Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>

Finished my GCSE exams, what to do with my books and notes?

So I finished my last GCSE exam and my holidays have started. I was clearing out my stuff and was wondering what to do with my books, notes, revision guides etc?

How important is it to keep my stuff? Would I need some of it for A-level? Should I keep it in case I have to retake?

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 1

TaraMott

Original post by Sanderm1

So I finished my last GCSE exam and my holidays have started. I was clearing out my stuff and was wondering what to do with my books, notes, revision guides etc?

Kinda sucks seeing 2 years worth of work thrown away in just a couple of minutes, how important is it to keep my stuff? Would I need some of it for A-level? Should I keep it in case I have to retake?

Should I ...

bin everything?
bin everything away, except subjects related to my A-level options?
keep everything until I receive my results and decide what to do then?
other ideas?

Well ive seen people give their revision material (especially books) to people in the year below or to family members who will sit their exams soon.

I wouldnt bin material on subjects you want to do next year or on specific exams that you think you will have to retake because you never know when they will come in hand.

As for the rest of the papers, i just created a recycling box and put all my past papers and sheets in there but i do know many who are going to BBQ (and set fire) their work :biggrin:

Reply 2

drowninginwork

Original post by Sanderm1

I highly doubt you'll need any of your GCSE notes for A level because of the massive difference in the work. Unless you're particularly proud of any work you've done, do what I'm planning on doing in a week:

Burn them.

Reply 3

Fifipencil11

Well other than burning them ( which I DONT intend to do for environmental impact) and also cuz the idea is quite dumb ( IMO)
and giving away books to juniors I know

How do I find juniors that want those?
How do I find juniors that ACTUALLY want those and not gonna end chucking them in the bin?

How do I DECIDE what juniors might find useful and useless in terms of notes and papers?

Thank you SO MUCH!!!

Reply 4

Jemst

Original post by Fifipencil11

As someone who has received notes from older students in the past and intends to pass on useful notes to a younger friend now that I have finished GCSEs here is what I did....
Firstly accept that you are going to be throwing a lot away! Don't worry, its not a waste. The books have taken you through your exam years, they have served their purpose. You can recycle paper almost anywhere. I'm not particularly sentimental so I only kept a small folder of work I felt I was proud of and represented my school years, to look back on. (I was actually sorting my books from year7-11 so there was a lot of work that was kinda cute from my year 7 books)
Secondly, I have been advised to keep all GCSE notes and work until after results day 'just in case'. I have sorted through everything and have it sat in a box ready to throw out in august.

I received notes from, my brother (3 years older), a family friend (2 years older), and my friend's sister (I took history but my friend didn't)
I will be passing on notes to a family friend going into year 10 (2 years younger) she isn't taking all the same subjects but I trust she will pass the relevant notes to her friends who are (as did my friend with history notes from her sister)

I would say if you are unsure what the student will find useful ask them! There are definitely people who will use them so if the student tells you honestly that they wont use them maybe ask if a friend of theirs would use them instead. For the most part I would say so long as they can see how they will use them, they will be happy to take them. For this reason, random unorganised notes are not going to be helpful, since the student will be making their own notes anyway. Pass on flashcards only if they are neat and easily readable (I have some that I are very messy, they worked for me but I wouldn't pass them on) Always check the exam board especially if your student goes to a different school, most work crosses over but revision guides are normally more specific.

From work I received, here is what I actually used and intend to pass on....

For all subjects any 'top tips' worksheets, any sort of breakdown of which exam papers contain which topics, revision books (CGP are amazing!), if you have been given a printout of the spec, or if you have printed past papers not completed (make sure they have the mark scheme available) and well made flashcards

English - Any organisation of quotes. It was extremely useful to have them all in one place (they were sort of worksheets with tables sorting quotes by theme and character) and I then made quote flashcards which might be a useful starting point for someone's revision.
I have some sheets with neat notes on themes and contexts of each text we studied. Though I had them, I never read through my brother's past answers.

Maths - This is very specific, but my teacher made us copy notes on everything into a separate book neatly, so i'm passing that on since I swear I spent too many hours copying notes into it (I know there is a CGP revision book with exactly this in it, I have it, I will pass it on, my teacher never understood that copying notes was a bit of a waste of time). Also I had some flashcards of random quick reminders of question topics I found hard.

Sciences - The CGP books I received and will pass on

Spanish - I am not passing on any of my Spanish work since I am taking it next year, I intend to keep most it so I can see my progress in the language over the years, this is the only subject I think I will have useful material for next year. However if you do a language then flashcards are great to pass on and I honestly wish I had received some since I never ending up making any cos it took so long (I ended up using quiz-let which in my opinion is better anyway) I have a lot of vocab lists printed that I doubt I will need so I might pass them on but i'm going to wait and see

History - Again I had so many notes of my own that it would have been overwhelming to receive someone else's book. I was given a huge amount of really well made flashcards which despite my dislike of history was the only revison I really did and without them, I would have done hardly anything useful

Media - By far the neatest notes I ever made at school. I will pass on my annotated case studies and a couple well made flashcards.
I might look into selling my notes for this subject (I have no idea how to do this but I will keep the notes til I find a use for them, in my opinon, they are too neat to throw away)

Textiles - I will keep my felt strawberry with googly eyes : D (and everything else of course (I did love the subject)... I just don't want to think about the amount of hours poured into that project, because it was an absolute nightmare and i'm glad i'm never doing that again)

I know this is long but I hope someone has found it helpful.. bare in mind, different people work in different ways, this is just what worked for me!
For anyone doing exams right now, good luck! I hope they go really well!

Reply 5

Fifipencil11

Thank you SO MUCH for your detailed post
I gave a friend of mine ( yr 11 next year) past papers I solved so that she can see what it's like and all

I gave her two folders of Math and Chem ( total 4 folders)
Like I DID give her the printed Chem spec
Pretty easy to browse the spec online whenever I need it
I find the physical copy useless

Finished my GCSE exams, what to do with my books and notes?

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you