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gcse grades

anonymous.2003

has anyone on tsr gotten all 9s at gcse (before 2019 preferablly) because i really need help to believe in myself
i did well in jan mocks but i dont feel like i do the same in the real exams
im really scared

any words of advice would be helpful

Reply 1

notagna_tsr

Not before 2019 but i did last year – i did ok at mocks (badly in bio and physics) but some of my scores stressed me out and i just rly focused on science for the final things. So i don’t think scores at mocks define you in any way, but they are meant to give you an indication of where you are – so if you did well, you should still revise (don’t get complacent or anything) but also know that it means you’re probably on track and your revision methods/exam processes are working for you pretty well.

Honestly, the best thing i can tell you to do is revise (for me it really helped to say things out loud and get people to quiz me; sitting down with friends to revise for subjects like history, even if you do it separately, can also be helpful). But don’t go overboard either! Keep doing what you’re doing, if it has been working for you so far.

Stop thinking about grades and numbers though! You shouldn’t set expectations for yourself, realistic or not. GCSEs were so inhumanly stressful for me, but the one thing I made sure to do was to not worry about numbers. I stressed about so many other things – would i finish this and that exam (I ended up not finishing most of them, haha), would i be able to revise in time (that wasn’t helpful to think about), etc etc – but my goal was to get through them and do my best, not to get however many 9s! Of course, I’m glad I did, and i would have been upset if i hadn’t gotten one in like English or whatever, but i also would’ve gotten over it, and your goals should be things you’re going to do, not things you’re going to get. E.g. i decided i was going to be happy I’d gotten through them regardless of my scores, that i would go shopping for some clothes that weren’t hoodies after they were over, and that i was going to do my best to forget about the exam after i took it (i would make notes in my notes app about how it went immediately after so I could get it off my chest and relay it to anyone who asked afterwards without thinking about it, and also would phone my friends after some of my exams – i gave myself an hour of obsessing and then moved on).

Just don’t base your self-worth and self-belief off scores. Getting a 9 at gcse is weird because it’s simultaneously a lot easier than you think and a lot harder. But ultimately it doesn’t really matter. Control what you can. Forget the rest. And if stress/panic is a motivator for you, that’s fine (it definitely is for me). But stress productively (by which i mean, stress about whether you know this thing or that thing if it’s what gets you to revise, but eventually you have to move past it because you can’t spend disproportionate amounts of time on something, and when you get closer to the real thing, you have to just accept stuff and move on). And don’t stress about grades, because beyond a certain degree you can’t control it and it isn’t worth it! Do the best you can and know that you’ll continue doing that after you get your marks back – i know people get tunnel vision a lot around exam season and seeing GCSEs as the end goal works for people but your grades aren’t going to be successes or failures. It’s just another thing that happens and then you make choices accordingly to get where you want to go next.

i know this probably wasn’t what you were looking for (i felt i had to say it anyways). That being said, I’m sure you’ll do great! I believe in you and you should believe in yourself. Try to look beyond the numbers though