[A.K.A...]

(Original post by Un Libertine)
Are you good at science? That's quite a workload. Also, are you looking to do English language or lit?

Im good at science but I enjoy those subjects aswell and they can lead me to degrees I may want to do. I think I'll do english language.
Are you doing your alevels or GCSEs?

[Un Libertine]

The latter at the moment. Last year.

[Joeyboy 12]

(Original post by A.K.A...)
I have Edexcel for the sciences, what exam board do you have for the sciences?

OCR

[Nick0110]

A.K.A, calm it bro. You're in your first year of GCSEs, you definitely haven't had enough time to get into the flow of them and are you seriously stressing about one B..?

You sound to me like a really clever and hard working guy who has been knocked by one measly B. Jump back on your horse and give it all you've got, because trust me it's worth it. I'm predicted 8A*s, 3As and 1B.. and guess what the A and B are in...?
English...obviously.

I have almost full marks in the 3 Sciences.. high A* in Maths, A*s in History, Geography, Greek and RE. It all comes from a hell of a lot of work. What I did at around this time in year 10 was bought 4 A4 notepads.. and filled them by copying out the textbook, from Bitesize and from odd teachers notes. With subjects like Science and Maths, you've GOT to do the past papers.. I understand that you are doing the new specification Edexcel Science so unfortunately I cannot help you with but just look through those papers and write the answers in the back of those pads.. when you get a good result it makes you tingle .
Universities are not stupid, they know who is best for their course and who would settle in best for the way they teach and lecture. It's all written in the stars so just do your best, do everything you can and get your results. I have all the faith that if you do what I, and a couple of other people have said, then you can get your A*s and As and set yourself up for a great life.

[roflcakes1]

Stop worrying. You're in your first year of GCSEs, you're not supposed to be reaching your target grades yet. Hence why they're your TARGET grades, not 'working at' grades. By the time you get to Year 11 you'll have improved on all the skills you need to get the grades you need.
Talk to your teachers if you're worried and reading books (any kind, fiction/non-fiction etc) will really help you improve your writing style, fluency and vocabulary. At this stage, you don't really need to do any extra reading around other subjects.

[AtomicMan]

Hi there, dont worry about your grades! Most people dont try for year 10, its normal to not meet your target at the start of year 10. I was predicted 1A*, 6A's and B in year 10 and for most of year 11. I ended up with 7A*s and 2As.

English, you can improve by writing many essays and doing the creative/media writing tasks based on exam questions and then checking your answers against the mark scheme and making notes. I did this for English lit+lang and got A* and A respectively, and I was never good at english!

Dont let year 10 bug you down, you still have a year and a half to improve.

[Leelad]

I'm so similar to you it's kind of scary, lol. I'm absolutely bricking it about my results next week in English as my teacher really wants me to get an A* but I think I flopped the exam

Anyway, I noticed you said that you had 'stopped revising' because of the B grade. I had a similar morale blow in year 10 (I'm in year 11 now) when I did my first science modules and got B B C but remember its a new test and you really ought to revse for it. You actually did brilliantly to get that in year 10 so ube proud of yourself but use it as motivation as well- tell yourself you're going to do even better this time!

Take a break, re evaluate and get motivated again.

[Nick0110]

(Original post by AtomicMan)
English, you can improve by writing many essays and doing the creative/media writing tasks based on exam questions and then checking your answers against the mark scheme and making notes. I did this for English lit+lang and got A* and A respectively, and I was never good at english!

Hey Atomic!
I'm like you, not great at English but predicted high grades in everything else. When did you start revising for your June exams; did you start at Easter time? Also, how did you know what you were looknig for in the mark scheme, my English is Edexcel and all their mark schemes say is "Perceptive understanding of the text"... really doesn't help.

Thanks

[lubus]

No tl;dr?

For what its worth ill tell you when i did my gcses, english lit was just an unbelievable pile of ****,i could never motivate myself to care about the stories, as they were simply bad, dull, unimaginative and too abstract.

Filled my exam paper with waffle, ended up getting a B... was pretty much expected..

before you pick your gcses make sure you enjoy them. Dont do something you will never enjoy or care about

[cberry]

definitely try to calm down a bit- I think you should talk to your parents about how stressed you're feeling.

I think you would still be able to go to a good uni with a few Bs.

But some good advice from other people- past papers will help- although you definitely will naturally develop during the remaining time before the exams anyway.

You could also think about getting a tutor in the subject you're struggling with the most?

Or try and see if you have some friends that would want to study together? Then you can learn from each other and find out how different people revise?

[AtomicMan]

(Original post by Nick0110)
Hey Atomic!
I'm like you, not great at English but predicted high grades in everything else. When did you start revising for your June exams; did you start at Easter time? Also, how did you know what you were looknig for in the mark scheme, my English is Edexcel and all their mark schemes say is "Perceptive understanding of the text"... really doesn't help.

Thanks

Oh, um, I did AQA If that is the case then perhaps there are past scripts from students you can look at on the edexcell website? If not, then maybe you will have to ask your teacher to mark them and then give you feedback.

Lol, I was a wierd person, I did barely any revision for year 10 exams, so I revised for my year 11 mocks, and since I had all my exams in June, I started revision for them in January. I was an eager person though, so perhaps you will not need revise for as long as me

[Nick0110]

(Original post by AtomicMan)
Oh, um, I did AQA If that is the case then perhaps there are past scripts from students you can look at on the edexcell website? If not, then maybe you will have to ask your teacher to mark them and then give you feedback.

Lol, I was a wierd person, I did barely any revision for year 10 exams, so I revised for my year 11 mocks, and since I had all my exams in June, I started revision for them in January. I was an eager person though, so perhaps you will not need revise for as long as me

Woi in January! :O, I don' think i'll be able to do that! hhaa.. I have 40% of English Language tomorrow and I am so scared!

[MiniBabe]

just read books in order to expand on your vocabulary, its a proven success.

[A.K.A...]

So will I carry on my English GCSE next year as I'm going to do Literature.

[katwall1]

(Original post by A.K.A...)
Hi i got my results for one of my tests and its lower then I expected my teacher says I can get an A* for english however my grade for that test was a B.
We also done another test for english I haven't got my results yet but I think i've got another B, however for one of my speaking and listening tests i got an A* I was thrilled when I got that result.
I worry alot and my GCSE grades are really stressing me out! I would like to go to a good university and do a good degree however if I get B's I won't be able to go to a good university.
My teachers have said that I can get A/A*'s but I never get A's let alone A*'s.
I worry so much about this as I am in the second term of year 10, so is it to late to work hard or start revising?
Can you please tell me what I should do to get those grades?
How I should be revising?
What I should be doing at school?
Or any other help/advice you can give me?
I stopped revising because i worked very hard for my english exam and I got a B which really put me down.
Can you please tell me what books will help me to achieve those A/A* grades?
Also what are predicted grades based on? As teachers say I can get very high results while my predicted grades are lower than I thought

My subjects and my which teachers say I can achieve are:

English:A*/A Teacher says I can get an A* but it seems very unlikely as I have got a B and I think I'll get another B or even a C!
Maths:A/B If I work very hard I'll get an A
Biology:A*/A If I work hard I'll be able to get an A*
Chemistry:A*/A If I work hard I'll be able to get an A*
Physics:A*/A If I work hard enough ill be able to get an A*
Geography: A*/A Teacher says I can get an A* or an A at the end of year 11 if work for those grades
History: A*/A My teachers say i can get very high grades in this subject
ICT: CC I have never really worked for this subject
Business: CC I have never really worked for this subject


Thanks for the help, Akky

i can honestly say I didn't revise for my gcses and i got 2A*'s 6A's and 2B's

[icnthelpit]

Most universities don't worry about GCSE's too much, jsut that you have the vital ones above a C grade.
But as for revision:
-past papers - ver tedious, but so useful! they'll help you know what sort of questions to expect, and get you use to the mark scheme. There's also generally a pattern of what comes up in exams. You should be able to get some papers off line (freeexampapers.com) or ask teachers.
-Use online resources - Bitesize is great, as is mymaths. You can find summaries of poems and books online too for enlgish in places like spark notes, to add to your notes. I made sure i knew the titles of what to write about for english within poetry eg. key themes, structure, language, literary features...
-Notes - so important. typing up so theyre in some order I find helpfull as not only does it make it more organised but you start to recall it as youre typing it up. Also I found mind maps really helpfull, and diagrams. Some of my friends made little flash cards too
-Books - the revision books for science are excellent, as theyre written by the exam boards, so everything will be in there that you need to know! just check what your exam board is before buying them
- a good time table - make sure you steady your revision out before the exams, don't try and cram it all in at once. and dont try and learn the entire syllabus in a night, learn a topic and then you can go over your weaker ones.
Everyone learns differently, so some of these may work for you, and others not. You really just got to find how you learn best.
Good luck, It's quite a way off, but I'm sure you will do fine.
Oh, and make sure you do your cw to a good standard! and don't leave it to the last minuite - it's amazin what a great piece of cw can do to your grade

[A.K.A...]

(Original post by icnthelpit)
Most universities don't worry about GCSE's too much, jsut that you have the vital ones above a C grade.
But as for revision:
-past papers - ver tedious, but so useful! they'll help you know what sort of questions to expect, and get you use to the mark scheme. There's also generally a pattern of what comes up in exams. You should be able to get some papers off line (freeexampapers.com) or ask teachers.
-Use online resources - Bitesize is great, as is mymaths. You can find summaries of poems and books online too for enlgish in places like spark notes, to add to your notes. I made sure i knew the titles of what to write about for english within poetry eg. key themes, structure, language, literary features...
-Notes - so important. typing up so theyre in some order I find helpfull as not only does it make it more organised but you start to recall it as youre typing it up. Also I found mind maps really helpfull, and diagrams. Some of my friends made little flash cards too
-Books - the revision books for science are excellent, as theyre written by the exam boards, so everything will be in there that you need to know! just check what your exam board is before buying them
- a good time table - make sure you steady your revision out before the exams, don't try and cram it all in at once. and dont try and learn the entire syllabus in a night, learn a topic and then you can go over your weaker ones.
Everyone learns differently, so some of these may work for you, and others not. You really just got to find how you learn best.
Good luck, It's quite a way off, but I'm sure you will do fine.
Oh, and make sure you do your cw to a good standard! and don't leave it to the last minuite - it's amazin what a great piece of cw can do to your grade

Thanks for the revision tips! The reason I'm worrying is that I would like to go to a good university to study biology, chemistry or medicine (however I really don't think that's going to happen) also most people in my school don't give a **** about their education. I've just had parents evening and my science teachers are saying that I can get an A*, my maths teacher said I can get an A but my english teacher was moaning that i'm not "good enough" as I keep on achieving Bs. My english test is coming up on monday and I think I'll get another B so I think achieving an A is just impossible, let alone an A*! Also i'm doing double science as I am in set 2 so do you think I should ask my teacher to move me up, so I can do triple science?

[icnthelpit]

(Original post by A.K.A...)
Thanks for the revision tips! The reason I'm worrying is that I would like to go to a good university to study biology, chemistry or medicine (however I really don't think that's going to happen) also most people in my school don't give a **** about their education. I've just had parents evening and my science teachers are saying that I can get an A*, my maths teacher said I can get an A but my english teacher was moaning that i'm not "good enough" as I keep on achieving Bs. My english test is coming up on monday and I think I'll get another B so I think achieving an A is just impossible, let alone an A*! Also i'm doing double science as I am in set 2 so do you think I should ask my teacher to move me up, so I can do triple science?

Have you done any of your exams for science yet? official ones i mean, because if you haven't then you should be able to move up. If you really want to do science, then I would defininately ask your teachers to move up, there's no harm in asking
I'm just looking at oxford university website for you, and they don't seem to be specifying anything for GCSE level, only IB and A-levels. However, you do need to get an A* in maths or science at A-level to get in. So it's not overly bad if you don't get fabulous GCSE's, but I would definately move to a different sixth form / college for your A-levels or IB.

[IndiaCaitlinn]

Ok first of all, calm down.
Getting B's is not bad, it doesn't mean you can't go to a good University.
If you work hard and stick at your revision you can do it.
The main thing though is not to stress out, it stops you from being able to concentrate.
I thought I was going to fail and I got 2A*'s and 9A's. Determination gets you there!

[A.K.A...]

Can you please helpme for my english language exam?

We have to analyse and evaluate two pieces of sports commentary, and we need to say what effects the commentator is using, how it works etc.
There are some key phrases we need to learn which are:
Jargon
Prosody
Fluency
Ellipsis

Can you help me define these?, as our test is tomorrow and the two types of sports commentary we will be analysing will be football and horse racing.

My structure for the exam will be:
Horse racing: analyse jargon, fluency, prosody and ellipsis then I will evaluate them by saying if the commentator does his job well and I will then compare it with other sports like cricket and football. I will comment on the loop structure, how it keeps the viewer attracted, how all the horses have a chance to still win, why the commentator adds detail to some of the horses, how the voice/tone/pitch goes higher and higher and how they advertise certain horses as many viewers place bets.

Football: analyse grammar, jargon, vocabulary, ellipsis and fluency then I will evaluate it by saying if the commentator does his job well and then I will compare it with other sports like cricket and horse racing. I will comment on why the game is slow, the commentators use metaphors and cliche, why their voices go higher when a football player has "some space", how and why they miss out words, how much detail they put in and how they excite the viewers.

At the end of it I will compare the two sports commentary, I will say one is much quicker, always fast paced while the other is much more lengthy as the game is 90minutes, and the commentators give much more information.

Will this work or am I repeating the information too much? Please help as I would like to get an A in this test do you think this structure will help me to get an A?
Can you please tell me what detail I can add and what I should say?

My teacher is rubbish he just makes us copy what he does and I cannot understand some of the things we do because I always have to copy off the board.

I got a B in an exam which counts as 15% of the total GCSE, in another exam I got another B which counts as 7.5% as we have to do the second test which will bring it up to 15% of the total GCSE and I have done my speaking & listening tests which count as 20% and I got an A/A* in the tests. So I think I still have a chance to get an A, but I don't think an A* is possible now. This exam which i'm going to do will be 10% of my final grade so I really would like an A in this test.

Please comment freely on my plan and what I should write? and again can you define those terms please?