Stress stress stress for 2023 GCSEs, please help

So I am absolutely stressed. Please help. I have been getting all 9s in all three of my mocks (year 10, 11 x2) but am so stressed as I want to do well. What should I do? I do about 7 hours or 5 hours per day but I don't feel lim I'm doing enough, even am doing everything I can be doing.

hi!!

omg dont worry! ur going to be fine ik everyone says this but its true! im in yr 12 rn and i ended up getting all 9s in my gcses without revising as much as this.

obviously everyone learns and revises differently so u may find u need to revise for this long, but i would say try to find techniques that work for u - everyone finds different techniques - for each subject.

for instance with maths and sciences i would just do past papers; for history i would write notes; for english lit i would plan essay responses etcetc. these worked for me but wont work for everyone.

rather than focusing on the amount time ur revising think about optimising ur time and prioritising what needs to be done.

i would suggest maybe creating a revision timetable to organise ur time? it helped me visualise how much time i had between then and the exam and see what i needed to be doing every day in order to finish what i wanted to achieve before the real thing.

but overall id just say, taking breaks is VERY important! u might think ur wasting time but its better to step back for 5/10 mins and work solidly for an hour after that than be half-focused for 2 hours.

hope this helps!! and good luck!! ur gonna be

Ahh! Thank you so much for your advice- I did do a timetable and am using those methods but I just feel I still don’t do enough - perfectionism here (not that good, especially how I want to do IB). It’s obviously a very stressful period of time, how many past papers did you do for the sciences and maths?

yeah no worries

what r u gonna take for ib? i do a levels so idrk much abt it lol

idk an exact number but for maths i did around 2 a week and for sciences i did a mix of topical papers ( like on physics and maths tutor) and actual past papers so the number varied but i would try to do at least 1 of bio chem phys each week

dont use me as a benchmark however!! some of my friends were doing way more or less and achieved similar results it rly is down to u as an individual !! hope this helps

I want to take bio, chem, global politics hl and English lit and performance, Russian and maths sl. But, because I’m debating between being a doctor or aeronautical engineer/astrophysicist, I don’t know whether I should take chemistry and physics higher level, instead of biology and chemistry. Thanks for asking What are you taking for a-levels? Thank you for your advice too, it’s helpful to know :-) I regret taking history gcse, so much contentttt

So I am absolutely stressed. Please help. I have been getting all 9s in all three of my mocks (year 10, 11 x2) but am so stressed as I want to do well. What should I do? I do about 7 hours or 5 hours per day but I don't feel lim I'm doing enough, even am doing everything I can be doing.

So I am absolutely stressed. Please help. I have been getting all 9s in all three of my mocks (year 10, 11 x2) but am so stressed as I want to do well. What should I do? I do about 7 hours or 5 hours per day but I don't feel lim I'm doing enough, even am doing everything I can be doing.

omg ikr history was where i spend most of my time revising lol i just got so lucky w the questions haha we literally did something so similar in our mocks

omg no way i want to be an aeronautical/aerospace engineer or an astrophysicist!!! but tbh ill probably end up doing engineering for the money lol

im taking maths, further maths, physics and music for a levels

also omg?? so many subjects for ib !! i knew it was more but thats so many!! russian is so cool omg. i wish i was good at languages ;(

i would say to keep ur options open probably take chem and physics bc u dont want to end up regretting it later?? maybe have a look into the two careers more and see which one ur more inclined to?

also think that ur gonna be spending at least 3 years studying this subject (obviously longer for medicine and a lot of people do integrated masters for engineering) so consider whether u actually want to study the subject whilst thinking about the end goal as well.

i was stuck between law and engineering (i originally took english lit), and the only way i decided was by thinking i dont actually want to study law i just like the idea of being a lawyer.

hope this helps

I personally sat my Russian GCSE last year, and despite being Ukrainian and not understanding everything, I still easily got a 9 so there doesn't seem too much from that side. I personally think you should take a break, otherwise you'll risk the chance of burning yourself out, but if you're revising this much and have done well, I don't think there's much to worry about, you will do just fine don't worry.

Heya!
You are doing very well so please don't worry It's understandable to feel stressed, but it's important to manage your stress levels in a healthy way so that you can perform at your best. Remember to take breaks and go on a walk to clear your mind whenever you can. Remember, your worth is not determined by your exam results. While it's important to work hard and strive for success, it's equally important to take care of yourself and prioritise your well-being.
In terms of revision, make sure you are comfortable with every topic and do practice questions + go through the mark scheme to identify why you lost a mark and how you can fix it!

I hope this helps!
Milena
UCL PFE
Study Mind

So I am absolutely stressed. Please help. I have been getting all 9s in all three of my mocks (year 10, 11 x2) but am so stressed as I want to do well. What should I do? I do about 7 hours or 5 hours per day but I don't feel lim I'm doing enough, even am doing everything I can be doing.

hey im also doing my 2023 papers and ive also gotten all 9s in my mocks. its really stressful ik cuz u dont wanna flop for the real thing when youve been doing well so far. u just got to remind urself that youve put in effort and its gonna come back to u. please dont focus on the amount of time ur studying but more on the quality of ur study sessions. im gonna assume ur like me and youve alr got ur basics down. if thats the case, ur at the stage for fine tuning where u work on ur weaker points. make a checklists on things u wanna look over. also something to calm u down is the existence of grade boundaries! i got a 132/180 for my psy mock and i was veryyy upset but then turns out with grade boundaries, its a NINE. so if ur finding something hard just remember the rest of the world would be finding it hard too. and u may even be better off than everyone one else so you'll be fine. good luck i hope u dont get burnt out

*one thing to note is gcses arent the end to everything. since i seek academic validation, i try hard in school but honestly gcses are important so ur foundation is clear and with ur mocks, youve clearly done that. what affects ur chances of getting into uni is a levels. dont get stressed for gcses if ur worrried abt college and stuff cuz as long as u get 7s which are basically As it should be fineee however im not telling u to slack off. if 9s is what u want im sure u can get there

Thank you so much, Jessica, for your motivational message Ofc, academic validation, overachieving and perfectionism is a thing so I do now try to a bit easier on myself but I just really want to get into my dream sixth form and be happy when I see straight 9s. Hopefully grade boundaries are lenient this year. Good luck to you!

So I am absolutely stressed. Please help. I have been getting all 9s in all three of my mocks (year 10, 11 x2) but am so stressed as I want to do well. What should I do? I do about 7 hours or 5 hours per day but I don't feel lim I'm doing enough, even am doing everything I can be doing.

npp out of curiosity, which papers r u gonna take this year?

Even last year I didn't do 7 hours a day of revision, and only occasionally managed 5 hours of studying a day.

GCSEs are not difficult, I still got mostly 8s (with some 7s) without much revision, last year. I did other things and frankly for a long time, wasted a lot of time (I still waste time often, though not nearly as much as before).

You're doing very well, you don't need 5 hours a day of revision.

You can probably get mostly 9s even if you don't get all 9s.
It's much better to develop supercurriculars for university but get "only" mostly 9s, rather than no supercurriculars for uni in yr 11 and get all 9s.

Ok thanks for your message. I totally understand about the importance of extra curricular activities over grades so thanks for reminding me of it. I’m definitely a perfectionist and like seeing straight 9s so it will be a bit hard for me to relax, but I will try.

Triple science, Russian, history, maths, English lit and lang, dance. Hbuu?