I have GCSE tests in March and because if my situation I’ve barely revised. What do?

Hey guys,

I was expecting to have exams in June, but that isn’t happening anymore. I have tests in March and these could potentially heavily influence my grades (if not outright decide them).

I started on Answer Recall notes this month, but I’ll be lucky to get just the science notes done by March.

So, what should I do?

I’ve shifted my focus onto past papers, as I think these are really useful.

But I just don’t have the time to make notes - I need to actually start revision literally now.

Does anyone have answer recall notes, or flash cards? Or know a good source for them?

Oh yeah I’m doing 8 GCSEs btw:
Double Science
English Language
Eng Lit
Geog
History
CompSci
Mathematics

P.S.
I’m talking Double Award Science, higher tier. What is the actual name for this qualification? I’ve seen science synergy, and the 3 separate sciences as past papers, and I don’t actually know which one is the one I’m doing.

Just do past papers and focus on revising topics you struggle to answer questions on. Someone else's notes won't help.

I missed my first term of Y11, so my problem is that I’m basically struggling on, well, all of it, lol. To clear up why I asked for notes, I know where my weaknesses are but I don’t have the time to make my own notes to correct them

Try googling - many schools have stuff on open access or buy some revision guides. Do you have NO classwork at all from that term?

Hi! I recommend CGP for science and the others, just get it for the right tier and the right exam board. You can cover up each section and test yourself. It’s the same as flashcards and it works brilliantly. I always did this as thought that flashcards were time consuming. You can do this for geography and computer science too and history! For maths I really recommend mathswatch and then just do practice papers on physics and maths tutor. I think this is a great way as I got an 8.
For English literature. This time you can use flashcards or mindmaps (and test yourself by covering parts up) and write down each theme and character quotes and do a little summary beneath each quote about the techniques etc and just do practice questions!
English language is similar but you just need to practice mainly for unseen texts and be able to write a good descriptive story with things like metaphors adjectives etc (for English language I recommend just the internet to note down what you should include in the stories)
So overall you only need notes for literature and shorter simpler notes for English language, otherwise you don’t need notes for anything else!
Search up on the internet for good quotes on the themes and characters of the books and pomes you’re doing on the interest as there’s plenty so you’ll be really fine!
I think spend 2 days on making the literature notes and then just start learning and practicing for all the other subjects. Good luck!

The revision guides you might think that they skip lots of stuff and they’re not great and just summarised but I got a 9 in bio 8 in physics and a 7 in chem with them. I covered up bits of informations I wanted to learn with a piece of blank paper and just talked to myself in a mirror or like on a talk show to keep myself entertained. It’s good for literature that means less time to revise and waste on notes!

Yeah luckily I have the guides for humanities and all English literature.

I have the textbook for higher combined science and it’s... 400 pages. Might need to pick up them revision guides, if they managed to get you good grades.

They do honestly seem to skip a lot, but if they were good for you then I’m sold. And I guess they cover the main points of each topic which is what’s important.

Hi, I did AQA triple science GCSE in 2019 and got nines in all the sciences by literally just memorising the CGP guide so I completely agree with @SparkleFace I personally found that they covered the spec perfectly and didn't miss anything out while also not including extra irrelevant information. Also some of my teachers said they were too simple bla bla bla and get you a max grade 7 without extra content etc. but that is clearly not true.
Also I wouldn't spend your time making any notes as I don't feel like you one gets much out of it, I do A level Biology and the people at my school who spend ages writing up neat notes tend to get the lowest grades unfortunately but of course this works for some people so go for it if you feel like you learn better this way. Good luck

Alright, sounds like revision guides are definitely worth a shot then.

Yeah, I spent november-december making ‘notes’ and I was just basically rewriting the book - completely useless. I’ve tried something different where I just write questions to myself and force myself to answer them - works well, but time is running short.

Luckily with revision guides being much shorter than text books hopefully I will have time. Thanks for the help. 5 weeks is actually not bad tbh, 3 or 4 weeks revising and a week churning out past papers shouldn’t be terrible.

This is what you’re talking about btw, right? https://www.cgpbooks.co.uk/secondary-books/gcse/science/combined-science/sahr45-grade-9-1-gcse-combined-science-aqa-revisio

(I know you said you do trilogy but it’s this line of books?)

Also this thread made me realise how stupid I am trying to cover a 400 page textbook in a month, should’ve been going for these revision guides instead

Alright, sounds like revision guides are definitely worth a shot then.

Yeah, I spent november-december making ‘notes’ and I was just basically rewriting the book - completely useless. I’ve tried something different where I just write questions to myself and force myself to answer them - works well, but time is running short.

Luckily with revision guides being much shorter than text books hopefully I will have time. Thanks for the help. 5 weeks is actually not bad tbh, 3 or 4 weeks revising and a week churning out past papers shouldn’t be terrible.

This is what you’re talking about btw, right? https://www.cgpbooks.co.uk/secondary-books/gcse/science/combined-science/sahr45-grade-9-1-gcse-combined-science-aqa-revisio

(I know you said you do trilogy but it’s this line of books?)

Also this thread made me realise how stupid I am trying to cover a 400 page textbook in a month, should’ve been going for these revision guides instead

Trilogy is the same as double science - two GCSEs

Yes its that line of books,im sure it goes without saying that you are doing aqa combined science since that is the book you linked. Also I forgot to mention but don't just read the book and expect to remember everything, active recall is so important so say after learning the def of osmosis etc. I would cover it, recite it and then check its right. Its good that you are making up questions to test your knowledge, but the cgp guide has a few questions every 1 or 2 pages testing what you learnt in those pages so maybe do those first then if you run out of questions you can make your own. Your plan of revising for 3-4 weeks then doing 1 week of past paper qs sounds good, just make sure you stick with it!

Ohh, I always thought trilogy = triple. So triple science is when you take each one separately and get 3 GCSEs right?

Hey guys,

I was expecting to have exams in June, but that isn’t happening anymore. I have tests in March and these could potentially heavily influence my grades (if not outright decide them).

I started on Answer Recall notes this month, but I’ll be lucky to get just the science notes done by March.

So, what should I do?

I’ve shifted my focus onto past papers, as I think these are really useful.

But I just don’t have the time to make notes - I need to actually start revision literally now.

Does anyone have answer recall notes, or flash cards? Or know a good source for them?

Oh yeah I’m doing 8 GCSEs btw:
Double Science
English Language
Eng Lit
Geog
History
CompSci
Mathematics

P.S.
I’m talking Double Award Science, higher tier. What is the actual name for this qualification? I’ve seen science synergy, and the 3 separate sciences as past papers, and I don’t actually know which one is the one I’m doing.