☆ Post your advice for new year 11s!! ☆

Hey

I just finished my GCSEs a week ago :banana2:

and I have quite a lot of advice for new year 11s so I thought we should start an advice thread about what you wish you knew before year 11 and any other tips for the next year. I'm aware that GCSEs are changing but I still think a lot of this advice is relevant

- First of all, my main piece of advice is do as good as possible on all your controlled assessments. If you have already done some and you are not happy with the grade, ask your teacher if you can redo it until you get a grade at least above the overall grade you're aiming for. If you want to get As or A*s this is so important because if you have bad controlled assessments this can actually impact you more than doing badly on the exam

- Secondly, I would say that if you are a notetaker (which I swear by :tongue:

) have all your notes completed at least a month before the exam season starts. If you don't, you might find yourself making notes for the first time the night before the exam which is stressful and there are better uses of your time. The way I would make notes is after every lesson U would come home and make the notes straight away. I wish I did this before!!

- This one is very common but its important so I'll say it again, do as many past papers as possible! However, don't burn yourself out. If you've done all the past papers months in advance of the exam you're probably doing them too fast. Make sure you mark your papers yourself with the actual mark scheme because you will start to understand what the examiners are looking for. After you've done a past paper, make sure that there's not a single question you can't do

- For some essay writing subjects like RE and English Language, there is a specific way to answer each answer so make sure you learn this inside out because if you do you're pretty much guaranteed to do well as you will be writing exactly what the examiners are hoping to see.

- Finally, if you have a subject with more than one exam, make sure you spend equal time revising for each exam. Often people spend so much time revising for the first exam, they often neglect the second unit even though it could be as equally weighted. So make sure to vary your revision because it's no good doing really well on one exam and then doing rubbish on the second.

You should find that year 11 is not actually that bad. It honestly goes sooo fast after christmas in fact I dont remember anything from January until May it just became a blur because all we did was prepare for exams :tongue:

To anyone who is reading this :goodluck:

and if you just finished your exams make sure to post your advice too :smile:

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

chris2791

Revise from day one because you will regret it in the long haul

Reply 2

username2713253

Revise as soon as you can for better results

Reply 3

*JustARandomGuy*

Original post by chris2791

Revise from day one because you will regret it in the long haul

No.

Original post by Shazen

Revise as soon as you can for better results

No.

Why do I say No? Well, if you revise from the start, you've simply forgot everything by the exams. Start a month or two before the exams.

Reply 4

mxskaan

don't cheat in your mocks
take them seriously

Reply 5

username2713253

Original post by *JustARandomGuy*

No.

No.

Why do I say No? Well, if you revise from the start, you've simply forgot everything by the exams. Start a month or two before the exams.

go over everything daily, if you start when you have like a week you will just be cramming for many subjects

Reply 6

wildjones

Make notes every night after school on every lesson you do! It takes a lot of perseverance but I'm so, so glad I did it because I had ready-made neat notes to revise from in every subject and the knowledge was consolidated immediately afterwards :tongue:

Reply 7

Supermanxxxxxx

Just cram 2 months before

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 8

username2049777

do revision along the year slowly, revise for internal tests too as you will remember more in the main exam.

dont slack off on your coursework at the beginning- SO MANY people including me had to stay hours after school 3 weeks before the due date because we realised we were running out of time and had not done enough.

Reply 9

Little Popcorns

The cool kids can go and **** themselves get busy getting good grades!

Reply 10

username2646287

Pay attention in class and revise at least 6 weeks before the exams

Reply 11

Vanilla Cupcake

if you do computing or any other subject with 60% coursework make sure to do well in it as that'll take pressure off the final exam (i think i needed a high D/low C in the theory exam to get an A, and a high B to get an A* in computing so it really pays off)

Reply 12

glowanti

Don't worry about mocks - even a school I applied for a scholarship to didn't ask for them. Predictions matter more

Reply 13

outgoingpopcorn

I would say make sure you understand every topic as you are taught them so that when its revision time its much easier. If you already understand everything you wouldn't have to waste time teaching yourself stuff and can just remind yourself.

Reply 14

luciie

Don't leave it all until the night before
Mocks results don't matter
Do the coursework to the best of your ability
Don't start revising in September - there's absolutely no point

Reply 15

arniebob

Listen in lessons because it will help when you revise

Reply 16

username2705335

Revise after school everyday.

Reply 17

SmallTown

Use the specification and tick off everything you've completed.

Reply 18

Bulletzone

Ignoring some of these redundant posts.

1)Do not revise every day after school.

Look, I took up that strategy and by January/February I was so confident for the Science and Maths Exams that when it came to actually revising for them, I didn't because I had overdone it.

2)Make Notes as you go along.

The OP has already stated this, but it will be a massive help of you make notes when you get back from school (however it won't matter too much as GCSE'S are not extremely hard).

3)Ace You're Controlled Assessments.

I can not stress this enough, but they matter ALOT!
Especially for Art, Design and Technology and French or the other language you ate doing.
The reason it matters a lot for the 4 subjects listed above is because they are 60%! Of your Final GCSE Grade.
If you ace your Controlled Assessments it shall mean, you don't have to ACE your exam as well to get a very good grade unless you did poorly in you're C.A

4)Do Not Leave things for Last minute.

This mainly applies to Art, but Do not leave anything for the last days or something.
I always did my Art the day before, but on a certain week, I had soo much homework to do and Art inclusive which resulted in an All nighter.
Do your tasks as soon as possible to make things easier.

5)Find you're best Learning Strategy.

Some people (like me), could read a book and understand what's been said, whereas others may require Interactive learning or Videos.
Before the exam season starts, find out what is the best way you learn.
E.g.
For Science, I'd use MyGCSEScience videos with my CGP revision guide to make learning science more fun. :biggrin:

6)Do Not Be Discouraged

You will always find someone who has done better than you. There shall always be a negative influence during/run up to exams.

Never Give Up.

Some of you may know that I had lost my Art Pad a "week" before the hand in date.
My Estimated Grade was a B and since I had lost my sketchbook, I was told my Grade would fall to an "E" if it was not found.
So during exam season, I had to find time to re-do my entire art pad whilst revising for exams.
I managed to do it, so why can't you?

IF you're reading this and you shall be doing you're GCSE exams soon, I wish you Good luck.
:smile:

Reply 19