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Advice from previous Year 11's to upcoming Year 11's

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1) How was year 11 for you?

At the start of year 11, it wasn't too stressful apart from the deadlines for various bits of coursework however, the one thing that started to make the year quite stressful was the number of times my school would decide to do mocks. I probably did around 3 rounds of mocks and it got pretty tiring in the end trying to fit in revision around the homework they were giving us but I guess it's all practise. Overall, I think that Year 11 was a lot more relaxed during exam time because of the study leave I got, even though of course, when you have 4 exams the next day, you're not going to be not stressed right? :tongue:

2) How many exams did you sit?

I sat 26 this year and 4 last year in year 10 :tongue:

3)What advice will you like to give to the upcoming year 11s?

Seriously, if not only to reiterate what everyone else has said, listen in class. Sometimes the teachers will spout something that sounds like nonsense and you'll go "why would I ever need that?" and then you go into the exam and the paper in front of you asks a question that is completely off syllabus but you know what, you can do it anyway because you remember your teacher telling you about it. That's the beauty of listening sometimes :tongue:

Make sure to keep to deadlines especially for coursework because if you have to go to catch-up sessions or you have to improve on it because you couldn't be bothered to do it the first time round, you're wasting valuable revision time.

I know everyone says not to revise for mocks that much, and it's partially true. Don't get stressed out about them but if you treat them like the real thing, you'll have a good idea of what revision techniques need to change or perhaps you're doing everything right and your mock grades proved that :smile:

It's nice to have a solid grounding of what kind of results you're going to get so you won't be so worried with all that practise behind you!

Reply 101

WinterWind

Original post by Andy98

Revision? Pah

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Problem?

Reply 102

Andy98

Original post by WinterWind

Problem?

I never did any :ahee:

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Reply 103

WinterWind

Original post by Andy98

I never did any :ahee:

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If I hadn't crammed for hours before my exams, I'd have failed sciences for sure. How did your exams go?

Reply 104

Andy98

Original post by WinterWind

If I hadn't crammed for hours before my exams, I'd have failed sciences for sure. How did your exams go?

I'm confident I've passed them all A* in physics and maths, A in chemistry, B in biology, Distinction in ICT, Cs in the rest I reckon

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Reply 105

WinterWind

Original post by Andy98

I'm confident I've passed them all A* in physics and maths, A in chemistry, B in biology, Distinction in ICT, Cs in the rest I reckon

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Oh cool

I suppose you're going to do sciences in the sixth form?

Reply 106

Andy98

Original post by WinterWind

Oh cool

I suppose you're going to do sciences in the sixth form?

Maths, further maths, physics and computing/computer science

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Reply 107

WinterWind

Original post by Andy98

Maths, further maths, physics and computing/computer science

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Good luck with these! I'm going to do maths and further maths as well.

Reply 108

funkydee19

Original post by ComSciPhy

Did anyone else start Year 11 in the second summer half term? I did.

I've never heard of that.. how does that work? Isnt that just doing year 11 work in year 10

Reply 109

Andy98

Original post by WinterWind

Good luck with these! I'm going to do maths and further maths as well.

Nice

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Reply 110

Andy98

Original post by funkydee19

I've never heard of that.. how does that work? Isnt that just doing year 11 work in year 10

Because the year 11s leave early some schools shunt them all up early

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Reply 111

ayeshasaleem

1) What GCSE's are you taking?
English Lang
English Lit
Maths :confused:

Triple Science
Ethics & Philosophy
BTEC ICT - all compulsory
French
German
History
Business Studies -options

2) What are your expectations of year 11?
Erm... Getting all of the CA's out of the way before Christmas, stress out a lot haha and throw any chance of a healthy
diet out of the window

3)Are you looking forward to year 11?
Surprisingly yeah, it'll be okay as long as I revise and don't panic last minute :biggrin:

Reply 112

beyknowles

Have fun in lessons, you don't need to try for GCSEs, just put a little bit of revision in the month before your exams and you'll be fine.

Reply 113

ickra_

Original post by funkydee19

Thought I would make an 'advice' thread where Current Year 10s can ask questions about Year 11 and get any advice from me or other year 11s. To get things started:

If you are in year 10 going into year 11:
1) What GCSE's are you taking?
Catering, Art, Health&Social, French, Geography, maths, english lit, english lang, Rs and science

2) What are your expectations of year 11?
Stress, stress and more stress?

3)Are you looking forward to year 11?
Noo,

Reply 114

lotusflower99

1) What GCSE's are you taking?
I'm doing English x2, Maths, Triple Science, Spanish, Geography, History and Religious Studies :/

2) What are your expectations of year 11?
A lot of work and revision :frown:

3)Are you looking forward to year 11?
I guess? I'm looking forward to getting my exams over with, that'll be a huge relief. I'm excited to choose my a-level options and obviously just to have a fresh start I guess with working hard and hopefully I'll do a lot of studying for my exams.

Reply 115

TheNicholas

Original post by lotusflower99

Hey I just finished year 11 and I did all of your subjects apart from History, do you have any questions? :smile:

Reply 116

elzprosser

I had a really good year over all, I spoke to so many new people and leavers/prom etc. definitely brought the year closer together and I feel like everyone matured a lot. I started revision February half term and it probably would have been a good time to start but from that point on I revised constantly until my exams (I had 18) I didn't eat or sleep enough or spend enough time with my friends or my horse. I suffer from anxiety and had several panic attacks and after that I worked myself up that I completely cocked up my exams. My advice would be don't let exams ruin your lifeguard, still do the things you enjoy right up until the end! They're not worth making yourself I'll over and over doing it doesn't get you anywhere as I've learned the hard way. Also take end of topic tests seriously, do some revision for them and that way you already have revision notes for the summer. I completely BSd my tests and while I still managed A's and B's I felt like I wasted them by the time I was revising. I have my fingers crossed I managed to get into 6th form but I'm really worried about English and maths :/ (I need 5 C's or above including Engligh lang and Maths).
P.S I took English Lang, English Lit, Maths, R.S, P.E, French, German, Science & Additional(did first modules last summer) and Geography.

Reply 117

TheNicholas

1) How was year 11 for you?
It was enjoyable as things got more interesting as they got more complicated and I had to do about 7 controlled assessments which I enjoyed doing and got good results for. It wasn't very stressful and because we're now 16 there were a lot more parties which makes it a lot more fun. Although I will not miss GCSEs because now I will only be doing subjects that I really enjoy.

2) How many exams did you sit?
I sat 27:
- 7 English ( 2 Language - ( +4 CA ) 2 Literature - ( +1 CA ) 3 IGCSE - ( +1 Speaking and Listening ) )
- 3 Maths ( 2 GCSE 1 Additional )
- 9 Science ( 3 Biology ( +1 ISA ) 3 Chemistry ( +1 ISA ) 3 Physics ( +1 ISA) )
- 2 Geography ( +1 CA )
- 2 Business Studies ( +1 CA )
- 1 Graphic Products ( 60% of GCSE is coursework )
- 2 French ( +4 CA ( 2 Speaking 2 Writing ) )
- 1 RE

CA = Controlled Assessment

3) What advice will you like to give to the upcoming year 11s?
Don't stress about exams because then you won't focus on them as much as you should. Don't always say to yourself that you should be revising when you COULD BE REVISING. I found, especially for science, by doing past papers but filling the answers out from the mark scheme word by word.. While you're revising you're going over the syllabus and you will know how to get all the marks in the exams.. And in science, especially Physics, 80% of the question that were in the exam I had already done in past papers and I memorized exactly what would get me all of the marks. Finally don't put too much pressure on GCSEs because realistically all you need are the grades to get you into college/sixth form unless you're applying for Oxbridge and then you just focus on your A levels.

Reply 118

chrissy1579

Original post by funkydee19

And if you have just left year 11:

1) How was year 11 for you?

2) How many exams did you sit?

3) What advice will you like to give to the upcoming year 11s?

1) Term one was generally okay with the exception of mock exams. Term two started off quite stressful with January exams but from the end of January until about March it was pretty quiet :smile:

as soon as April hit though it really began to get stressful as everyone had their heads in their revision. But overall it was a stressful but enjoyable year :smile:

2) 14 😱 (two Spanish, two English Literature, two Further Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Religion, English Language, two History and PE)

3) Listen in class! If you understand it at the start it makes things so much easier! Shorten down your topics, especially for science. I used to have one topic per page for all my sciences so I only had about 8/10 pages to learn from! :smile: