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Former GCSE student achieved all grades 7-9s. Ask me anything.

Hi everyone,
I did my GCSEs last year, and got all 7-9s in them. Before I wasn’t that perfect, so i totally get it if you are panicking about your GCSEs after receiving mocks results! Don’t worry, I’m here to help. Ask me anything about any of the subjects below, or just general study advice.

I’m currently doing A Levels in Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths, with plans to do biomedicine/med/biochem.

. Subjects studied at GCSE and grades:
. Edexcel Higher Maths (8)
. AQA English Lit and Language (7 in Lang, 8 in Lit)
. AQA Biology (9)
. AQA Chemistry (9)
. AQA Physics (8)
. Edexcel Spanish (9)
. Edexcel Mandarin (9)
. OCR computer science J277 (7)
. Edexcel History (8)

(edited 2 months ago)

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Reply 1

chibace23

Original post by kitty15

Hi everyone,
I did my GCSEs last year, and got all 7-9s in them. Before I wasn’t that perfect, so i totally get it if you are panicking about your GCSEs after receiving mocks results! Don’t worry, I’m here to help. Ask me anything about any of the subjects below, or just general study advice.

I’m currently doing A Levels in Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths, with plans to do biomedicine/med/biochem.

. Subjects studied at GCSE:
. Edexcel Higher Maths
. AQA English Lit and Language
. AQA Biology
. AQA Chemistry
. AQA Physics
. Edexcel Spanish
. Edexcel Mandarin
. OCR computer science J277
. Edexcel History

Do you have any tips for maths higher tier, im retaking maths in year 12 (as i wasn’t happy with my original grade), but i’m going from foundation to higher so any tips? :smile:

Reply 2

kitty15

Original post by chibace23

Do you have any tips for maths higher tier, im retaking maths in year 12 (as i wasn’t happy with my original grade), but i’m going from foundation to higher so any tips? :smile:

Hi,
I went from foundation to higher maths. I used to not be a perfect maths student, I used to only get grade 4 in maths. So yes of course it is possible to go up a few grades, even if you are in Year 12!

First of all, here are some online resources I would recommend:
. The GCSE maths tutor (YouTube channel). Especially try his ‘crossover’ playlist designed for students changing from foundation to higher maths.
. MathsGenie (for past papers, questions by topic)
. Mitchell Dye YouTuber (livestreams and help for students crossing over from foundation to higher). He has a Discord channel where you can ask your maths questions there and find resources.
. MyMathsCloud (for papers and questions filtered by grade difficulty)

For maths, it’s all about practice. So try as many questions as you can find that are out there. There are loads of free ones, so don’t need to spend too much money on textbooks.

Hope this helps, good luck with your resit!

Reply 3

study23!

Original post by kitty15

Hi everyone,
I did my GCSEs last year, and got all 7-9s in them. Before I wasn’t that perfect, so i totally get it if you are panicking about your GCSEs after receiving mocks results! Don’t worry, I’m here to help. Ask me anything about any of the subjects below, or just general study advice.

I’m currently doing A Levels in Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths, with plans to do biomedicine/med/biochem.

. Subjects studied at GCSE:
. Edexcel Higher Maths
. AQA English Lit and Language
. AQA Biology
. AQA Chemistry
. AQA Physics
. Edexcel Spanish
. Edexcel Mandarin
. OCR computer science J277
. Edexcel History

Not a gcse student but a year 12 taking the same subjects, nice to see someone taking fm as well as bio chem maths! Same plans as well.

Reply 4

niqabiforever21

Original post by kitty15

Hi everyone,
I did my GCSEs last year, and got all 7-9s in them. Before I wasn’t that perfect, so i totally get it if you are panicking about your GCSEs after receiving mocks results! Don’t worry, I’m here to help. Ask me anything about any of the subjects below, or just general study advice.

I’m currently doing A Levels in Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths, with plans to do biomedicine/med/biochem.

. Subjects studied at GCSE:
. Edexcel Higher Maths
. AQA English Lit and Language
. AQA Biology
. AQA Chemistry
. AQA Physics
. Edexcel Spanish
. Edexcel Mandarin
. OCR computer science J277
. Edexcel History

do you have any tips on how to master exam style computer science questions
i currently take the same course as you and i understand the content even my teacher says so but i am very bad at writing exam style answers
same goes for English and science
thank you

Reply 5

chibace23

Original post by kitty15

Reply 6

via16

How do you revise for English Language?

Reply 7

kitty15

Original post by via16

How do you revise for English Language?

Hi,
I think for English Language the key is exposure and practice. In terms of exposure, if you read a variety of sources, for example, magazines, newspapers, fiction books, non-fiction books, autobiographies and biographies, you will have a wide range of vocabulary. If you discover any impressive vocabulary there, or likewise, vocabulary you do not know, look up the dictionary definition and write the word down on a piece of paper. Make sure you practice including it in a sentence.

For practice, try as many past papers as you can find out there. I feel like a mistake is not to spend much time practicing English language papers. You can try using the CGP guides and trying their past papers and example questions there.

If writing is your weak point, try using Mr Bruff on YouTube. Alternatively you can use Mr Salles videos. Make sure to try as much writing practice as you can. Try to use creativity-don’t just copy off ideas you found on the internet as this could be plagiarism. You could try pre-writing stories, however these are often hard to adapt to the question prompt. Here’s a secret- you can use the text given in the reading section as inspiration for the writing section. Often the question and the text will be of a similar theme. Consider how you can write the text from different POVs, continue it, or even write a prologue. Make sure to use your own ‘voice’ and not just copy.

Hope this helps and good luck with your GCSEs!

Reply 8

m236773

Original post by kitty15

Hi everyone,
I did my GCSEs last year, and got all 7-9s in them. Before I wasn’t that perfect, so i totally get it if you are panicking about your GCSEs after receiving mocks results! Don’t worry, I’m here to help. Ask me anything about any of the subjects below, or just general study advice.

I’m currently doing A Levels in Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths, with plans to do biomedicine/med/biochem.

. Subjects studied at GCSE:
. Edexcel Higher Maths
. AQA English Lit and Language
. AQA Biology
. AQA Chemistry
. AQA Physics
. Edexcel Spanish
. Edexcel Mandarin
. OCR computer science J277
. Edexcel History

How to revise for ict paper 2 coding

Reply 9

kitty15

Original post by niqabiforever21

Exam style computer science questions:
. Try Craig and Dave YouTube videos, or mr brown CS walkthrough videos
. CGP OCR workbooks
. ClearRevise revision guides
. Make flashcards with model answers or buy on CGP site

English:
. Try Mr Salles and Mr Bruff videos for exam technique guides.
. SparkNotes. Look at their standard answers and try their questions.
. I posted another response to a question inside this feed, in response to someone asking about English language. Check that out as that has some tips on the writing questions.

Science:
. Practice questions. Practice, practice, practice! Use PhysicsMathsTutor for topic-based questions.
. Seneca

Reply 10

kitty15

Original post by m236773

How to revise for ict paper 2 coding

. Use CGP workbooks, as they help you get used to the different code functions. Try as many questions on them as you can.
. Try as many past papers as you can.
. Mr Brown CS is a very good YouTuber for this. Also try Craig and Dave as they have ones for new specs

Reply 11

iqranadim

Original post by kitty15

Hi everyone,
I did my GCSEs last year, and got all 7-9s in them. Before I wasn’t that perfect, so i totally get it if you are panicking about your GCSEs after receiving mocks results! Don’t worry, I’m here to help. Ask me anything about any of the subjects below, or just general study advice.

I’m currently doing A Levels in Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths, with plans to do biomedicine/med/biochem.

. Subjects studied at GCSE:
. Edexcel Higher Maths
. AQA English Lit and Language
. AQA Biology
. AQA Chemistry
. AQA Physics
. Edexcel Spanish
. Edexcel Mandarin
. OCR computer science J277
. Edexcel History

when did u start revising and what was your timetable like

Reply 12

kitty15

Original post by iqranadim

when did u start revising and what was your timetable like

Hi,
I started revising around Christmas time, as my Y11 mocks were in January. For my real GCSEs, I started revising in February time. For February half term (or you can try this in Easter too), I would mimic my school timetable, so my revision timetable would be structured around the lessons I would have had if I was in school. This method worked a little for me, it may work better for others, however I found I needed to spend more time on the core subjects (maths, etc)

You can use tools to help you create a revision timetable. There is an app called Adapt that can help you do this.

I feel like revision timetables for me were a little restrictive. The pomodoro technique doesn’t work for me (25 min study, 10 min rest) as my study sessions were usually long as I would:
. Use flashcards to test my memory of the topic (5-10mins)
. Try past paper questions or complete any outstanding revision assignments (30mins-1hr)
. Mark past paper questions (15-20mins)
. Analyse past paper questions and find out where I went wrong (5 mins)
. Watch a YouTube video on any topics I found hard. (5 mins).

So my study sessions ended up being quite long, but this doesn’t work for everyone, so work for however long you feel like you can focus for! Use focus apps like forest, lifeAt,

Just for a guideline, as core subjects are very important, you should be wanting to spend an hour a day on them. For sciences, you can alternate e.g Monday Biology, Tuesday physics, Wednesday chemistry

Hope this helps, good luck with your exams!

Reply 13

Christ_btw

Original post by kitty15

Hi everyone,
I did my GCSEs last year, and got all 7-9s in them. Before I wasn’t that perfect, so i totally get it if you are panicking about your GCSEs after receiving mocks results! Don’t worry, I’m here to help. Ask me anything about any of the subjects below, or just general study advice.

I’m currently doing A Levels in Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths, with plans to do biomedicine/med/biochem.

. Subjects studied at GCSE:
. Edexcel Higher Maths
. AQA English Lit and Language
. AQA Biology
. AQA Chemistry
. AQA Physics
. Edexcel Spanish
. Edexcel Mandarin
. OCR computer science J277
. Edexcel History

How do you revise for paper 2, especially the algorithms questions

Reply 14

zea.a

Original post by kitty15

Hi everyone,
I did my GCSEs last year, and got all 7-9s in them. Before I wasn’t that perfect, so i totally get it if you are panicking about your GCSEs after receiving mocks results! Don’t worry, I’m here to help. Ask me anything about any of the subjects below, or just general study advice.

I’m currently doing A Levels in Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths, with plans to do biomedicine/med/biochem.

. Subjects studied at GCSE:
. Edexcel Higher Maths
. AQA English Lit and Language
. AQA Biology
. AQA Chemistry
. AQA Physics
. Edexcel Spanish
. Edexcel Mandarin
. OCR computer science J277
. Edexcel History

Any advice on combined science AQA revision? What are some good ways to remember content? Same with history.

Reply 15

renstarr

I am going to be doing my chinese GCSE soon and I'm fine with reading and listening but Im a bit worried about writing and speaking (especially) Do you have any tips?

Reply 16

kitty15

Original post by Christ_btw

How do you revise for paper 2, especially the algorithms questions

. A lot of practice to be honest. Try to find past papers. Don’t worry about using old spec ones if the computer science board you use has a new spec (e.g my spec was ocr j277 but I used j276 papers too). Just make sure you don’t confuse the format of the two!

. Try using CGP Workbook for Computer Science GCSE or the ones sold by Pearson Revise.
. In terms of theory for paper 2, you can use the YouTubers Craig and Dave, or Mr Brown CS. Seneca and flashcards are also very good for this active recall and Seneca often has links to good videos for computer science I feel.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your exams!

Reply 17

kitty15

Original post by renstarr

I am going to be doing my chinese GCSE soon and I'm fine with reading and listening but Im a bit worried about writing and speaking (especially) Do you have any tips?

. For writing:
. I would use flashcard apps like Quizlet, to bookmark and find phrases that you feel you will be able to use in the writing exam. There are lots of ones out there on Quizlet on ‘grade 9 phrases’ Make sure to practice writing these down, at least four times, using the look, cover, write, check method.
. For grade 9, it’s best to focus on:
. Connectives (e.g ones like ‘not only but also’ and ‘in addition’, ‘in case’, ‘for example’, etc.) Make sure you feel comfortable writing these.
. Look up any Chinese idioms. These are quite difficult to use, but if you do so they are very fancy-sounding. Look some up on the Internet, I’m sure you can apply them in your writing.
. Write down model answers. But don’t make these too specific. Take a few broad topics (e.g school, hobbies, environment) and write as much as you can about those. Then be analytical about your model answers, compare with the mark scheme, and maybe perfect them and try using some aspects of them in past papers.

Speaking:
. Try listening to/watching the YouTube channel Easy Mandarin. This is a YouTube channel which interviews members of the public on the streets, about topics such as food, environment, media, etc. This way you can get a feel of how you can be answering questions.
. Do practice the photo card regularly. Use mnemonic to help you remember what you should mention - PALMS (People, Action, Location, Mood, Season/Weather).
. Try this resource https://ci.ioe.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GCSE.OTH_.gcse-speaking-practice-sheet.AL_.Fang-Xiao.EXM_.SG_.MEP10pdf.pdf

Anyways, I hope this helps. Sorry if I cannot be any more helpful on the speaking, I am mixed British and Chinese, so speaking mandarin comes more naturally to me.
.

(edited 2 months ago)

Reply 18

kitty15

Original post by zea.a

Any advice on combined science AQA revision? What are some good ways to remember content? Same with history.

Hi,

I’ll start with combined science. I took separate science, but these tips will definitely work for combined:
. Use Cognito. This YouTube channel is especially helpful if you are a visual learner/like diagrams. Works for all science subjects at GCSE level.
. Use flashcards. This method helps the best with memorizing content! You don’t have to make physical ones as this is often not a good way to spend your time (better to practice questions), you can use Quizlet, or buy some from CGP. Test yourself on these the few days before you have a test. Get your family and friends involved in testing you too! The best way to check if you know content well is to explain it to someone who has never heard of the topic before. This will help prepare you for exams where you need to be very detailed but your work needs to be understandable and organized at the same time.

Moving onto History:

. Actually a little bit of a backstory here: I switched schools in y11 so had to self-study the history course. It was still possible for me though and even though it was difficult at times I managed to find lots of good resources along the way!
. Seneca is a lifesaver and a very good resource for history. It definitely helps with Active recall aspect of remembering dates and specific events. It definitely makes history enjoyable with its GIFs and videos!
. Some people like CGP textbooks, but personally I preferred Pearson Revise or Hodder. I found these were better organized and more colorful. They also included model answers and lots of practice questions/tasks.
. Make mindmaps/timelines for history. It helps you see how events relate to each other.
. I think what got me through history was finding interest in what I was learning. For example, I would watch documentaries, e.g those on BBC or BBC bite size.

Anyways, I hope this helps, good luck with your exams!

(edited 2 months ago)

Reply 19

Jijithe

Original post by kitty15

Hi everyone,
I did my GCSEs last year, and got all 7-9s in them. Before I wasn’t that perfect, so i totally get it if you are panicking about your GCSEs after receiving mocks results! Don’t worry, I’m here to help. Ask me anything about any of the subjects below, or just general study advice.

I’m currently doing A Levels in Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths, with plans to do biomedicine/med/biochem.

. Subjects studied at GCSE:
. Edexcel Higher Maths
. AQA English Lit and Language
. AQA Biology
. AQA Chemistry
. AQA Physics
. Edexcel Spanish
. Edexcel Mandarin
. OCR computer science J277
. Edexcel History

What do u recommend as study material for gcse science specification papers.