I got all A* in my GCSEs - Ask me anything

Ok, so look above for some of the advice. So CGP revision guide is absolutely amazing and practically gave me a 9 in physics and bio. If that’s possible to buy, then I’d recommend it greatly. I’d also say, make sure you understand how to nail those discuss and evaluate questions. They’re difficult to master at first but once you get there, your grade just shoots up. My bio teacher made it seem quite simple to tackle those questions: Write an argument and counter argument. Consider reliability, validity and accuracy. Write one more point than the number of marks available. Gives you straight 5/5 every single time, but you do need to know the biology. That’s where you can gain a lot of marks over other students. Also, for the ‘CORMS’ experimental design question, not much knowledge is required, but you do need to be able to apply the structure to the situation in that question. Practicing those questions in particular will help greatly. Also, knowing your key experiments is crucial - the CGP guide helps organise this quite nicely for you. But there’s 20% of the paper on experiments so focus a lot of revision there. Also, practicing the comprehension questions at the start of paper 2 (assuming you are doing biology and not double science) is important - but again, knowing the biology is still needed. Hope this helps.

Thanks, ill check it out.
I already gave my physics exam and got an 8, 2 marks off a 9(might get it rechecked))
And what about math and chemistry?? Because i particularly find math a bit difficult and i hate itt sm

Reply 21

unequivocal

11

Original post by sdfj

Thanks very much. I was super surprised to open the letter to see 9s in English. I thought they would both be solid 8s, with maybe a 9 in language. Scraped it with language and performed quite well in literature. I did kind of slack off around March of my GCSE year as I think I ran out of steam. So I’d say as my first piece of advice given, don’t work too hard too early, work consistently. If I did that, all 9s could’ve been very possible.

Yeah I can definitely relate to the slacking off around March, after my February mocks I was so tired😭

Reply 22

sdfj

OP

18

Original post by pretty_in_purple

Thanks, ill check it out.
I already gave my physics exam and got an 8, 2 marks off a 9(might get it rechecked))
And what about math and chemistry?? Because i particularly find math a bit difficult and i hate itt sm

I got 96% in my maths Edexcel iGCSE exam so I do think I can help out there. I really struggled in iGCSE maths cos the school taught it in a year. We did add maths for the next year. Making sure you have pinpoint accuracy in maths - it allows you to be safe even if you struggle with the harder questions. I would also suggest going through older papers (I could go back to 2006) and doing questions topic by topic. That way, I managed to master practically every single topic that the iGCSE course has in not a long time. You will need to spend longer on vectors and sequences and topics like that. I jumped from 48% in the mock to 96% so I’m sure you can do it too. I have to go now so I will give you tips for chem later. Good luck with your physics remark.

Reply 23

speak-now13

1

Original post by sdfj

Hi everyone, this is by no means me bragging about my results. I received them yesterday and got:
English lit: 9
English lang: 9
French: 9
Maths: 9
Chemistry: 9
Biology: 9
Physics: 9
History: 8 (getting remarked as I was 1 mark off and convinced I should’ve got a 9)
Spanish: 8
Classical Greek: 8
Additional maths: A (top grade)
I am very happy with my GCSE results and thought this might be a way to help other users to get similar grades to mine. This is mostly targeted as those moving into Y9-11 but anyone is welcome to post.

Well done, how did you keep on top of so much revision and what did you do to revise??

Reply 24

sdfj

OP

18

Original post by unequivocal

Yeah I can definitely relate to the slacking off around March, after my February mocks I was so tired😭

Yeah I worked for the mocks and just relaxed all the way through the exam period. Did some work but not enough. By mid June, I completely gave up for my last 2 exams and just turned up having done no work the previous days. They turned out ok though.

Reply 25

always-anxious

19

Original post by sdfj

I’ll be staying at the same school and do A-Levels in:
Maths (possibly FM but I’ll decide by the start of term)
Chemistry
Economics
History
I’ll try and do 4 subjects but if it’s too much work or my grades are affected, I’ll willingly drop down to 3. Any advice from anyone for those A-Level subjects or A-Levels in general will be greatly appreciated by me.

Those subjects seem fun. I don't do any of those subjects but I do recommend you make sure you stay on top of revision for your a-levels as there's a lot of content :-)

Reply 26

Ilovemygf.

9

did you do triple science ?

Reply 27

sdfj

OP

18

Original post by Ilovemygf.

did you do triple science ?

Yes, I did do triple science.

Reply 28

sdfj

OP

18

Original post by speak-now13

Well done, how did you keep on top of so much revision and what did you do to revise??

Tbh I never struggled in school to understand things so I never needed to do loads of revision. I did need to work and it got really intense by November of Y11. For revision, it depends. For maths and English language: practice. For lit, it was a lot of reading and lots of practice. For sciences, it was memorising and blurting. Never revised French.

Reply 29

pretty_in_purple

14

Original post by sdfj

I got 96% in my maths Edexcel iGCSE exam so I do think I can help out there. I really struggled in iGCSE maths cos the school taught it in a year. We did add maths for the next year. Making sure you have pinpoint accuracy in maths - it allows you to be safe even if you struggle with the harder questions. I would also suggest going through older papers (I could go back to 2006) and doing questions topic by topic. That way, I managed to master practically every single topic that the iGCSE course has in not a long time. You will need to spend longer on vectors and sequences and topics like that. I jumped from 48% in the mock to 96% so I’m sure you can do it too. I have to go now so I will give you tips for chem later. Good luck with your physics remark.

thanxx

Reply 30

Yinbeemie

12

Original post by sdfj

Yes, I did do triple science.

Did u do aqa ? I need to get my science grades up and would appreciate any advice you have so far I have 655 in bio chemistry n physics-in that order

Reply 31

sdfj

OP

18

Original post by Yinbeemie

Did u do aqa ? I need to get my science grades up and would appreciate any advice you have so far I have 655 in bio chemistry n physics-in that order

I did Edexcel but I can still try to help. I think for sciences - at least for my board - it’s important to thoroughly know how to answer each type of question - especially the long ones. And accuracy is very important - it helps to practice PPQs just to get in the habit of ironing out any mistakes. Also, definitely try and learn the key experiments thoroughly.

May I also ask: is science your weak point and have you considered double science? I’ve heard stories of people doing AQA that found the workload got a lot less and rose from average grades to like a double 9. Potentially could be worth looking into.

Reply 32

sdfj

OP

18

Original post by pretty_in_purple

Yep its edexcel igcse

I’d say similar for chem as with bio. The CGP guide for chem is less good but it might still be worth getting. For chem, it’s particularly important to know chemical tests and key experiments. They’re tested quite a lot. I’d also say security with calculation is important to have.

Original post by sdfj

I’m happy but not at all bragging. There’s a lot of people on TSR here with like 12 9s which is frankly incredible. I’m just trying to help those who need it more.

Good luck with your application 🍀

Love this thread - and congrats on the grades! I have three questions:

•

How did you decide which A-levels to take?

•

When did you start revising?

•

What tips do you have for staying consistent with revision?

Thanks

Reply 34

Yinbeemie

12

The way my school provides options I wasn't able to not do triple science as I didn't want to pick engineering, geography or textiles

Science is my weak point but even if I moved to double science they would out me on the higher option anyway which is basically the same content but I only get the grades for 2 with lowere grade boundaries which I didn't think was fair as a whole the exam bored AQA for science or pretty much any gcse subject is poo

It's honestly nkt that serious as I don't plan to pick science subjects at a level but I would still like to do good for myself yk?

Reply 35

sdfj

OP

18

Original post by Vic Vinegar

Love this thread - and congrats on the grades! I have three questions:

•

How did you decide which A-levels to take?

•

When did you start revising?

•

What tips do you have for staying consistent with revision?

Thanks

Thanks a lot. I really struggled to choose my A-Levels, we had to provisionally choose 5 (or 6 including FM) in November. I literally wanted to do everything. I ended up thinking to myself: what subjects do I love the most. And then the decision was a lot easier than I imagined. My combo (history economics chemistry maths) I broad and a little quirky - some of my friends ask what I want to do with those A-Levels in the future. But I think picking what one enjoys the most is the best decision you can make.

For exams, I started revising ‘late’ but I managed to cope because of revising for constant tests during the year. So when I got to exam period, the revision required was less because I had already covered that content in preparation for these tests, so it took a lot less time. For the record, I revised for the week before Y9 and Y10 mocks very hard (both holidays), 3 weeks of Christmas for my January mocks, lots of English and maths over April and very hard during study leave and most of the exam period.

This may seem a little strange to some of you, but don’t revise for 8 hours a day for your January mocks. Just don’t. You’ll find yourself exhausted before the exam period and that’s not where you want to be. I felt this right at the end of my exam period when I just had had enough. Luckily my strongest subjects were at that time so everything was alright in the end. Point is: make sure you look after yourself otherwise you will truly struggle.

Reply 36

elareare

18

Original post by sdfj

Planning to go to one of the London unis hopefully. Thinking along the lines of history or law, but maybe economics if I enjoy it. That’s a way away for me though.