U’s to 6’s

There is always time to make a difference, the key is to just get started! Make sure you are clear on your specifications (i.e. know what you need to know), and know which areas need the most urgent work. Prioritise if you need to - if you aren't aiming for all 9s you don't need to be spending hours and hours mastering that one super tricky maths concept that's going to be worth 5 marks at most. It's better to know enough content really well to get a 6 than to try and vaguely know everything and risk missing key marking points through vague phrasing.

I don't know what subjects you do but here are some tips to get you started:
English - read! This is the easiest one to do, and is more helpful than you might think for both language and literature. I reread my literature texts bit by bit each night from about this point in the year just to make sure I was familiar with them. If you don't think you have the time, read summaries of the less important bits and properly reread the key scenes, that way you'll have a reasonably secure grip on whatever they're likely to ask. Make lists of quotes to learn for key themes, and make sure you learn these and know what point in the book they're from. Poetry can be revised by just printing a blank copy and seeing how many notes you can remember, then checking back and filling in any gaps.

Languages - learn your vocab! Yes grammar is important, but having a flawless grip on the subjunctive is useless if you don't know what the words mean in the first place. I recommend Memrise - you'll probably find someone has already put your specification's vocab list on there.

Maths - this one's just about practice. There are so many past paper questions out there, and many sites which provide packs of questions based on topics. Just identify your main problem areas and google search for questions on these areas, I guarantee plenty will come up.

Sciences - learn key words and model answers. There will of course be tricky questions that will require a thorough understanding of the science, but these are to differentiate the grade 8/9 students, so don't worry too much if you can't answer them. I'm aware the GCSEs have become harder since I sat them, but I hope this approach is still useful. I also knew my specifications very very thoroughly for sciences, so I knew exactly what they could test me on. Also - past papers!!!

Of course this doesn't cover every subject, and you can definitely do more than this, but these are what I found to be the best places to start and to make the most noticeable initial difference. Good luck! You definitely still have time to get those grades you want. And at the end of the day, there are so many alternatives to A levels nowadays that you really won't be losing too many options if you don't end up doing them.

Also if you get the time, making a revision timetable on https://getrevising.co.uk/planner helps you to stay on track and keep calm. It helps to stop procrastinating a bit too.

So i'm not really sure about what to do but you still have quite a lot of time to revise. As long as you start now and don't stop, i reckon you could easily get 6s. Keep the end goal in sight and stay motivated. DO NOT PROCRASTINATE!!! I do it way too much and I know how much it can ruin revision, so put your phone on silent under your bed and revise. You could try revising with friends as long as you stay on task. Because it is active revision you are more likely to remember things, just make sure you don't get distracted and off-topic too much. I would recommend sites like Seneca, Maths Genie and any other places you can get past papers as those help me the most at least. Revision cards don't really work too well for me but they might be useful for remembering quotations and equations and such when you don't have access to the internet. I'm kinda in the same position as you as I probably don't revise as much as I should, although my grades range from 5-7 so I guess it's a little easier. But yeah, all I can say is ask your teachers for past papers, find your weaknesses and revise them; use Seneca for revising whole courses quite quickly etc. Seneca works best if you go through it fairly quickly and don't worry about wrong/blank answers as it will retest them for you and help you remember them. You still have time to improve your grades, but don't get too comfortable in the thought of it. GCSEs aren't the end of the world, although it will help you a lot to do the best you can. Just keep in mind that if you work your **** off until 2 months from now, you will have 3 months of complete freedom and your life could well turn out better. Hope this kind of helps a bit but feel free to ask more questions.

Fair enough about definitely wanting to do A levels, it's just worth keeping in mind they aren't the be-all and end-all or you'll put too much pressure on yourself. More people than you realise will have left most of their work this late, so there's no need to stress - you just need a healthy amount of motivation to make sure you start to get the work done. I found the more I did the easier it got, as I started to feel much more hopeful that I actually could achieve my goals, so the effort seemed worth it.

Thanks a lot! I’ve used Seneca in the past but it only helped with my short term memory so I stopped but it was of some use back then so I might try it again. The real issue with me is that I have everything I need I’m just not using it effectively. For example the days I’ve revised this holiday I’ve spent a lot of time on 1 small thing and it takes up so much of my time and i don’t realise until after. So
Silly ikr I’ll try work on it but thanks a lot I appreciate it : )