Anyone need GCSE advice?

The title is pretty self explanatory! I'm in Year 12 and basically looking for an excuse not to do my work,but would also like to help some people if I insist on not being productive! I studied your standard English Lit, Lang, Maths, Triple Science and also Further Maths, French, Religious Studies, History, PE and Citizenship. If anyone would like revision techniques or help with particular questions/ essays, I'd be happy to give some support.

Reply 1

flaurie

Volunteer Team

What grades did you get in English (both) and in each science?
And how?

Reply 2

LEuphoria

Original post by laurawatt

What grades did you get in English (both) and in each science?

I got 9s in both English Lang and Lit, and A*s in each science.

Reply 3

flaurie

Volunteer Team

Original post by LEuphoria

I got 9s in both English Lang and Lit, and A*s in each science.

Wow! Congratulations :biggrin:

Any revision tequniques for science ?(I have trouble remembering the content sometimes) and how to write the English near perfectly ? (I'm striving for 7/8/9s :smile:

)

Reply 4

LEuphoria

Original post by laurawatt

What grades did you get in English (both) and in each science?
And how?

I'm so sorry, I didn't see the second question!

For English Lit, I would make mind maps for each character and theme, but with a load of detail, so essentially every point was an in depth paragraph of analysis of the character, backed up by at least two quotes/ examples in each paragraph. Mr Bruff, Stacey Ray (I'm not sure if that's how you spell the second one) and other English revision YouTube channels were absolute life savers. To learn the quotes I had used in my mind maps, I would make them all into flashcards on Quizlet. In terms of the actual writing, I used the PEACE (Point Evidence Analysis Context and Explanation, to ensure that pretty much every paragraph hit each one of the Assessment Objectives. It also helps if the last sentence of each paragraph links back to your question in some way, to keep your answer focused. If you haven't already, look up the mark scheme from whatever exam board you're taking and make sure you know it inside out, and write your essays according to what they want to see. If you need any more in depth advice for Lit please let me know and I can go into more detail!

I've got to go to school now, but I'll do the other subjects when I come home.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 5

flaurie

Volunteer Team

Original post by LEuphoria

I'm so sorry, I didn't see the second question!

For English Lit, I would make mind maps for each character and theme, but with a load of detail, so essentially every point was an in depth paragraph of analysis of the character, backed up by at least two aides in each paragraph. Mr Bruff, Stacey Ray (I'm not sure if that's how you spell the second one) and other English revision YouTube channels were absolute life savers. To learn the quotes I had used in my mind maps, I would make them all into flashcards on Quizlet. In terms of the actual writing, I used the PEACE (Point Evidence Analysis Context and Explanation, to ensure that pretty much every paragraph hit each one of the Assessment Objectives. It also helps if the last sentence of each paragraph links back to your question in some way, to keep your answer focused. If you haven't already, look up the mark scheme from whatever exam board you're taking and make sure you know it inside out, and write your essays according to what they want to see. If you need any more in depth advice for Lit please let me know and I can go into more detail!

I've got to go to school now, but I'll do the other subjects when I come home.

Thank you so much!!

Reply 6

B1feild

Original post by LEuphoria

What grade did u get in maths? And could you help me with getting a grade 9 in maths?

Reply 7

LEuphoria

Original post by laurawatt

Wow! Congratulations :biggrin:

Any revision tequniques for science ?(I have trouble remembering the content sometimes) and how to write the English near perfectly ? (I'm striving for 7/8/9s :smile:

)

Thank you!

For English Language, the reading uses the same skills as English Lit in terms of the structure of your paragraphs. Again, I would recommend that you watch Mr Bruff's videos as he does a fantastic break down of the mark scheme for each question.

Another thing that I forgot to mention that helps when writing both English Language and English Literature is to remember the need for a ~conceptualised~ response. For the AQA exam board at least, this means you should be approaching your questions in the style of an essay, so all your paragraphs should link together to argue a particular statement. For example, if I was writing about how Romeo is presented by Shakespeare as immature and impulsive, all of my paragraphs should argue this point, and although I could argue alternative interpretations, I wouldn't put in a paragraph about how Romeo is presented by Shakespeare as mature and capable, unless I was planning to twist this analysis around to prove my point. To give your answer more of an essay feel, you should have a (very very concise) introduction and conclusion. I hope makes sense! If it doesn't, let me know and I'll explain it in other words.

For English Language writing, there isn't a huge amount that you can do. The main thing is reading any sort of material that you can get your hands on, whether that fiction, nonfiction books, newspaper articles, letters etc. Any thing that helps you to understand the various genres in which you may be asked to write tin the style of. You can also use good language features from any fiction books you read, and use them for inspiration. Also try to use pretty much every punctuation you can think of (but only if you know how to use it correctly!).

For science, I used mind maps and flashcards to learn everything. Quizlet was my best friend through out exam season. I would use the exam specs and the CGP revision guides to go through every topic and make flashcards of everything of which I was usure. Another thing I used to do was do all the past papers, and record any vaguely generic questions that had a chance of coming up again on my flashcards. I learnt the mark schemes' wording exactly for those questions, so that if anything even remotely related came up, I knew the words that the examiner wanted to see. I don't know how much this last bit will help, as you'll most likely be on the new spec w/o your own past papers, but it might help to do the old spec past papers anyway, and study the sample papers you do have in depth.

Let me know if you need anything else and good luck!

Reply 8

LEuphoria

Original post by B1feild

What grade did u get in maths? And could you help me with getting a grade 9 in maths?

I got a 9 in maths. I can tell you what worked for me. At first I really struggled with the new specimen papers and so I devoted a lot of time to doing each past paper and their mark schemes (from both AQA and Edexcel - they're very similar) and looking at exactly how each answer was achieved, and making sure I really understood the solution. Maths papers can really only ask so many variations of the same questions, so if you get used to as many questions as you can, there will be fewer questions in your exam that you are actually fazed by. If those tricky ones do come about, you need to think through them logically. If you have a complex question with multiple components in it, then you need to look at the question from the perspective of all the different subject areas that you have studied in maths. For example, if there's a question about probability, don't get bogged down on it only being about probability; you might need to make and solve a quadratic to find a solution. Of course, to do this, you need to know all the subjects on your spec inside out; make use of your teacher and revision guides to ensure that your understanding of your subjects is rock solid.