Passing my GCSE's

Alright, truth be told, I'm getting increasingly stressed and worried about my GCSE's at the moment, there are only a few months before my GCSE's, I'm constantly afraid that I won't pass some of them because of my grades from the recent mocks, and the next upcoming set of extra mocks for Maths and Science aren't helping either. Some subjects I am confident in but others I am not. What the heck am I supposed to do? After trying out various methods and spending a fair amount of time attempting to, I have come to the conclusion that revision doesn't work on me full stop. No matter what I do, or how long I do it for, nothing sticks in there. It also doesn't help that I'm on budgeted time, I strictly put myself to only revising in the break and lunch times I am given during school hours, and any other chance I am given there, I don't revise at home because I want to keep my education and my personal life separate, and I want to use my free time to do the things I'm actually interested in. I'm aiming for a Level 3 IT college course, but if I don't nail high 8s or 9s on enough GCSE's, including Maths where I'm currently scraping a 4, both that and any decent job opportunity is out the window for me. I'm so damn stuck...

Reply 1

RuthieG101

you need to spend time in the evenings too. revision is important even if you think it's not working.
past papers are an important part of revision. try doing them to exam conditions to prepare for the exams.
YouTube offer revision videos in many subjects which can help too.
try not to stress over them that can make things worse.
you'll find as you get older that you won't be able to separate school and home, especially in the higher levels. you just need to find the right balance.
try keeping revision to short blocks with plenty of breaks.

I am second year a level maths. the only way to revise maths is to practice. It's the one you can't learn out of a book.

Reply 2

DylanJassal

Sorry to break it to you but you’re not going to get far if you don’t revise at home. Spend 2 or 3 hours revising every evening if you want a Level 9. Just break and lunch is not enough.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 3

MimiSeneca

Agree with @RuthieG101 - you need to make sure your revision is as varied as possible. Use youtube videos, and do as much testing as possible as that is how the information actually sinks in. When you're just reading / making notes, you can be pretty disengaged. It's only when you start testing that your brain has to become active.. Worth trying out some different testing sites - Quizlet, Seneca Learning etc. And also find Youtubers that you resonate with. Seneca also have a youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFzJ2rDNTAo ) and there are also channels like Sciencewithhazel, Khan Academy that explain it. each is different so see whch you find most useful

Reply 4

VOLTAG3

Thanks for all the responses so far, I'm taking some things on board, particularly the idea of using revision YouTube videos, I remember those having helped me out in the past, and when there's nothing else to watch I might be willing to use some of my time at home on those, but It's a bit of a stretch. I would do that at school but youtube as a whole is blocked on any of their computers for obvious reasons. Responding to other suggestions, I don't really bother with past papers since I find that putting myself into an exam condition environment just makes me even more stressed, and It's a shame that notes are apparently so ineffective, that was my main method of revision for a while. I used to make my own Powerpoint presentations based on different content I pulled from Bitesize, but eventually I realized it just wasn't going in, and a lot of the time I found that I was just going over some stuff I was confident with already by heart, and in some cases just finding the information is a task in itself.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 5

RuthieG101

If you can't do past papers as an exam I suggest (if your computer does it) use split screen to have the paper and the mark scheme and read how exam I ers want the answers put.
also look at the examiners report. it'll tell you where candidates lost marks on that paper so you'll start to recognise where marks are gained and lost.

my method with past papers.
I download to my tablet. I use an app that lets me write on the odd file.
once complete I pull up the answers and examiners report and mark my answers straight onto my tablet.

Reply 6

12ksmith

Original post by VOLTAG3

You need to revise after school, lol. GCSEs will impact on your life away from school, that’s just how it is. Work hard now & you get a really long summer to do whatever you want.

Reply 7

Meguncasey

Its important to care about your mental health as well, GCSE's aren't easy and not meant to be, though you need to revise and push yourself you also need to know your limits of stress ect, I'm 20 and still haven't passed maths but have been accepted into two uni's based on my a level grades. ( Im also doing a level IT with predited DDD) i got onto this without maths as well as i had level 2 IT.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 8

PammyAnd

Definitely revise at home! I did 17 GCSEs and I am not intelligent, I had to revise like crazy and ended up with almost all A’s. I would say one of the reasons I did so well is that almost every single dinner time at school I went to a different teacher for help, and I went to every after school club I could. I tended to learn better when I had no distractions and was still in a school environment. I also revised 5 while around 9/10 at night haha, it was hard at first but I soon got into the swing of it.