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Someone decided to introduce a tag, with the tag wiki:

Have you got an exam looming that you're worried about? Can't understand an important revision question? Need to brush up on one subject to help you study another? Use this tag and we'll do our best to help you help yourself, without us thinking it's homework.

This is quite clearly a meta-tag. Before I go ahead a nuke it (I really don't think there's a need for tags like such), I would however like to make sure that there has not been a discussion already about this tag with the community consensus being for its continued existence.

Thoughts or links to previous discussions?

Edit My reading of the link given by Lord_Farin below is that the previous time this came up for discussion the conclusion leans toward not having the tag. Unless there are further objections I will either kill the tag by manually retagging them or merging the tag into something else that is appropriate.

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    $\begingroup$ What a horrible tag. Should probably be merged with the i-swear-its-not-homework tag. $\endgroup$
    – user642796
    Nov 18, 2013 at 8:34
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    $\begingroup$ That tag is silly. If we were in ancient Rome, I'd give it a thumbs down when it loses to Spartacus in the ring. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Nov 18, 2013 at 8:35
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    $\begingroup$ I think this is the most relevant thread. $\endgroup$
    – Lord_Farin
    Nov 18, 2013 at 8:58
  • $\begingroup$ The tag keeps growing. What are we going to do about it? $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Nov 19, 2013 at 22:18
  • $\begingroup$ @AsafKaragila: I will wait a day or two more to make sure this discussion gets seen. And if there are no objections I will likely just merge it into ... something or another. $\endgroup$
    – Willie Wong
    Nov 20, 2013 at 7:52
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    $\begingroup$ This use of "revise" is British. In America we would probably say "review". $\endgroup$
    – GEdgar
    Dec 22, 2013 at 18:22
  • $\begingroup$ I miss the "No longer relevant" closing reason. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Jul 24, 2015 at 20:16

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It was my idea. I wrote the tag wiki.

The point was to have something students could use to ask for exam-specific help, which would be distinct from homework in that (a) there'd be a greater sense of urgency on the part of the person asking the question, so that (b) the answers would need to be quick & easy to remember, perhaps in bullet point form, and also require less explanation. I came up with it after a new user objected to my suggestion that (s)he use the homework tag, saying that it was in preparation for an imminent exam. A typical question might show up at around July and go something like this:

I've got an exam in $n$ days that I'm really worried about. It's in $X$ and there's this type of question that always trips me up. They go something like this:

Lorem ipsum.

How do I do them? Why might I find them so difficult? Please hurry!

The "without us thinking it's homework" part was, admittedly, a mistake; it was an afterthought that I considered might shield it from being merged with the homework tag. Some university subject modules have certain prerequisites, too, that a student might be unsure about and so need to recap. A question might be like the following.

I'm about to do $X$ in my final year at university. The prerequisites are $A$, $B$, and $C$. I didn't do so well in the $C$ exam recently. What exactly would I need from $C$ to do $X$?

Hence why it would be distinct from the homework tag (to say the least).

I don't think it's such a silly idea. It might even be helpful. [Some users might want to filter such questions!] But, of course, if the more experienced users here aren't convinced, then fair enough - I was only trying to help :)

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  • $\begingroup$ In fact, no, I'm starting to agree with Lord_Farin's answer to the question he put a link to here. Nevermind :) $\endgroup$
    – Shaun
    Nov 22, 2013 at 13:29
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    $\begingroup$ +1 for the informative thought processes in the above post. I do disagree with the need for a revision tag, but I now see why the tag was created. $\endgroup$
    – apnorton
    Nov 22, 2013 at 14:57

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