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When to start GCSE Revision

It's my summer holidays and I'm transferring from Year 10 to 11, and all of my friends have started revising. Theyve got detailed study plans and mock plans. I'm doing 10 Higher GCSES and predicted a 7 in maths but everything else 8 and 9. I find it really hard to revise and end up making all the fancy timetables and flashcards but never use them. When should I start revising for mocks/ GCSE?
now
Original post by risette
now


Sorry, now for a more fleshed out response:

It is good to make sure that you are 100% confident that you have understood all of the content you learnt in Year 10, and you have notes/material that you can look at to remind yourself of it. If you don't, then make this a priority and make sure that you fully understand all of the stuff you learnt in Year 10.

After that, try to look ahead and just read through the Year 11 content (this can literally just be you reading the pages on a revision guide or textbook). Don't worry if you don't understand all of it, just try and make sense of it.

There's no real need to make detailed timetables but it certainly helps to divide up your time. Some students do well just making a list of 'I need to revise this' and working through it as sticking to exact times on a timetable isn't as easy as it sounds. Flashcards should only be used if you find them helpful - try making them for a unit, and see if it helps you memorise it any better than what you are currently doing - if it isn't helpful, don't waste time making flashcards.

Try giving some past paper questions a go for the topics you covered, and try to get most of your Year 10 content into your brain. There is no harm in getting it done now, as long as you aren't spending 23 of your 24 hours a day studying.

I wish you the best in your GCSEs and Year 11!
If you found this post helpful, please press the 'thumbs up' button!
Reply 3
Original post by jwijjms
It's my summer holidays and I'm transferring from Year 10 to 11, and all of my friends have started revising. Theyve got detailed study plans and mock plans. I'm doing 10 Higher GCSES and predicted a 7 in maths but everything else 8 and 9. I find it really hard to revise and end up making all the fancy timetables and flashcards but never use them. When should I start revising for mocks/ GCSE?

Honestly depends on the grades you need and how confident you are. If your very confident in your ability to meet targets you can start about a month before GCSEs start in my opinion. For our year we had a week off in the middle of our GCSEs so that's a perfect opportunity to revise for most GCSEs that happen after the first week. Also if you can before you go into the exams themselves on the night before try to cram in loads of knowledge before you sleep and then try to remember them in the morning. That is an easy way to learn simple facts and very specific things such as equations. Also if you can arrive at school early to revise a bit there before the exam I would recommend it. In my opinion there is no need to worry about it for now because your GCSEs are still about 8 months away so there's more than enough time to prepare either way. Good luck!
Original post by jwijjms
It's my summer holidays and I'm transferring from Year 10 to 11, and all of my friends have started revising. Theyve got detailed study plans and mock plans. I'm doing 10 Higher GCSES and predicted a 7 in maths but everything else 8 and 9. I find it really hard to revise and end up making all the fancy timetables and flashcards but never use them. When should I start revising for mocks/ GCSE?

Heya! Making a timetable or just organising your days would be a good first step. Nothing fancy! It's just to help you sort out your days and make sure you managing your time efficiently. I'd write my plans in a small diary. Everyone has their own unique way of revising and that's ok! If something works for someone else doesn't mean it has to work for you too :smile: I still don't like using the flashcards method as it never worked for me but I like using spider diagrams to help me understand the material better (which does help!).

I would say start revising for mocks GCSEs around 2 months before the exams or 1 month before the exam if you kept on top of your revision throughout the year. I wouldn't recommend leaving everything to the last minute as it can get overwhelming! If you need extra resources then check out Study Mind's free resources!

Hope this helps and good luck!

Milena G
UCL PFE
Study Mind
Reply 5
Original post by risette
Sorry, now for a more fleshed out response:

It is good to make sure that you are 100% confident that you have understood all of the content you learnt in Year 10, and you have notes/material that you can look at to remind yourself of it. If you don't, then make this a priority and make sure that you fully understand all of the stuff you learnt in Year 10.

After that, try to look ahead and just read through the Year 11 content (this can literally just be you reading the pages on a revision guide or textbook). Don't worry if you don't understand all of it, just try and make sense of it.

There's no real need to make detailed timetables but it certainly helps to divide up your time. Some students do well just making a list of 'I need to revise this' and working through it as sticking to exact times on a timetable isn't as easy as it sounds. Flashcards should only be used if you find them helpful - try making them for a unit, and see if it helps you memorise it any better than what you are currently doing - if it isn't helpful, don't waste time making flashcards.

Try giving some past paper questions a go for the topics you covered, and try to get most of your Year 10 content into your brain. There is no harm in getting it done now, as long as you aren't spending 23 of your 24 hours a day studying.

I wish you the best in your GCSEs and Year 11!
If you found this post helpful, please press the 'thumbs up' button!

Thankyou so much! That's really helpful, we started GCSE learning in Year 9 so we've nearly finished our topics, ill start learning my notes now and do past paper questions
Reply 6
Original post by MnM789
Honestly depends on the grades you need and how confident you are. If your very confident in your ability to meet targets you can start about a month before GCSEs start in my opinion. For our year we had a week off in the middle of our GCSEs so that's a perfect opportunity to revise for most GCSEs that happen after the first week. Also if you can before you go into the exams themselves on the night before try to cram in loads of knowledge before you sleep and then try to remember them in the morning. That is an easy way to learn simple facts and very specific things such as equations. Also if you can arrive at school early to revise a bit there before the exam I would recommend it. In my opinion there is no need to worry about it for now because your GCSEs are still about 8 months away so there's more than enough time to prepare either way. Good luck!

Thanks; I'll start to read over my notes and past paper questions but I feel not to do too much
Reply 7
Original post by StudyMind
Heya! Making a timetable or just organising your days would be a good first step. Nothing fancy! It's just to help you sort out your days and make sure you managing your time efficiently. I'd write my plans in a small diary. Everyone has their own unique way of revising and that's ok! If something works for someone else doesn't mean it has to work for you too :smile: I still don't like using the flashcards method as it never worked for me but I like using spider diagrams to help me understand the material better (which does help!).

I would say start revising for mocks GCSEs around 2 months before the exams or 1 month before the exam if you kept on top of your revision throughout the year. I wouldn't recommend leaving everything to the last minute as it can get overwhelming! If you need extra resources then check out Study Mind's free resources!

Hope this helps and good luck!

Milena G
UCL PFE
Study Mind

Thankyou so much! Ill definitely listen to your advice. Ill get everything ready for the revision in 2 months and make a timetable ready

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