To those that got grade 9s in GCSEs, what did you do in year 10?

Original post by UndecisiveBoy

Did you just enjoy life, revise for end of topic tests only, or start your full revision? What would you recommend to a yr 10 student who is targetting for grade 9s?

hey! I got all A*s (didn’t have 1-9 grades) and honestly I didn’t really do much in year 10.. I revised for mocks and would revise the night before for in class tests, but that was it. Honestly I didn’t start hardcore revision until the Easter holidays of year 11, which was probably too late because I ended up quite burnt out. My advice for now would be to just get a good balance and keep a steady flow of revision.. after school summarise your notes and make some flashcards (Anki is a lifesaver), then just go over them whenever you get the time. Don’t do so much you get burnt out now, but don’t do so little that you cram before your exams like I did and get burnt out! It’s a really fine balance to strike

Reply 5

Tulipbloom

Original post by UndecisiveBoy

Did you just enjoy life, revise for end of topic tests only, or start your full revision? What would you recommend to a yr 10 student who is targetting for grade 9s?

Hey I didn’t get all 9s but my little sister did this year (11 subjects). She was actually out of school for most of Y10 as she got long-term covid and decided to take it easy. What she made sure to do was to keep her notes up to date and to understand a topic the first time around (studying for the topic test). She only really fully revised a month before her actual GCSEs for most of her subjects (3 sciences, maths, English lang, French, geo, and business). For English lit, you gotta do revision from time to time (lack of topic tests) especially for poetry. If you are doing geo it’s better to start revision early on as the amount of content was truly overwhelming for her (on top of the coursework in year 11). All in all, enjoy Y10 and pickup the habit of staying organised. I think it’s wonderful that you are aiming for all 9s as having this goal will motivate you to revise seriously (something I unfortunately didn’t do until it was too late). Good luck this year!

Reply 6

OP

Thanks! Yeah, so far I'm just revising for end of topic tests and do well in them.

Reply 7

OP

Original post by rycbar.123

hey! I got all A*s (didn’t have 1-9 grades) and honestly I didn’t really do much in year 10.. I revised for mocks and would revise the night before for in class tests, but that was it. Honestly I didn’t start hardcore revision until the Easter holidays of year 11, which was probably too late because I ended up quite burnt out. My advice for now would be to just get a good balance and keep a steady flow of revision.. after school summarise your notes and make some flashcards (Anki is a lifesaver), then just go over them whenever you get the time. Don’t do so much you get burnt out now, but don’t do so little that you cram before your exams like I did and get burnt out! It’s a really fine balance to strike

I once tried to use anki in year 9, then just procrastinated to long to bother updating them, maybe I should try restart it.

Reply 8

northernlights60

Original post by UndecisiveBoy

I once tried to use anki in year 9, then just procrastinated to long to bother updating them, maybe I should try restart it.

I had the same problem but now in year 13 I have learnt that there are the most useful when the cards are minimal and use diagrams/pictures/highlighting/underlining/italics for any markscheme examiner comments /keywords. I like Ray Amjads method of making flashcards on a word doc (easy to edit after some exam practise/ organise) and then copy onto anki.

Reply 9

OP

Original post by northernlights60

I had the same problem but now in year 13 I have learnt that there are the most useful when the cards are minimal and use diagrams/pictures/highlighting/underlining/italics for any markscheme examiner comments /keywords. I like Ray Amjads method of making flashcards on a word doc (easy to edit after some exam practise/ organise) and then copy onto anki.

Hmm I'll check it out, would it still be effective if I were to just download those flashcards? Or would the effort of making them be worth it?

Reply 10

sjs54645

1

Original post by UndecisiveBoy

Did you just enjoy life, revise for end of topic tests only, or start your full revision? What would you recommend to a yr 10 student who is targetting for grade 9s?

In year 10 - its a pretty chilled year, I didn't do all too much. But like you said revise for end of topic tests, and enjoy. In the year 10 summer hols i'd recommend getting a head start with revision resources - whatever they are flashcards, notes etc. But start revising for your mocks then, so you feel prepared as it all happens so quick! But when it comes to the mocks and revision in year 11 step it up - you only get what you put in.

Reply 11

OP

Original post by sjs54645

In year 10 - its a pretty chilled year, I didn't do all too much. But like you said revise for end of topic tests, and enjoy. In the year 10 summer hols i'd recommend getting a head start with revision resources - whatever they are flashcards, notes etc. But start revising for your mocks then, so you feel prepared as it all happens so quick! But when it comes to the mocks and revision in year 11 step it up - you only get what you put in.

Thanks a lot, I'll try to stick to that.

Reply 12

northernlights60

Original post by UndecisiveBoy

Hmm I'll check it out, would it still be effective if I were to just download those flashcards? Or would the effort of making them be worth it?

It depends on how you learn.. but if you do decide to download them make sure you edit them to include mark scheme key words/ examiner comments to build exam technique.

Reply 13

dontspellicup

Original post by UndecisiveBoy

Did you just enjoy life, revise for end of topic tests only, or start your full revision? What would you recommend to a yr 10 student who is targetting for grade 9s?

year 10 for me was a year of pure jokes, although i did try hard in the core subject topic tests (extras like rs and classics i was not fussed). we had year 10 mocks in my school, and i worked myself to the BONE revising for them to the point that i made myself grievously ill and ended up doing awful in most of them (top tip! dont do this lmao those tests dont matter i ended up getting 6s in most exams because i was practically a corpse whilst i did them). my advice would be to revise a healthy amount for any "important" tests eg mocks because whilst they mean nothing theyre vital in terms of preparing you for the actual exams. muck about in lessons, have fun all you want, but for the end of year tests buckle down and try because its so unbelievably helpful for you in the long run. for content heavy subjects eg history and english id recommend making revision resources as you go along because it saves so much time when it comes to your actual thing (i spent all of my summer before y11 making flashcards for history- omd such a massive help)
last tip! do not stress and pleaseee just have fun. obviously the ratio between focus and fun alternates depending on your academic ability, but your attitude to learning in year 10 does not have much long term repercussions. focus and make sure you understand all topics and do not fall behind on your learning.

Reply 14

Lebkuchen

12

Original post by UndecisiveBoy

Did you just enjoy life, revise for end of topic tests only, or start your full revision? What would you recommend to a yr 10 student who is targetting for grade 9s?

got mostly nines - 8 9's and I would really recommend just listening in lessons and practicing active recall there is no need to go home and revise unless you have a topic test coming up

Reply 15

OP

Original post by dontspellicup

year 10 for me was a year of pure jokes, although i did try hard in the core subject topic tests (extras like rs and classics i was not fussed). we had year 10 mocks in my school, and i worked myself to the BONE revising for them to the point that i made myself grievously ill and ended up doing awful in most of them (top tip! dont do this lmao those tests dont matter i ended up getting 6s in most exams because i was practically a corpse whilst i did them). my advice would be to revise a healthy amount for any "important" tests eg mocks because whilst they mean nothing theyre vital in terms of preparing you for the actual exams. muck about in lessons, have fun all you want, but for the end of year tests buckle down and try because its so unbelievably helpful for you in the long run. for content heavy subjects eg history and english id recommend making revision resources as you go along because it saves so much time when it comes to your actual thing (i spent all of my summer before y11 making flashcards for history- omd such a massive help)
last tip! do not stress and pleaseee just have fun. obviously the ratio between focus and fun alternates depending on your academic ability, but your attitude to learning in year 10 does not have much long term repercussions. focus and make sure you understand all topics and do not fall behind on your learning.

Thanks a lot! What kind of revision things do you think I should make for English along the way?

Reply 16

OP

Original post by Lebkuchen

got mostly nines - 8 9's and I would really recommend just listening in lessons and practicing active recall there is no need to go home and revise unless you have a topic test coming up

Thanks, yeah that's what I'm probably going to do.

Reply 17

dontspellicup

Original post by UndecisiveBoy

Thanks a lot! What kind of revision things do you think I should make for English along the way?

it depends on what works for you but my preferred method was (for books and plays) to do character mind maps (i did j+h and inspector calls so if you want them lmk :smile:

). i’d have a topic sentence and draw lines out of quotes for that topic sentence with some relevant ao3. for poetry memorise KEY quotes and i did a table of poems and possible comparisons that can be made (again, happy to share this doc!) essay plans are very helpful as well, and i’d recommend getting your teacher to read over them to check you’re on the right lines

Reply 18

Peach_rose34

The only revision in y10 I did was for end of year mocks mostly cramming . Then in y11 did a cram for first set of mocks, was burnt out most of the year from other stuff so just focused on working hard in lessons. Then by Easter I kinda gave up on lessons too I tried but I was just so tired (idk how I was burnt out I was actually so lazy). Then for GCSEs I pretty much crammed the night before/morning of apart from history where I did about three cram sessions per paper , and a couple subjects that I didn’t revise for .

Reply 19

Peach_rose34