Grade 8/9 GCSE students... tell me everything

When did you start revising? How long did you revise for? Haw different were your mock grades to the real thing? What did you find most effective when revising? Where did you get past/practice papers from? Motivation? Discipline? Did you only get high grades because you were in top set or attending a successful school? What did you struggle with the most in terms of revision? Were you consistent?

Hi, I got 9s in History, English Literature, English Language, German, Drama and RE, with 8s in all sciences and maths.

1) I started properly revising in November of year 11. I had been revising fairly consistently from September but the heat was really on from November onwards. When exams started I could then relax (slightly) and feel more in control.
2) My mock grades were mostly lower than my real grades, which is ideal. In fact, I think my low history mock grades (4s and 5s!!) made me do better because I was so angry about them
3) Flashcards were my LIFE for 6 months. I had 3 bin bags full of them at the end of June. Make them double sided, with in-depth questions on one side, and your answers on the back- plus diagrams for sciences etc. Then, each evening, get your parents to test you on what you've revised, explain the diagrams without looking, and have a general conversation about the topic. Try to teach them some French, or perform some Shakespeare to them. I did a one-woman show of Macbeth to my parents, which helped me quite a lot.
4) I got past papers from the AQA website and I did TONS of practice questions from my textbooks, especially for sciences and history. If you take geography or history, USE THE REVISION GUIDES OR WORKBOOKS. They are so so so useful.
5) Motivation and discipline! Now, I am the worst at self-discipline, but you just have to keep telling yourself that it will be worth it. Watch those 'Opening my GCSE results' youtube videos. The good ones motivate you to do well, the bad ones motivate you to do better than them!
6) I attended quite a poor state school, but a lot of my motivation came from really wanting to go to the really successful independent school nearby, which is quite hard to get accepted into (but I got in!!). I don't think sets or quality of school are as important as personal enthusiasm and commitment.
7) Struggles with revision: distractions. Oh my god. Just don't use a laptop or phone. Ever.
8) I was quite consistent, but I slowed down my revision in early May. If you don't know it by then, you're unlikely to learn it. Just get it all done before the first GCSE, and you will be relaxed as anything during exam season.

extra advice: SLEEP as much as you can. Sleep when you get home after an exam, go to bed early, take naps at the weekend. It is as important, if not more so, as revision.

ok that's me done. I hope this helped! If you need any help just let me know, I'm trying to get into English, German and Biology tutoring, so give me a shout if you are doing any of those subjects. Good luck!!

Em

Hi there
I got 9s in maths, English literature, computer science, physics, chemistry, biology and Spanish, an A* in ICT, an 8 in RE and a 7 in English language.

I can vouch for absolutely everything said by @em is tired, without fail. By the end of my exams I was burning 50+ past papers for maths and sciences, I had posters all over my walls, bags full of flashcards and had driven my parents crazy with the revision songs I was finding. Follow everything said by @em is tired, and don't forget to find out what works for you. Whether that's mr bruff, free science lessons and Primrose Kitten (which I recommend HIGHLY), or listening to revision songs on youtube, find what works and stick with it.

Good luck!

yes! Big up free science lessons and Mr Bruff! This also reminded me: use Crash Course for sciences and English Lit!!!!!

Yo, I did GCSEs in 2017 and did pretty well.

I didn't revise for mocks in January 2017 at all and I did alright, getting around 60-70% in maths and sciences. Did better in English and history, but then again you don't actually need to sit down and memorise that much for those to do well.
When actual exams were coming up and I went on study leave I started doing past papers and ended up getting 9, 8, 7, five A*s, a B and a C in further pure maths IGCSE. My teachers had given us loads of question packs.
It also helped that I gave someone in my class a crash course of the entire chemistry GCSE before each exam. Teaching it to other people really helps your own understanding.
I remember for the English literature poetry anthology I did a 2-and-a-half hour revision binge the day before where I just summarised all the analyses I could make. For history, I just chatted with friends and planned essays without actually doing them. Don't underestimate the power of collaborative revision - even just standing outside the exam hall chatting about what could come up helped, because we could pool our knowledge and our arguments.

Here's the thing - when I was learning the content in school, I understood nearly everything the first time around. Exceptions to that would be some topics in biology and chemistry, and pretty much most of Further Pure maths.

As for the resources? I used my textbooks until I ran out of material in there and then I just did past papers. No youtube videos or websites or CGP books. Didn't even make any flashcards and to this day I'm not sure why people hype those up so much.

i think it depends on how long you can hold your attention and how good your memory is from reading a textbook. i find it works for me to just cram as much as i can from the textbook just before the exam, but ofc, it doesnt work for everyone, and some people prefer more "active" methods of revising

Just reading, highlighting or copying out the textbook is never going to be the ideal revision technique for anybody. I'm sure it does help a tiny bit, but I never just read the information, I always tried to apply it. That's what the textbook is for, imo - for reference when you're doing the actual questions.

When did you start revising? How long did you revise for? Haw different were your mock grades to the real thing? What did you find most effective when revising? Where did you get past/practice papers from? Motivation? Discipline? Did you only get high grades because you were in top set or attending a successful school? What did you struggle with the most in terms of revision? Were you consistent?

I revised solidly throughout the year but had a good break through Christmas and started again mid January. My I improved on my mock grades considerably with sciences going from 8s to 9s along with geography and history going from 6s to 9s. The best method is flashcards. I have over 1500 for sciences. I wish I knew where I got the motivation from because I don't have any now. I was middle set in a fairly bad school - GCSE is all memory so teachers aren't important. I struggled the most with Spanish and wish I had used Quizlet instead of memrise. For past papers for the sciences you could do with finding a Google drive with most of the exampro questions on - they're not too difficult to find. Make sure your phone is in a different room and computer if possible, print off the spec at home or school... Good Luck...

Edit: the exampro questions aren't imperative they are just a good tool to consolidate your learning and actually thinking about it the old questions didn't really come up...

I revised solidly throughout the year but had a good break through Christmas and started again mid January. My I improved on my mock grades considerably with sciences going from 8s to 9s along with geography and history going from 6s to 9s. The best method is flashcards. I have over 1500 for sciences. I wish I knew where I got the motivation from because I don't have any now. I was middle set in a fairly bad school - GCSE is all memory so teachers aren't important. I struggled the most with Spanish and wish I had used Quizlet instead of memrise. For past papers for the sciences you could do with finding a Google drive with most of the exampro questions on - they're not too difficult to find. Make sure your phone is in a different room and computer if possible, print off the spec at home or school... Good Luck...

Edit: the exampro questions aren't imperative they are just a good tool to consolidate your learning and actually thinking about it the old questions didn't really come up...

ohh i see, i tend to look bak at my own notes too, because i remember what i was doing when we first covered the content

I improved on my mock grades considerably with sciences going from 8s to 9s along with geography and history going from 6s to 9s.

Yo, I did GCSEs in 2017 and did pretty well.

I didn't revise for mocks in January 2017 at all and I did alright, getting around 60-70% in maths and sciences. Did better in English and history, but then again you don't actually need to sit down and memorise that much for those to do well.
When actual exams were coming up and I went on study leave I started doing past papers and ended up getting 9, 8, 7, five A*s, a B and a C in further pure maths IGCSE. My teachers had given us loads of question packs.
It also helped that I gave someone in my class a crash course of the entire chemistry GCSE before each exam. Teaching it to other people really helps your own understanding.
I remember for the English literature poetry anthology I did a 2-and-a-half hour revision binge the day before where I just summarised all the analyses I could make. For history, I just chatted with friends and planned essays without actually doing them. Don't underestimate the power of collaborative revision - even just standing outside the exam hall chatting about what could come up helped, because we could pool our knowledge and our arguments.

Here's the thing - when I was learning the content in school, I understood nearly everything the first time around. Exceptions to that would be some topics in biology and chemistry, and pretty much most of Further Pure maths.

As for the resources? I used my textbooks until I ran out of material in there and then I just did past papers. No youtube videos or websites or CGP books. Didn't even make any flashcards and to this day I'm not sure why people hype those up so much.

When did you start revising? How long did you revise for? Haw different were your mock grades to the real thing? What did you find most effective when revising? Where did you get past/practice papers from? Motivation? Discipline? Did you only get high grades because you were in top set or attending a successful school? What did you struggle with the most in terms of revision? Were you consistent?

How is this GYG?