The Student Room Group

A Nerd's Survival Guide to GCSEs (GYG)

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Hey! My name's Sofia and I'm currently in year 11, so I'll be doing most of my GCSEs this year (pray for me T-T). I've got pretty high aims, so here's hoping I can achieve them, and good luck to you all as well!

I've decided to join GYG this year because I thought it would be a good incentive to keep me focused and organised on my revision, especially this year as I have exams. (Even though it may be a bit late to enter).

So, here's a bit about me:

Subjects and grades:

Screen Shot 2017-12-31 at 16.51.29.png

Already achieved GCSEs:

Portuguese (A*)

Citizenship (A*)

Statistics (A*)


Interests:

Science is bae. I'm very interested in why and how everything happens. My parents tell me I'm a natural born scientist and that I never left the "question everything" phase children usually have when they're 3 years old. I'm specifically interested in biochemical sciences and neuroscience.

Art and design - this is also one of my biggest interests. The visual arts have always been a big part of my life and growing up it was how I dealt with my emotions, especially my anger when I was bullied in my old school. I frequently paint and design my own clothes.

Music - this is another big way in which I channel my feelings and abstract myself from stress. I've grown up around music and it's always been something that touched me deeply. I always have music in my head in eery task I do.


Well it's going to be one hell of a ride! I hope you stick around. Good luck with your studies this year everyone (I'll need some too). Don't be afraid to ask anything :tongue:
(edited 6 years ago)

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good luck Sofia! I’m in year 11 too so we’re in this together xo
Excellent grades, keep revising!
Reply 3
Could you advise any tips on how to stay focused. I literally try so hard to revise but it takes way too long to do a small bit and I am getting very annoyed. My target grades are quite high too.
good luck .Look forward to your updates Sophia!
Happy new year!:smile:
Goals of grade 9 wow they require like 95% on exams I wish you very well and hope you meet your targets and if possible exceed them.
Good luck Sofia, I'll definitely be watching this thread:smile:
Your predicted grades are so good and omg you've already got three A*s woahh!!:biggrin:
What music you into? Do you play any instruments? I play ukulele and guitar (badly, but I do try:redface:) and my favourite genre is probably indie rock though I could probably listen to anything:tongue:
Happy new year!!:biggrin:
Reply 7
This is really interesting
Reply 8
Original post by adamantacademic
Excellent grades, keep revising!


Thank you! Will do! (or at least I'll try :tongue:)
Reply 9
Original post by savage8
Could you advise any tips on how to stay focused. I literally try so hard to revise but it takes way too long to do a small bit and I am getting very annoyed. My target grades are quite high too.


Have you tried the pomodoro method? you'll probably have heard of this as it is quite popular, but I think it's very effective. Instead of having long revision sessions, have many short ones (usually around 30 minutes, but you can tailor them to fit you best, though they shouldn't be longer than an hour). So you have a session, then a 10 minute break and when you come back to revise you go over a different topic or subject. This may help you to stay focused as it pushes you to work intensively for that short period of time and you don't get tired because of long revision sessions.

Something else I suggest is having a good revision playlist. The songs must have no lyrics, or else you get distracted (or, as it happened to me before, you start unconsciously writing down the lyrics during an essay). If you want I can share my revision playlist, though I won't guarantee it'll work for everyone, as each person has their own individual taste in music and different songs may work better for you. Let me know what you think and maybe I'll post it later on.

Another thing I'd say is don't limit your revision to your desk. Make flashcards with information and revise on the go - on your way to school, while doing chores, etc. I find this really works for me.

Planning your revision is also really effective, so that you know exactly what you want to achieve. It doesn't have to be planned months ahead (though it would be a good idea to know roughly) but it could be that you sit down Sunday evening and plan what you want to revise that week. Be specific - no only the subject, but the topic; you may even want to specify how you want to revise and gather the revision materials beforehand.

Hope that helps! I'll post more revision tips as we go along.
Original post by ThEpOLiTiCaLgUy
Goals of grade 9 wow they require like 95% on exams I wish you very well and hope you meet your targets and if possible exceed them.


Thank you so much. I know it will be very hard, but I've got my fingers crossed. Hope you get good results too (if you're still in school, that is)
Original post by donut_mckenzie28
good luck .Look forward to your updates Sophia!
Happy new year!:smile:


Thank you! And happy new year to you too
Read later
Reply 13
Original post by sofsferr02
Have you tried the pomodoro method? you'll probably have heard of this as it is quite popular, but I think it's very effective. Instead of having long revision sessions, have many short ones (usually around 30 minutes, but you can tailor them to fit you best, though they shouldn't be longer than an hour). So you have a session, then a 10 minute break and when you come back to revise you go over a different topic or subject. This may help you to stay focused as it pushes you to work intensively for that short period of time and you don't get tired because of long revision sessions.

Something else I suggest is having a good revision playlist. The songs must have no lyrics, or else you get distracted (or, as it happened to me before, you start unconsciously writing down the lyrics during an essay). If you want I can share my revision playlist, though I won't guarantee it'll work for everyone, as each person has their own individual taste in music and different songs may work better for you. Let me know what you think and maybe I'll post it later on.

Another thing I'd say is don't limit your revision to your desk. Make flashcards with information and revise on the go - on your way to school, while doing chores, etc. I find this really works for me.

Planning your revision is also really effective, so that you know exactly what you want to achieve. It doesn't have to be planned months ahead (though it would be a good idea to know roughly) but it could be that you sit down Sunday evening and plan what you want to revise that week. Be specific - no only the subject, but the topic; you may even want to specify how you want to revise and gather the revision materials beforehand.

Hope that helps! I'll post more revision tips as we go along.


Thank you so much! Yes, I have heard of that method and always plan to apply it but never actually get around to doing it. Anyway, would it be possible for you to share your playlist please? I already listen to study music but want to get a feel of what kind of music you listen to. Thank you so much for your time!
Original post by troubletracking
Good luck Sofia, I'll definitely be watching this thread:smile:
Your predicted grades are so good and omg you've already got three A*s woahh!!:biggrin:
What music you into? Do you play any instruments? I play ukulele and guitar (badly, but I do try:redface:) and my favourite genre is probably indie rock though I could probably listen to anything:tongue:
Happy new year!!:biggrin:


Good to know someone's watching!
I play the violin and the piano. My music interests are quite varied, probably because of my bringing up - my dad used to be a jazz teacher and musician, so many of my childhood memories are associated with jazz. On the other hand, my grandmother used to be a concert cellist, so classical music is also quite close to my heart (though not everything, I'm very selective when it comes to classical music. I like Shostakovich for example). But other than that, I'm really into 80s and 90s rock (suck as Pink Floyd and Sting, and again that comes from my dad). But I guess minimalistic and soundtrack music are my favourites. I think composers such as Thomas Newman, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, Hans Zimmer, Alexandre Desplat and Ludovico Einaudi are geniuses. On another note though, I think anime soundtracks will always be in my head, so there's that too.

[edit] Also forgot to mention: 80s music = best shower music
(edited 6 years ago)
Original post by savage8
Thank you so much! Yes, I have heard of that method and always plan to apply it but never actually get around to doing it. Anyway, would it be possible for you to share your playlist please? I already listen to study music but want to get a feel of what kind of music you listen to. Thank you so much for your time!


Sure thing, I'll make a post dedicated to that. (my internet is a bit lazy right now, so I can't share it but I will as soon as I get it fixed)
(edited 6 years ago)
What’s a GYG
Original post by Anon2808
What’s a GYG


Sorry, it means "Grow Your Grades"
Good luck!! you seem to be on track to a very high set of grades, keep working hard! I'll be following your GYG :smile:
Original post by sofsferr02
Good to know someone's watching!
I play the violin and the piano. My music interests are quite varied, probably because of my bringing up - my dad used to be a jazz teacher and musician, so many of my childhood memories are associated with jazz. On the other hand, my grandmother used to be a concert cellist, so classical music is also quite close to my heart (though not everything, I'm very selective when it comes to classical music. I like Shostakovich for example). But other than that, I'm really into 80s and 90s rock (suck as Pink Floyd and Sting, and again that comes from my dad). But I guess minimalistic and soundtrack music are my favourites. I think composers such as Thomas Newman, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, Hans Zimmer, Alexandre Desplat and Ludovico Einaudi are geniuses. On another note though, I think anime soundtracks will always be in my head, so there's that too.

[edit] Also forgot to mention: 80s music = best shower music


Damn, I'm impressed by your musical eloquence and classiness (if you get what I mean, I'm listening to Blink-182 and you're listening to Vivaldi or something..:p::redface:) Nice variety too, and we've all got a part of us that secretly loves 'dad music'. Love me a bit of Fleetwood Mac sometimes:tongue:
I'm ashamed to admit that I've only heard of two of those composers, but you can't beat a bit of ABBA in the shower:biggrin:

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