A level students: When did you start gcse revision?

Is it even possible to learn everything there is to know in Biology, Chemistry, physics and maths. As I'm just over 20 I'm an adult student so we have 2 hour classes a week and do one topic per week.... I feel I've learnt nothing in 6 months..... Any tips on how I just today signed up for my-gcse science my maths teacher just writes on the board doesn't really explain why that's correct and never gives us homework.... It's like watching art attack I see words symbols and sums with no meaning... It's rather frustrating because they have relatively few adults compared to 16-19s so our grades won't impact there overall exam scores each year so they don't bother they just take my £300 for science and £250 for maths and give me nothing in return

Yeah its definitely possible, it sucks that they dont seem to be helping too much. Im assuming you have some other responsibilities other than studying, but as long as you can devote a few hours a week to studying it should be doable. Maybe an idea would be to try and learn the topic for that week before the class session, so that you know what your teacher is going on about. Then maybe do some questions on each topic covered just to check you understand it (assuming you have text books etc)

I started just before Easter holidays
i only revised for triple science bc we had some last minute examboard troubles so had to self teach it

anyway i got 2A*s 3As 3Bs 3Cs - not the best i know
if you start just before Easter and you've been relatively on top of your work throughout your GCSEs you'll be fine

with GCSEs honestly you could revise 3 days before and get an A

I never revised at all. Came out with an A, 5 Bs, 3 Cs, 2 Ds and an E. Given I never bothered learning the content on one of the Ds and the E, and on the other D the teacher lost all of my coursework over the 2 years, so all I had to go by was an A on the paper and a U for the coursework. Supports your theory quite well.

Yeah I work full time and I need to get As ideally I am not confident right now I will.... I feel I can't waste time hoping for them to Teach me... We don't have a schedule or know what's coming next week they'll say algebra or physics just bring your physics folder I ive emailed about past papers and how ums scores are calculated the reply was a telephone number for aqa no words it's just rude..::: I'm trying and they don't want to help me, and now I feel like I'm constantly on high alert exams are exactly 12 weeks away in panicking I know nothing.... Well I know that polar bears ears are small to reduce contact with air reducing heat loss but that's about it we haven't even learnt about photosynthesis yet...

Yes I have textbooks for my classes I've have multiple books for the sciences as some explain things simpler than others.... I have 2 full days off a week I could probably spend 4 hours each day and then an hour or two after my 12 hour shifts at work

Hmm, if possible maybe get a tutor for a while, they may be able to help you to learn the basics, as a lot of GCSEs are based around one sort of fundamental idea which once you have understood allows you to answer the majority of the questions. regarding UMS, take a look at this http://www.aqa.org.uk/exams-administration/about-results/uniform-mark-scale/convert-marks-to-ums . Basically UMS does the following:

UMS normalises exams, what I mean by this is it's meant so that it is the same difficulty to get an A say each year. If say the 2012 paper was very easy, a mark of say 56/80 might be equaivalent to a mark of say 50/80 in another year. UMS basically converts your raw mark into another number, and it is this number that determines what grade you get. An A* is 90% ums, A is 80% ums etc etc. As an example, looking at last years biology unit 1 ums, a mark of 47/60 raw would be the equivalent of 90% ums (so a*), and to get an A (80% ums) you would have needed 38/60.

Another thing that might help you is to try and link the sciences together, so for example regarding polar bears why are they white? Well firstly you have the camouflage aspect, but we also know from physics that white objects radiate less heat than say a black one, giving you another potential thing to discuss if you were asked about polar bears

I currently am not In a position to pay for a tutor as I live on my own and have a mortgage and a car to pay for..... I also spend a good chunk on fuels as I travel quite some distance to work and to volunteer.... I did look into that but it's £40 an hour and I'd need 5 hours just to learn what limestone to limewater is.... (Slightly exaggerated)
Yep with polar bears I also linked them in with the heating of the earth due to fossil fuels burning and co2 emissions and how that's directly impacting their habitat

That seems like easy low marks but I'm sure they aren't easy less than half the marks for an A

yeah see ?

HOLD UP THEY LOST YOUR COURSEWORK?!?
i would sue

Funnily enough, yeah. I can't be bothered though. After all, ICT was never my forte. Nor did I have an interest. I'm not the first, nor will I be the last. So the guy who was teaching it lost his job because of how he lost the coursework belonging to over 150 students.

No problem then, you'll just have to think of a way around it its not a massive deal not being able to get a tutor. I would advise you to focus on the building blocks so to speak, so for example in chemistry things like balancing equations, moles etc will come up again and again, so if you can grasp them then a lot of the follow up material is basically free marks. Are you just taking the sciences or anything else as well?

Yep spent 6 hours on fields and masses today going to practice some more tomorrow... I'm taking 3 sciences and maths but my science is IGCSE because the lab at college is shut for safety purposes at 530pm and our class starts at 7pm so we can't use it which makes things harder... It's stupid how they've worked it like I said they take our money and give use empty tins in return.... I'm really struggling with concepts and being worried I'm running out of time doesn't help..... Some doing GCSEs study 6 hours a night I'd be a zombie and sacked next week.... So I feel like I'm at a massive disadvantage



What's your thoughts on bitesize?! I have a cgp revision book but that is confusing on its own

How far from exams was it and what grades did you end up with?

In my opinion cgp guides are better than bitesize, but both of them are intended as a recap rather than to teach the material, soif you have no knowledge of a topic then reading the cgp guide wont help that much. Also ill answer your other chem question in a little bit