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GCSE Astronomy (Edexcel)

Who does GCSE Astronomy with Edexcel? Got some questions to ask... I'm the only person doing it in our school so would be nice to find someone else doing it

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Reply 1
Did it last year if you want to ask anything. (hopefully I remember :tongue:)
Reply 2
Original post by Parallex
Did it last year if you want to ask anything. (hopefully I remember :tongue:)


Yeah, mainly about the coursework - What two observational tasks did you do? And also, what would you recommend about learning/revising it all? I've only studied half the course and I'm having to revise as I learn it as my teacher only entered me in for it at the start of the year...
Reply 3
I didn't have a teacher for it, only the textbook which I read in the month or so before the exam:colondollar:

I did Lunar phases (aided) and Constellation drawings (unaided), coursework was marked at an A* then got dropped to a B :frown: The textbook is your greatest friend, definitely do a lot of the past papers as some questions crop up quite frequently!
Reply 4
Original post by Parallex
I didn't have a teacher for it, only the textbook which I read in the month or so before the exam:colondollar:

I did Lunar phases (aided) and Constellation drawings (unaided), coursework was marked at an A* then got dropped to a B :frown: The textbook is your greatest friend, definitely do a lot of the past papers as some questions crop up quite frequently!


Well I've got mark schemes for the coursework which I'm going to have to spend tomorrow trying to finish (barely started either of them) for Monday/Tuesday... What textbook was this may I ask? I'm literally taking down notes from the specification for my revision... Yeah next week I'm collecting a bunch of past papers from my teacher - What did you get overall in Astronomy then? Really hoping for an A but it seems near impossible in the time I've got... Then again I spent a week revising vocab for GCSE Latin and learnt the civilisation stuff the night before and came out with an A... Any tips you could offer about revising for Astronomy? Loads of information to take in from the spec...
Reply 5
Original post by Lukazztic
Well I've got mark schemes for the coursework which I'm going to have to spend tomorrow trying to finish (barely started either of them) for Monday/Tuesday... What textbook was this may I ask? I'm literally taking down notes from the specification for my revision... Yeah next week I'm collecting a bunch of past papers from my teacher - What did you get overall in Astronomy then? Really hoping for an A but it seems near impossible in the time I've got... Then again I spent a week revising vocab for GCSE Latin and learnt the civilisation stuff the night before and came out with an A... Any tips you could offer about revising for Astronomy? Loads of information to take in from the spec...


It was this one.

It isn't impossible trust me :P I ended up getting an A as I got an A* in the exam, was disappointed but ey what can you do! I literally just went through this whole book, whilst doing past papers and looking at the mark schemes.
Reply 6
Original post by Parallex
It was this one.

It isn't impossible trust me :P I ended up getting an A as I got an A* in the exam, was disappointed but ey what can you do! I literally just went through this whole book, whilst doing past papers and looking at the mark schemes.


Thank you very much for sharing that with me, going to try and get my hands on it... As for the coursework, did you follow the basic structure of Design, Observation, Analysis and Evaluation? I've got very limited resources asides this mark scheme, and the Extension that needs to be included in the Evaluation seems like it will be hard to write about.... I mean for the Lunar Features I've got an extension but what kind of extension can you do on a shadow stick experiment :confused:
Reply 7
Original post by Lukazztic
Thank you very much for sharing that with me, going to try and get my hands on it... As for the coursework, did you follow the basic structure of Design, Observation, Analysis and Evaluation? I've got very limited resources asides this mark scheme, and the Extension that needs to be included in the Evaluation seems like it will be hard to write about.... I mean for the Lunar Features I've got an extension but what kind of extension can you do on a shadow stick experiment :confused:


Yup, each of the observation write ups were several thousand words long and in that format. I als have no idea what extension to do for shadow stick tbh :confused: can't you pick another one or is it set in stone?

edit: you can buy the book off Amazon for pretty cheap!
Reply 8
Original post by Parallex
Yup, each of the observation write ups were several thousand words long and in that format. I als have no idea what extension to do for shadow stick tbh :confused: can't you pick another one or is it set in stone?

edit: you can buy the book off Amazon for pretty cheap!


Seems like I'm doing it right then... Well I've chosen shadow sticks as I've got the data for it, and I haven't got data for any other Unaided Observation... Yeah I've just brought the book and the CD ROM, should go well. Thank you very much
Reply 9
Original post by Lukazztic
Seems like I'm doing it right then... Well I've chosen shadow sticks as I've got the data for it, and I haven't got data for any other Unaided Observation... Yeah I've just brought the book and the CD ROM, should go well. Thank you very much


No problem mate. Have fun learning the content is very nice I enjoyed astronomy a lot!
Original post by Lukazztic
Who does GCSE Astronomy with Edexcel? Got some questions to ask... I'm the only person doing it in our school so would be nice to find someone else doing it

I'm doing GCSE Astronomy too, how's revision going?
Hey I'm doing it too!
For coursework I'm doing A6 the shadow stick one, which is pretty easy since you can kind of manipulate your results to get what you want haha, and then also doing the B3 solar eclipse for aided, cause it seemed a shame not to make the most of the eclipse!
Started teaching myself the material this week, seems all straightforward so far (may be speaking too soon).
Just over a month to go....
I am also taking the exam this year and i was wondering how all of you are revising, i am only using the revision guide and some flashcards i found on a website, however i find i am struggling to pick some of it up as i am teaching it to myself. Do any of you know which equations will be given to us and which ones we will have to know off by heart?
Original post by Planckton
Hey I'm doing it too!
For coursework I'm doing A6 the shadow stick one, which is pretty easy since you can kind of manipulate your results to get what you want haha, and then also doing the B3 solar eclipse for aided, cause it seemed a shame not to make the most of the eclipse!
Started teaching myself the material this week, seems all straightforward so far (may be speaking too soon).
Just over a month to go....



For A6, how do you figure out and account for the equation of time in your results?
Original post by Lukazztic
Who does GCSE Astronomy with Edexcel? Got some questions to ask... I'm the only person doing it in our school so would be nice to find someone else doing it


how did you get to do an astronomy GCSE? I have asked my physics teacher but he said he doesn't know anything about it :s-smilie:
Reply 15
Original post by GCSE student 1
I'm doing GCSE Astronomy too, how's revision going?


It's brilliant, got a bit less than two weeks to go and I'm still learning... :s-smilie: what about you?
Reply 16
Original post by Planckton
Hey I'm doing it too!
For coursework I'm doing A6 the shadow stick one, which is pretty easy since you can kind of manipulate your results to get what you want haha, and then also doing the B3 solar eclipse for aided, cause it seemed a shame not to make the most of the eclipse!
Started teaching myself the material this week, seems all straightforward so far (may be speaking too soon).
Just over a month to go....


My shadow stick one wasn't that good at all, I rushed it... I'm amazed how much there is to know, how I do in the exam is going to be based purely on luck..
Reply 17
Original post by swagatron
For A6, how do you figure out and account for the equation of time in your results?


The equation of time is the difference between time that is measured using a sundial (apparent solar time) and time that is measured using a watch or a clock (mean solar time) so you do apparent-mean I think... I can't remember much, this website is what I used to do most of that haha http://www.sundials.co.uk/equation.htm
Original post by Lukazztic
My shadow stick one wasn't that good at all, I rushed it... I'm amazed how much there is to know, how I do in the exam is going to be based purely on luck..


Mine's super rushed too don't worry!! And I'm the same, I just finished learning the material today, so not really looking forward to the exam!!!
Reply 19
Original post by Planckton
Mine's super rushed too don't worry!! And I'm the same, I just finished learning the material today, so not really looking forward to the exam!!!


I thought I had covered a lot of the material but then I looked through a past paper today and I was confused out of my head... How long have you been going over the material?

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