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

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Reply 40

username2434739

Original post by Federerr

Alright.

Real advice?

Hmm.

Lemme see...

Spoiler

Thats much better :u:

Im already married to my fridge :colone:

Reply 41

tamanna___

Original post by sapphire79

I totally agree with this, it was me :tongue:

Samee😂😂😂

Reply 42

starstudent7

Original post by sapphire79

Yes this is so important!! :biggrin:

Ikr!

Reply 43

Username1502

Revise using the specification along side your revision guides and material! Trust me! The amount of stuff in exams, well GCSE at least not sure about A levels, which is based from the exact phrasing in the spec is unreal and the mark schemes are created from the spec!

Print them out now!

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Reply 44

sapphire79

Original post by Username1502

I should have done this! :biggrin:

Great advice

Reply 45

SummerStrawberry

You'll be told this by everybody, and you probably won't believe it, but YEAR 11 GOES UNBELIEVABLY FAST! For starters, you're finishing about a month before you're used to, anyway, so the year is already a month shorter than you expect. Your exams probably start about a month prior to that, so that's two months shorter than you're used to. The point is, you have just over eight months from the start of Y11 in September until your GCSE exams start.

Take the mock exams as if they were real. Try your absolute best, because that gives you a confidence boost for the real exams; if you got <insert grade here> in your mocks four months before your real exams, you are quite likely to do better in the real thing!

Make sure you understand everything, particularly in subjects such as Maths, as you learn it. Go to teachers at lunchtimes and stick to them like a limpet until you 'get it' because IT WILL STICK! Then when you come to doing your revision you will already be familiar with everything you need to know, thereby preventing any last-minute scrambles to learn the entire specification.

When February comes around, start reading through your notes and revision guides. This will refresh your memory on important concepts that you need to know, ready for you to start revising fully in March/April. Don't get too hung up on exactly when you start revising or how much revision you are doing; everybody learns at a different rate, so just make sure you leave yourself a good amount of time to avoid stressful cramming. Your mocks are very useful here: ask yourself honestly how much you revised, and how that was reflected in the results you got. Did you get A/A* grades across the board? Great - your strategy worked! Did you slip below your targets? Start a bit earlier, this time.

Remember that until you have done the paper, nothing is set in stone. Your results depend on these next exams. To an examiner, your mocks are irrelevant. This is good, because it means that you can improve, but also bad because you can let yourself slip: DON'T BE THAT PERSON WHO BECAME OVER-CONFIDENT AND DIDN'T REVISE ENOUGH; IT WILL BE REFLECTED IN YOUR GRADES!

Over the course of Year 11, I found four things which I found particularly useful. If I could only give four pieces of advice, they would be the following:

1. Immerse yourself in the subjects. Read around them. Find things beyond the specification, and truly become knowledgeable about your subjects. There is a distinct difference between information and knowledge: the former is simply facts and figures in isolation; the latter links them all together. By truly knowing your 'stuff', you will find it much easier to write coherent and generally 'good' answers to exam questions.

2. Spend time thinking critically about what you are learning. Take nothing for granted. I'm not saying that you should spend the whole year deciding whether 1+1 really is equal to 2, but that you should try to think beyond the confines of the specification. This links with point 1, because it helps you to build up knowledge rather than just isolated pieces of information, and by virtue of the time you spend thinking about things you will find that you retain that knowledge much better.

3. Look up things which you don't know, and apply them. If you come across an unfamiliar word, look it up and use it. If you come across a concept which you don't understand, research it. By doing this, particularly if you do it quickly, you quickly build up that all important knowledge and understanding.

4. Mark all of your past papers. Marking any past papers you do is almost as important as doing them in the first place. You will quickly develop a sense for what a question is asking for, and this will help you to hit marking points in the real exams. I would suggest marking a paper on a separate piece of paper, recording what you give yourself for each question, and writing down what you needed to get anything you missed. You can then give the paper to your teacher to mark, and compare the marks you both gave. How similar was your marking to your teacher's?

Most importantly, remember that mitochondria is the powerhouse of a cell!

Good Luck!

Reply 46

maryamtayy

I totally agree with you I'm in year 20 going into year 11 this September and we're having loads of mocks and it's becoming a struggle so I've started revising ASAP and it's going v well

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Reply 47

maryamtayy

10*

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Reply 48

sapphire79

Original post by maryamtayy

10*

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Make notes on the things people have said on here because there is some seriously amazing advice :smile:

Reply 49

kendo9

1) Be sure to ace any controlled assessments/coursework. I am aware that a lot of coursework is being scrapped in the new GCSEs, but if you have any, it is absolutely vital to do well in them. This is because firstly, it takes pressure off of your actual exam, and secondly, it means you avoid the disappointment of finding out that you've aced your exams but end up with a B or something because your coursework was a D.

2) Take lessons seriously and learn as much as possible. This saves revision time and means you take in everything needed whilst you still have your teachers there to help you (trust me, if you don't do this, during study leave when you haven't access to teachers at your disposal, you will regret it).

3) Make notes as you go along. What saved me is the fact that everyday after school, I would come home and make notes flashcards or mindmaps on the topics I have just learnt that day. This means that I fully understand it, and therefore revision nearer exams is a lot easier as it means you're actually revising and not learning concepts

4) Start as soon as possible. Don't listen to people telling you Easter if you are aiming for the highest possible grades. From September stat slowly with basic homework and revision for end of module tests, and then revise fully for your mocks. This is great as it allows you to asses which revision methods work for you, and again, so that when real revision comes for your exams, you will find it easy. I personally revised for my mocks three weeks prior (they were in December), then I took a break for Christmas. I officially begun revision from February half-term, and built up the hours until the Easter holidays when I averaged 8 hours a day.

5) Carry on life as normal. I personally played lots of football, went running, and socialized with my friends.This is important to help relieve exam stress, and to also make your brain function properly. I had friends who claimed to not have time to do as such, and would revise for hours on end. This DOES NOT work.

6) Keep away from distractions. Revising whilst listening to music doesn't work in my opinion (unless it is classical/instrumentals). Your brain needs to focus on revision. Keep your phone in another room to avoid constantly checking it. I left mine in the living room and revised in my room.