The Student Room Group

Straight A*s in gcses

Hey!!! So gcses aren't far off and I really want all A*s so will start revising now. How do you think I should attain this? I have had my mock results and some were really not great but mostly fine:
Art - B (however with art most of us don't finish it so I'll hopefully get at least an A when I've worked on it post exams)
Biology - B
Chemistry - low A
English Lang - very high A*
English lit - very high A
French - B (we do igcse so we're meant to be 2 grades below what we'll be in the summer so for this I'm not worried
Geography - high A
ICT - A* but the exam is kinda piss though it's mostly coursework that counts:/
Maths - C (my worst ever maths exam despite revision! :frown: I'm predicted an A by school and normally get B's but want an A if not A*!
Physics - C :frown::frown: despite revision!

So yeah sorry if this is long but how do you think I can get all A*s? I'm willing but I don't really know how to revise apart from reading cgp the night before (which I did for geog and chem and worked well.) Sorry if you guys got grades lower than or equal to a C , I'm not saying that's bad but I want higher and have done better in those subjects before so yeah!

Thank you! :smile: Hope you have a great day :smile:
Reply 1
Original post by Paniniception
Hey!!! So gcses aren't far off and I really want all A*s so will start revising now. How do you think I should attain this? I have had my mock results and some were really not great but mostly fine:
Art - B (however with art most of us don't finish it so I'll hopefully get at least an A when I've worked on it post exams)
Biology - B
Chemistry - low A
English Lang - very high A*
English lit - very high A
French - B (we do igcse so we're meant to be 2 grades below what we'll be in the summer so for this I'm not worried
Geography - high A
ICT - A* but the exam is kinda piss though it's mostly coursework that counts:/
Maths - C (my worst ever maths exam despite revision! :frown: I'm predicted an A by school and normally get B's but want an A if not A*!
Physics - C :frown::frown: despite revision!

So yeah sorry if this is long but how do you think I can get all A*s? I'm willing but I don't really know how to revise apart from reading cgp the night before (which I did for geog and chem and worked well.) Sorry if you guys got grades lower than or equal to a C , I'm not saying that's bad but I want higher and have done better in those subjects before so yeah!

Thank you! :smile: Hope you have a great day :smile:


Lots of past papers, analysing them after you've done them
If you do past papers, I would make sure you are as harsh as you can be when marking them and see if there was anything else to add to the question to ensure you get the solid marks. Make sure you use the grade boundaries for the specific year so you can place yourself firmly in the grades.
For your sciences, I find a really useful thing is flash cards with key notes on for everything. Then past papers to work out your weak areas. Also you mentioned you had CGP so what one of my friends does it condensed each page down to 5 bullet points to cut out the waffle and leaves you with condensed notes.
Original post by Amy__xxx
For your sciences, I find a really useful thing is flash cards with key notes on for everything. Then past papers to work out your weak areas. Also you mentioned you had CGP so what one of my friends does it condensed each page down to 5 bullet points to cut out the waffle and leaves you with condensed notes.


Thank you that's a good idea:smile:
Original post by danielwinstanley
If you do past papers, I would make sure you are as harsh as you can be when marking them and see if there was anything else to add to the question to ensure you get the solid marks. Make sure you use the grade boundaries for the specific year so you can place yourself firmly in the grades.


Good idea, thanks
Original post by Clarinet
Lots of past papers, analysing them after you've done them


Appreciate it:smile:
Original post by Amy__xxx
For your sciences, I find a really useful thing is flash cards with key notes on for everything. Then past papers to work out your weak areas. Also you mentioned you had CGP so what one of my friends does it condensed each page down to 5 bullet points to cut out the waffle and leaves you with condensed notes.


My method that got me an A* in each of the science mocks (on modules 4, 5, and 6) was very similar to this. I would get a revision card, and condense an entire page from the CGP revision guide onto it. Sometimes it would spill onto 2 or 3 cards. I tried to retain all information that was at all important.

Then I highlighted key words on the revision card, and used a few other colours for other things (orange highlighter for equations and stuff, yellow for important but not quite "key" words). This just makes them more interesting to look at, as I find looking at a revision card that is just plain black text is incredibly dull, and even a little colour goes a long way to breaking the content up so it's easier to read and look at.

Anyway, this method was incredibly helpful because it ensures you have all key knowledge from a page, summed up in a handy revision card. It's similar to if you just copied out the entire page, but takes way less time whilst (presumably) having similar results, as you're only writing out the relevant bits, and you produce revision material to help with future revision. Oh, and it helps if you write things out in your own words, that way you're more likely to remember it.
Original post by KomradeKorbyn
My method that got me an A* in each of the science mocks (on modules 4, 5, and 6) was very similar to this. I would get a revision card, and condense an entire page from the CGP revision guide onto it. Sometimes it would spill onto 2 or 3 cards. I tried to retain all information that was at all important.

Then I highlighted key words on the revision card, and used a few other colours for other things (orange highlighter for equations and stuff, yellow for important but not quite "key" words). This just makes them more interesting to look at, as I find looking at a revision card that is just plain black text is incredibly dull, and even a little colour goes a long way to breaking the content up so it's easier to read and look at.

Anyway, this method was incredibly helpful because it ensures you have all key knowledge from a page, summed up in a handy revision card. It's similar to if you just copied out the entire page, but takes way less time whilst (presumably) having similar results, as you're only writing out the relevant bits, and you produce revision material to help with future revision. Oh, and it helps if you write things out in your own words, that way you're more likely to remember it.


Sounds legit! Thanks for taking out your time to reply

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