Year 10 going into year 11 - any tips?
Going into year 11 next year. For any one that has finished their GCSEs or is at the same as me, should I revise over summer? What sort of preparation should I be doing if any? Thanks
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Original post by jessicaharker51
Going into year 11 next year. For any one that has finished their GCSEs or is at the same as me, should I revise over summer? What sort of preparation should I be doing if any? Thanks
Honestly I wouldn't recommend revising over the summer. At most, I would maybe start preparing resources for each subject? Don't bother trying to remember stuff now as you probably won't remember it in 11 months time and there's a risk of you burning out.
(edited 7 years ago)
Make the most out of your last year of freedom
Original post by jessicaharker51
Going into year 11 next year. For any one that has finished their GCSEs or is at the same as me, should I revise over summer? What sort of preparation should I be doing if any? Thanks
Hey! I'm in Year 10 as well!
I would say, revise everything that you have already learnt and make sure that there aren't any gaps in your understanding - that's what I'm doing anyway. Also, when are your Year 11 mocks because you could begin preparing for them? Mine are in November so I will be preparing for them as well over the summer.(edited 7 years ago)
You don't need to revise over the summer! But when you start Year 11 try to have a revision timetable ready so that you're prepared for everything by exam time. Most people won't start revising until March-April time, so if you start revising earlier in the year, come exam time you'll know the content completely inside out. I had 24 exams this year and revising well beforehand meant I was much, much less stressed than some of my friends
Original post by RosaA
Hey! I'm in Year 10 as well! I would say, revise everything that you have already learnt and make sure that there aren't any gaps in your understanding - that's what I'm doing anyway. Also, when are your Year 11 mocks because you could begin preparing for them? Mine are in November so I will be preparing for them as well over the summer.
I would say, revise everything that you have already learnt and make sure that there aren't any gaps in your understanding - that's what I'm doing anyway. Also, when are your Year 11 mocks because you could begin preparing for them? Mine are in November so I will be preparing for them as well over the summer.Yeah my y11 mocks are in November/December time. I think I really want to make sure I'm confident on every unit 1 of the sciences so that can be my summer job
Original post by yaystrawberries
You don't need to revise over the summer! But when you start Year 11 try to have a revision timetable ready so that you're prepared for everything by exam time. Most people won't start revising until March-April time, so if you start revising earlier in the year, come exam time you'll know the content completely inside out. I had 24 exams this year and revising well beforehand meant I was much, much less stressed than some of my friends
What time did you start revising for them? March? Also how much prep did you do for the y11 mocks? Thanks
Original post by jessicaharker51
Going into year 11 next year. For any one that has finished their GCSEs or is at the same as me, should I revise over summer? What sort of preparation should I be doing if any? Thanks
advice from someone in y13 - just stagger your preparation.
don't spend every week of the holidays stressing out because you feel like you're forgetting things - at the start of year 11 it's most likely that you'll go over it anyway
however if you feel more comfortable doing something, do it once weekly or something. it'll be fine
Copying and pasting from my post on this thread.
---------------------
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!
---------------------
---------------------
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!
---------------------
Original post by jessicaharker51
Yeah my y11 mocks are in November/December time. I think I really want to make sure I'm confident on every unit 1 of the sciences so that can be my summer job
What are your current grades for the subjects that you take? By reflecting on them you can have a better understanding about where you might need to improve.For instance, in my recent mock for history I got an A for the 'Surgery' unit but my target is an A* so I know I need to go over the unit.
I know that loads of people have said not to revise too much, but honestly in year 10 I did no work and if I had done some, especially in art, I could have come out with more A*s. Obviously it depends what your aspirations and predicted grades are but, if you don't revise right now, you should at least make sure that you start consolidating things quite early as it will mean lesss work later down the line. Above all, it pays to be organised. Pay attention to coursework deadlines so that you don't run out of time, and look at the weightings of each module in your GCSEs so that you can prioritise things. If you don't understand something, ask as soon as possible after the lesson to get clarification so that you don't have to do it at the last minute in May which can be quite stressful. Obviously don't forget to take breaks and at least one or two days off a week where you have fun, but the summer afterwards can be a lot of fun and that is the time where you should make the most of slacking off.
I started my hardcore revision in January and I burned out during the Easter holidays so I would say the best time to start revising is Easter but make sure you're always on top of your work throughout the year and make sure you understand everything to make revision easier. I made notes on science throughout the year which helped with revision later but take it easy until easter
Original post by Aurora_Boreal1s
I know that loads of people have said not to revise too much, but honestly in year 10 I did no work and if I had done some, especially in art, I could have come out with more A*s. Obviously it depends what your aspirations and predicted grades are but, if you don't revise right now, you should at least make sure that you start consolidating things quite early as it will mean lesss work later down the line. Above all, it pays to be organised. Pay attention to coursework deadlines so that you don't run out of time, and look at the weightings of each module in your GCSEs so that you can prioritise things. If you don't understand something, ask as soon as possible after the lesson to get clarification so that you don't have to do it at the last minute in May which can be quite stressful. Obviously don't forget to take breaks and at least one or two days off a week where you have fun, but the summer afterwards can be a lot of fun and that is the time where you should make the most of slacking off.
This is so true I didn't take year 10 seriously and I messed around, to this day I still dont know what mr hyde and dr jekyll is about(english language). Now i have to revise literally everything in english, chemistry and biology in the summer because i didn't give f***ks about it.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by jessicaharker51
Going into year 11 next year. For any one that has finished their GCSEs or is at the same as me, should I revise over summer? What sort of preparation should I be doing if any? Thanks
I personally would not recommend revising over the summer. The summer holiday is a great time for you to do things outside of academics and enjoy yourself, you dont want to bog yourself down to early in studying because you have a whole year of that ahead of you, and trust me when I say not having a break will lead to you burning out early, so take summer!
When you go back to school here are some tips:
1) make sure you try your best in all coursework pieces to take a little less strain off the exams.
2) make excellent notes in class to ensure you understand all the relevant course material.
3) spend 1 hour each night going over the things you learnt that day, clarifying things you didint understand and making sure you have a complete set of notes to revise from.
4) after christmas start thinking about where your weaknesses lie in terms of subject content, and spend some time on the weekends making sure you know these areas.
5) around 2-3 months before exams begin create yourself a revision timetable and start revising all the content you have learnt over the past two years. (Be aware that 2-3 months might not work for everyone, its up to you how long you spend revising and at what times. some people will do 3 months and have one full day off a week, some people will do 1 month of cramming, its all up to you, just dont start to early for fear of burnout or boredom)
I started revising for my GCSE exams just after the easter holidays (I had 11 exams at the end of year 11 due to me taking the old modular GCSEs - I did leave high school over 3 years ago now), and I came out with 9A*s, 1.5As, 2Distinction* and 1Distinction. (my A;s were in french and R.E, I sat maths, english language, english literature, history, geography, biology, chemistry, physics, core science, french and R.E.) so it is 100% doable if you really put your mind to it and revise smart.
Original post by RosaA
Hey! I'm in Year 10 as well! I would say, revise everything that you have already learnt and make sure that there aren't any gaps in your understanding - that's what I'm doing anyway. Also, when are your Year 11 mocks because you could begin preparing for them? Mine are in November so I will be preparing for them as well over the summer.
I would say, revise everything that you have already learnt and make sure that there aren't any gaps in your understanding - that's what I'm doing anyway. Also, when are your Year 11 mocks because you could begin preparing for them? Mine are in November so I will be preparing for them as well over the summer.I'm also in Year 10, currently going through a tough period academically but I can change that all around. Fortunately all of my GCSE exams are in Summer 2017 so I have some time left.
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