Keep getting borderline A* in practice exams

Hey there guys. I have my gcses coming up in a few weeks.

So far, I have done some science past papers. I feel my revision is okay but when I go to the the papers, I always lose around 16 marks.

These marks are not from a lack of knowledge or stupid mistakes but questions which I just can't answer.

It seems to me the only way you would get the answer is by knowing the mark scheme before hand.

Its really stressing me out. Anyone else have the same problem?

You have pretty much summed up the key to success in most GCSE exams. Whether you like it or not, a lot of GCSE is learning what the exam board want you to say and the only way of developing this is doing lots of past papers (although you obviously need to know the content as well.)

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Hey there guys. I have my gcses coming up in a few weeks.

So far, I have done some science past papers. I feel my revision is okay but when I go to the the papers, I always lose around 16 marks.

These marks are not from a lack of knowledge or stupid mistakes but questions which I just can't answer.

It seems to me the only way you would get the answer is by knowing the mark scheme before hand.

Its really stressing me out. Anyone else have the same problem?

Have you covered the topics for the questions you just couldn't answer? Don't forget that the syllabus is often updated, so if you didn't come across the topic in your classes or textbooks, it may not be taught anymore

I practiced the June 2014 papers which is the spec we are following so I knew all the topics.

It was just that some of the questions were difficult to gain marks due to the mark scheme since they did not really involve what we learned.

In what way? If you are revising from revision guides, they often won't have all the information. You need to go back to the textbook in order to get the most detailed information . However, there are two types of questions at GCSE: 1) The simple re-call question where you will be asked to remember something you have learnt, and 2) the application of the knowledge you have gained. The application questions are more difficult as it will involve taking something you have learnt and then using the process, technique, underlying concepts or whatever and applying it to questions you may not have seen before

Thank you for your reply. I started revising about 6 weeks ago now but I just quickly took notes on the content and moved onto the next subject. I was thinking about doing practice questions but I was worried I would basically forget so I thought it would be best to leave it to this week.


Unfortunately, time is passing quickly and now I have to practice other subjects. I am really worried because I was expecting easy A*s in sciences.

I just hope that doing the papers when I have days off in between the exams is going to be fine. Do you suggest that I do each paper properly, answering every question or should I just go through the paper,think of the answer in my head, and make notes if it is wrong? The first option is a lot more time consuming but would it be better to do that or go through lots of papers and get a feeling for the range of question types?

Thanks.

I'm sure you'll be OK I would do a mixture. Do a couple of papers properly and then you can start to ignore questions on topics you find easy and look at the harder questions. Just to warn you, you won't have a lot of time between exams (well I didn't last year anyway but then I had 29 exams) so the key thing is to remain calm and work efficiently

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Hello. I just want to let you know that over the past week I have been looking through the specification for all my sciences before attempting the past papers.

Now I am getting mid 90% ! If anyone was in the same situation, make sure to look through the spec. Also make sure to keep practicing and taking note of the mistakes you make to prevent making them again.