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gcse help sixth form med

gcse in 5 weeks
did mocks , performed badly in maths ( got grade 5 ) and science (6-6), i need to do great in science , atleast a 7-8 because i wanna get into med.
the sf i am most likelt to atted lets u do a-levels with grade 6 , which is quite low. and then say i do my alevels , wont unis look at my gcse grades ?
also how can i improve my grades in the few weeks ?
what if i am confident and suddenly fail everything? what if i go blank on the exams ? what if i aim for 8s and 9s , feel confident and then get a grade 4-6? i need to get good grades idk.
how do i study for like 20 exams in 4 weeks ?
Wow! Its going to require a lot of hardwork and determination.
If you don't do well in your GCSE's you'll just have to apply to unis that don't grade upon your GCSEs. However even those unis do have a basic cutoff for GCSEs like you need 5 GCSEs at a minimum of grade 6. However that means you'll have to put a lot of effort into your A Levels, because you can't slack on that. Why don't you join a study forum on TSR and see what others are doing, form and implement your plan.
To be honest you should have started much earlier and you should be honest with yourself. You can't expect 8-9s immediately, and then be disappointed if you don't achieve it. Especially if you know your only getting 5-6 in your mocks. You are going to have to sacrifice and just study 90% of you day just to achieve at least a 7-8, because you have a tight schedule.
Reply 2
Original post by Allera
Wow! Its going to require a lot of hardwork and determination.
If you don't do well in your GCSE's you'll just have to apply to unis that don't grade upon your GCSEs. However even those unis do have a basic cutoff for GCSEs like you need 5 GCSEs at a minimum of grade 6. However that means you'll have to put a lot of effort into your A Levels, because you can't slack on that. Why don't you join a study forum on TSR and see what others are doing, form and implement your plan.
To be honest you should have started much earlier and you should be honest with yourself. You can't expect 8-9s immediately, and then be disappointed if you don't achieve it. Especially if you know your only getting 5-6 in your mocks. You are going to have to sacrifice and just study 90% of you day just to achieve at least a 7-8, because you have a tight schedule.


thanks i needed the honesty. but do u reckon its possible and how ?
on my mocks , i got 6-6 for science ( in each paper 1 and 2 ), maths i got a 5 ( but i didnt know alt of hte content on the exam as we hadnt studied it in class) , psychology ( i didnt do mock but have been etting 8s and 9s in class assesment), english lang 8 upper, re 9 , i didnt do recent geography mock ( last mock got a 7 tho jan ) , eng lit ( got 6 last mock ,jan ). Im really struggling as to how i can pull my grades up?
how do i study, do i make flashcards or should just recite the content ( i find reciting it helpful in my mocks ) , but will simply reciting actually work in my real exams ?
i really need to get an 8 , i dont know how i can get my shix together and get decent grades? can you please give any advice?
tysm
Original post by ambrxxn1
thanks i needed the honesty. but do u reckon its possible and how ?
on my mocks , i got 6-6 for science ( in each paper 1 and 2 ), maths i got a 5 ( but i didnt know alt of hte content on the exam as we hadnt studied it in class) , psychology ( i didnt do mock but have been etting 8s and 9s in class assesment), english lang 8 upper, re 9 , i didnt do recent geography mock ( last mock got a 7 tho jan ) , eng lit ( got 6 last mock ,jan ). Im really struggling as to how i can pull my grades up?
how do i study, do i make flashcards or should just recite the content ( i find reciting it helpful in my mocks ) , but will simply reciting actually work in my real exams ?
i really need to get an 8 , i dont know how i can get my shix together and get decent grades? can you please give any advice?
tysm

I definitely recommend prioritising topics and subjects. Print out your specifications and colour code them green = easy, orange/yellow = ok, red = hard. Go over the red topics and make sure you understand them (videos, talking to friends or teachers, textbooks).

Then do tons of past papers and practice exam questions. Do a practice paper timed and mark using the mark schemes. Identify what areas you struggled with and then do some targeted revision to those areas (videos to understand, exam questions to solidify). Then repeat. This exam focused revision method will be especially helpful for maths, physics and chemistry, maybe biology.

I definitely think it's too late to make flashcards now unless it's for a specific topic. For biology and for your essay-based subjects, use the brain fart method. Write down everything you remember about a topic without notes and then read your notes and add to it in a different colour.

Good luck!! Going from a 6 to a 9 in a month (considering how much work you need to put in overall and how many subjects you have) is going to be really difficult and may not be possible unless you're a naturally smart person who's just been slacking the whole two years. But maximising your revision time and doing efficient revision and prioritising topics will definitely help you get your grades up to a 7 maybe 8. Try not to panic and just focus on what you can do right now. Doing something is better than doing nothing.
Reply 4
Original post by kaorimiyazono
I definitely recommend prioritising topics and subjects. Print out your specifications and colour code them green = easy, orange/yellow = ok, red = hard. Go over the red topics and make sure you understand them (videos, talking to friends or teachers, textbooks).

Then do tons of past papers and practice exam questions. Do a practice paper timed and mark using the mark schemes. Identify what areas you struggled with and then do some targeted revision to those areas (videos to understand, exam questions to solidify). Then repeat. This exam focused revision method will be especially helpful for maths, physics and chemistry, maybe biology.

I definitely think it's too late to make flashcards now unless it's for a specific topic. For biology and for your essay-based subjects, use the brain fart method. Write down everything you remember about a topic without notes and then read your notes and add to it in a different colour.

Good luck!! Going from a 6 to a 9 in a month (considering how much work you need to put in overall and how many subjects you have) is going to be really difficult and may not be possible unless you're a naturally smart person who's just been slacking the whole two years. But maximising your revision time and doing efficient revision and prioritising topics will definitely help you get your grades up to a 7 maybe 8. Try not to panic and just focus on what you can do right now. Doing something is better than doing nothing.


I was slacking the last 2 years and I regret it , even this year I was stupid enough to go sleep in some of my lessons and not take anything seriously , I recently clocked how screwed I am.
I really hope I can do this , thank you so much for advice.what if I do past papers and forget so,e topics , can I do open book exams or would they be inefficient ?
tysm for the advice
Original post by ambrxxn1
I was slacking the last 2 years and I regret it , even this year I was stupid enough to go sleep in some of my lessons and not take anything seriously , I recently clocked how screwed I am.
I really hope I can do this , thank you so much for advice.what if I do past papers and forget so,e topics , can I do open book exams or would they be inefficient ?
tysm for the advice


I agree with the @kaorimiyazono advice. Now to answer your above question, if you had more time I would have agreed and said to do it in the beginning, because that's what I did and it really helped. But since you don't I'd say do past papers like a mock exam and check the mark scheme and really be critical with your self, and definitely ask your teacher for advice on answering and improving your writing techniques. The questions you get wrong, mark them, write the correct answer and right before the exam review them. If you are having trouble doing past papers and improving then maybe do 2-3 open book exams. By the way do you have any notes?
Original post by ambrxxn1
gcse in 5 weeks
did mocks , performed badly in maths ( got grade 5 ) and science (6-6), i need to do great in science , atleast a 7-8 because i wanna get into med.
the sf i am most likelt to atted lets u do a-levels with grade 6 , which is quite low. and then say i do my alevels , wont unis look at my gcse grades ?
also how can i improve my grades in the few weeks ?
what if i am confident and suddenly fail everything? what if i go blank on the exams ? what if i aim for 8s and 9s , feel confident and then get a grade 4-6? i need to get good grades idk.
how do i study for like 20 exams in 4 weeks ?

Heya!
Regarding grades, it depends on the entry requirements of the medical schools. If it helps, use this medical school comparison tool to look at the entry requirements.
How do you usually revise for exams? Do you make flashcards? do you do past papers and go through the mark scheme? If it helps, Study mind has free resources that can help you out!

I hope this helps!
Milena
UCL PFE
Study Mind
Reply 7
Original post by Allera
I agree with the @kaorimiyazono advice. Now to answer your above question, if you had more time I would have agreed and said to do it in the beginning, because that's what I did and it really helped. But since you don't I'd say do past papers like a mock exam and check the mark scheme and really be critical with your self, and definitely ask your teacher for advice on answering and improving your writing techniques. The questions you get wrong, mark them, write the correct answer and right before the exam review them. If you are having trouble doing past papers and improving then maybe do 2-3 open book exams. By the way do you have any notes?


Not really , but websites like pmt have notes on there . So I thought I could just use those instead of rewriting them ? And quizlet
Original post by ambrxxn1
Not really , but websites like pmt have notes on there . So I thought I could just use those instead of rewriting them ? And quizlet

Ok so its totally fine to have premade notes, but I get the idea that you haven't used them before? Now I haven't used PMT notes before so I can't really comment on the quality, but please make sure it covers your entire specification. I always say that you should make your notes you foundation of your study. It should be the only thing you have to review right before the exam to be prepared.
I got a question for any sixthformers could help me answer im pretty confident that I can get a 9 in chemistry, biology and physics and further maths, although all my other subjects excluding normal maths are on grades 6-7 is it still possible I can get 4 A*s in maths, physics, biology and chemistry. Because the main reason I excel in my high grade subjects is because I enioy them. Or would I need high grades in every subject to possibly achieve 4A*s in a level because of the work load
Original post by jack_ray13
I got a question for any sixthformers could help me answer im pretty confident that I can get a 9 in chemistry, biology and physics and further maths, although all my other subjects excluding normal maths are on grades 6-7 is it still possible I can get 4 A*s in maths, physics, biology and chemistry. Because the main reason I excel in my high grade subjects is because I enioy them. Or would I need high grades in every subject to possibly achieve 4A*s in a level because of the work load


a lot of people do way better at a level than gcses, it’s about *you* and *your* determination to work hard
where are u at for maths?
and how come you’re thinking of taking 4 a levels?
Original post by ambrxxn1
I was slacking the last 2 years and I regret it , even this year I was stupid enough to go sleep in some of my lessons and not take anything seriously , I recently clocked how screwed I am.
I really hope I can do this , thank you so much for advice.what if I do past papers and forget so,e topics , can I do open book exams or would they be inefficient ?
tysm for the advice


I agree with ObsidianHart. At this point it's better to be really harsh with yourself to get the most out of the revision that you do have time to do. It's better to do the exams closed book. Trying to actively recall the information will be much more efficient than passively writing your notes down in an exam format.

In terms of your lack of notes, it might be too late to rewrite them all. The PMT notes for chemistry are good (at least for AQA which is the specification I did - I assume the others are also good). For biology, alevelbiology.co.uk has very good resources (I think there is some stuff that you have to pay for but the notes are free). If you really have no recollection of doing a topic, teach it to yourself and make your own notes - but make sure that you actually understand everything you write down/read.

Good luck!!
Original post by jack_ray13
I got a question for any sixthformers could help me answer im pretty confident that I can get a 9 in chemistry, biology and physics and further maths, although all my other subjects excluding normal maths are on grades 6-7 is it still possible I can get 4 A*s in maths, physics, biology and chemistry. Because the main reason I excel in my high grade subjects is because I enioy them. Or would I need high grades in every subject to possibly achieve 4A*s in a level because of the work load

Slow down!! First off, focus on actually sitting your GCSEs and receiving your grades. Then, focus on working hard during your A-Levels. Getting high grades at GCSE does not guarantee high grades at A-Level and getting lower grades at GCSES does not mean that you can't get high grades at A-Level. It all depends on how much effort you put in at sixth form. Sure, you enjoying the subject does help, but I have friends who hated their subjects and still got As and A*s. It's all about hard work and organisation. You will be fine, but focus on your GCSEs for now. Good luck with your exams!
Because I really want to do physics as well and chemistry biology and maths are essential although physics is my favorite subject

Im in a grade 9 in maths
Original post by jack_ray13
Because I really want to do physics as well and chemistry biology and maths are essential although physics is my favorite subject

Im in a grade 9 in maths


Essential for?
Original post by ambrxxn1
gcse in 5 weeks
did mocks , performed badly in maths ( got grade 5 ) and science (6-6), i need to do great in science , atleast a 7-8 because i wanna get into med.
the sf i am most likelt to atted lets u do a-levels with grade 6 , which is quite low. and then say i do my alevels , wont unis look at my gcse grades ?
also how can i improve my grades in the few weeks ?
what if i am confident and suddenly fail everything? what if i go blank on the exams ? what if i aim for 8s and 9s , feel confident and then get a grade 4-6? i need to get good grades idk.
how do i study for like 20 exams in 4 weeks ?


a level premed student here. to be honest, i would look at individual university requirements. it does vary, but a lot require a minimum 6 in maths and english (or something along those lines- can't remember). most universities won't look at anything but maths and english, however, so if you get a 6 or above for sciences you will be ok! some universities look at them all, but aren't worth applying to if you don't have straight 8/9 because of the competitive nature of meds (cardiff for example- anyone below all 8/9 was rejected this year!!).
the study tip i would recommend is past papers and mark schemes. do a past paper, leave or highlight any parts you can't do, come back and using notes answer the ones you couldn't, then mark and grade. it gets you used to the mark schemes used. physicsandmathstutor is my go to. also, start with the parts you find hardest! better to go into an exam with a rough grasp on everything that a great idea of half the course and none for the rest.

and to be honest, even if you don't end up going to the sixth form, as long as you do well at college and get AAA, you're sorted for the minimum academic requirements. it doesn't matter how you get there, long as you apply yourself and work hard! and exam blank happens- all that matters is you have tried your best! best of luck, feel free to pm me if you need any more help in the future :biggrin:

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