The Student Room Group

how many hours study

To self-study five GCSES (or IGCSEs) in a year, i.e. starting studying September and taking the exams the following May/June, how many hours per subject is sufficient for study, would you say, in order to achieve good grades in the exams?

Would you say a consistent 1 hour per subject per week day during term time weeks (so 5 hours per day study across all subjects) is enough?
In schools, you normally do 2-3 hours of each subject a week so I would do about that. If you're only taking 5 GCSEs, that only comes to 15 hours max which is 3 hours a day leaving you plenty of time to do anything else you would normally do. I hope this helps
4 hours but study efficiently because you can do it for a long time and nothing will stick into your brain. Do pasts papers. Also practice papers. Research what topics is likely to be in the new papers. Ask a teacher if your stuck. I’m telling you these things because I wish I done it myself. Also take short breaks in between studying. Never listen to music whilst studying.
(edited 3 years ago)
Original post by learner38
4 hours but study efficiently because you can do it for a long time and nothing will stick into your brain. Do pasts papers. Also practice papers. Research what topics is likely to be in the new papers. Ask a teacher if your stuck. I’m telling you these things because I wish I done it myself. Also take short breaks in between studying. Never listen to music whilst studying.

I agree. As the old saying goes: Practice makes perfect
Also listening to music is a really bad idea
Original post by Megan H Evans
In schools, you normally do 2-3 hours of each subject a week so I would do about that. If you're only taking 5 GCSEs, that only comes to 15 hours max which is 3 hours a day leaving you plenty of time to do anything else you would normally do. I hope this helps

Well the idea is 5 GCSEs this year, and 5 GGCSEs next year, so all of them would be taken as one year courses, rather than 10 across two years.
Original post by learner38
4 hours but study efficiently because you can do it for a long time and nothing will stick into your brain. Do pasts papers. Also practice papers. Research what topics is likely to be in the new papers. Ask a teacher if your stuck. I’m telling you these things because I wish I done it myself. Also take short breaks in between studying. Never listen to music whilst studying.

As it's self study, there's not so much a teacher as such, although there is access to private tutors if necessary for specific questions.
Original post by PinkMobilePhone
Well the idea is 5 GCSEs this year, and 5 GGCSEs next year, so all of them would be taken as one year courses, rather than 10 across two years.

If you are doing 5 GCSEs in 1 year I would probably do about 4-5 hours every day and just break them down into your different subjects or if you're finding one harder than the others, spend more time on that one but don't neglect the others
Original post by Megan H Evans
If you are doing 5 GCSEs in 1 year I would probably do about 4-5 hours every day and just break them down into your different subjects or if you're finding one harder than the others, spend more time on that one but don't neglect the others

So 1 hour a day per subject (5 hours a day in total) is sufficient then?

Great, thank you :smile:
Original post by PinkMobilePhone
So 1 hour a day per subject (5 hours a day in total) is sufficient then?

Great, thank you :smile:

Yeah that seems about right but make sure you take regular breaks so you aren't overloading your brain and keep going back over the things that you have learnt previously to make sure you remember them

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