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Any tips for maths english and science especially english and math im literally struggling i get low in them both and only have a month left dont know what to do please i need urgent help

Reply 1

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try to pinpoint if the issue is exam technique or understanding.
the concepts should be clear enough for you to explain concisely to say, a 5 year old. if not, you should look back on notes, youtube videos, websites like khan academy or seek extra help from your teacher. you can do past papers to pinpoint your weak areas and work on those

if it's exam technique, your best bet is to practice practice practice. especially for maths, the more often you do it, the better you get. try and do the more challenging questions, you get a lot more from that than doing 20 easy questions.

for the sciences, again, practise practise practise, make your answers clear and concise, with as many points as marks offered for the question. i know that people who get 9s often essentially memorise markschemes, since gcse questions are really predictable and repetitive. you can go through flashcards as well, there are a lot of premade quizlets - dont waste your time making new revision resources this late if you havent already

for english language, try to learn a lot of subject terminology e.g anaphora as it gets you high marks, and practise finding it in the text - learn a lot of terminology for BOTH language and structure. make sure to stick firmly to the structure your school gave you - TEEL, PEAL, whatever, even if it sounds a little robotic, it's better than unstructured writing. again, only real way of practising this is past papers.

for creative writing, planning it is really important so it has some sort of structure (something that could get you good marks are cyclical structures - start and end your story w the same phrase) and doesn't ramble on, the description can be easier, but you could write a story if you want (don't go too ambitious and plot driven on this, just focus on a small section of the story - beginning/ climax/ end since you have limited time). squeeze in as much fancy vocab as you can and try to utilise that terminology you learn for analysis - e.g. metaphor, simile, pathetic fallacy. for the letter, this needs to be structured well, keep addressing the recepient as 'you' - use imperatives and commands - 'must' to make your point sound really strong

for english lit, go through annotations/ revisions sources like sparknotes for good quotes and make them into mindmaps for charcters and themes. quotes don't have to be long, one word quotes just to describe the character are perfect. it could be helpful knowing when they happen in the text, any historical context, techniques used - is it a simile? go through past papers/ questions that could come up on the exam - if you don't have time to answer them, at least write down 3 points you would make for each paragraph, and at least 3 - 5 quotes that would support it ( don't go overboard and do too many), as well as any context of the author or time period - your teacher should've given you this, but there's a lot online. also make a brief summary of what you would write in the into and conclusion. these 3 points - one in each paragraph are the most important. they cannot have any technique in them, they should talk about concepts : e.g
how does the author present X character?

The author presents X character through the use of personification.
This is wrong! don't write about techniques, it should be about concepts

The author presents X character as 'Y quote'
Don't quote in the first sentence, or make unnecessary quotes at all if you aren't going to expand and analyse the language

The author presents X character as Y quality - e.g. kind, funny.
This is what you should do. have many of these points on hand so you can plan easily and quick in the exam, and already have quotes from the novel to analyse backing the point.

If you don't have time to practice essays at least practice a paragraph or so in response to past papers

Overall there's no magic solution to getting your grades up in a month - sorry i couldn't have been of more help (although i bet your teachers would be more than happy to give you extra, and specific guidance) . first focus on fully understanding content, then grind out as many past papers as you can. good luck!