IGCSE

HI Year 12-13, or whomever have survived the wrath of igcses. dont mind me i have always been a grade 8-9 student but recently the stress has got to me so much that i feel i'll get a 5-6 in my gcses like im forgetting everything and idk what to do, please someone tell me how to deal with exam stress. P.S i have just started my revision with only 2 weeks to go and im relying on past papers but everyone seems to say past papers are the worst type of revision method, can anyone please reply if they just relied their revision on just past papers and content through textbooks PLEASEE someone tell me whether it is effective or not, im literally so stressed HELPP

Reply 1

robin_

past papers can be a really good revision method, especially if you look at the mark scheme and go through it afterwards. it's a great method of active recall. take care of yourself, good luck :heart:

Reply 2

Yipiyap_EthanP

Original post by aree.sidd

Hi there,

It's important to realise everyone is different when it comes to revision and how they study.

I was in a similar situation to you once. Top set maths, year 11, the teacher asked the room "What is 3 squared", and then I was chosen to give the answer. With confidence I looked at him and said "Six" - the whole room laughed (and so did I, as that was a silly answer for a grade 7 student). My teacher realised that I was feeling the pressure of exams and so refused to let me do any maths work for that whole lesson, saying to me "you clearly need a break". I was confused at the time, because surely to get my grades I needed to work for them.

The next lesson I had a totally fresh perspective and was able to complete the grade 7 work. This helped me learn that you can revise and revise and revise, but it's effective methods that really matter.

I therefore changed my whole strategy by creating a revision timetable for myself, allowing each subject I'm studying 15 minutes of revision at the end of the day. That way I'm reviewing each day's topics again that same day and it just helped things stick better for me. Plus, I wasn't spending hours and hours over the same things. I did get my grade 7 as well, so it can be done!

It's acceptance that you can only do so much, whilst also doing everything you can to get things to stick.

Good luck with your studies and I hope a bit of this advice helped.

Ethan