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Is it possible to get all A*s in my gcses in 6 months?

gcses are in 6 months , I already done my mocks and only passed with 4's and 5's with a few 7s and 6s. If i do 3 hours of revision every night will i get all 7s because thats my goal . I just really want to get into sixth form knowing the heard work paid off. Idek if 3 hours is enough starting from now.... Im kinda scared to be a failure.

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Reply 1
I think that it is certainly possible if you work hard and believe in yourself. :smile: Take short study breaks every 45 mins and maybe study for four hours? Obviously, this depends on what subjects you are doing as well ( you don't have to revise for art!). Don't let yourself down by worrying too much xx
Reply 2
Just saying GCSE's are mainly about 2 things, structuring your answer and knowledge. Tbh GCSE's definitely are not impossible to get all 7s in, and 3 hours a day in my opinion is too much. Its better to start early with lets say 30 mins a day, and build up to longer stretches nearer the exams.

I'm in the year above you so didn't do exams tho, sorta basing of my sister's experience and others from years above. I did get good grades tho apart from some teachers being a *****

Just keep the determination (and for english start remembering quotes and poems early). (from personal experience) - Its easy to say that you will do 3 hours a day, but not reasonable, your mental health would probably be below the ground if you did this for 6 months. Just don't stress, revise for each mini exam, you are not a failure, even if you don't get all 7s. If you find maths hard, then just do loads of practice papers and remember the grade boundaries in the actual thing are quite low (60% or so for a 7 i think, maybe less). And also, if this is any comfort, because your year has had a bad experience with covid, the exam grade boundaries are probably going to be much lower than normal


Mr Bruff is really good for english
Free science lessons for science
i never really had too many problems for maths, but if you don't understand a topic, be prepared to put hard hours in for that

its good to start early, but don't overwork (never let revison take over social life, unless maybe on study leave or nearer exams), and always believe in yourself, there is no set time that guarantees a grade, but good revision with lots of practice papers is the best bet

good luck on everything
(edited 3 years ago)
Reply 3
Original post by shalley112323
gcses are in 6 months , I already done my mocks and only passed with 4's and 5's with a few 7s and 6s. If i do 3 hours of revision every night will i get all 7s because thats my goal . I just really want to get into sixth form knowing the heard work paid off. Idek if 3 hours is enough starting from now.... Im kinda scared to be a failure.

It is enough time, by a long way, but please, please, please don't start revising for three hours of revision a night - not for at least a few months. You'll absolutely be able to get 7s by your exams - it's a good goal! - but going so intensively will only burn you out, and then you won't do so well, and you'll be mentally exhausted from 6 months of three extra hours a day, and you'll start feeling worse about your prospects, and struggle with studying, and won't do so well... I tried doing two hours a day after my mocks. It did not go well. I promise you, there are much better ways to go about it.

Instead of committing to sheer volume, try doing it by topic instead, or by pages of your textbook, something like that. Do a few small chunks of work every night or most nights. For english, analyse one chapter or scene of your set text. For physics, do half an hour's work at memorising equations and definitions - quizlet is helpful for that kind of thing. For modern foreign language, revise the subjunctive and make sure you can use it in a sentence. Make and consolidate notes, make flashcards, even just reading the textbook when you're exhausted and can't find the energy to do anything better will get a little bit of that page in your brain. A couple of little chunks of work, not even every day, will be much more productive in the long run. You only need to start the really intensive revision over the easter holidays, and with such good work behind you, you'll be genuinely revising, rather than having to relearn the material from year 10. Also, make sure you revise the content you learn throughout the rest of year 11 as well - often that's the hardest, because you haven't had so much time to go over it. And give yourself breaks! Try to give yourself weekends off, for example. GCSE is hard work, yes, but it's not as intensive as lots of people make it out to be. You just need to study smart.

You will absolutely be able to get all 7s, with hard work, but that work does not need to be three hours a day. Little chunks will work a lot better, until much later in the year. I believe in you!
Original post by SR789
I think that it is certainly possible if you work hard and believe in yourself. :smile: Take short study breaks every 45 mins and maybe study for four hours? Obviously, this depends on what subjects you are doing as well ( you don't have to revise for art!). Don't let yourself down by worrying too much xx


alright , i wont worry and i will make sure to take breaks
Original post by Jaegis
It is enough time, by a long way, but please, please, please don't start revising for three hours of revision a night - not for at least a few months. You'll absolutely be able to get 7s by your exams - it's a good goal! - but going so intensively will only burn you out, and then you won't do so well, and you'll be mentally exhausted from 6 months of three extra hours a day, and you'll start feeling worse about your prospects, and struggle with studying, and won't do so well... I tried doing two hours a day after my mocks. It did not go well. I promise you, there are much better ways to go about it.

Instead of committing to sheer volume, try doing it by topic instead, or by pages of your textbook, something like that. Do a few small chunks of work every night or most nights. For english, analyse one chapter or scene of your set text. For physics, do half an hour's work at memorising equations and definitions - quizlet is helpful for that kind of thing. For modern foreign language, revise the subjunctive and make sure you can use it in a sentence. Make and consolidate notes, make flashcards, even just reading the textbook when you're exhausted and can't find the energy to do anything better will get a little bit of that page in your brain. A couple of little chunks of work, not even every day, will be much more productive in the long run. You only need to start the really intensive revision over the easter holidays, and with such good work behind you, you'll be genuinely revising, rather than having to relearn the material from year 10. Also, make sure you revise the content you learn throughout the rest of year 11 as well - often that's the hardest, because you haven't had so much time to go over it. And give yourself breaks! Try to give yourself weekends off, for example. GCSE is hard work, yes, but it's not as intensive as lots of people make it out to be. You just need to study smart.

You will absolutely be able to get all 7s, with hard work, but that work does not need to be three hours a day. Little chunks will work a lot better, until much later in the year. I believe in you!

yh I believe I burned out during lockdown because i was doing like 4 hours of work which made me demotivated in my mock exam hence why I did not get the results I wanted. I will absolutely take your tips and apply it to my own revision tho , thanks very much! :smile: I hope I come back here thanking you for getting me 8s and 9s
You can definitely get all 7s and probably higher. Don't set a target to revise 3 hours a day. Instead make a list of topics that you plan to cover in a week/in the upcoming weeks and dedicate certain days for certain topics. Just make sure you work through the topics in each of your subjects efficiently and thoroughly and you can come out with great grades.
Original post by HugeC
Just saying GCSE's are mainly about 2 things, structuring your answer and knowledge. Tbh GCSE's definitely are not impossible to get all 7s in, and 3 hours a day in my opinion is too much. Its better to start early with lets say 30 mins a day, and build up to longer stretches nearer the exams.

I'm in the year above you so didn't do exams tho, sorta basing of my sister's experience and others from years above. I did get good grades tho apart from some teachers being a *****

Just keep the determination (and for english start remembering quotes and poems early). (from personal experience) - Its easy to say that you will do 3 hours a day, but not reasonable, your mental health would probably be below the ground if you did this for 6 months. Just don't stress, revise for each mini exam, you are not a failure, even if you don't get all 7s. If you find maths hard, then just do loads of practice papers and remember the grade boundaries in the actual thing are quite low (60% or so for a 7 i think, maybe less). And also, if this is any comfort, because your year has had a bad experience with covid, the exam grade boundaries are probably going to be much lower than normal


Mr Bruff is really good for english
Free science lessons for science
i never really had too many problems for maths, but if you don't understand a topic, be prepared to put hard hours in for that

its good to start early, but don't overwork (never let revison take over social life, unless maybe on study leave or nearer exams), and always believe in yourself, there is no set time that guarantees a grade, but good revision with lots of practice papers is the best bet

good luck on everything

ok thank you so much! that has really motivated me. What would you say to try and balance homework with revision? because i am getting tons of homework due to the missed learning we have had so i have no really had much time to focus on my revision at my own pace. Besides, Thanks for the tips I really appreciate it :smile:
I got 12A* (8 9s). Would be happy to offer some resources for a few subjects :smile:
Original post by coolchem
I got 12A* (8 9s). Would be happy to offer some resources for a few subjects :smile:

yes please ! :smile:
Original post by shalley112323
yes please ! :smile:

Which subjects?
Alright thanks , I will keep that in mind.
Original post by coolchem
Which subjects?

Maths , triple science and english literature as i am not really confident in those subjects.
I dont have much for maths- it came naturally for me to be fair, along with the sciences. For maths, use Dr Frost-do as many questions as you can and you'll only improve. I seriously don't think there is any way to improve in maths other than doing questions. Make sure you know why you do a step- don't just do it because that's what it says to do in the book. HEGARTY MATHS was good (Youtube). Do every past paper, obviously.
For sciences, again practice questions are the answer. Go to PhysicsMathtutor and do all the practice questions on there. If you finish, what you can do is copy and paste a question into Google and you'll find loads of related papers with different questions. Again, I can assure you it's just practice. You do NOT need CGP at all, although they won't hurt. I wasn't a big fan of them and I think they are overrated, along with flashcards.

As for English Literature, it's a different story as I have all the decent resources that exist. Give me your email, and I'll send you everything I know of, along with a few guides. Unless you are exceptionally bright, unlike me, 3 hours won't be enough by a long shot. Maybe if you revise 5 hours a day consistently then sure. Then again, I did 12 subjects so that's my perspective. For comparison, my two friends who were the ones who did better than me (12 9s haha) had different work ethics. The smarter of the two worked for the whole day, probably into nights too every single day. The other also worked hard, but probably did around 3 hours a day, maybe 4. Although I dont fit in with them, I was somewhere around the middle!
Lastly, do you do a MFL?)
Original post by coolchem
I dont have much for maths- it came naturally for me to be fair, along with the sciences. For maths, use Dr Frost-do as many questions as you can and you'll only improve. I seriously don't think there is any way to improve in maths other than doing questions. Make sure you know why you do a step- don't just do it because that's what it says to do in the book. HEGARTY MATHS was good (Youtube). Do every past paper, obviously.
For sciences, again practice questions are the answer. Go to PhysicsMathtutor and do all the practice questions on there. If you finish, what you can do is copy and paste a question into Google and you'll find loads of related papers with different questions. Again, I can assure you it's just practice. You do NOT need CGP at all, although they won't hurt. I wasn't a big fan of them and I think they are overrated, along with flashcards.

As for English Literature, it's a different story as I have all the decent resources that exist. Give me your email, and I'll send you everything I know of, along with a few guides. Unless you are exceptionally bright, unlike me, 3 hours won't be enough by a long shot. Maybe if you revise 5 hours a day consistently then sure. Then again, I did 12 subjects so that's my perspective. For comparison, my two friends who were the ones who did better than me (12 9s haha) had different work ethics. The smarter of the two worked for the whole day, probably into nights too every single day. The other also worked hard, but probably did around 3 hours a day, maybe 4. Although I dont fit in with them, I was somewhere around the middle!
Lastly, do you do a MFL?)

Personally, I don't think CGP were overrated. If you use the exam board specific ones they have all the information you really need to know. Although it's hard to read the information, it's very condensed and if you know the book inside out (for chem and bio) you are guaranteed a top grade.
Original post by Incede
Personally, I don't think CGP were overrated. If you use the exam board specific ones they have all the information you really need to know. Although it's hard to read the information, it's very condensed and if you know the book inside out (for chem and bio) you are guaranteed a top grade.

They are- precisely because of the point you mentioned. They simply condense all the information and I found that I had to use the book anyway, the reason being I had a doubt that there may be points the CGP guides did not address which the textbook did. Simply use the main textbook + do exam questions, as many as possible. CGP guides are not needed at all. Then again, this is my opinion, and I appreciate different things work for different people :smile:
Reply 16
Original post by shalley112323
ok thank you so much! that has really motivated me. What would you say to try and balance homework with revision? because i am getting tons of homework due to the missed learning we have had so i have no really had much time to focus on my revision at my own pace. Besides, Thanks for the tips I really appreciate it :smile:

I think homework would take priority. Even though it does impact revison, at the moment, learning all the content is the most important think, then it would be to learn it well/ do questions to test understanding. I would remember not to overwork, so if you get a lot of homework, there is no need to do any revision that day, and if you don't have so much, use a bit of the time u might spend on netflix making notes or reading over a topic you find hard.
Original post by coolchem
I got 12A* (8 9s). Would be happy to offer some resources for a few subjects :smile:

Can you please send it to me as well for English literature
To everyone who would like literature resources, PM me please!!
Reply 19
In my January school mocks for gcses I got all 4’s and 5’s. In the real GCSE’s I got six 7’s, three 6’s and a C. They’re not the best set if results but shows improvement can be done

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