The Student Room Group

Year 11

Hello, it's the end of Year 10 for me and only six weeks from Year 11. I'm a smart guy though I'm not the type of person to revise. Due to this though, I often don't reach my absolute potential, even though I do comparatively well. I'm targeted between 7-9 in all of my subjects, those being:
English Language and Literature [Targeted 8]
Maths [Targeted 8]
Physics (Triple Science, i.e highest tier) [Targeted 9]
Chemistry (Triple Science, i.e highest tier) [Targeted 8]
Biology (Triple Science, i.e highest tier) [Targeted 8]
Geography [Targeted 8]
Economics [Targeted A*]
RE [Targeted 7]
Electronic Products [Targeted A*]

This is graded using the 9-1 system, where 9 is roughly equivalent to an A** and 5 is a pass/C.


Since I've never really revised, I have no idea about schedules or when I should start revising. I was hoping some upcoming year 11s like me, or previous year 11s could share their schedules and when they begun revising.
Original post by Sid2001
Hello, it's the end of Year 10 for me and only six weeks from Year 11. I'm a smart guy though I'm not the type of person to revise. Due to this though, I often don't reach my absolute potential, even though I do comparatively well. I'm targeted between 7-9 in all of my subjects, those being:
English Language and Literature [Targeted 8]
Maths [Targeted 8]
Physics (Triple Science, i.e highest tier) [Targeted 9]
Chemistry (Triple Science, i.e highest tier) [Targeted 8]
Biology (Triple Science, i.e highest tier) [Targeted 8]
Geography [Targeted 8]
Economics [Targeted A*]
RE [Targeted 7]
Electronic Products [Targeted A*]

This is graded using the 9-1 system, where 9 is roughly equivalent to an A** and 5 is a pass/C.


Since I've never really revised, I have no idea about schedules or when I should start revising. I was hoping some upcoming year 11s like me, or previous year 11s could share their schedules and when they begun revising.



I'll be going to Year11 in a few weeks aswell and I'm revising for my GCSE's from now.
I'm not naturally smart but when I put my mind to it I get excellent marks.
I suggest you do a little bit of every subject everyday, it doesn't have to be a lot. It can be a couple of exam style questions or just reading over exam revision notes. I suggest you start revising from now and do some exam papers
Hope this helped
Original post by Sid2001
Hello, it's the end of Year 10 for me and only six weeks from Year 11. I'm a smart guy though I'm not the type of person to revise. Due to this though, I often don't reach my absolute potential, even though I do comparatively well. I'm targeted between 7-9 in all of my subjects, those being:
English Language and Literature [Targeted 8]
Maths [Targeted 8]
Physics (Triple Science, i.e highest tier) [Targeted 9]
Chemistry (Triple Science, i.e highest tier) [Targeted 8]
Biology (Triple Science, i.e highest tier) [Targeted 8]
Geography [Targeted 8]
Economics [Targeted A*]
RE [Targeted 7]
Electronic Products [Targeted A*]

This is graded using the 9-1 system, where 9 is roughly equivalent to an A** and 5 is a pass/C.


Since I've never really revised, I have no idea about schedules or when I should start revising. I was hoping some upcoming year 11s like me, or previous year 11s could share their schedules and when they begun revising.


I have just finished year 11 and I really regret not starting revision earlier, and I tried to make up for the fact that I didn't feel I had done enough in year 10 or the start of year 11, by spending every moment in April/May/June/July revising, which I would not recommend whatsoever (it made me feel so out of control and guilty, to the point that I got ill).

Therefore I am going to have a different approach to A-levels, which if I could go back in time, I would have done for GCSEs.

I would recommend that you start making revision notes/mindmaps/flashcards for topics you have covered in year 10 as this will mean that when you get to revising for mocks you will already have made revision materials for last year's topics, so you'll be able to focus on doing the revision, rather than making the resources.

On the topic of schedules, I personally didn't make a revision timetable that included which subjects I was going to do each day, because I knew that I would lose motivation if I didn't follow it exactly (eg. if I wasn't feeling well). Instead I just planned how much time I was going to spend revising, and picked which subject I was going to do (this won't work if you always favour one subject). This year I am going to make a revision timetable, so I think it's just about whether you think it will work for you.

Finally, I did all of my revision in power hours (50 mins of work, ten mins break) and I found this to be effective for me. However if you find that you can't concentrate for 50 mins, lots of my friends did 25 mins of work with 5 mins break.

Hope this is helpful, good luck!
I've just finished YR11 and the whole exams business so I'll try to give some at least vaguely useful advice.

My targets were all A's, A*s, 8s and 9s too, so I guess we're sort of on the same wavelength when it comes to that. I was also the 'smart' girl - always doing well in tests, topping the class etc.

I will say though, no matter how much revision you do, unexpected circumstances may arise during the exams that are completely unavoidable which may ruin your revision plans etc.. for example, I was going through some family issues as a young carer, which had to be dealt with and left me feeling quite down and not in a revision mood. It took me quite a while to do notes and we weren't taught a lot of the content so I felt a lot of the pressure which is quite dwelling on your mood. All in all, during the exams themselves I felt pretty comfortable (except some science - covered below) and this was probably due to working so hard before starting official revision, so hopefully that paid off. Also, I relied upon a lot of what you could say is like common sense, natural knowledge as a higher level student.

It's important to note, different ways of starting revising work for different people.

For me, personally, before starting the actual process of learning the content, I wrote revision notes on EVERYTHING to ensure that if worst comes to worst, the night before the exam I had some information to look over and almost rely on. My focus wasn't so heavy on learning the stiff purely because throughout my school life I'd worked so hard, always keeping up with homework and doing extra research to make sure I understood everything etc. (I think it's appropriate to note here that if you're in lessons and don't FULLY and CONFIDENTLY understand a topic you MUST go and ask as soon as possible because when doing your revision you don't want to be at a halt (especially during half terms) just because you don't understand anything, as it's quite pressurising to have to learn something by yourself, which you previously didn't understand with a teacher). These revision notes which you make will be your rock throughout exam season. It was important for me to make these neat and pretty - otherwise I wouldn't have had the will power to revise at all. It's important to start these early. I started mine February half term and didn't finish them on time. This may have been due to my school being pretty terrible and actually never teaching us the paper 3 content for the sciences so I had to teach it myself on top of doing notes. (I think its appropriate to note here that the sciences have a lot of content so its important to learn paper 1 and 2 content early and know it off by heart so that you can focus on other papers which you'll be less confident on - theoretically then you'll only need to recap a few nights before).

Hence, if I was giving a rough guide I'd say its best to start over Christmas. Get yourself organised. A notepad per subject. and start noting yaayyyy. Do maybe an hour a night to begin with. If you found yourself bored over summer you could start (never too early) and this would mean you wouldn't have to do as much per night.

if you want more specific advice, maybe on some certain subjects (we would do the same/similar English&Maths) then just ask:smile:
Reply 4
Original post by beckyyfoster
I've just finished YR11 and the whole exams business so I'll try to give some at least vaguely useful advice.

My targets were all A's, A*s, 8s and 9s too, so I guess we're sort of on the same wavelength when it comes to that. I was also the 'smart' girl - always doing well in tests, topping the class etc.

I will say though, no matter how much revision you do, unexpected circumstances may arise during the exams that are completely unavoidable which may ruin your revision plans etc.. for example, I was going through some family issues as a young carer, which had to be dealt with and left me feeling quite down and not in a revision mood. It took me quite a while to do notes and we weren't taught a lot of the content so I felt a lot of the pressure which is quite dwelling on your mood. All in all, during the exams themselves I felt pretty comfortable (except some science - covered below) and this was probably due to working so hard before starting official revision, so hopefully that paid off. Also, I relied upon a lot of what you could say is like common sense, natural knowledge as a higher level student.

It's important to note, different ways of starting revising work for different people.

For me, personally, before starting the actual process of learning the content, I wrote revision notes on EVERYTHING to ensure that if worst comes to worst, the night before the exam I had some information to look over and almost rely on. My focus wasn't so heavy on learning the stiff purely because throughout my school life I'd worked so hard, always keeping up with homework and doing extra research to make sure I understood everything etc. (I think it's appropriate to note here that if you're in lessons and don't FULLY and CONFIDENTLY understand a topic you MUST go and ask as soon as possible because when doing your revision you don't want to be at a halt (especially during half terms) just because you don't understand anything, as it's quite pressurising to have to learn something by yourself, which you previously didn't understand with a teacher). These revision notes which you make will be your rock throughout exam season. It was important for me to make these neat and pretty - otherwise I wouldn't have had the will power to revise at all. It's important to start these early. I started mine February half term and didn't finish them on time. This may have been due to my school being pretty terrible and actually never teaching us the paper 3 content for the sciences so I had to teach it myself on top of doing notes. (I think its appropriate to note here that the sciences have a lot of content so its important to learn paper 1 and 2 content early and know it off by heart so that you can focus on other papers which you'll be less confident on - theoretically then you'll only need to recap a few nights before).

Hence, if I was giving a rough guide I'd say its best to start over Christmas. Get yourself organised. A notepad per subject. and start noting yaayyyy. Do maybe an hour a night to begin with. If you found yourself bored over summer you could start (never too early) and this would mean you wouldn't have to do as much per night.

if you want more specific advice, maybe on some certain subjects (we would do the same/similar English&Maths) then just ask:smile:




I appreciate the response. My plan is to do some light revision over the summer when I return from my holiday just so that I don't forget too much. I will, as you said, start from Christmas as that seems appropriate. How did you revise English? I assume you must've done past essay questions and revised key quotations?

Good luck with your upcoming A-Levels. I hear some people find it to be a massive leap from GCSEs.
Original post by Sid2001
I appreciate the response. My plan is to do some light revision over the summer when I return from my holiday just so that I don't forget too much. I will, as you said, start from Christmas as that seems appropriate. How did you revise English? I assume you must've done past essay questions and revised key quotations?

Good luck with your upcoming A-Levels. I hear some people find it to be a massive leap from GCSEs.


That's a good plan. More of a plan than I made oops.

I assume you mean eng lit?

You see, as the guinea pig year for the new English, we only had like 3 sets of papers to try, all of which we did for mocks, so no I didn't. Also, when you find yourself short for time, you don't want to be spending 30 mins writing an essay, its best to just spend 10 mins doing a plan for it, which would help you find weak areas in your knowledge. I'm afraid, if its the actual concept of essay writing and conveying points you're weak at, you just have to learn it and perfect it.

Key quotations were sort of a last minute job for me, obviously id previously made a 'quotation sheet'.

I also did plenty of revision on my books/plays/poems (R&J/Never let me go/J&H/L&R anthology)as this can be quite overwhelming trying to learn. Try to summarise chapters, make quote pages, key themes, charcter analysis etc. Hopefully you don't spend so much time learning about your Shakespeare to be asked on a fairly irrelevant extract from the start -_-

I have all my revision notes still so if you wanted examples, I could find some way to send you some pictures of them?
Reply 6
Original post by beckyyfoster
That's a good plan. More of a plan than I made oops.

I assume you mean eng lit?

You see, as the guinea pig year for the new English, we only had like 3 sets of papers to try, all of which we did for mocks, so no I didn't. Also, when you find yourself short for time, you don't want to be spending 30 mins writing an essay, its best to just spend 10 mins doing a plan for it, which would help you find weak areas in your knowledge. I'm afraid, if its the actual concept of essay writing and conveying points you're weak at, you just have to learn it and perfect it.

Key quotations were sort of a last minute job for me, obviously id previously made a 'quotation sheet'.

I also did plenty of revision on my books/plays/poems (R&J/Never let me go/J&H/L&R anthology)as this can be quite overwhelming trying to learn. Try to summarise chapters, make quote pages, key themes, charcter analysis etc. Hopefully you don't spend so much time learning about your Shakespeare to be asked on a fairly irrelevant extract from the start -_-

I have all my revision notes still so if you wanted examples, I could find some way to send you some pictures of them?



My essay writing skills are relatively good. I was more interest in the timings. I suppose one example of your revision notes would be helpful. Obviously since I'm only starting Year 11, there are still aspects to the course we've not covered yet.
Original post by Sid2001
My essay writing skills are relatively good. I was more interest in the timings. I suppose one example of your revision notes would be helpful. Obviously since I'm only starting Year 11, there are still aspects to the course we've not covered yet.


Yeah that makes sense. Hopefully you're actually taught all the content:biggrin: What subject would you like them for?
Reply 8
Original post by beckyyfoster
Yeah that makes sense. Hopefully you're actually taught all the content:biggrin: What subject would you like them for?


English Literature.

Thanks.
Reply 9
Original post by itslibby
I have just finished year 11 and I really regret not starting revision earlier, and I tried to make up for the fact that I didn't feel I had done enough in year 10 or the start of year 11, by spending every moment in April/May/June/July revising, which I would not recommend whatsoever (it made me feel so out of control and guilty, to the point that I got ill).

Therefore I am going to have a different approach to A-levels, which if I could go back in time, I would have done for GCSEs.

I would recommend that you start making revision notes/mindmaps/flashcards for topics you have covered in year 10 as this will mean that when you get to revising for mocks you will already have made revision materials for last year's topics, so you'll be able to focus on doing the revision, rather than making the resources.

On the topic of schedules, I personally didn't make a revision timetable that included which subjects I was going to do each day, because I knew that I would lose motivation if I didn't follow it exactly (eg. if I wasn't feeling well). Instead I just planned how much time I was going to spend revising, and picked which subject I was going to do (this won't work if you always favour one subject). This year I am going to make a revision timetable, so I think it's just about whether you think it will work for you.

Finally, I did all of my revision in power hours (50 mins of work, ten mins break) and I found this to be effective for me. However if you find that you can't concentrate for 50 mins, lots of my friends did 25 mins of work with 5 mins break.

Hope this is helpful, good luck!



How often did you do these power hours?


Thank you and good luck with your upcoming AS/A-Levels.
Original post by Sid2001
English Literature.

Thanks.


Any particular sub topic? - I did Jekyll&Hyde, Romeo and Juliet, Love and Relationships poetry and Never Let Me Go.
Original post by Sid2001
How often did you do these power hours?


Thank you and good luck with your upcoming AS/A-Levels.


I only started doing power hours in the last few months running up to exams (although I wish I had used this technique earlier) and I was trying to fit 5 or 6 power hours in after school which, with hindsight, was way too much as by the end I wasn't taking anything in, and it was just a waste of my time.

I would say that if you use your time effectively by making sure you decide what you're going to do in the 50 mins before you start, and making sure you are free from distractions (HIDE YOUR PHONE IN ANOTHER ROOM) then you could begin year ten doing two power hours each evening (maybe more on the weekends). However if you have extra curricular activities it's important to carry on with these to give yourself a break from school work, at least until your real exams, so take these into consideration. For example if you play a sport from 6pm on one evening, then perhaps just do one power hour before you go out.

As you get closer to mocks I would do more, and then by April my school advised us that we were doing 2 to 3 hours after school, and 6 hours each day on a weekend.
Reply 12
Original post by beckyyfoster
Any particular sub topic? - I did Jekyll&Hyde, Romeo and Juliet, Love and Relationships poetry and Never Let Me Go.



The only common one we have there is Jekyll&Hyde, so that would be great.

Thanks.
Original post by Sid2001
The only common one we have there is Jekyll&Hyde, so that would be great.

Thanks.


I've took pictures of a little bit of everything within the Jekyll&Hyde section (i.e. theres some character stuff, some chapter analysis', some themes, and some of the grade '9' stuff is towards the end (as well as the dream theory being intergrated (C1) - I recommend looking at this as its degree level and is easy to put in almost all answers - let me know if you want me to explain this)

Also, I've put in an example of my NLMG quote map which may be a method you prefer to integrating them and highlighting them like I did with Jekyll and Hyde. I also put in an example of how I did the poetry stuff, even if you aren't doing the same cluster I felt my method worked (nailed the poetry wooo).

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