Gcse tips

Hi guys, right know I'm in year nine and I was thinking if any of you who are doing your GCSE or have finished it have any tips.
The tips could be about organization, note keeping, essentials, studying, timetable. If you could take some time and help me it would be grateful.

Reply 1

joshohill

Original post by essiescarlett

When you start your gcses ask your teachers or go online and find the 'specification' often called the 'spec' for your exams. On there they list all of the stuff you will be required to know for your exams. As you go through the course tick off each learning objective as you go.

Be independent, when you dont get something; research it first through books/online or use a friend who may understand it more.

Never give up, if you get bogged down in revision before your exams just think it's all worth it at the end of the day.

Don't sweat if things get tough towards end of year 10 and 11. Just relax, don't panic about exams as they will eat you if you panick.

before your exams make sure you have done every past paper - these can be found on the website of the examboard that you are sitting. These are very useful as they are the real thing.

When you have done each paper look at the 'examiners report' this is written by the cheif examiner, they tell you what everyone else sturggled in or was good at. And its written by someone who probs helped write the next paper so read it - it's invaluable.

In terms of your own revision you need to work out what is best for you. Your teacher might stand at the front and make you all do mind maps but if that doesn't work for you then do the thing that does. Spend the next few months making some revision resources such as maps, flash cards, posters and shortened down notes and you will find out what work for you if you assign a topic or subject to each method and then test yourself a few months/ weeks down the line you will find that some methods worked better for you than the others.

The amount of stuff you need to know can sometimes be scary but remember in the revision guides and in class they have all the explanations too. Once you fully understand a concept make some condensed notes with out all the crap in it. These will help you stay focussed on the key points that you will be tested on in exams. AS you do more past papers as well over the next couple of years you willl gain an idea of what the question is asking for and eventually you will get to the point where you recognise exactly what the question wants and write a concise and accurate answer rather than having to write on extra paper.

abit of exam science advice, 1 mark is one thing, 2 marks is 2 things or 1 thing and an explanation. 3/4 marks require statements and scientific points to prove this. And 6 markers - dont shake in your boots when you see these - they are easy... they are looking for 5/6 good points and you generally get 1 mark for your spelling/layout. if you ever dont know what to write or are running out of time in the exam then BULLET POINT. You will still GAIN MARKS by doing this - up to 4/6.

Spread revision out. Dont do hours at a time.

Don't ever think revision is reading a book, i will put money on it that there will be 3 people in your year that can read it a couple of times and get A*. But likelyhood is you are not that person, so be pro-active.

Sorry about my bad grammar but typing this very quickly :smile:

Good luck and stay calm about GCSEs. They're not scary if you take time to fully understand your topics :smile:

Reply 2

essiescarlett

Hi! Thanks for all these tips. I'm sure I will get a A*.

Reply 3

joshohill

No worries. Sorry it was very long. Good luck.

Reply 4

Dan19983

Original post by essiescarlett

Think of a career you would like to do when you leave school and base your subject around that. For example if you want to become a stock broker, then pick business studies, ICT, statistics and economics.. ( rough idea). However if your not sure yet then pick all different options which will career choices open such as Business, media, PE and triple science. The most important thing is to make sure you ENJOY the subjects you pick because you'll find year 10 and 11 equivalent to torture :smile:

. - I'm in year 11 studying for my exams now which is only 3weeks away :frown:

.. When you do choose your subjects i can only say one thing that will get you through it all.... PAST PAPERS

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 5

negatron

My biggest tip is to start revising straight away since you are in year 9 every day after school go over what you learnt in class so in the end you won't need to go over as many subjects in this way you can revise small sections instead of revising whole topics in the end :smile:

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Reply 6

essiescarlett

Thank you for your tip!
I hope you get really awesome grades and good luck and hope you succeed

Thank you!

My biggest tip is to work hard in year 10 and the first half of year 11, make all your resources like notes and flashcards as you go, it will save you a lot of time and stress so you don't have to cram as much at the end. Revise for your mocks and end of unit tests. Consistent hard work over two years beats crazy revision at the end any day. But it's really, really important that you don't burn out - pace yourself and don't set yourself too much to do, at the end of the day they're only GCSEs :smile:

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