Bad mock GCSEs and physics help?

Before I start, I want to say that my aren't that "bad" in the grand scheme of things, but considering my high challenge grades and expectations I'm underachieving pretty severely.

Maths - A*
English Lit - A*
English Lang - A
German - B
Physics - B
Chemistry - B
Geography - B
Biology - A
History - B
Computing - A

With these grades the only ones I'd say I'm "happy" with is English literature and computing as I was very uncertain about them, but this shows I'm starting to get a grasp for them. Maths was certainly a lot less secure than it should have been (a couple marks of the grade boundary)..

My biggest worry in all of this is physics. I want to take it for A level but considering it's supposed to be one of the hardest subjects and I've been consistently getting Bs (my challenge grade was an A* which I was achieving until year 11 where I'm struggling) I'm pretty worried. How do you revise for physics? Even when I feel I do well in a test I end up doing poorly, which is a big worry for me in the real thing as the same thing happened in my RE GCSE; getting closed to full marks in all the mocks etc. then comes the real thing and I think it goes well but I get a B in that too.

How do I show my parents my report? Pretty much every subject which I didn't get my challenge grade in (most of them) says I'm underachieving and pulls my predicted grade way down.

Reply 1

cookiemonster15

Original post by throwaway20

Make a revision timetable, do like a topic of physics a day (revising the topic) and do some questions on the topic, mark them and see where you went wrong.

I guess it's all about practice, I absolutely hated Physics when I did my GCSE'S but I sucked it up and revised like crazy doing past papers etc and ended up with an A* overall, so if I can do it, you can too!

Good Luck :smile:

Reply 2

username2337813

Firstly, them grades are good! and your parents should understand that these aren't your final grades and that you can still work on them.
For physics, I revise through flashcards and doing practice papers and questions. So, before I've started revision I'll do a past paper, mark it, and find out my area of weakness. After that, I'll revise that topic, do another paper and keep progressing like that.

Reply 3

croftie4

Past papers and I use www.my-gcsescience it's well worth the £50 near enough all my friends are using it. As well as easy to understand videos there are tips and exam questions at the end. The guy even has printable notes. The videos are between 4 and 12 minutes long and I'd say for each science unit 1 is about 3.5hrs in total, unit 2 is 4 hours and unit 3 much shorter at 1.5hrs. My friend last year went from C's to all A's just by watching the videos for her revision and she hated triple science

If you work your way through the past paper for the last 5-7 years you'll cover all the content and make sure you read the examiner reports because they tell you how students that year missed out on marks. I couldn't move up from a B but found I was missing out on easy marks just because I wasn't using enough scientific language. I'm now getting A's so hope to be able to push that to A*'s

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 4

throwaway20

Thanks guys! Means a lot.

I think the areas where I lost marks in physics from a combination of not using the right terminology, silly mistakes and just some confusions about some of the topics I am weaker at eg. convection, conduction and radiation as well as mains electricity.

Is www.my-gcsescience only AQA? It looks very useful, but for sciences I'm doing edexcel IGCSE which isn't a huge difference, but the style of question and what's acceptable on the mark scheme is a bit different and I think I need to get used to Edexcel's.

I'm not sure flashcards are really my thing, because for some reason when the answers are right in front of me and so easily accessible it's like my brain can't be bothered to learn them. However, I will definitely go through the mock more thoroughly; there are some areas where I need to put in a lot of work.

Reply 5

HagueBlue

Original post by throwaway20

With GCSE, I promise, if you work, you succeed. A level is harder, you need to put way more work in to reap smaller results. You're only in February, I started revising for my GCSEs in late March and massively changed by grades.

I got CCC in science, CC in English and a D in Maths mocks. I also got a U in my History mock.

In my real exams, I got A*s in all three sciences, both English Lit and Lang and an A in maths and history. With your grades right now, why not aim for all A*s? If you start now I bet you can get it.

Science GCSE is almost all memory. Go through your text book and make notes on every page. And for GCSE, make sure you understand, but actually memorising the way they write it helps as that's usually how they want you to phrase things. Then do every summary question in the book. For physics in particular, especially in the last units, you'll need to be able to rearrange the equations, which you probably can do well, looking at your grade in maths. Then do all the past paper questions. I bet if you do this you'll get As and A*s by your 3rd/4th paper. It's quite a bit of effort, but doesn't compare to A Level where people do all this and still get Cs, because A Level is all applied.

Reply 6

croftie4

Original post by throwaway20

Thanks guys! Means a lot.I think the areas where I lost marks in physics from a combination of not using the right terminology, silly mistakes and just some confusions about some of the topics I am weaker at eg. convection, conduction and radiation as well as mains electricity.Is www.my-gcsescience only AQA? It looks very useful, but for sciences I'm doing edexcel IGCSE which isn't a huge difference, but the style of question and what's acceptable on the mark scheme is a bit different and I think I need to get used to Edexcel's.I'm not sure flashcards are really my thing, because for some reason when the answers are right in front of me and so easily accessible it's like my brain can't be bothered to learn them. However, I will definitely go through the mock more thoroughly; there are some areas where I need to put in a lot of work.

I know friends that are taking edexcel triple science and they use the my-gcsescience. I'm sure I've even read someone asking if it would help with their course. You could always go through the spec of your course and watch the videos for those subject areas but I certain that you'll probably find your course content is very similar. You'll exams will be different but my teachers keep saying with science if you understand the exam technique your 1/2 waythere. In my case once I decided on my A 'level subjects I began to get motivated, I still hate revising RE but realise now that revising any subject is just a tick box exercise. I'm only doing two hours a day but have friends who are doing a lot more but seem to be taking in less and I'm sure it's because I'm watching and listening rather than just reading. I really think you stand a very good chance of doing really well.

Reply 7

georginarowley

Original post by throwaway20

You have nothing to worry about, the majority of my mocks were absolutely shocking, my science grades are still 2 grades below my target lol. I would say that you shouldn't work yourself silly over one subject and neglect others, but is its something you really want to do then go for it! If you can, I would advise getting a tutor for a subject you're struggling in (I've just started with a science tutor and she is amazing).
Don't worry about showing these grades to your parents, your grades are really good. As long as you get the grades you want in subjects you want to do in A level, the others don't really matter!
Good luck with your GCSEs!

Reply 8

throwaway20

Thank you all for your support, I feel more confident now and I think I partly owe it to this thread.

Any advice on when you should start revising for your GCSEs? Obviously its "the earlier the better", however due to all the homework I've been getting if I were to already plan my timetable and start revising it would take up nearly all of my time. But if it would definitely be a big help I think I could persevere through it.

On the other hand I am a procrastinate and when I leave things 'till the last minute my grades are unpredictable. What do you think is a safe time to start revising (although I haven't done much revision for the actual GCSEs I have revised for end of topic tests and gone to a few extra classes)?