The Student Room Group

Official GCSEs 2021 Thread

Hey, Year 10s! So now that all the exams this year have been cancelled, we're going to be the next year to sit GCSE exams!

Here's a link to the current year 10 thread: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6102330

Everyone start by sharing a bit about yourself - what exams you'll be taking next summer, your predicted grades, the grades you want to get and what you want to do after year 11!

I'll go first -

Subjects and predicted grades:
Maths - 9
English Lit and Lang - 9 and 9
Biology - 9
Chemistry - 9
Physics - 9 (somehow?? will absolutely NOT be getting one!)
Geography - 9
Drama - 9
French - 8
Spanish - 8

Obviously I'd like straight 9s but realistically I'd be happy with those grades but 7s in English lit and physics!

I want to do maths, FM, chemistry and Spanish at college, then maybe a chemistry degree... Who knows.

Also, anyone worried about drama coursework? We just started devising and now we're all in isolation we can't meet up to practice. Kind of difficult to do physical theatre over facetime...

Feel free to use this to share any useful study threads, revision material or just post how you are feeling!

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Hi! Omg your grades are so good. my predicted grades are below. they are from my recent report but they are based on tests that we do in class because we haven't done any mocks yet.
English Lang- we haven't covered any of that yet
English Lit- 7
Maths- 5 (I'm Higher tier--- don't know how though)
Science- 5-5 (we don't know whether we are single or triple yet)
Geography-5
RS- 5
Spanish- 4
Health and social care- D2
I am so stressed out because I don't know how to revise properly and I feel like I'm going to fail all my GCSE's. please could you give me some tips on how to revise. I cant do maths and Spanish in particular because 1- maths is sooooo hard 2- I don't have a Spanish teacher cuz she's on maternity leave.
btw well done on doing so well so far in school Also I don't mind giving my number or email so we can communicate about the work
(edited 3 years ago)
Original post by helloiambored
Hi! Omg your grades are so good. my predicted grades are below. they are from my recent report but they are based on tests that we do in class because we haven't done any mocks yet.
English Lang- we haven't covered any of that yet
English Lit- 7
Maths- 5 (I'm Higher tier--- don't know how though)
Science- 5-5 (we don't know whether we are single or triple yet)
Geography-5
RS- 5
Spanish- 4
Health and social care- D2
I am so stressed out because I don't know how to revise properly and I feel like I'm going to fail all my GCSE's. please could you give me some tips on how to revise. I cant do maths and Spanish in particular because 1- maths is sooooo hard 2- I don't have a Spanish teacher cuz she's on maternity leave.
btw well done on doing so well so far in school Also I don't mind giving my number or email so we can communicate about the work

Ah those grades are really good too! Honestly, I'm not the best to ask about maths and Spanish because I find them quite easy so I don't put a tonne of work in (English is my weak point!) but just revise content as it comes along and make sure you understand everything in maths! I'll PM you with a couple of general tips :smile:
Original post by apolaroidofus
Hey, Year 10s! So now that all the exams this year have been cancelled, we're going to be the next year to sit GCSE exams!

Here's a link to the current year 10 thread: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6102330

Everyone start by sharing a bit about yourself - what exams you'll be taking next summer, your predicted grades, the grades you want to get and what you want to do after year 11!

I'll go first -

Subjects and predicted grades:
Maths - 9
English Lit and Lang - 9 and 9
Biology - 9
Chemistry - 9
Physics - 9 (somehow?? will absolutely NOT be getting one!)
Geography - 9
Drama - 9
French - 8
Spanish - 8

Obviously I'd like straight 9s but realistically I'd be happy with those grades but 7s in English lit and physics!

I want to do maths, FM, chemistry and Spanish at college, then maybe a chemistry degree... Who knows.

Also, anyone worried about drama coursework? We just started devising and now we're all in isolation we can't meet up to practice. Kind of difficult to do physical theatre over facetime...

Feel free to use this to share any useful study threads, revision material or just post how you are feeling!

Original post by helloiambored
Hi! Omg your grades are so good. my predicted grades are below. they are from my recent report but they are based on tests that we do in class because we haven't done any mocks yet.
English Lang- we haven't covered any of that yet
English Lit- 7
Maths- 5 (I'm Higher tier--- don't know how though)
Science- 5-5 (we don't know whether we are single or triple yet)
Geography-5
RS- 5
Spanish- 4
Health and social care- D2
I am so stressed out because I don't know how to revise properly and I feel like I'm going to fail all my GCSE's. please could you give me some tips on how to revise. I cant do maths and Spanish in particular because 1- maths is sooooo hard 2- I don't have a Spanish teacher cuz she's on maternity leave.
btw well done on doing so well so far in school Also I don't mind giving my number or email so we can communicate about the work in

Hey both, there’s already a fairly big thread for current Y10s here: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6102330 :smile:
Original post by laurawatt
Hey both, there’s already a fairly big thread for current Y10s here: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6102330 :smile:

hi! I went on that chat and it seems like its for people who are going to go into year 10 but I'm in year 10 and I'm gonna into Year 11 :smile:
Original post by helloiambored
hi! I went on that chat and it seems like its for people who are going to go into year 10 but I'm in year 10 and I'm gonna into Year 11 :smile:

It's for current Y10 students (who will be going into Y11 in september)
A new thread will be made in september for "current year 11s" (which will be you) :smile:
Original post by laurawatt
Hey both, there’s already a fairly big thread for current Y10s here: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6102330 :smile:

I know, I linked that in my original post! This thread is specific to GCSE exams, as opposed to just being about school in general :smile:
Omg your grades are so amazing!! Would you mind sharing some tips as most my predicted grades are 7-8s!

Specifically for maths, the sciences (triples) and English as these are the ones that I would like to get 9s in my my mocks! Thankyouuuu❤️
Original post by irismont
Omg your grades are so amazing!! Would you mind sharing some tips as most my predicted grades are 7-8s!

Specifically for maths, the sciences (triples) and English as these are the ones that I would like to get 9s in my my mocks! Thankyouuuu❤️

Maths I just do practice papers! If I'm struggling to understand a topic/cam't remember it I might watch the hegarty video or do some practice questions in a workbook and I'm planning on putting all the important facts/formulae into a quizlet set to make sure I know them all. The grade 9 workbooks from CGP are super super useful! Science, I make flashcards for each topic (I have a checklist if you do Edexcel, it's so so helpful) and then just do practice questions. I'm also trialing mindmaps at the moment - any form of active recall is brilliant. English is a bit more difficult imo but the way I've always revised is by collating one big resource (with key quotes, analysis and links to context - this helps you to learn quotes that you have lots to say about and that include techniques even if you can't remember the analysis in the exam) and then using it to plan essays (and then writing some of these plans into essays in timed conditions and getting your teacher to mark them). Hope this helps! X
Reply 9
Original post by apolaroidofus
Maths I just do practice papers! If I'm struggling to understand a topic/cam't remember it I might watch the hegarty video or do some practice questions in a workbook and I'm planning on putting all the important facts/formulae into a quizlet set to make sure I know them all. The grade 9 workbooks from CGP are super super useful! Science, I make flashcards for each topic (I have a checklist if you do Edexcel, it's so so helpful) and then just do practice questions. I'm also trialing mindmaps at the moment - any form of active recall is brilliant. English is a bit more difficult imo but the way I've always revised is by collating one big resource (with key quotes, analysis and links to context - this helps you to learn quotes that you have lots to say about and that include techniques even if you can't remember the analysis in the exam) and then using it to plan essays (and then writing some of these plans into essays in timed conditions and getting your teacher to mark them). Hope this helps! X

would you recommend maths genie instead? Hegartymaths just gives additional information but maths genie is specific to the question
Original post by aledhem
would you recommend maths genie instead? Hegartymaths just gives additional information but maths genie is specific to the question

Yeah I mean whatever works for you, I've never used maths genie but if you think it's helpful I'm sure it is! x
Original post by apolaroidofus
Maths I just do practice papers! If I'm struggling to understand a topic/cam't remember it I might watch the hegarty video or do some practice questions in a workbook and I'm planning on putting all the important facts/formulae into a quizlet set to make sure I know them all. The grade 9 workbooks from CGP are super super useful! Science, I make flashcards for each topic (I have a checklist if you do Edexcel, it's so so helpful) and then just do practice questions. I'm also trialing mindmaps at the moment - any form of active recall is brilliant. English is a bit more difficult imo but the way I've always revised is by collating one big resource (with key quotes, analysis and links to context - this helps you to learn quotes that you have lots to say about and that include techniques even if you can't remember the analysis in the exam) and then using it to plan essays (and then writing some of these plans into essays in timed conditions and getting your teacher to mark them). Hope this helps! X

oooh pls may you send me that checklist? which lit texts are you doing x
Original post by isobeln
oooh pls may you send me that checklist? which lit texts are you doing x

Yes - will pm you it now! I'm doing ACC, AIC, power and conflict and Macbeth, they still haven't decided what to drop ahh. My teacher told me today we're probably dropping poetry and honestly thank GOD for that, I'm so useless at it ahaha x
Original post by apolaroidofus
Yes - will pm you it now! I'm doing ACC, AIC, power and conflict and Macbeth, they still haven't decided what to drop ahh. My teacher told me today we're probably dropping poetry and honestly thank GOD for that, I'm so useless at it ahaha x


Omg!! Are you doing Macbeth for AQA? I’m studying it now, and have mocks in about 3 weeks for English Lit. Do you have any advice on how revise and plan in such a short amount of time? I would really really appreciate it if you have any sites that you believe helped you🙂Thankyou!
(edited 3 years ago)
Original post by irismont
Omg!! Are you doing Macbeth for AQA? I’m studying it now, and have mocks in about 3 weeks for English Lit. Do you have any advice on how revise and plan in such a short amount of time? I would really really appreciate it if you have any sites that you believe helped you🙂Thankyou!

Yes - and me too! It's tricky trying to revise when you haven't studied all of it but I guess it would be a good idea to read the whole text so you know what goes on, maybe even learn a couple of key quotes from the later scenes that you might want to link to? eg 'Out damn spot' is quite a simple one and links nicely to Macbeth's soliloquy when he sees the hallucination of the bloody dagger. Context is obviously super important so it's a good idea if you can do some research on it, maybe make a mind map or something. With revision I just collate a massive resource with quotes, analysis and links to context, and then I learn the quotes (if you have a good memory, you can literally just read through the quotes a couple of times and they'll come back to you in the exam). Even if you can't remember your analysis or links for the quotes in the exam, you at least know that the quotes have some good techniques in them since you picked them out before, so you can come up with things to say about them in the exam. Then plan essays! It helps you get to grips with how to apply the information you've revised to the question at a high level, which is really what you need to be doing for the top marks. I always write one essay in full and get my teacher to mark it before an exam but I wouldn't worry about full essays too much - the only difference between a plan and an essay is that you use fancier vocab (on a side note with this one, learning a couple of 'good' words to use like ameliorate, redolent, salient etc is quite a good idea - sophisticated vocab allows you to get your points across in a more nuanced way and also convinces the examiner that you should be in the top band! This goes for subject terminology too, techniques like anadiplosis, epistrophe and anaphora are basically just fancy ways of saying 'repetition' but they all mean a slightly different type of repetition and are the sorts of words that might be used in a high level essay) , extended sentences and it takes a lot longer! Hope this helps.
bro how Is everyone getting 9s on their mocks??? im getting 6s/7s lol
I am predicted:
Chemistry: 6
Biology: 6
Physics: 5
English Language: 5
Math: 5
Geography: 5
Theology: 6
Spanish: 4
Hey i did my mocks and i have all the 2019-2020 GCSE and A level papers, DM me on discord peacecontrol_Kyle298#1428, once you add me we can discuss :slight_smile:
Ok so as a year 11 who could have achieved grade 6s and above in every subject if she was allowed to sit higher paper I find this very very disturbing for myself and mainly my future as I need 6s and above to get into my preferred 6th form . Tbh as a student in 2021 I can safely say that Boris Johnson has ruined everything for everyone, I mean if he installed a strict policy right from October 2019 and he had gave severe consequences or fines I know for sure covid 19 would not be as much of a problem and we would've worked online both education and occupation only the severe NHS and others who are required would be given allowance. Also I regret to inform you lot but if such has happened for 2 years in a row I hope this isnt the same for you but theres no positive about this.
Original post by fatimaikhlaq
Ok so as a year 11 who could have achieved grade 6s and above in every subject if she was allowed to sit higher paper I find this very very disturbing for myself and mainly my future as I need 6s and above to get into my preferred 6th form . Tbh as a student in 2021 I can safely say that Boris Johnson has ruined everything for everyone, I mean if he installed a strict policy right from October 2019 and he had gave severe consequences or fines I know for sure covid 19 would not be as much of a problem and we would've worked online both education and occupation only the severe NHS and others who are required would be given allowance. Also I regret to inform you lot but if such has happened for 2 years in a row I hope this isnt the same for you but theres no positive about this.

Sorry, need to repost as I hadn’t finished and it won’t let me edit:

Yeah and the economy would be ruined by a virus we didn’t know anything about so there’d be no jobs for us to go into when we left education anyway. Mental heath problems would also be through the roof if we’d been locked down for approaching a year and a half. There is no pandemic playbook like there are for other things like stock market crashes. I agree they probably could have handled a lot of things better like lockdowns and restrictions and education better and they were often on the back foot with things but fgs Boris hasn’t deliberately tried to ruin your education. Even if you look at it cynically, its not a great ad campaign in 2024, “Vote Conservative because we’ve “ruined everything for everybody””. Ik its hard but we can’t just shout blame at people. People did get different levels of education as well so you have to thing of those who worked hard all the way through and have done more work than some others. There is no perfect solution so getting cross and blaming Boris doesn’t fix problems, contacting MPs or minsters with reasonable, polite requests/complaints does a lot better.

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