Year 9-2023-24

I would say try to figure out what kind of question is going to come up so that you can plan your structure but generally the structure is Point, How (quotes), Why (bigger picture/impact). Are you going to analyse a literary technique or a character?

thank you i think my main problem is that idk what sort of q it is so idk what to revise about my quotes yk

I have my topic test (on crime and creative writing!) on the 4th Dec but I haven't revised for it yet so fingers crossed

(flyingsquirrel10 here again)
so obviously you should try practicing the introductions and conclusions that your teacher probably taught you, and the TEAL paragraph structure. honestly, just memorising the quotes on the sheet they gave us is apparently okay (thats what my english teacher said to me but i dont believe her so im still gonna find my own quotes). the actual mark definitely comes more on the analysis and quality of language than on the quotes themselves, as long as they're throroughly analysed and linked with your topic sentence, you should be fine
im going to find quotes that could work for a variety of questions, but again, as we dont know what the question is at all, thats hard. apparently its going to be very straight forward so thats good? also you can find model essays online and there might be one on your google classroom (if not I can email it them to you)

Are you guys from the same school or something? Lol .. My school is totally different from yours. (

yeah haha
what’s different about your school?

for some reason my school we havent done anything about TEAL structures etc but all we do is the basic PEE structure (Ik its weird but) and my school is the only one that makes Early Entry GCSE compulsory even though in some schools like super smart kids do it early but for us its compulsory!!

pee as in point evidence explain?
teal is topic sentence, evidence, analysis, link
oh the early entry gcse is interesting.. i’m not sure if they even allow it at my schoil

Heyyy, I'm new here... I am not sure about what to pick for my GCSEs, we have to pick them after Christmas... I've looked on the Internet, but got confused. Does anyone know how many subjects we have to pick?

Heyyy, I'm new here... I am not sure about what to pick for my GCSEs, we have to pick them after Christmas... I've looked on the Internet, but got confused. Does anyone know how many subjects we have to pick?

you could choose a mix of humanities creatives and languages and one subject you enjoy
eg for me:
humanity - history or geo (haven’t decided yet)
creative - drama
language - spanish
I love computing so that
and then ofc ur necessary subjects like maths and science
it’s likely you’ll pick 3 or 4 although my school does 4 and if ur ‘smart’ you can also do further maths (that was a bit sarcastic)
good luck! we’re picking ours in february and i’m nervous too haha

guys I need help w choosing between geography and history gcse, any tips??

hey sorry I'm new here but from what I've heard geography's course is a lot simpler, but apparently history is a lot more interesting. history is more essay based, so similar to english, while geography is more of a mix. also just think about what you enjoy more, I'm picking my subjects in january and personally I like history better. good luck! xx

heyyy tysm for the reply!
I just wanted to add this on (despite the length):
for history we did an open book essay and I got 10/10, however there was no memorisation so that’ll be much harder
and in geography we did a gcse paper and I got 17/20, getting full marks on the six marker and four marker but losing three marks elsewhere
I agree with you that geography would be a much simpler course but i’m sorta interested in the complexity of a history gcse, and because I am taking a drama gcse (I might want to be an actor), perhaps a harder subject could be fun? however i’m also hoping to do a further maths AS level assuming the school believes im good enough, so I would be doing 10 gcses and an AS level which could be hectic and taking geography (which is apparently easier) could be helpful?
i also enjoy them equally
oh I don’t know anymore.

I have to choose in feb by the way!

I think i’ll be talking to my teachers about it at a parents evening too so hopefully I come to a decision and don’t panic and choose the wrong one on the night before-

thanks again for the help

np! I know a lot of people talk about how stressful gcse's can get, but I feel like if I do anything that bores me in the slightest bit I will do get absolutely nothing done, and I get on really well when I enjoy it. I've also had an interest in history since ages so I didn't have a hard time picking, but that's me. for you, history could tie in really well with drama, but with further maths it could get hectic. advice from teachers and parents is great, I think it wouldn't make a huge difference for you since you got amazing test scores (well done btw - you should be proud!). maybe observe how you feel revising for both of them, and see what feels right. Also maybe try memorising some history and try different techniques and see how well you do on that. I'm really bad at memorising things, I can remember what my notes look like but not the actual words, but I've found ways to work around it, so see what works for you. either way, I'm sure you'll make the right choice for you in the end!

which gcse history board are you taking (mines ocr, explaining the modern world or something along those lines)? the idea to try and memorise history is actually so good. I think I might try it over the holidays and then get my teacher to mark it, I mean just because there won’t be a closed book test before I have to choose my gcses doesn’t mean I can’t set up one myself (I hope she’ll be ok with it). I’m really tempted to take history because it’s just much more interesting (at this current time, although I found climate change rather interesting too in geography) and I tend to also be better at things I enjoy, however I find easier stuff more enjoyable, because they’re, well, easier. still, history seems interesting and I should be able to memorise the information? i’ll try what you said, thank you very much for the suggestion and good luck to you for january!

ps- i’ve just realised that I really enjoyed the human part of geography so I guess i’m back to square one AA