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

Would you mind telling me which board you do? If it’s Edexcel, then my advice can be a bit more board specific.

I do AQA maths

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 @sdfj

@custardcreamdog you were looking for this.

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.

In language my friends have all wrote their p1 q5 answers but just change them depending on the question, should I do this? I don’t understand it and after my first official mocks im doing well in most subject apart from English lit and language and im getting quite stressed

In language my friends have all wrote their p1 q5 answers but just change them depending on the question, should I do this? I don’t understand it and after my first official mocks im doing well in most subject apart from English lit and language and im getting quite stressed

Thanks for the great answers! It's so true about not overdoing revision

Yeah I take AQA and im not sure I typically lean towards maths and sciences rather than English and geography so im not doing the best on them I just can’t get my head around it

Well I didn’t take geography but I understand what you’re feeling. You can ask for any tips here if you need. I spend too much time on TSR anyway.

Do you have any tips for linking poems together, and analysing things in literature especially

Hey, sorry for the late response - I had no clue anyone else posted on here. For the anthology question, I would advise jotting down 3 distinct comparison points as your plan - I type so I’d also just randomly write things that I come back to when I write the essay (I delete them but don’t have to). Those points should be touched on in a CONCEPTUALISED INTRODUCTION, but don’t make it a list. Then, have a separate paragraph for each comparison point, and write about one poem, and then the next within the same paragraph. MAKE SURE YOU USE COMPARATIVE WORDS. Do that three times and then conclude. That’s how I do my anthology essays - it’s my best section so I do recommend that style. But of course, whatever works for you is best. For literature in general, I think the most important thing is to be able to make a point, provide evidence in a variety of ways (most importantly through quoting or explaining structure), and explain the effect, and then you can even touch on ‘why’ in a ‘how’ question. Examiners do love that.

Hey no worries, is that for the unseen poetry? Or just the one where they give you one you’ve learnt about. Another question (sorry) how do you make links?

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.

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.

Hey no worries, is that for the unseen poetry? Or just the one where they give you one you’ve learnt about. Another question (sorry) how do you make links?