A revision tool that’s easy to use, effective and free! Exploring Socrative for Geography revision.

 There are so many tried and tested revision strategies out there, as well as numerous new tools such as websites and apps that are designed to facilitate effective revision. One that I discovered last year and have since recommended to colleagues is Socrative.

Socrative is a "smart student response system" which allows you to tailor make revision quizzes for your classes, activate the quiz for the students then get an instant report with a breakdown of each person's mark (via a spreadsheet emailed to you once all the questions have been answered). If you have WiFi in you classrooms, pupils can use smart phones, laptops or tablets or you may want to use PCs in a computer suite. Have a look using the link below.

http://www.socrative.com/how-it-works

There are various quiz formats to explore including a "space race" and an exit ticket exercise which enables you to carry out a "quick pulse check". The self-made multiple choice option is very straightforward, as are the "short answer" questions (although a word of warning here - the computer will mark a student's answer wrong if it is not spelt correctly or uses a capital where you have typed the answer in lower case!). I find this tool most useful for GCSE rather than AS/A2 as it is harder to apply with longer, more complex answers.

The students love the competitive element and the fact that they have to enter a virtual classroom gives an added novelty factor. As you design the quizzes yourself you can ensure the quality of questions and also differentiate according to the needs of your students so, used properly, Socrative is certainly not a gimmick. The spreadsheet of results highlights individual difficulties as well as any themes many students have found tricky - this can obviously be used to inform feedback.

I hope you find it useful.