What advise would you give people going into year 11?

For year 11s:

1) What subjects did you take?
2) How many exams did you sit?
3) How was year 11 compared to your expectations?
4) What advice would you give year 11s moving up?

Reply 1

8472

Standard + ICT, Geography, German, Business studies and add maths.
I have no idea now. It is all a blur.
Exactly as expected.
Take your time. Do your work and listen to your teachers.

Reply 2

ckfeister

Original post by horsewithnoname

For year 11s:

1) What subjects did you take?
2) How many exams did you sit?
3) How was year 11 compared to your expectations?
4) What advice would you give year 11s moving up?

Construction, Public Services, GCSE Science, GCSE Maths, GCSE English.

6 exams

In year 10 and below I was alway's on the bottom sets didn't really care, but if you listen to your teacher and ignore others you will get what you want (Although my school has failed an entire year 2 times now dropped all of my school grades by mis-guildance for coursework and controlled assessement wasn't happy) but also do inderpendant studying at home because teachers aren't 100% truthworthy, I learnt that when I got my results.

Get revision packs go though with it, go to revision catchups to get those Bs and above, if you got any coursework you can take home, any speaking and listening any controlled assessement don't rely on teacher guildance as they aren't that truthworthy, look online at home and find how to get A*s in them all (because if you tick all of the boxes for A* and get C in exams then you got yourself a strong B or A if you get Bs in exam)

This is what I'll advise people to do as not all schools are relyable.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 3

JadeMay

Original post by horsewithnoname

For year 11s:

1) What subjects did you take?
2) How many exams did you sit?
3) How was year 11 compared to your expectations?
4) What advice would you give year 11s moving up?

1) I took Mathematics, English Language, English Literature, Additional Science (I took Core Science in year 10), French, German, Textiles, RS and History.

2) 17 (I think)

3) Year 11 wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, it went really quickly though which I didn't expect.

4) Just work really hard. Do all your homework, revise for mock exams, do your best in your course work and do past papers as they are really helpful. :smile:

Reply 4

Alec_M

Original post by horsewithnoname

For year 11s:

1) What subjects did you take?
2) How many exams did you sit?
3) How was year 11 compared to your expectations?
4) What advice would you give year 11s moving up?

1) Standard + History, geography, German and Business & economics

2) 21 (for 10 subjects)

3) Not as bad! For me, there were always teachers on hand to help when I found something difficult because your results reflect on them too, don't be afraid to ask! It's tough in parts but you'll get through it. It goes fast!

4) Don't give up on coursework - so many of my friends found it gruelling and stopped giving it their all by half way through and ended up being disappointed with their final GCSE grades. I know coursework is being phased out, but if you have it, focus! It's easier than exams so you have no excuse to consciously not work your hardest. Also, revise hard for the mocks because you'll find you retain a lot of the information when it comes to the real things, lightening your workload.

Reply 5

username613045

Original post by Alec_M

Don't give up on coursework - so many of my friends found it gruelling and stopped giving it their all by half way through and ended up being disappointed with their final GCSE grades. I know coursework is being phased out, but if you have it, focus! It's easier than exams so you have no excuse to consciously not work your hardest. Also, revise hard for the mocks because you'll find you retain a lot of the information when it comes to the real things, lightening your workload.

Thanks. A lot of people say not to revise for mocks but this advice is very helpful :biggrin:

I'm so glad that I have coursework because I find it easier that exams, from experience.

Reply 6

catrinana

1) What subjects did you take?

English language
English lit
Maths
Biology
Chemistry
Physics
History
French
Resistant Materials
EP
Art
Music (as extra twilight course)

2) How many exams did you sit?

22 in exam season, plus one Art practical exam and the early November sitting for English language, so 24 in total (with language exams counted separately).

3) How was year 11 compared to your expectations?

I thought I would be more stressed out during actual exam season (I was pretty chilled... then again, I probably didn't do as much work as I should have). Getting a lot of time off in exam leave really helped - I think being around everyone else and being forced to be in school would have drove me crazy! The thing that shocked me the most was coursework for the more creative subjects - the science, english, history etc coursework you tend to forget about pretty quickly, but for us the art, music, drama etc and technology coursework was a real pain in the arse.

Our deadline for DT coursework was easter, and there were a lot of students who had been allowed out of PE lessons for weeks to try to catch up (me included). Eventually, pretty much half of Y11 spent the last few days of term doing nothing but coursework from the second they got to school to the second they got home. It was stressful, and added coursework from Art (rubbish teacher 1st year, had to play catch up all of Y11) and music made it even worse. I had literally no time for anything else, so things like my French coursework suffered for it, which then dragged my overall French grade down a lot. It was a balancing act.

Remember, after you've done most coursework you will quickly forget about it and focus on exams, but they do have a big impact on your final grades so do the very best you can for it. Even if you flump exams, good coursework can mean the difference between getting the grade you want or not.

4) What advice would you give year 11s moving up?

DO YOUR COURSEWORK EARLY. I'm not even kidding, if your teacher has scheduled in coursework at the end of the year/close to exams, ask to start it earlier or something. And use the summer holiday to get ahead in coursework if possible. Improve everything you did in Y10 to the highest quality you can, so you don't have to worry about it in Y11 and can just focus on revision.

Also, if you're motivated enough, start light revision in January or February (at the very earliest) and very slowly build up how much you do until exam season. Maybe start going through your exercise books and making notes you can revise from in exam season? Don't go overboard though, or you'll burn yourself out too quickly.
I was planning to do this but I didn't, and since I'd gone so long just not bothering with homework it was too much of a shock when it actually got to exams and I couldn't concentrate or get motivated long enough to actually focus and revise. I ended up doing waaaaay too much last-minute revision. I'm happy with my results, but there are a few subjects I could have put a lot more revision effort into.

Reply 7

kelefi

Maths (A*), Bio (A*), Chem (A*), Phys (A*), English Lit (A), English Lang (A), German (A*), Computing (A), Business (A*), History (A), Statistics (A*). -> GCSE
P.E. qcf
24 exams
much easier than i feared
my advice, revise maths weekly. revise your weakest subject often. cram before exams - its very effective!

Reply 8

ThrillSize

Original post by horsewithnoname

For year 11s:

1) What subjects did you take?
2) How many exams did you sit?
3) How was year 11 compared to your expectations?
4) What advice would you give year 11s moving up?

1) Maths, Triple science, English Lang, English Lit, Geography, Arabic, French, Religious Studies, Textiles, Media Studies.

2)23 exams.

3)As expected. Relatively heavy workload and many deadlines to meet.

4) When they tell you to start revising 6 weeks in advance, do it. In fact, start revising as soon as possible and keep it consistent. Avoid cramming. GCSE past papers are extremely helpful, particularly for science, so do as many of those as possible to become familiar with the question styles and the mark schemes to understand exactly what the examiners are looking for. I found that reading through the examiner's reports for English Lang and Lit helped me a lot because I could see where many people went wrong and avoided making the same mistakes.

Hope that helps :smile:

Reply 9

amelimoo

Original post by horsewithnoname

For year 11s:

1) What subjects did you take?
I took geography, maths (foundation and higher), product design, health and social care, media studies, English literature, English language, religious studies and core and additional science.
2) How many exams did you sit?
21
3) How was year 11 compared to your expectations?
A lot less stressful than what I expected!
4) What advice would you give year 11s moving up?

Stay on top of your work, make sure you ask someone if you don't understand and do it as soon as you get stuck not a night before the exam, like I did with physics. Stay positive, do lots of past papers and enjoy it!

Reply 10

FantasticMsFox

Original post by horsewithnoname

For year 11s:

1) What subjects did you take?
2) How many exams did you sit?
3) How was year 11 compared to your expectations?
4) What advice would you give year 11s moving up?

1) English Language (November 2013) (B grade)
English Literature (B)
Maths (June 2013) (B grade)
Maths (B grade)
Core Science (June 2013) (B grade)
Additional Science (C grade)
French (A grade)
History (B grade)
Religious Studies B - Philosophy & Applied Ethics (A grade)
[Not a GCSE: OCR Level 2 National First Award in ICT (C grade)]

2) 20 or 24 Exams (including 2013 exams)

3) I didn't really have any expectations, but it was hard (probably because I'm a SEN student). My time management in exams was (and still is) rubbish. Also, I have occasionally slacked off in terms of revision for mock exams in one or two subjects (mainly because I didn't enjoy them). HOWEVER, the majority of my subjects were interesting and I really enjoyed English, Religious Studies and History.

4) My advice to the upcoming Year 11s:
Work your socks off! Also, start light revision around December/January and increase the revision gradually. Make sure you have a revision timetable that prioritises the right subjects and PLEASE give yourself a revision holiday for one day of the week. It might also help to have a separate and different revision timetable for holidays as you'll have more time. Have revision sessions that are 50 minutes long, then take a 10 minute break, then go on to your next revision session (this has worked for me).

COURSEWORK! I can't stress how important this was to me in subjects such as English and History. Coursework might not be taken as seriously as exams are, but it still counts towards your final grade. If you are learning HISTORY in Year 11 and going to be doing coursework, put your 100% into it, because if you get C grades and/or B grades in your History exams and you get an A* in your History coursework, your final History grade might be a B grade or an A grade (I talk from experience here. Getting a C, D and B in my History exams and an A* in History coursework got me an overall B grade for History.)
Also, if you are learning ENGLISH LANGUAGE in Year 11 and going to be doing coursework, work very hard! If you get a C in the exam and an A in coursework, your overall grade will work out to be a B grade. The Speaking and Listening Exam no longer counts towards your final grade. (I also talk from experience here. Getting a D in the exam (a few marks away from a C!), an A in coursework and an A* in the Speaking and Listening exam got me an overall B grade for English Language. The Speaking and Listening exam saved me, really.)

PAST PAPERS/PAST EXAM QUESTIONS! These are essential for revision. Past exam questions really helped me with Religious Studies, History and Maths. Practise, Practise, Practise! Doing past papers/past exam questions for Religious Studies is a massive BLESSING! Also, make sure you regularly practise the 6 mark and 12 mark questions. Make a "For and Against" table for the 12 mark questions.

Trust me, all the hard work will be worth it in the end. You'll have Graduation/NRA and your school Disco/Prom to look forward to. If you don't look forward to that, then you'll have Results Day and treats/rewards from your family to look forward to.

ALSO: Please respect your teachers. They're there to help you get high grades. They spend so much of their free time on marking stuff and preparing lessons. Your teachers want the best for you. Your teachers will smile when they find out that you have achieved great grades!
(They may even jump up and down in happiness like children if they care about you A LOT. One of my teachers was crying happily when she heard that I got a B and she LOVED our class!)

I wish all of the upcoming Year 11s the very best for the next academic year. Don't give up!