What did you do to get A* in your GSCE exams?
Hey!
Im a student who just got into year 10 working towards A's and A* but I'd like for anyone who's already done there GSCE's to please give me some advice towards how to do that. All my target grades are around 8/7 which are the new grades equivalent to A's and A*'s.
My ambition has always been in dentistry and since that's such a competitive field, I know I need to get the best results I can get.
So what can I do starting from now that would really help me in the long run?
Im a student who just got into year 10 working towards A's and A* but I'd like for anyone who's already done there GSCE's to please give me some advice towards how to do that. All my target grades are around 8/7 which are the new grades equivalent to A's and A*'s.
My ambition has always been in dentistry and since that's such a competitive field, I know I need to get the best results I can get.
So what can I do starting from now that would really help me in the long run?
Scroll to see replies
I didn't really revise for GCSEs and I only got 1 A* so I guess I'll tell you what I did for that subject (Maths).
In my opinion if you're innately talented at Maths, getting an A*/A is extremely easy. I strongly recommend past papers. Pay attention in class. Cover all the content quickly for Maths and then move onto past papers. If you do enough of them, you're guaranteed to do well in Maths imo.
In my opinion if you're innately talented at Maths, getting an A*/A is extremely easy. I strongly recommend past papers. Pay attention in class. Cover all the content quickly for Maths and then move onto past papers. If you do enough of them, you're guaranteed to do well in Maths imo.
At GCSE (and all exams really I guess), past papers and exam questions are very important. They are accurate ways of testing your knowledge at a realistic difficulty.
In the time you have to study (years), pay attention in class and as soon as you don't know something, look it up from a trusted source or ask your teacher.
In the months you have to study, focus should be on questions and past papers.
In general, stay organised. Don't become complacent but don't stress yourself either. Set some short-term and long-term goals, just a few.
I wish you all the best in your upcoming years of study!
(All of this is in my opinion and may not work for everyone)
In the time you have to study (years), pay attention in class and as soon as you don't know something, look it up from a trusted source or ask your teacher.
In the months you have to study, focus should be on questions and past papers.
In general, stay organised. Don't become complacent but don't stress yourself either. Set some short-term and long-term goals, just a few.
I wish you all the best in your upcoming years of study!
(All of this is in my opinion and may not work for everyone)
I would just say to try remember content from listening in class. Focus on weaker subjects and put less emphasis on subjects that you are very strong at to have a better balance.
I got 998A*A*A*A*AA in August. I started revising after my November mocks, 1-2 hours a night with extra time for mandatory homework. I stepped this up to 3 hours at around February, and switched to purely past papers at Easter alongside my school's Easter classes [they held subject specific days]. I must say that TSR helped a lot and some of the resources here are extremely good, especially checklists for the Sciences and History. I would recommend that you have more downtime than I did as I ended up incredibly stressed and demotivated towards the end. Examiners reports will be your best friend as if you can nail the things that other people stumble on you can easily boost your grade [especially Science as on Higher there are generally easy marks on graph questions].
Original post by Totalgeek2003
Hey!
Im a student who just got into year 10 working towards A's and A* but I'd like for anyone who's already done there GSCE's to please give me some advice towards how to do that. All my target grades are around 8/7 which are the new grades equivalent to A's and A*'s.
My ambition has always been in dentistry and since that's such a competitive field, I know I need to get the best results I can get.
So what can I do starting from now that would really help me in the long run?
Im a student who just got into year 10 working towards A's and A* but I'd like for anyone who's already done there GSCE's to please give me some advice towards how to do that. All my target grades are around 8/7 which are the new grades equivalent to A's and A*'s.
My ambition has always been in dentistry and since that's such a competitive field, I know I need to get the best results I can get.
So what can I do starting from now that would really help me in the long run?
I wouldnt say dentistry is competitive as it were, considering it is the degree with the highest employment rate, since 99% of dentistry graduates get a job as a dentist. Nonetheless, it is incredibly difficult and you will need to be committed to achieve the degree after 5-6years of uni.
My technique for GCSEs was literally reading (which is not recommended but found it worked for me, it really depends on what kind of learner you are) to understand the basics, maybe taking notes looking at the textbook on something i was hardly familiar with. But the key to my revision was closing the textbook and then writing all the information down FROM MEMORY, like i was in an exam.
Time
Start revising early, maybe february or early march just do one hour a day to get information into your long term memory.
In mid march you want to make a timetable for revision covering all subjects you are studying two or three times in a week but with more time allocated for subjects you struggle with.
For example, I struggled a lot with Physics in year 11 and was predicted a B but doing self study of about 1 and a half hours of physics every 2-3 days , come exam time I managed to get an A*. However, I was innately talented at computer science that I also got an A* in but you should not become arrogant in those subjects and not revise at all for them, maybe only half an hour on subjects that you are talented at.
In mid april onwards, I did a solid 2-3 hours a day of revision on school days and maybe 5 a day on weekends and it has paid off.
You don't have to be extreme and make yourself housebound doing revision but make sure you do more than 2 hours a day in may!!
Tips
- I found that doing lots of past papers helped me a lot as well as mind maps and posters on my walls with information on to read when i walked past them.
- I also stuck postit notes with a question on that i struggled with onto places where im likely to go to. So every time that I went to the toilet I had to answer the question on the postit note on the bathroom's door handle in order to go to the toilet. I would then check my answer.
- Read your notes aloud from the textbook or revision guide.
- Attend afterschool revision during exam time or ask if you can revise in school on weekend mornings or during exam time school holidays.
Start revising early, maybe february or early march just do one hour a day to get information into your long term memory.
In mid march you want to make a timetable for revision covering all subjects you are studying two or three times in a week but with more time allocated for subjects you struggle with.
For example, I struggled a lot with Physics in year 11 and was predicted a B but doing self study of about 1 and a half hours of physics every 2-3 days , come exam time I managed to get an A*. However, I was innately talented at computer science that I also got an A* in but you should not become arrogant in those subjects and not revise at all for them, maybe only half an hour on subjects that you are talented at.
In mid april onwards, I did a solid 2-3 hours a day of revision on school days and maybe 5 a day on weekends and it has paid off.
You don't have to be extreme and make yourself housebound doing revision but make sure you do more than 2 hours a day in may!!
Tips
- I found that doing lots of past papers helped me a lot as well as mind maps and posters on my walls with information on to read when i walked past them.
- I also stuck postit notes with a question on that i struggled with onto places where im likely to go to. So every time that I went to the toilet I had to answer the question on the postit note on the bathroom's door handle in order to go to the toilet. I would then check my answer.
- Read your notes aloud from the textbook or revision guide.
- Attend afterschool revision during exam time or ask if you can revise in school on weekend mornings or during exam time school holidays.
(edited 6 years ago)
Original post by MoistMandem
I wouldnt say dentistry is competitive as it were, considering it is the degree with the highest employment rate, since 99% of dentistry graduates get a job as a dentist. Nonetheless, it is incredibly difficult and you will need to be committed to achieve the degree after 5-6years of uni.
My technique for GCSEs was literally reading (which is not recommended but found it worked for me, it really depends on what kind of learner you are) to understand the basics, maybe taking notes looking at the textbook on something i was hardly familiar with. But the key to my revision was closing the textbook and then writing all the information down FROM MEMORY, like i was in an exam.
My technique for GCSEs was literally reading (which is not recommended but found it worked for me, it really depends on what kind of learner you are) to understand the basics, maybe taking notes looking at the textbook on something i was hardly familiar with. But the key to my revision was closing the textbook and then writing all the information down FROM MEMORY, like i was in an exam.
Wow thank you! I really enjoy reading and would read anything if it strikes me as interesting. If you don't mind me asking, what did you get for your GCSE's?
Original post by Pidge Gunderson
I didn't really revise for GCSEs and I only got 1 A* so I guess I'll tell you what I did for that subject (Maths).
In my opinion if you're innately talented at Maths, getting an A*/A is extremely easy. I strongly recommend past papers. Pay attention in class. Cover all the content quickly for Maths and then move onto past papers. If you do enough of them, you're guaranteed to do well in Maths imo.
In my opinion if you're innately talented at Maths, getting an A*/A is extremely easy. I strongly recommend past papers. Pay attention in class. Cover all the content quickly for Maths and then move onto past papers. If you do enough of them, you're guaranteed to do well in Maths imo.
The thing is with maths is that I've always been slow at calculations and I'm not really someone who can ace a test without me staying up whilst studying hard despite my target band being around an A .Unfortunately i haven't really mastered the art of studying smarter instead .
Original post by Totalgeek2003
Wow thank you! I really enjoy reading and would read anything if it strikes me as interesting. If you don't mind me asking, what did you get for your GCSE's?
I achieved 6 a*'s 4 a's and 1 b. Although very happy, that one B still bugs me to this day
shame i had an awful drama teacher. Expanding on my previous post, reading does really work for me! But you cannot just read it once of course, I think for my science GCSE's I must have read the CGP book about 4 times completely over. After reading and writing it down from memory (the key part to this revision type being from memory) was past papers and other types of questions on the topic. I have sympathy to the fact that the new GCSEs will not have many past papers unfortunately, but if you search the web thoroughly enough there should be a fair amount. Hope this helps!
Original post by MoistMandem
I achieved 6 a*'s 4 a's and 1 b. Although very happy, that one B still bugs me to this day shame i had an awful drama teacher.
Expanding on my previous post, reading does really work for me! But you cannot just read it once of course, I think for my science GCSE's I must have read the CGP book about 4 times completely over. After reading and writing it down from memory (the key part to this revision type being from memory) was past papers and other types of questions on the topic. I have sympathy to the fact that the new GCSEs will not have many past papers unfortunately, but if you search the web thoroughly enough there should be a fair amount. Hope this helps!
shame i had an awful drama teacher. Expanding on my previous post, reading does really work for me! But you cannot just read it once of course, I think for my science GCSE's I must have read the CGP book about 4 times completely over. After reading and writing it down from memory (the key part to this revision type being from memory) was past papers and other types of questions on the topic. I have sympathy to the fact that the new GCSEs will not have many past papers unfortunately, but if you search the web thoroughly enough there should be a fair amount. Hope this helps!
And sorry I forgot another HUGE tip to do with time management.
The key to revise is LITTLE AND OFTEN, I literally cannot stress this enough. I started revising for GCSEs in November of year 11, which was probably a little late. I started familiarising myself with the content of the course and also make sure the material I was using to revise from contained ALL of the specification. There is nothing worse that not covering some content! Around January I started to delve deeper into my subjects, fully revising topics and making sure a lot of the content (especially the foundations) had been fully embedded into my memory. Come March I began covering all my weak topics. From March onwards DO NOT swamp yourself with work and this is why starting early is key. It allows you to learn most of what you need to by March, meaning you do not need to increase your work load to try and jam pack everything in. If anything I would recommend lightening the workload from mid April. From April I really just did past papers. The night before each exam I would do at least one past paper. This kind of contradicts my concept about lightening your workload, but it was kind of a lucky charm technique and of course, exposed weak areas (if there were any) that maybe i should briefly read over the night before.
The morning of the exam day, I recommend detaching yourself from all the stressful students that are asking everyone about the content and questioning each other. You're better off putting yourself in a calm and stable mindset before walking into the exam, in which you will read questions thoroughly and understand them and therefore wont lose any silly marks.
Original post by milibands
I got 998A*A*A*A*AA in August. I started revising after my November mocks, 1-2 hours a night with extra time for mandatory homework. I stepped this up to 3 hours at around February, and switched to purely past papers at Easter alongside my school's Easter classes [they held subject specific days]. I must say that TSR helped a lot and some of the resources here are extremely good, especially checklists for the Sciences and History. I would recommend that you have more downtime than I did as I ended up incredibly stressed and demotivated towards the end. Examiners reports will be your best friend as if you can nail the things that other people stumble on you can easily boost your grade [especially Science as on Higher there are generally easy marks on graph questions].
I first read that as 998 A*'s
Original post by that_guy874
Time
Start revising early, maybe february or early march just do one hour a day to get information into your long term memory.
In mid march you want to make a timetable for revision covering all subjects you are studying two or three times in a week but with more time allocated for subjects you struggle with.
For example, I struggled a lot with Physics in year 11 and was predicted a B but doing self study of about 1 and a half hours of physics every 2-3 days , come exam time I managed to get an A*. However, I was innately talented at computer science that I also got an A* in but you should not become arrogant in those subjects and not revise at all for them, maybe only half an hour on subjects that you are talented at.
In mid april onwards, I did a solid 2-3 hours a day of revision on school days and maybe 5 a day on weekends and it has paid off.
You don't have to be extreme and make yourself housebound doing revision but make sure you do more than 2 hours a day in may!!
Tips
- I found that doing lots of past papers helped me a lot as well as mind maps and posters on my walls with information on to read when i walked past them.
- I also stuck postit notes with a question on that i struggled with onto places where im likely to go to. So every time that I went to the toilet I had to answer the question on the postit note on the bathroom's door handle in order to go to the toilet. I would then check my answer.
- Read your notes aloud from the textbook or revision guide.
- Attend afterschool revision during exam time or ask if you can revise in school on weekend mornings or during exam time school holidays.
Start revising early, maybe february or early march just do one hour a day to get information into your long term memory.
In mid march you want to make a timetable for revision covering all subjects you are studying two or three times in a week but with more time allocated for subjects you struggle with.
For example, I struggled a lot with Physics in year 11 and was predicted a B but doing self study of about 1 and a half hours of physics every 2-3 days , come exam time I managed to get an A*. However, I was innately talented at computer science that I also got an A* in but you should not become arrogant in those subjects and not revise at all for them, maybe only half an hour on subjects that you are talented at.
In mid april onwards, I did a solid 2-3 hours a day of revision on school days and maybe 5 a day on weekends and it has paid off.
You don't have to be extreme and make yourself housebound doing revision but make sure you do more than 2 hours a day in may!!
Tips
- I found that doing lots of past papers helped me a lot as well as mind maps and posters on my walls with information on to read when i walked past them.
- I also stuck postit notes with a question on that i struggled with onto places where im likely to go to. So every time that I went to the toilet I had to answer the question on the postit note on the bathroom's door handle in order to go to the toilet. I would then check my answer.
- Read your notes aloud from the textbook or revision guide.
- Attend afterschool revision during exam time or ask if you can revise in school on weekend mornings or during exam time school holidays.
Omg thank you thats amazing advice, i'll be sure to include this into my study routine . The thing is that they changed the grading system and there isn't much revision material out there that would help me for the new papers.
Original post by that_guy874
I first read that as 998 A*'s
Imagine the stress at doing 998 GCSE's! 9 was bad enough!
Original post by Totalgeek2003
Omg thank you thats amazing advice, i'll be sure to include this into my study routine . The thing is that they changed the grading system and there isn't much revision material out there that would help me for the new papers.
Yeah there are literally zero past papers in the newly reformed subjects but i'm guessing that there will be specimen papers to do, I got three of them each for maths, english and english lit. So it should, hopefully, be the same for the newly reformed ones.
Original post by MoistMandem
I achieved 6 a*'s 4 a's and 1 b. Although very happy, that one B still bugs me to this day shame i had an awful drama teacher.
Expanding on my previous post, reading does really work for me! But you cannot just read it once of course, I think for my science GCSE's I must have read the CGP book about 4 times completely over. After reading and writing it down from memory (the key part to this revision type being from memory) was past papers and other types of questions on the topic. I have sympathy to the fact that the new GCSEs will not have many past papers unfortunately, but if you search the web thoroughly enough there should be a fair amount. Hope this helps!
shame i had an awful drama teacher. Expanding on my previous post, reading does really work for me! But you cannot just read it once of course, I think for my science GCSE's I must have read the CGP book about 4 times completely over. After reading and writing it down from memory (the key part to this revision type being from memory) was past papers and other types of questions on the topic. I have sympathy to the fact that the new GCSEs will not have many past papers unfortunately, but if you search the web thoroughly enough there should be a fair amount. Hope this helps!
Those are amazing results and don't worry about that B, it happens. Yeah, I think its really unfair that we dont have enough revision material on the new specification. Im going to have to rely on my textbooks for now. This was beautifully written and was very informative thank you
Original post by Totalgeek2003
Omg thank you thats amazing advice, i'll be sure to include this into my study routine . The thing is that they changed the grading system and there isn't much revision material out there that would help me for the new papers.
Your teacher is your best friend in year 10 and 11 and just ask as many questions as you can relating to topics that there isn't much revision material for since the teacher should know the answer as they are qualified. Even if that means staying back for 10-15 mins for an explanation or asking for teacher-made homework related to that topic.
Original post by milibands
Imagine the stress at doing 998 GCSE's! 9 was bad enough!
Don't even get me started I had 27 exams for 11 GCSE's lmao
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