gcse tips

Hi My first piece of advice would be to start revising now — make your revision cards, mind maps, posters (whatever helps you best) as you progress through the year. It’s so much easier to do this along the way rather than to try and cram it all in when it comes closer to your exams. I used Quizlet quite a lot because I found that I didn’t end up losing any revision material and I knew exactly where to find everything. You can also use other people’s revision cards on there so you don’t necessarily have to make you own.

My second piece of advice would be to make sure you take time away from school work and revision etc. and try not to overwork yourself. Maybe plan days when you’ll do work for particular subjects outside of school and stick to them times, otherwise you’ll stress yourself out (I certainly did).

I wish I knew before my exams that all I can do is my best and that it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I didn’t get the top grades (I know everyone says that but it’s so true and I didn’t really realise it until after my GCSEs).

I hope this helps

Thank you it helps. And is it okay that I always get upset about my grades.

You’re very welcome . I’d say quite a lot of people get upset or disappointed over grades (I know I did!). But try to find positives in the grades — perhaps you answered a question you found difficult or one you didn’t think you’d remember the answer for. I’d also say try not to expect more of yourself if you’re already giving 100%. What I mean by this is, if you’re already working as hard as you can in terms of your work and assessments, then how can you expect yourself to do any better? If you’re really not happy with your grades, talk to your teachers and see where you can improve your answers to boost your grades

That’s okay! And I completely get that…sometimes you know exactly what you need/want to include but don’t know how to write it down. If it’s the question you’re not sure on, always analyse it — what is the command word (what it’s asking), what does it want you to look at (area of the text or topic), does it give you any key info (words, numbers, dates etc). If it’s just how to answer the question, perhaps look at the mark scheme to see what kinds of things you need to include, and then write a structure to show what order you need to write these ideas in. If you’re still really struggling, again, talk to your teacher to see if they can help or even try to find a model answer.