

• Box 3: twice a week

• Box 4: weekly

• Box 5: fortnightly (or “occasionally to stay smug”)

You don’t have to be perfect. Consistency beats perfection every time.

How cards move (the bit that makes it work)

This is the whole system in one rule:

• If you get a card right: it moves up a box (reviewed less often).

• If you get it wrong: it goes back to Box 1 (reviewed more often).

That’s it. No complicated apps required (though apps can help). The system naturally gives you more practice on weak areas, and gradually reduces the time you spend on things you already know.

Why it’s so effective (in plain English)

The Leitner System works because it uses two powerful learning ideas:

1. Retrieval practice: Trying to pull an answer out of your brain strengthens memory more than re-reading notes.

2. Spacing: Revisiting information with gaps in between helps your brain store it long-term.

If revision is like building a wall, Leitner isn’t “adding more bricks”. It’s cementing the ones that keep wobbling.

What makes a good flashcard (and what makes a terrible one)

A flashcard should test one clear thing.

Good:

• “What is osmosis?”

• “State Newton’s 2nd law.”

• “What is the difference between ionic and covalent bonding?”

• “Define opportunity cost.”

Not so good:

• “Explain EVERYTHING about photosynthesis.”

• “Tell me all the equations in Physics Paper 1.”

• “Describe the entire Cold War (but keep it brief).”

If you need paragraphs, that’s not a flashcard — that’s an essay wearing a tiny hat.

How to use Leitner for GCSE and A-Level (fast and practical)

• Make cards from exam mark schemes (gold dust for wording).

• Use short answers that match what examiners reward.

• Mix factual recall (definitions, equations, key terms) with mini-application:

  • “What happens to rate if temperature increases? Why?”

  • “Explain why increasing surface area increases reaction rate.”

And crucially: say the answer out loud before flipping the card. If you “sort of knew it”, that’s your brain negotiating. Make it commit.

Paper vs apps: which is better?

• Paper cards are brilliant for younger students and hands-on learners. Also: no notifications.

• Apps (like Anki or Quizlet) make spacing automatic and are great for busy students.

The best system is the one the student will actually use. The second best is the one they’ll use after you’ve removed TikTok from their phone (I’m joking… mostly).

A tiny warning: don’t confuse making cards with learning

Making flashcards can feel productive — and it is a bit — but the learning comes from testing yourself repeatedly over time.
If a student has made 400 gorgeous flashcards and revised none of them, they haven’t created a revision system. They’ve created an arts-and-crafts project.

The simple starting plan

If you want the smallest possible way to start:

1. Make 20 flashcards from one topic.

2. Use 3 boxes (New / Learning / Secure).

3. Revise for 10 minutes a day.

4. Let the boxes do the thinking.

You’ll be amazed how quickly “I keep forgetting this” turns into “Oh, that one again… fine.”