All 9s - AMA - Y11 2024 GCSE takers

How did you revise for french. I'm doing spanish but I'm assuming I can just apply it to spanish as well.

Reply 2

OP

Original post by Khadi99

How did you revise for french. I'm doing spanish but I'm assuming I can just apply it to spanish as well.

In y10 I mostly got 6s.
We had a native French teacher who came in sometimes and she was amazing for practice - take any opportunities you can to practise speaking.

Writing - memorise hard structures, just search gcse a* spanish structures, and know your vocab
Speaking - memorise your answers, learn all your connectives and if you dont know about the photocard (mine was terrible, didn't understand it too much) then just focus on putting in good structures. Memorisation is the best, put it onto flashcards and read them again and again, using colours to highlight. Stay calm. I cried midway through mine and had to take a break. I wasn't allowed to rerecord it. I ended up with 59/60, so examiners must be used to this and see through the tears. I regretted it after. Be confident and practise with friends too, and choose the theme you are least confident on and write really good answers, so you'll be asked less shocking questions from the other themes.
Listening - I got just over half, it was very hard. Never leave anything blank, and guess if you have to. I watched quite a bit of French peppa pig with subtitles, which was really useful for getting used to pronunciation
Reading - take your time and again, revise for vocab tests, buy a vocab book, go through past papers and note any vocab you didn't know

GOOD LUCK! Year 11 isn't too bad, I promise :smile:

(edited 7 months ago)

Reply 3

username6317368

11

Amazing results! - how did you revise english and history?

Reply 4

temanbaik

14

Original post by Aloysius O'Hare

Amazing results! - how did you revise english and history?

Hey, thank you!
For history: reread the exam technique, I did AQA and got about 35/40 in all 4 sections. I have great notes for normans, opportunity and equality USA, public health (med) and also post ww1. Always consider the long and short term effect and the number of people it affected. Write 16 marker plans because for some there is only a limited amount of questions they can ask you. For sources, make sure to practise bc lots of them share the same message and it improved your analytical skills. I can pm any notes. I recommend the aqa revisionnotes guide.

English Language: quite sad I didn't get a 9 here. I've always been pretty good at english language but I've found Mr Bruff to be useful for grasping the basics. I think past papers are your best friend here. I have notes too for this, as the techniques that come up every year are always the same. There is always contrast or juxtaposition, always metaphors etc. Ensure varying paragraph length in ur long creative writing and look up some cool vocab.

English Lit - went from 5s and 6s to a solid 9. I watched Mr Salles for his analysis and it was really useful. Read other people's essays and take out the main ideas. Learn a few quotes per character and rematch or reread your plays. Think about the main idea and relate to its contextual factors. I think youtube is the best resource and remembering quotes is vital too. Ensure in unseen poetry you compare Methods, not ideas. Know your mark schemes well. You'll do great :smile:

Good luck!
Ali

Reply 5

Khadi99

Thank you so much! I'm also doing level 2 further maths qualification, I wanted to know how you revised for that as well!

Reply 6

lbe

5

Do you think that the English language papers were marked down this year ? This seems to be the trend at my sons school? He was predicted an 8 all the way thru school in mocks and work etc and got a 6 ! His friends predicted 7 and got 5s but 7/8 in all other subjects . So something definitely not right !!! Teachers have said the same . My son is 6 marks off the 7 so we are unsure whether to get remarked .

Reply 7

_jupiter_

Hi , Is doing the further maths qualification worth it?
I have been offered the chance to take it and I'm not sure if it is worth the work

Reply 8

Original post by _jupiter_

Hi , Is doing the further maths qualification worth it?
I have been offered the chance to take it and I'm not sure if it is worth the work

I’m not original poster - however, I’m in Y11 (doing further maths since start of y10, and have just finished the content). Honestly, it wasn’t as bad as people made it out to be. If you struggle with maths, probably not a good choice. If you tend to be okay, go for it. I haven’t had to do much more revision for further compared to other subjects.

Reply 9

Original post by baikbaiksaja

I got my results and (nearly) got all 9s, sorry for the clickbait.
I got 8x 9s in:
Maths
Physics
Bio
Chem
History
Business
Eng Literature
French (cried in this one too lmao)

and Short Course GCSE Religious studies if that even counts...

and one mark off a 9 in English language (8)
and 3 off in Level 2 Further maths (not a real gcse tho) (8)

I will be happy to give any advice, cos tbh my revision strategy wasn't the best but it served me pretty well in the few weeks I had :smile:

Amazing results!! How did you go about revising for maths? (Any particular resources, videos etc)

Reply 10

_jupiter_

Original post by Xx_flowerpanda

I’m not original poster - however, I’m in Y11 (doing further maths since start of y10, and have just finished the content). Honestly, it wasn’t as bad as people made it out to be. If you struggle with maths, probably not a good choice. If you tend to be okay, go for it. I haven’t had to do much more revision for further compared to other subjects.

Thanks, I think I will do it and if I struggle with it I'll drop the subject

Reply 11

OP

Original post by Khadi99

Thank you so much! I'm also doing level 2 further maths qualification, I wanted to know how you revised for that as well!

Hey!
The best way to do this is FIRSTCLASSMATHS on youtube! He is amazing!! then do the questions he has made in the links in his videos. H e also has a website with amazing predicted papers. Not sponsored btw. He makes it all so simple! Corbettmaths also has lots of practice qs, however my teacher was brilliant too!

Reply 12

OP

Original post by Aloysius O'Hare

Amazing results! - how did you revise english and history?

For English langauge I have notes I can pm. I would say use the mark scheme and understand it. Mr Salles and Mr Everything English were life savers in literature! I would say remember a few selective quotes for each character, and use multiple characters within a theme. If you would like some more detail, lmk!
Also, english langauge requires practice. Do past papers and try to think outside the box. Do not overcomplicate it and write as much as you can. It worked for me :smile:

Reply 13

OP

Original post by _jupiter_

Hi , Is doing the further maths qualification worth it?
I have been offered the chance to take it and I'm not sure if it is worth the work

Hi, it is worth it if you plan to do maths A-level. It will save you a lot of time in year 12. However, if you have plans for a non-STEM related major, it may not be worth it if maths doesn't come as naturally to you :smile:

hope this helps

Reply 14

OP

Original post by lbe

Do you think that the English language papers were marked down this year ? This seems to be the trend at my sons school? He was predicted an 8 all the way thru school in mocks and work etc and got a 6 ! His friends predicted 7 and got 5s but 7/8 in all other subjects . So something definitely not right !!! Teachers have said the same . My son is 6 marks off the 7 so we are unsure whether to get remarked .

I was actually one off a 9 this year, despite consistently getting 9s marked by my teacher who is an AQA examiner. Surprisingly, people who got lower grades did very well in my school! I think the books this year were more common. Paper 1 was based off of LIFE OF PI, which many people have read and so felt more confident and understood its context and atmosphere more than in other years. Paper 2 was also pretty simple this year, about trains, and the q5 was about public transport and was a speech, when usually it is an article. The boundaries were moderately low however I think AQAs choice to do a speech made it harder to obtain better grades as nearly every year we have articles, and most teachers prepare students for this scenario! :smile:

I hope your son is happy with his grade, and I would say a remark is worth it if you are close to the boundary! I am waiting for mine still however...

Reply 15

OP

Original post by Xx_flowerpanda

Amazing results!! How did you go about revising for maths? (Any particular resources, videos etc)

Ive always had a knack for maths personally, but my teacher would give us packs of past papers which were super useful. I would say print off a ticklist because for me, I forgot how to do iteration and this meant I got 69/80 in paper 2 and had to work very hard to get 78/80 in both the other papers. Corbett maths questions are perfect for practice! I watched some of those past paper and topic walkthroughs on youtube by GCSE maths tutor for vectors when I found them difficult. Practice makes progress in maths, and don't avoid the scary topics :smile:

I would also say use the predicted papers and past papers on firstclassmaths website. Good luck!!

Reply 16

OP

Original post by Xx_flowerpanda

I’m not original poster - however, I’m in Y11 (doing further maths since start of y10, and have just finished the content). Honestly, it wasn’t as bad as people made it out to be. If you struggle with maths, probably not a good choice. If you tend to be okay, go for it. I haven’t had to do much more revision for further compared to other subjects.

Thanks for helping out! been a bit busy settling into A-levels! 3 sciences and maths if anyone has any questions about how year 12 is!

Reply 17

Original post by baikbaiksaja

Ive always had a knack for maths personally, but my teacher would give us packs of past papers which were super useful. I would say print off a ticklist because for me, I forgot how to do iteration and this meant I got 69/80 in paper 2 and had to work very hard to get 78/80 in both the other papers. Corbett maths questions are perfect for practice! I watched some of those past paper and topic walkthroughs on youtube by GCSE maths tutor for vectors when I found them difficult. Practice makes progress in maths, and don't avoid the scary topics :smile:

I would also say use the predicted papers and past papers on firstclassmaths website. Good luck!!

Thanks a lot! If you don’t mind me asking, where did you find a tick list? I’ve been trying to find any form of exam spec/topic list to go off, but it hasn’t been very successful. I’ll definitely get some past papers to do, though, thanks!

Reply 18