I got all 8s and 9s at GCSE AMA

OP

Original post by flowersinmyhair

How did you revise for your GCSEs?
What A-levels are you studying now?

I watched videos, then made & went through flashcards then I just did lots of exam questions. I'm currently studying Biology, Chemistry & Psychology

Reply 3

kshh

How did u revise for geography and history and when did u start ur revision?

Reply 4

kshh

how many hours a day of revision would u recommend at this stage?

Reply 5

OP

Original post by kshh

How did u revise for geography and history and when did u start ur revision?

I didn’t do geography but for history I watched a YouTuber called ‘the history teacher’ and I used the Pearson text books, they’re really good.

I made flash cards on key dates and people’s names, they weren’t detailed they were very simple and concise. E.g a flash card would just have 1948 & NHS on it (I used Quizlet).

This may not work for everyone, but I didn’t make detailed notes on the content I just regularly watched ‘the history teacher’ YouTube channel and read over the Pearson textbook then did topic tests on the content, then I focussed on exam questions and gave them in to my teacher to mark. Do as many past paper questions as you can and give them to your teacher to mark.

Reply 6

OP

Original post by kshh

how many hours a day of revision would u recommend at this stage?

2-3 hours on weekdays

(edited 2 months ago)

Reply 7

09HImam

Original post by 7889224

Hi all I’m happy to give advice to any gcse students, here’s the grades I got in each subject

English Literature aqa : 9 (inspector calls, Macbeth, a Christmas carol & power + conflict)
English language aqa : 8
Maths edexcel: 8
Physics aqa: 9
Biology aqa: 9
Chemistry aqa: 9
Religious studies aqa: 9
History edexcel: 9 (Weimar + nazi Germamy, medicine through time, Cold War and Elizabeth)
French aqa: 8

Hi, I'd really appreciate it if you helped me figure out how you were able to achieve those grades. i, myself, want to achieve these grades.

Reply 8

OP

Original post by 09HImam

Hi, I'd really appreciate it if you helped me figure out how you were able to achieve those grades. i, myself, want to achieve these grades.

Maths:
For maths I went through a website called maths genie, i started on the grade 4 column to the grade 9 column. For each topic I watched the video and did some of the practice questions (not a lot just enough to know you know the content). When the topics got harder as I progressed through the grades on maths genie, on the exams pack section I’d look for the hardest question for that topic then write it down in a note book under a title of that topic. Then I’d carry on doing this all the way till grade 9. I like revising in big blocks so this took me about a week to go through. Once you’ve covered all the content do as many exam questions and past papers as you can. (also note my year got given the equations)

English Lang:
For English language this was the subject I struggled with the most. The biggest help was Mr Sales and past papers. I got my teachers to mark my past paper exams. For the story section if I’m being honest that was the part I was the worst at, so I ended up just memorising a few grade 9 descriptions/stories that I could adapt to fit in the exam. For the news article/speech/letter section I revised this by in general just reading news papers / listening to MPs talk (I used to watch clips of Zarah Sultana on TikTok) as well as reading examples of other grade 9 models, then I answered as many past paper questions as possible and eventually you’ll find a style of writing you like. For the comprehension part I watched Mr bruff for these and then did lots of practice Qs.

English Lit:
For each character I learned 3/4 quotes (mainly 3 per character), also just knowing mini quotes or references to scenes help a lot as long as you know how to link and analyse them. For themes this overlaps with characters so rather than memorising 3 per theme/character just learn 3/4 quotes per character and cross them with themes if ykwim (e.g 3 Sheila quotes that are also gender inequality theme). Also these 3 quotes act as an essay plan in a way and if they link together that would be good. (You can find the most obscure ways to link stuff, for example I linked Macbeth saying ‘dear partner of greatness’ At the start of the play to Macbeth not caring abt his wife death at the end of the play, saying that these are both abnormal reactions in the Jacobean times showing that throughout the play only Macbeth’s worst flaws have remained and his good reputation has deterioted).
Also not many ppl know this, but referencing scenes can be just as good as memorising quotes as long as you analysis them well. E.g Sheila giving her ring back to Gerald. What I did for my essays was if I couldn’t think of a quote, or a particular scenes fitted the question better I’d just reference the scene

Also when writing essays I used to like writing them as if they were an argument and write a lot about what the purpose/message the author is trying to get across. When I say argument I mean I’d propose what message the author would try to convey through a character, then introduce an alternative view then say why this was a weak view. (BTW you only have to do a paragraph like this once but it really impresses the examiner and brings you to a top band, also makes your essay unique). I followed a PETERC structure however I didn’t use this order I just used it as more of a mental tick list. Also at the start of all my essays rather than writing an introduction paragraph I’d write a thesis that was like 3 sentences long it was rlly short but precise. The thesis basically outlines what message the author was trying to convey (link this to society or whatever).

Sciences:
For all three sciences my revision was purely based off of freesciencelessons and physics&maths tutor past questions / past papers (however I got given the equations for physics but I’d advice you make Flashcards for them and the units required). I didn’t really write notes for sciences I mainly focused on understanding the content. What id do it watch a free science lesson then once it was finished I’d repeat it back to myself. I did this the day before my GCSE’s and it worked rlly well.

I’ve given advice for all the main gcse subjects any additional ones that I also did just let me know and I’ll be happy to help.

Also don’t stress to much abt GCSEs, about 2 weeks before my GCSEs I hardly did any revision due to being ill (I got discharged from hospital 3 days before my first exam) and I still did really well (I didn’t get any extra support or anything I took them as normal).

As long as you try your best even if it’s like a month before your exam that effort you put in will eventually show. I didn’t even finish the physics content when my GCSEs started, so some topics and half of paper 2 I literally learned them for the first time the day before my physics GCSEs but still got a grade 9.

If I’m being honest, as an a level student I’ve realised that GCSEs is mainly content based. So this may sound like bad advice, but when I was at GCSE I focussed more on memorising content rather than applying it (ie exam questions) except for maths and English.

Reply 9

H_a_n_i_y_a

Original post by 7889224

Hi all I’m happy to give advice to any gcse students, here’s the grades I got in each subject

English Literature aqa : 9 (inspector calls, Macbeth, a Christmas carol & power + conflict)
English language aqa : 8
Maths edexcel: 8
Physics aqa: 9
Biology aqa: 9
Chemistry aqa: 9
Religious studies aqa: 9
History edexcel: 9 (Weimar + nazi Germamy, medicine through time, Cold War and Elizabeth)
French aqa: 8

Hi I wanted to ask how do you revise for English because when I try to I don't know that to do

Reply 10

jg.10x

10

Did you do comparison paragraphs for power and conflict poetry, AQA? because do Edexcel English lit and lang and for poetry I study relationships, and we are expected to compare a given poem from our anthology to a different one, from the 15 poems we need to learn.

Did you do this too? if so, how many comparison paragraphs did you write, of course the makring may be different because we do 2 different exam boards, but I would just like a general idea because I'm aiming for 9s in English and core subjects in general.

(edited 1 month ago)

Reply 11

OP

Original post by jg.10x

Did you do comparison paragraphs for power and conflict poetry, AQA? because do Edexcel English lit and lang and for poetry I study relationships, and we are expected to compare a given poem from our anthology to a different one, from the 15 poems we need to learn.
Did you do this too? if so, how many comparison paragraphs did you write, of course the makring may be different because we do 2 different exam boards, but I would just like a general idea because I'm aiming for 9s in English and core subjects in general.

Yes I did, in general for all my english literature essays I’d do a short thesis that’s a few lines long then 3 or 4 very detailed paragraphs. For comparison specifically though I remember I did 3 points where I either did 3 really long paragraphs (each paragraph has 2 long quotes + mini quotes embedded in it) or I split each paragraph into 2 paragraphs (one pg per poem but on the same comparison point if ykim so totaling 6 pgs). You don’t need to memorise loads of quotes as long as you’re good at analysing them in depth you should be fine. Also in all my poetry essays I’d have one paragraph (doesn’t have to be very long) comparing the structure of the poem.

For each poem (+ characters /themes in books) I memorised abt 3 quotes and in some I even analysed the title haha. My teacher (whose a head examiner for an inspector calls and macbeth) recommended that I learn 3/4 quotes in depth rather than memorising as many quotes as possible, it’s quality over quantity. Also carefully pick which quotes you want to use, I chose to memorise quotes that overlapped many themes so there’s less content to learn

Reply 12

jg.10x

10

Original post by 7889224

Yes I did, in general for all my english literature essays I’d do a short thesis that’s a few lines long then 3 or 4 very detailed paragraphs. For comparison specifically though I remember I did 3 points where I either did 3 really long paragraphs (each paragraph has 2 long quotes + mini quotes embedded in it) or I split each paragraph into 2 paragraphs (one pg per poem but on the same comparison point if ykim so totaling 6 pgs). You don’t need to memorise loads of quotes as long as you’re good at analysing them in depth you should be fine. Also in all my poetry essays I’d have one paragraph (doesn’t have to be very long) comparing the structure of the poem.
For each poem (+ characters /themes in books) I memorised abt 3 quotes and in some I even analysed the title haha. My teacher (whose a head examiner for an inspector calls and macbeth) recommended that I learn 3/4 quotes in depth rather than memorising as many quotes as possible, it’s quality over quantity. Also carefully pick which quotes you want to use, I chose to memorise quotes that overlapped many themes so there’s less content to learn

alright, tyy

Reply 13

sophiiaaaa

Original post by 7889224

Hi all I’m happy to give advice to any gcse students, here’s the grades I got in each subject
English Literature aqa : 9 (inspector calls, Macbeth, a Christmas carol & power + conflict)
English language aqa : 8
Maths edexcel: 8
Physics aqa: 9
Biology aqa: 9
Chemistry aqa: 9
Religious studies aqa: 9
History edexcel: 9 (Weimar + nazi Germamy, medicine through time, Cold War and Elizabeth)
French aqa: 8

what do u recommend for English lit revision? I'm doing the exact texts you're doing, what did you use for each of them?

Reply 14

ilikesunflowers

6

Original post by 7889224

Hi all I’m happy to give advice to any gcse students, here’s the grades I got in each subject
English Literature aqa : 9 (inspector calls, Macbeth, a Christmas carol & power + conflict)
English language aqa : 8
Maths edexcel: 8
Physics aqa: 9
Biology aqa: 9
Chemistry aqa: 9
Religious studies aqa: 9
History edexcel: 9 (Weimar + nazi Germamy, medicine through time, Cold War and Elizabeth)
French aqa: 8

how did u revuse for history elizabeth and cold war

Reply 15

OP

Original post by ilikesunflowers

how did u revuse for history elizabeth and cold war

I used the pearson text book and a youtuber called ‘thehistoryteacher’ also I didn’t focus too much on memorising tonnes of dates I learned more on what happened on those dates for Elizabeth (apart from cold war, its important to know the key dates for the narrative question)

Reply 16

oolie

6

how do u revise for religious studies, im struggling so much with it

Reply 17

OP