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What’s the best way to revise?

I have my GCSEs in 2 months and am going to start revising this weekend, what is the best way to revise? I do English, English lit, maths, further maths, dt, music, French, rs, biology, chemistry, physics, geography.
sciences/maths - past papers
other subjects - you left it too late lol good luck
Original post by Thomas Bewell
I have my GCSEs in 2 months and am going to start revising this weekend, what is the best way to revise? I do English, English lit, maths, further maths, dt, music, French, rs, biology, chemistry, physics, geography.


Make notes but not in a lot of detail (but do have some facts/statistics that would impress the examiner, if it is one of those subjects). I'm having my notes finished by the 1st May so I can just do practice papers every night and read over my notes.
Original post by Baza2002
Make notes but not in a lot of detail (but do have some facts/statistics that would impress the examiner, if it is one of those subjects). I'm having my notes finished by the 1st May so I can just do practice papers every night and read over my notes.


Thats a bad idea hun. you should spend at least a month in advanced for pps. Even if your doing them while your making your notes. It will give you an idea of how to word your answers to get full marks and improve your technique. Especially for sciences and maths!!! Start doing past paper questions by topic (eg. if youve made notes on eg. cells already, do past paper questions on cells asap) dont leave it to may. You will regret it trust me.
Original post by Animotion712
Thats a bad idea hun. you should spend at least a month in advanced for pps. Even if your doing them while your making your notes. It will give you an idea of how to word your answers to get full marks and improve your technique. Especially for sciences and maths!!! Start doing past paper questions by topic (eg. if youve made notes on eg. cells already, do past paper questions on cells asap) dont leave it to may. You will regret it trust me.


I've been doing 1 past paper every 2 weeks for maths. Ok, Thanks for the advice. I'll start past papers/past paper questions sooner. I might have 1 day a week where I don't make notes or anything and I just do past paper questions for each subject.
How did you revise?
Also, how can I make my notes take less time?
Original post by Baza2002
I've been doing 1 past paper every 2 weeks for maths. Ok, Thanks for the advice. I'll start past papers/past paper questions sooner. I might have 1 day a week where I don't make notes or anything and I just do past paper questions for each subject.
How did you revise?
Also, how can I make my notes take less time?


I can only give advice for sciences and maths as I did well on those (4A*):
Maths: I began doing past papers everyday. 1 a day after school on the bus home. If there was a question I was stuck on or a topic i didnt know. I would revise over it using youtube videos. I avoided making notes for maths. I only wrote 1 sheet of A4 paper with all the formulas I had to remember. Make sure you know how to mark the past papers and learn where you get the marks. Ask your teachers to show you if you dont understand the maths past paper mark schemes.

Sciences:
I made some notes through the year. But like you I tried to leave my past papers to the last minute and regretted it lol. I literally crammed all of my modules the night before my exams. I basically pulled an all nighter before my exams. Dont recommened doing this lol but you might find this trick helpful:
I bassically watched gcse pod videos (all of them) for the science module exam we had. I would avoid making notes as it was the night before and it was too late to do that. I just tried my best to understand the stuff the video went on about.
Then I spent the last 7-8 hours before my exams going through the past papers and doing the questions in my head. (i didnt waste time writing/printing them out) I did them on my laptop and would go through question by question. After i answered 1 question id look back at the markscheme to check if i go it right. If i got it wrong i would right the question and answer on a sheet of paper. With the question on 1 side and the answer on the other (like a flash card lol). I did all the past papers on the website 2x. And did the science exams and went straight to bed after lol.
Of course dont leave it to the night before. But try watching gcsepod vids or youtube videos on the subject (i found it easier to understand than the textbook). then after you've watched the video, read over your textbook. Then using the spec, make notes on the things that you find dificult to remember. Avoid making super long notes/copying from the textbook as you probably wont read it and youll probably forget the stuff. THEN after you finish the topic e.g cells. Go on the exam website and scroll the past papers and find any questions to do with that topic (cells). Attempt the question and check the markscheme. If you get it wrong/not all the marks. Then copy the question on to a piece of a4 paper and put the answer on the opposite side. Do all the questions about that topic (cells( on every past paper you can find. Then once you done that. Go over the questions on the A4 paper (and turn it around to see if you got the questions right.) Then repeat for other topics untill you finish the syllabus. Then once you finish the syllabus PRINT OUT the past papers and complete under timed coniditons and because you have been answering exam questions while you were revising. You will find doing the past papers easier and you will get the A/A*'s easily.

This method will let you apply your knowldege, make smart notes and do past papers all in one go. I recommend you try it.

Make sure you do the old specification past papers (altough some topics are diferent) most of them are the same and they will be the best practice for the exams. And with gcse sciences/maths a lot of the questions repeat themselves so doing past papers will give you best practice! Also I recommend printing the papers after you complete the syllabus so that you can get used to exam conditions.

For other subjects:
Try looking at examiner reports they are useful for literature based exams/subjects. As the examiner shows your exampler answers and tellls you how to get the A*s in common questions

Hope this helps
(edited 6 years ago)
Original post by Animotion712
I can only give advice for sciences and maths as I did well on those (4A*):
Maths: I began doing past papers everyday. 1 a day after school on the bus home. If there was a question I was stuck on or a topic i didnt know. I would revise over it using youtube videos. I avoided making notes for maths. I only wrote 1 sheet of A4 paper with all the formulas I had to remember. Make sure you know how to mark the past papers and learn where you get the marks. Ask your teachers to show you if you dont understand the maths past paper mark schemes.

Sciences:
I made some notes through the year. But like you I tried to leave my past papers to the last minute and regretted it lol. I literally crammed all of my modules the night before my exams. I basically pulled an all nighter before my exams. Dont recommened doing this lol but you might find this trick helpful:
I bassically watched gcse pod videos (all of them) for the science module exam we had. I would avoid making notes as it was the night before and it was too late to do that. I just tried my best to understand the stuff the video went on about.
Then I spent the last 7-8 hours before my exams going through the past papers and doing the questions in my head. (i didnt waste time writing/printing them out) I did them on my laptop and would go through question by question. After i answered 1 question id look back at the markscheme to check if i go it right. If i got it wrong i would right the question and answer on a sheet of paper. With the question on 1 side and the answer on the other (like a flash card lol). I did all the past papers on the website 2x. And did the science exams and went straight to bed after lol.
Of course dont leave it to the night before. But try watching gcsepod vids or youtube videos on the subject (i found it easier to understand than the textbook). then after you've watched the video, read over your textbook. Then using the spec, make notes on the things that you find dificult to remember. Avoid making super long notes/copying from the textbook as you probably wont read it and youll probably forget the stuff. THEN after you finish the topic e.g cells. Go on the exam website and scroll the past papers and find any questions to do with that topic (cells). Attempt the question and check the markscheme. If you get it wrong/not all the marks. Then copy the question on to a piece of a4 paper and put the answer on the opposite side. Do all the questions about that topic (cells( on every past paper you can find. Then once you done that. Go over the questions on the A4 paper (and turn it around to see if you got the questions right.) Then repeat for other topics untill you finish the syllabus. Then once you finish the syllabus PRINT OUT the past papers and complete under timed coniditons and because you have been answering exam questions while you were revising. You will find doing the past papers easier and you will get the A/A*'s easily.

This method will let you apply your knowldege, make smart notes and do past papers all in one go. I recommend you try it.

Make sure you do the old specification past papers (altough some topics are diferent) most of them are the same and they will be the best practice for the exams. And with gcse sciences/maths a lot of the questions repeat themselves so doing past papers will give you best practice! Also I recommend printing the papers after you complete the syllabus so that you can get used to exam conditions.

For other subjects:
Try looking at examiner reports they are useful for literature based exams/subjects. As the examiner shows your exampler answers and tellls you how to get the A*s in common questions

Hope this helps


I'll do that. Thanks for the help/advice!
Original post by Animotion712
I can only give advice for sciences and maths as I did well on those (4A*):
Maths: I began doing past papers everyday. 1 a day after school on the bus home. If there was a question I was stuck on or a topic i didnt know. I would revise over it using youtube videos. I avoided making notes for maths. I only wrote 1 sheet of A4 paper with all the formulas I had to remember. Make sure you know how to mark the past papers and learn where you get the marks. Ask your teachers to show you if you dont understand the maths past paper mark schemes.

Sciences:
I made some notes through the year. But like you I tried to leave my past papers to the last minute and regretted it lol. I literally crammed all of my modules the night before my exams. I basically pulled an all nighter before my exams. Dont recommened doing this lol but you might find this trick helpful:
I bassically watched gcse pod videos (all of them) for the science module exam we had. I would avoid making notes as it was the night before and it was too late to do that. I just tried my best to understand the stuff the video went on about.
Then I spent the last 7-8 hours before my exams going through the past papers and doing the questions in my head. (i didnt waste time writing/printing them out) I did them on my laptop and would go through question by question. After i answered 1 question id look back at the markscheme to check if i go it right. If i got it wrong i would right the question and answer on a sheet of paper. With the question on 1 side and the answer on the other (like a flash card lol). I did all the past papers on the website 2x. And did the science exams and went straight to bed after lol.
Of course dont leave it to the night before. But try watching gcsepod vids or youtube videos on the subject (i found it easier to understand than the textbook). then after you've watched the video, read over your textbook. Then using the spec, make notes on the things that you find dificult to remember. Avoid making super long notes/copying from the textbook as you probably wont read it and youll probably forget the stuff. THEN after you finish the topic e.g cells. Go on the exam website and scroll the past papers and find any questions to do with that topic (cells). Attempt the question and check the markscheme. If you get it wrong/not all the marks. Then copy the question on to a piece of a4 paper and put the answer on the opposite side. Do all the questions about that topic (cells( on every past paper you can find. Then once you done that. Go over the questions on the A4 paper (and turn it around to see if you got the questions right.) Then repeat for other topics untill you finish the syllabus. Then once you finish the syllabus PRINT OUT the past papers and complete under timed coniditons and because you have been answering exam questions while you were revising. You will find doing the past papers easier and you will get the A/A*'s easily.

This method will let you apply your knowldege, make smart notes and do past papers all in one go. I recommend you try it.

Make sure you do the old specification past papers (altough some topics are diferent) most of them are the same and they will be the best practice for the exams. And with gcse sciences/maths a lot of the questions repeat themselves so doing past papers will give you best practice! Also I recommend printing the papers after you complete the syllabus so that you can get used to exam conditions.

For other subjects:
Try looking at examiner reports they are useful for literature based exams/subjects. As the examiner shows your exampler answers and tellls you how to get the A*s in common questions

Hope this helps

I’m struggling to find past papers for science
Original post by Baza2002
I'll do that. Thanks for the help/advice!


Hey I got full marks in triple science & maths GCSE (all 9s) last year
I finished my notes before the Easter holidays as it doesn’t count as revision. They were only brief - I just ensured they covered every single specification point published by the exam board as that is all you need to know to get full marks in your GCSE.
Then over Easter I did some biology topic specific practice questions as I wasn’t so confident in exam technique. I also did a couple further maths papers over the holidays & made flash cards for any type of long answer physics question I could think of. But otherwise focussed my time on English, history, Spanish & latin because I found revising for them harder.
Then when summer term started I made a table listing all the past papers available to me for each science (for you on the new spec it will be harder, but you could get away with just doing old spec papers and then do the new specimen papers in the days leading up to your exam) On this table I included the RAW mark and then also converted it to UMS to calculate the grade I got in each paper. Working forwards from the oldest paper available (under timed exam conditions!) I recorded my grades (doing 2 past papers a day from May) making sure to mark each paper as harsh as possible.
After marking each paper write every mistake you made on a piece of paper & regularly read over that. You should steadily see your marks go up with each paper you do. Also if you have time I would recommend wrong model answers for any 3/4 mark questions you can think of for each science I.e. explain why X happens or describe a process
Good luck and let me know if you have any questions!
Original post by koala789
Hey I got full marks in triple science & maths GCSE (all 9s) last year
I finished my notes before the Easter holidays as it doesn’t count as revision. They were only brief - I just ensured they covered every single specification point published by the exam board as that is all you need to know to get full marks in your GCSE.
Then over Easter I did some biology topic specific practice questions as I wasn’t so confident in exam technique. I also did a couple further maths papers over the holidays & made flash cards for any type of long answer physics question I could think of. But otherwise focussed my time on English, history, Spanish & latin because I found revising for them harder.
Then when summer term started I made a table listing all the past papers available to me for each science (for you on the new spec it will be harder, but you could get away with just doing old spec papers and then do the new specimen papers in the days leading up to your exam) On this table I included the RAW mark and then also converted it to UMS to calculate the grade I got in each paper. Working forwards from the oldest paper available (under timed exam conditions!) I recorded my grades (doing 2 past papers a day from May) making sure to mark each paper as harsh as possible.
After marking each paper write every mistake you made on a piece of paper & regularly read over that. You should steadily see your marks go up with each paper you do. Also if you have time I would recommend wrong model answers for any 3/4 mark questions you can think of for each science I.e. explain why X happens or describe a process
Good luck and let me know if you have any questions!

Ok, thanks. I'll try that.

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