How do I revise Biology, Chemistry, Physics GCSE

I literally find it so hard to revise for science?! Currently, I literally go through the revision guide and relentlessly make notes hoping it sinks into my brain. (I am doing OCR Twenty First Century Higher Tier). I just am hoping there is a better alternative like any videos or websites which help. I am currently getting like sometimes 7s but then also get like out of the blue grade 4 and 3 and it is honestly stressing me out. Please help Im in y11 right now. Thank youuuuu. xx

Reply 1

stillcrying

For inspiration: I was on a 4 all of year 9 in physics, didn't improve at all. Then about half way through year 10, I got a 5 and I was over the moon at that slight improvement. We did a mock just before the summer of year 10 and I got a 6, then in my November mock in year 11, I got a 6 again. We then had a few papers dotted throughout the year before our actual GCSEs, the first I got a 7 and then about a week before exams started, I got an 8 and in the real thing I got an 8! I remember crying so much in year 9 and 10 thinking I'll never get a high grade but I persevered and got an 8! I'm now taking physics for A-level and year 9/10 me never saw that on the horizon!

Seneca Learning really helped me revise all my sciences; I got an 8 and 2 7's. I only found out about it in Year 11 but it worked wonders and I accumulated over 100 hours on it for all my subjects combined. Also countless past paper questions as you can learn exactly what the examiners want, especially for 6 markers. We had one on the national grid in our exam which we'd randomly practised the day before! Best of luck! :biggrin:

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 2

Katec050

Original post by stillcrying

Thank you so much! I have looked at seneca a bit and it is very useful, do you recommend making notes whilst doing the online tasks?

Reply 3

Oluuuuu

Hi! I’ll try and help somewhat. I’m still in year 11 so take what I say with a grain of salt. But this has helped my progress, especially for sciences.

You said you make notes from the revision guide but the most important thing with that is to refer to the spec when doing so. Ensure your notes are condensed and contain the main points. The specification will quickly become your best friend when it comes to revising for science subjects!

Once referring to the specification and making notes, take some time to consolidate the information you have written down. Take a day or two and spend that day learning each aspect of each topic. This is extremely important, because in order to get those 8-9’s, you need to know your content.

Once you’ve consolidated, you just practice your application and do numerous practice questions. I definitely recommend physics and maths tutor for this. Where, despite their name, they have loadssss of practice papers specific to each GCSE topic in sciences. Continue to do those and also check if your revision guide contains summary + application questions at the end of each topic and do those aswell. Once your exams are near, do past papers. But not now. They’re valuable.

I hope I helped somewhat. Good luck, I wish you the best! ☺️

Reply 4

izzzzyyyyyyyyyy

Original post by Katec050

If it's available I would recommend Seneca. It's basically a website with quizzes and information for all of the GCSE subjects. It's one of the only science revision sources I find helpful and interesting. It also shows you how much time you have spent revising and gives you scores and points (just makes revision a bit more fun!!). Hope that helps xx

Reply 5

stillcrying

Original post by Katec050

Thank you so much! I have looked at seneca a bit and it is very useful, do you recommend making notes whilst doing the online tasks?

I would just do the tasks themselves but I have made some notes from it before as it's nice and condensed down for you, especially for essay based subjects. I mainly just did the tasks over and over though haha

Reply 6

hisokaaaa

Practise papers are your best friend, as they say practise makes perfect it’s true. Read questions before approaching revising a topic. That way you remember important words which which stay in your memory for longer. Don’t over highlight. Practise with your friends, this way you can catch out each other mistakes. Do your work the day it's set if you get a chance to.

Reply 7

indie.sxnds

Hi, I got two 8's and a 7. I wouldve gotten an 8 in physics had a revised more than the 30 mins before the exam but i found these 3 key things were what got me my grade:

myGCSEscience: definitely worth the money, check out their site. videos that come with notes to annotate and exam practice (q's were similar in the real thing)

**I honestly don't think I'd have gotten my grades without the above site! But its all about what works best for you**

past paper questions(SO IMPORTANT): They really do ask the same questions over and over again, its actually fun to identify them. when i sat my GCSE's, my year were the first cohort to do the 9-1 science exams, so there werent many new spec past paper questons. I used some old spec, which DOES help, so dont be dismissive of them, but i think given the year you are taking them, you have lots of material to go from. don't neglect old spec though!

revision techniques: find what works for you. for me it was mainly mindmaps for biology, flashcards for chemistry , and notes for physics. (im a visual learner so this is what helped the most) I'd also recommend trying kinesthetic techniques - google it, or check out unjaded jades gcse revision video.

Best of luck!

I started making notes around feb.

ps : excuse any typos

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 8

Katec050