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

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.

how did you revise for maths as i find it often challenging to revise for it?

May you tell me which board you do? If it’s Edexcel, I can give more specific advice but if not, I can give you general tips.

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.

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.

Provisionally choose five is crazy work😭 do you go to a grammar school? In my school people who only got mostly 9s were allowed to do 4 a levels and even when I did get that, they pushed me to only choose 3. Five seems like a major work, no?

Yeah, so I decided not to do FM so I’ll be starting with 4 and I’ll have the option to drop one from December. I don’t want to kill myself but I do want to at least start with 4

Hiya, also any tips with English rn I am struggling so much ( ok maybe not becuz my predicted grade is 5 for both lang and lit) and in our recent mocks I got 6 in lit and 7 in lang, with a month's notice (not trying to show off- Im just saying I achieved above my grade and I have hope I can get better) but still I wanna get at least 8 in both, Im going to y11 this september, so u have any tips for English?
Also congrats on ur grades 🤗🤩

Thanks very much on the congratulations. Do you do AQA English. If you do, then I can give more board specific advice but otherwise, general tips can still be valuable. I really struggled in English too. Got a 5 and a 4 in my mock (although school bumped down boundaries so they were officially 6s.) Struggled to a double nine so I get you.

Hiya, also any tips with English rn I am struggling so much ( ok maybe not becuz my predicted grade is 5 for both lang and lit) and in our recent mocks I got 6 in lit and 7 in lang, with a month's notice (not trying to show off- Im just saying I achieved above my grade and I have hope I can get better) but still I wanna get at least 8 in both, Im going to y11 this september, so u have any tips for English?
Also congrats on ur grades 🤗🤩

Mr Salles videos are good. Always plan your stories for Q5 as well.

I am so srry Idk why I hate his vids, srry I tell tht to everyone, me and him just dont get along well ( maybe I am being dramatic but he talks too slow I fall half asleep, so i have to change the speed LIKE 10 TIMES MOREEEE ugh), and I think his analysis is like too farfetched becuz my friend used one of it and she was meant to get a 9 but his analysis was wrong so she go an 8.
Anyways, the planning Q5 is really good advice, ty for tht I did tht in my Y10 mocks and I knew wht to write for the whole story plus it saved time so thankyou

Yeah, so I decided not to do FM so I’ll be starting with 4 and I’ll have the option to drop one from December. I don’t want to kill myself but I do want to at least start with 4

If i take FM, do I have to take Maths

Im srry if I am a bit toooo dramatic, I just dont know, also I dont like Mr Bruff his analysis is tooo simple and obvious

Yep I didn't like Mr Bruff at all. I mean, you can always turn the volume down and watch the subtitles if you find them annoying lol. But yeah, I planned 5 different possible stories and made sure there were as many "potential questions" in a single one as possible. So for example, a "school trip" on a "bus" to "the countryside", something "dangerous" happens, and there's a "twist" at the end. Then it's more likely that you will be able to adapt your story. Obviously you should focus more on descriptive writing than the plot, but I found that helped me.

THX, I was practically jumping off my seat in the Exam hall because the story I planned came up🤣

Lol tht was a quick reply, anyways yes I do AQA🙂