Anyone else find GCSE limiting?

(edited 3 years ago)

Going into year 11 and dreading GCSES.. but simply because they don’t go into detail enough and that always confuses me as I tend to question everything and the syllabus only leaves unanswered questions for me,
I always find the spec seems to only scrape the surface of topics we could learn about, which means that when revising I find myself researching every part of the spec further because there’s just not enough depth in the syllabus.

Anyone else find this and does it get better at A-Level? For example, I love biology but the stuff we do is a little limiting and I always find myself researching things further just to get a deeper understanding of the ideas, not just what’s written on the spec. The concepts always seem a lot clearer when I’ve done more of my own research as I can then see the bigger picture! It’s getting quite annoying that I have to do this to even fully understand things and it’s really digging into my revision time.

Any tips, and will a levels go into a lot more depth?

It's a great habit to research above and beyond the syllabus to further your knowledge. However as you mentioned you will find yourself with less time. I felt similarly that GCSEs dont give you the whole picture but realistically it's not possible especially if you're doing 10+ subjects. I would say focus on the specification content because most of the time there won't be great value from having masses of wider knowledge especially if it comes at the cost of your revision for other subjects. Getting good gcses for science subjects is mostly about knowing the spec inside out and volumes of practice. Admittedly this is harder with the new specs as you dont have as many past papers but I'd say have a general knowledge of everything before you dive deeper into the specifics. As for A level or from what I have seen so far from my first year, you will be given a more comprehensive knowledge on a range of topics but will likely be left with even more unanswered questions.