Gcse - year ten

This isn't helpful, but I'm also going into year 10! I'm doing almost the same GCSEs as you, except I'm doing History and Computer Science instead of RE.
For Sciences my school started the course this year and what worked well for me was revising little but often.

Im going into year ten and I need tips so I can make the most of year ten. Plus I'm studying these topics so advice is lovlay:
-Latin
-German
-geography
-R.E
Plus all the compulsory ones.
Oh yh tips for the sciences and maths would also be cool and appreciated. I don't really need tips for English as I find English very easy.
Thankss

Latin:
- Make a Quizlet set (or flashcards, but I think Quizlet is better) of all your vocab. Go over it steadily so by exam time you know it all rather than trying to learn hundreds of words in a few weeks.
- Compile easy and succinct notes of endings, grammar notes, etc. Try to summarise it as much as possible so you just have a few sheets of paper to memorise and a few to learn.
- Practise your translation! Learning the vocab but having no translation skills won't help you in your exams. Either use a school textbook or buy one (the Taylor guide is good for OCR and will probably be useful practise for any exam board) and translate a passage regularly.
- When you write down grammar notes, write examples of the Latin and English translation to help you understand.
- Once you get midway into year 10 and definitely in year 11, do practise papers regularly! This was so useful for me in perfecting my exam technique and getting used to which constructions came up most often, etc. Also often they will use words together to mean a set phrase which you should learn as it's hard to translate otherwise, such as 'eo tempore'.

I haven't studied German or another spoken language to GCSE but most of the guidance I gave for Latin will apply - especially the Quizlet step. This is a lifesaver for most subjects and should definitely be used for languages. Duolingo is good once you get past the very basic things. BUT OKAY AMAZING APP - 'HelloTalk'!! You can talk to people from different countries. You message them in their language (so you would talk to someone who’s from Germany or fluent in German) and they correct any mistakes you make. Then they reply in your language and you correct them, so you both get better at the language you’re learning. It’s so so useful for practise and will help you learn without just memorising. Also you can meet some pretty cool people.

Geography and RS:
- Make good, detailed but succinct notes as you go along – it will make it so much easier when you come to revise!
- Recap topics throughout the year. So you learn something new in class. Go home and write your notes about it. Then 2 weeks later reread the notes, and again 1 month later and 2 months later, etc. This way the information will stay in your long-term memory and will be familiar when it’s revision time. Also if any issues with understanding it crop up, you can ask your teacher for help straight away.
- Question practise! For essay-based subjects it’s really important to understand the mark scheme and how to lay out your answers. Ask your teachers if you aren’t sure how to structure your essays, and then practise at home. Ask your teacher to mark a few to make sure you’re on the right track but then just practise at home. It will help you get used to writing in that style and will help you speed up so you find the time-restraints easier. Also you will learn the content and explore new arguments and ideas – which is especially important for RS.
- For RS, you can do wider reading or talk to people of the religions that you study to gather more opinions and debates for essays. Similarly, for Geography you can do wider reading and keep up with the news (for certain topics e.g. LEDCs). TheStudentRoom is also good for discussing topics with other people and getting more ideas for essays, etc.
- For RS, make flashcards with quotes on them from the Bible, Qur’an, etc. depending on what you study and need for exams. You could also make a Quizlet with these on so they’re easy to learn and be tested on
- You could make mindmaps for topics that are likely to be the focus of essay questions, and draw links between points and ideas. It will help massively when you come to write essays if you’ve already thought of all your points.

Science:
- Make notes as you go along! Use class notes, textbooks and revision guides to try and make the best, simplest (but detailed) notes you can. You really don’t want to be writing your notes frantically around exam time.
- As I said before, recap throughout the year to ensure you know everything without needing to cram for exams.
- Question practise! There is no better way to help you understand the content than question practise. Just do as much as you can and if you get stuck, ask a teacher for help or go to a lunchtime drop-in if your school has them. Or you could ask someone on TSR to explain it to you. Take advantage of the help you have available!
- Get someone to test you! This was my main method of science revision. I would be tested over and over until I knew everything off by heart. This also helps you stay focused. If you aren’t lucky enough to have someone to test you all the time, you could write questions and answers on flashcards/Quizlet and test yourself, or simply cover your notes, write down the main points and keep going till you’ve included everything.

Maths:
- QUESTION PRACTISE!!!! Honestly this is the most important form of maths revision. Just do as many questions as you can. Perhaps do a regular 20-30 mins of maths questions a night. It isn’t much but the time will add up and soon you’ll be answering the questions with no mistakes. Most maths question styles are repeated each year so if you have loads of practise doing them, the methods will be really familiar when you come to the exam.
- The website Corbett Maths is really good for question practise – especially their ‘5-a-day’. You can select the difficulty and it gives you sheets with 5 questions every day on random topics. They barely take any time but mean you aren’t leaving topics neglected for too long. If there’s anything you don’t understand, try looking for a worked example on Youtube or ask your teacher. Don’t suffer not understanding because it will just make things harder!
- If there’s a topic you find difficult to understand, or you think you’ll forget, write down a worked example with annotations and explanations.
- Make sure you learn any ‘memorising facts’ you need to know before tests e.g. formulae, trig values, etc.

I know you don’t want English tips but I’ll just add that mindmaps for characters/themes are amazing and will help if you draw links between them. Also flashcards are great for quotes. I’d recommend reading your literature texts at least twice, preferably 3-4 times so you really know them. Each time you reread them you’ll notice more things and view it in a different way. For English Language, read more in your everyday life e.g. if you need to write newspaper articles in the exam, read some newspaper articles throughout year 10/11.

General:
- Write notes as you go along and recap them regularly.
- Ask your teacher for help if you don’t understand something. Don’t leave it and forget because it will be stressful trying to understand new things around exam time.
- Do exam practise/question practise regularly so it’s like second nature.
- Do all your homework as soon as you can – preferably the night you’ve been set it, but that’s not always possible. Complete it to the best of your ability because it’s a really useful method of learning. Also go above and beyond – do extension tasks and extra research. It will help your learning and your teachers will be impressed (plus if teachers like you, they’ll be more willing to help you with marking extra essays or meeting at lunchtime to explain something you don’t understand).
- Use lunchtime drop-ins wisely. I’m not saying go to every drop-in for every subject – you need your lunchtime to relax and chat with friends, but if you’re struggling with a topic or would like extra help, go along. It will help you in the long run and is better than spending the time trying to understand it alone at home.
- Have a good work:life balance. Yes, studying is important and it’s really good that you’re trying to make the most of your time, but remember to have fun too. Go out with your friends, spend time with your family, take up hobbies. Don’t work too hard or you’ll get burnt out by exam time.

I hope this helped (Edit: I didn't realise I wrote this much, oops lmao)

I'm not a genius, and I'm only doing Latin because it's really similar to Spanish and Italian which I speak. Half my year is doing Latin, because my school really likes classics. I'm doing Latin because there is no way in a million years that I'm doing Ancient Greek. I just learn all the verb conjugations and noun declensions. I've done 3 years of Latin so far, so I know ~ 800 words. My Latin teacher says that knowing verbs is the most important thing, as you can guess the rest a bit based on context.

For German I watch films, read books and practice speaking in German.

I can send you my science notes fron this year if you like? There aren't many and they're terrible, but oh well.

Cgp books

I watch the Harry Potter films in german with german subtitles, and I also watch disney films in german. I read the harry potter books in german, but basically any translation of a book I've read is okay. I only have some physics notes scanned at the moment, and they're on energy, waves and electrostatics. I also have a few biology notes. I found a dodgy pdf sharing site (they're saved as pdfs) so :
http://docdro.id/JlLUJeN -this is energy for physics
http://docdro.id/mhXZr5W -this is waves for physics.

I watch the Harry Potter films in german with german subtitles, and I also watch disney films in german. I read the harry potter books in german, but basically any translation of a book I've read is okay. I only have some physics notes scanned at the moment, and they're on energy, waves and electrostatics. I also have a few biology notes. I found a dodgy pdf sharing site (they're saved as pdfs) so :
http://docdro.id/JlLUJeN -this is energy for physics
http://docdro.id/mhXZr5W -this is waves for physics.

I don't do a lot of those subjects but here's the tips I have as a year 11 for those that I do.
Geography:
Honestly the main mistake I made with geography was to neglect the case studies and examples. You will learn about case studies and examples of different things and my main advice is to learn them really well and remember a lot of stats about them. I didn't start learning them until a week before the exam and I regret it as a lot of the exam was asking about case studies and examples.

RE
I didn't revise for RE lol so my main advice is not to do that. I thought that RE was just common sense - turns out it isn't so yeah actually revise for RE as there's a lot of knowledge to it as well as common sense.
Maths-
The main thing you can do with maths is to practise practise practise. Do as many practise questions as you can and I'm not on about just the standard ones but do actual exam style questions. Exam style questions require you to apply the skill rather than just remember it, you need to be able to spot when to use different methods.
German
I don't do German but I do French and the same things will apply. My advice is to start off by learning the grammar and get that nailed down from an early stage. In an exam, knowing your grammar is the difference between a grade B/C student and a grade A/A* student. After that you should learn vocab and the best way to do this is through wrote learning (writing out words and their meanings again and again or saying them aloud in your head again and again) and by reading German news articles and watching films in German (with English subtitles). Immerse yourself in the language as much as possible and you'll pick up words and phrases naturally as well as the correct pronunciation.
Science
Science is just about memory mainly with a bit of application. Year 10 is the best year to try and find what the most accurate method is in memorizing things. Different people revise differently and you need to find your optimum revision style. With physics you should try to learn all the equations as early as possible because they are such a pain so it's best to get them over and done with so you don't have to waste time on them nearer to your exams. Also for all sciences : exam techniques is very very very important. I cant stress to you enough that knowing the syllabus inside out is NOT enough to get top grades- you have to know how to answer questions in a way to get marks. You can do this by using past papers (even if they aren't the new syllabus they're still useful) and you can also use the CGP work books.

Hope this advice is helpful but in general - don't stress . GCSEs aren't as important as teachers make out and the vast majority of people are happy with their results in the end. As long as you set yourself realistic targets ans work hard enough you will NOT be disappointed at the end.

Thank you so much, do you think English subtitles are better than German subtitles, yh I tried watching this German series thing on YouTube and it was about paedophiles raping children, it was kinda mad still. So I will look out for reliable sources (movies). Thanks for the information x

What I did was I started off watching a film/tv series with English subtitles, then I watched it with French subtitles, then I watched it by itself. It depends on what your skill level is but if you're struggling to understand German subtitles then try it with English first then move onto German then move on to nothing. Reading German news articles is helpful as well as it will help you pick up phrases and new vocabulary, if you use Google on the phone there is a feature where you can translate a word as you're reading if you don't know it.

Im going into year ten and I need tips so I can make the most of year ten. Plus I'm studying these topics so advice is lovlay:
-Latin
-German
-geography
-R.E
Plus all the compulsory ones.
Oh yh tips for the sciences and maths would also be cool and appreciated. I don't really need tips for English as I find English very easy.
Thankss