Do our GCSE revision songs work?

Independent studies have proven beyond doubt that music can trigger powerful recollections. We can all relate to having a song ‘stuck in our head’, without ever consciously trying to remember the lyrics.

Songs, chants, poems, and raps can all help improve memory of content facts and details through rhyme, rhythm, and melody.

We have commissioned our own research into the ability of music to enhance revision and continuous learning. Gabi Jerzenbeck (MSc & BSc Psychology, University of Wales Swansea) conducted a study in 2008, concluding that our learning resources can be highly effective in helping students to absorb and to recall the key points of the GCSE and KS4 syllabus. This research supports what we already know from personal experience; Music greatly affects and enhances our learning and living.

Studies have shown music has the ability to ‘activate’ prior knowledge on a subject area.  Even the smallest amount of information on a subject can greatly enhance the acquisition and processing of new information on that subject. Listening to educational content set to music such as the type we take great care in producing, is an effective and fun way of providing a base of knowledge that is so crucial to learning.

In addition to our own research, there is a wealth of research, independent journals and articles supporting the theory of music being beneficial to memory, wellbeing and mood.

Petr Janata

A cognitive neuroscientist at the University of California explains that: “Music serves as a soundtrack for a mental movie that starts playing in our head, it calls back memories”.

Petr Janata’s research could explain why even Alzheimer’s patients who endure increasing memory-loss can still recall songs from their distant past. Not to mention why students find it easy to recall key GCSE and KS4 topics after listening to our unique learning resources.

Petr Janata’s full study (2009) can be found in the journal: Cerebral Cortex.