Concrete examples in notes: make abstract A-level ideas stick
Pair every definition with a real example — large effect sizes in classification tests
Abstract concepts — elasticity, validity, secularisation, osmosis — are hard to retrieve in an exam hall without anchors. Research on declarative concepts shows that studying definitions plus concrete examples beats definitions alone, often by large margins.
Evidence
Rawson, Thomas & Jacoby (2014) report substantial benefits for learning declarative concepts when illustrative examples accompany definitions (effect sizes in several experiments from about 0.7 upward). A later replication (Micallef & Newton, 2022) confirmed benefits with non-specialist students. Evidence: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-014-9273-3 — https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00986283211058069
Note template
- Term / theory in one line
- Your paraphrased definition
- Example 1: from the spec or a named study
- Example 2: your own real-world case (exam boards reward application)
- Non-example or misconception: ‘People wrongly think…’