How to review for an exam without rereading everything (with Filmina's Review)

If you're looking up how to review for an exam without rereading everything, here's the short answer: instead of opening your notes and going through them again, take the concepts from the lecture one at a time, try to say what you remember about each one without looking, and only then check against the material. Whatever didn't come back is what you review first next time. What came back fine can wait a few days.

I already wrote about why rereading falls short in does rereading work, and about the technique behind all this in active recall. I won't repeat it here. This post is the practical part: how to set up that kind of review with a real lecture, first by hand and then with Review, the Filmina feature I built for exactly this step.

The example is a Microeconomics lecture on elasticity: about thirty slides covering price elasticity of demand, substitutes and complements, income elasticity and a couple of curve graphs.

Reviewing means remembering, not seeing it again

The difference sounds small and it isn't. When you reread the elasticity lecture, everything looks familiar: the formula, the flatter curve, the word "inelastic". That feeling is the trap, because the exam doesn't show you the slide and ask whether it rings a bell. It asks you what it is.

Real review means pulling the concept from memory before you see it. If it comes back, it sticks a little harder. If it doesn't, you just found something you would have missed on exam day, and you still have time. Both are good news.

There's also solid evidence that testing yourself leaves you with more than studying the same thing again, even though it feels worse in the moment. The effort is part of why it works.

How to review without rereading, by hand

No app needed, just a sheet of paper and the PDF closed:

1. List the concepts. Names only, one per line: "price elasticity of demand", "inelastic demand", "substitutes", "income elasticity", "inferior good". Pulling them from the slide titles is the fastest way.
2. Cover everything but the name. A folded sheet works, or the list in one tab with the PDF closed.
3. Write or say what you remember about each one. However it comes out, even if it's not much. "Inelastic: quantity barely moves when price changes, like with prescription drugs." It doesn't have to be neat.
4. Check against the slide. Mark what you got and what you missed. If you missed "the absolute value is less than one", that's what you need to look at.
5. Sort for next time. What didn't come back goes to the top of the list. What did goes to the bottom.

For one lecture, this works fine. The trouble starts with the whole course: fifteen lectures are a hundred concepts, and tracking which ones were hard and when to come back to each turns into a spreadsheet nobody keeps up. That's where a tool helps.

How it works with Filmina's Review, step by step

In Filmina, a web app that explains your lecture slides out loud, this step is called Review. It does exactly what the folded sheet does, but with the concepts already pulled from your lecture and the tracking done for you.

1. Study the lecture first. Review only draws on what you've already studied in that file. If you listened to the elasticity lecture up to slide 18, you review up to there. What that first pass looks like is in how Filmina works.
2. Open Review. It doesn't have its own button in the sidebar. When you finish the last file you were studying, the big card on Home takes you to review it. The other way is to ask Mina in the chat ("let's review elasticity") and tap Review on the card she leaves you.
3. Answer without looking. A concept shows up, say "Inelastic demand", sometimes with a hint, and the question What else do you remember about this?. Type it or say it, however it comes out, and tap Check. If nothing comes, there's I don't remember, which beats making something up.
4. See what you said and what you didn't. Only then do you get The key points: the ideas that make up that concept, each marked You said it or You missed it. Below that, Where it comes from, with the slides behind it, in case you want to look again.
5. Keep going or stop. Next moves to the following concept. Review has no timer: concepts keep coming until you decide to leave.

What I cared about most when building it was the order of steps 3 and 4. If it shows you the answer first, it's not review anymore. It's rereading in a different format.

The order concepts come up in

Since there's no time limit, what comes first matters, and each concept says why it showed up:

• What you didn't remember last time, labeled "Last time you didn't remember it".
• What was hard when you practiced, plus the slides you asked Mina about while studying, labeled "You asked about this". If during the elasticity lecture you asked why a vertical demand curve is perfectly inelastic, that concept comes up near the top.
• The core idea of each topic.
• Everything else. What you remembered well less than three days ago is left for last.

Starting with what was hard is what makes ten minutes count. If you're short on time, the first few concepts already cover what you needed most. And coming back to what's about to slip, spread over several days, is what helps it last, more than reviewing everything in one go.

When you finish, and next time

When you're done, Review done tells you how many concepts you reviewed and how many went solid, more or less, or need another listen, with those last ones in a list. It doesn't ask how you felt or have you grade yourself: how much you remembered already says it. Keep reviewing carries on with more.

Next time you come in, it starts with the ones that were hard. You don't keep any spreadsheet: the top of the list builds itself.

One useful detail: a file without slides can be reviewed too. If your professor assigned a textbook chapter as a PDF, or you have your own notes or a lecture recording, Review pulls the concepts from its text and your notes, in parts.

Review or Practice: when to use which

Filmina has both, and they're not the same thing:

• Review works on one file, draws only on what you've already studied and has no timer. It's for remembering concepts: what income elasticity is, what makes a good inferior. I'd do it the same day you study the lecture or the next.
• Practice is a round of questions from the whole course or the files you pick, timed (about 5, 15 or 30 minutes), in eight formats, and it also asks about what you haven't studied yet. It's for applying: a case where coffee gets more expensive and you have to say what happens to tea. How those questions get built is in how to make practice questions from a PDF.

Remember the concepts first, then use them in questions. If you have a study plan built around your exam, the step for remembering a file's concepts is Practice (file) with flashcards, which opens a Flashcards practice of that file.

What to know before you use it

• It needs a connection and an account. Checking what you said happens in the cloud.
• It reviews what you've already studied. If you haven't listened to the lecture, there's nothing to remember yet. For what you haven't studied, there's Practice.
• The free plan has limits, including minutes of explanation per month, and the explanation is what comes before review. Plans are on the home page.
• A scanned presentation reads worse. Filmina recognizes the text in the image, but it can get small print or a crooked photo wrong. If you have the original file, upload that.

Frequently asked questions

How do I review for an exam without rereading everything?

Make a list of the concept names, cover the material and say or write what you remember about each one. Then check against the slides and mark what you missed. Next time, start with those.

Is rereading or self-testing better?

Answering without looking leaves you with more than rereading, even though it feels harder in the moment. Rereading helps you understand something the first time; for review, remember first and look second.

How often should I review a lecture?

Do a first review the same day or the next, then come back at longer and longer gaps. What didn't come back, sooner; what did, several days later.

How does Review work in Filmina?

It shows you a concept from what you've already studied and asks what you remember. You type or say it, tap Check and see which ideas you got, which you missed and which slides they come from. What you didn't remember comes back first next time.