All A*s at GCSE, ask me anything!

Original post by BlueTiger55

Hey, I sat my GCSEs in 2023 and got:
English lit: 9
English language: 9
Maths: 8
Religious education: 9
Biology: 9
Chemistry: 9
Physics: 8
History: 9
Geography: 9
Feel free to ask any questions or tips or anything at all! Best of luck!

I really need help with my triple science subjects ( currently in year 10)🥴

Reply 3

OP

Hey! Thank you!! History and geography are tricky ones, history definitely more so thank geography. For history, what I did was, for two modules I did flash cards (Anglo saxon & Norman England and then Crime and punishment). Crime and punishment was a thematic module which focused on how if changed/continued, so flash cards were do good for each time period and each theme. For the other two modules, Superpower relations and the Cold War and America: conflict at home and abroad, I wrote notes in a notepad of all the significant events (there were a lot) and then used the cause event consequence method, which was indispensable. For example, for something like the Prague Spring 1968, I outline the causes, events and consequences. This was such a good tool and worked so well. If you’re on edexcel, I can’t recommend these enough: https://www.awesomebooks.com/book/9781292169750/pearson-revise-edexcel-gcse-history-superpower-relations-and-the-cold-war-revision-guide-incl-onli/used?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADocATAbWLrR2AQ1TJk2SRwdw-gKC&gclid=CjwKCAjwgfm3BhBeEiwAFfxrG_wY8FUwrXS-0jyQRRATb7C4REvp2uSaBiOa3drh7Cn_XsmgKibtLBoCyDEQAvD_BwE
They have ever piece of info you need and they usually sell them in WHSmith or on Amazon or your teacher might have some. Use these and class notes to compile flash cards and revision notes, whatever works best for you. Also, PAST PAPERS!!! Review a topic, look at a question about, time yourself writing the answer. This will be so so so helpful for you. Give the answer to your teacher and ask them to mark it. My teacher was getting emails from me at 11pm haha but he was always so willing to help so defo utilise all the help you can get. If you have anymore questions about specific modules or revision methods, please just ask! History is tough, we need to stick together 🤣

Reply 4

OP

As for geography, flash cards saved my life. You have your physical and your human papers, so split your flash cards into these. Do the geography processes on them, draw pictures of the processes, label the pictures to show what’s happening. For example, formation of headlands and bays on a flash card, draw a picture of how they form eg. Crack -> Cave -> Arch etc and then write down the key points. Do the same for human, but with facts and figures. My school did a study of Nigeria which I found so interesting and I wrote a flash card on significant events like Bodo oil spills and then reviewed that, then others with some general facts on eg. When Nigeria gained independence, how successful are the national football team (social influence on the world). That will really help you and just keep going over the flash cards. If you’re on AQA, this is brilliant: https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/products/gcse-9-1-geography-aqa-revision-guide-book-tim-bayliss-9780198423461?sku=GOR009162061&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADZzAID3tmFtPbnOybGpOR7SYoJGm&gclid=CjwKCAjwgfm3BhBeEiwAFfxrGyVwjEIz_YHfCsYUzuPc9FKTtA0ibx48RCXmAHxw67CIISyjYmgm8hoCdmUQAvD_BwE

As with history, past paper questions for geography (especially 9 markers/6 markers) will be your best friend. Make sure your sick of them by the exam!
Again, any more info or questions, don’t hesitate to ask!

Reply 5

OP

Original post by numb-chain

I really need help with my triple science subjects ( currently in year 10)🥴

Hey! Triple science was a rollercoaster but well done for taking it, it’s a really interesting set of GCSEs and will help you so much. Freesciencelessons was my absolute favourite person! Watch his videos, pause when he says something of note, write it down. He has designated playlists for every science paper. Go through these, make notes and keep going over the notes every week, I cannot recommend him enough. Past paper questions are also so helpful, especially because for science, the questions never really change that much at all, just usually different data/wording. Keep doing questions, sending them to teachers, reading the mark schemes and examiner reports. Also, the CGP books for science can be helpful for quick revision on days of exams or just for summaries of key concepts, I always found them handy!! Best of luck, let me know if you need anything else!

Reply 6

cargoesbroom

How did you revise english Language, history, sciences and maths?

Reply 7

numb-chain

Original post by BlueTiger55

Hey! Triple science was a rollercoaster but well done for taking it, it’s a really interesting set of GCSEs and will help you so much. Freesciencelessons was my absolute favourite person! Watch his videos, pause when he says something of note, write it down. He has designated playlists for every science paper. Go through these, make notes and keep going over the notes every week, I cannot recommend him enough. Past paper questions are also so helpful, especially because for science, the questions never really change that much at all, just usually different data/wording. Keep doing questions, sending them to teachers, reading the mark schemes and examiner reports. Also, the CGP books for science can be helpful for quick revision on days of exams or just for summaries of key concepts, I always found them handy!! Best of luck, let me know if you need anything else!

thanks alot ❤️*🩹

Reply 8

OP

Original post by cargoesbroom

How did you revise english Language, history, sciences and maths?

English language: this one was a rough one I won’t lie. I really didn’t like it and my teacher, although was lovely, continuously marked me down but gave me no way to improve which was so disheartening. What I would do is watch Mr Salles and Mr Bruff on YouTube, they helped me so much, especially the question breakdowns. Then, I also did past papers every single week, to the point where I had exhausted all of them. Do them, take them to a teacher to mark. If your teacher isn’t great help, like mine wasn’t, go to another teacher. I went to my year 9 English teacher who was so helpful and gave me great advice. For the actual exam, I would always do question 5 (the 40 marker) first. 5 minutes planning it and what the paragraphs will be about, very brief. Eg. if the pic was of a beach I would simply write ‘P1: Sky, P2: Sea, P3: Sand’ etc. although it uses up 5 mins, it’ll save you so much time and stress in the long run. Write ‘SMOPAA’ in the margin and cross it off every time you do one, make sure you get them all in if you can in each paragraph. Spend 5 mins planning, 40 mins writing and then 1 hour on questions 1-4! Hope this helps!!

Reply 9

OP

Original post by numb-chain

thanks alot ❤️*🩹

No problem at all!! You’re gonna smash it! Any other questions, just ask!

Reply 10

numb-chain

Original post by BlueTiger55

English language: this one was a rough one I won’t lie. I really didn’t like it and my teacher, although was lovely, continuously marked me down but gave me no way to improve which was so disheartening. What I would do is watch Mr Salles and Mr Bruff on YouTube, they helped me so much, especially the question breakdowns. Then, I also did past papers every single week, to the point where I had exhausted all of them. Do them, take them to a teacher to mark. If your teacher isn’t great help, like mine wasn’t, go to another teacher. I went to my year 9 English teacher who was so helpful and gave me great advice. For the actual exam, I would always do question 5 (the 40 marker) first. 5 minutes planning it and what the paragraphs will be about, very brief. Eg. if the pic was of a beach I would simply write ‘P1: Sky, P2: Sea, P3: Sand’ etc. although it uses up 5 mins, it’ll save you so much time and stress in the long run. Write ‘SMOPAA’ in the margin and cross it off every time you do one, make sure you get them all in if you can in each paragraph. Spend 5 mins planning, 40 mins writing and then 1 hour on questions 1-4! Hope this helps!!

what is 'SMOPAA'

Reply 11

Sugbug

Hey I am in year 10 and I want to get get grade nines and I found this website for science and maths called cognito and I wanna know if it’s good also I would like some help revising English and if anyone does health and social care Cambridge national please send me some links or websites to help me revise. Congrats on the grade also xx
Thanks

Reply 12

OP

Original post by cargoesbroom

How did you revise english Language, history, sciences and maths?

I think I covered science and history in some other replies a bit more in depth but I’ll summarise here for you!!
Science: FREESCIENCELESSONS!! An amazing resource. Watch his videos, note down key points from what he says, go over these notes every so often. CGP books were a great quick revision tool and past paper questions are essential. The questions will never really change so if you get used to the past papers, you’ll do great in the exam! MME revise was great for me, it provided questions by topic which I found brilliant for science and maths.

History: Flash cards and notepads. Outline key events, their causes events and consequences. That will help so much. Do past papers, send them to teachers, keep doing them. I can’t recommend it enough. I was sending my teacher questions up until 14th June at 10:15pm, the night before my final history exam. He was so incredibly helpful and you really need to utilise the teachers as 99% of the time, they’re really willing to put in the effort as long as you do. Also, find your spec and your modules and see if you can access some revision guides. I linked the ones I used above, they have them for a lot of the edexcel modules and they were great!

Maths: this is so hard. Revising maths is such a tricky one. I have to say, I kinda just hoped for maths. I had always got 8s, right from year 7 to year 11, there was no doubt about what I was going to get in the exam. That being said, I still revised a lot. Corbettmaths was brilliant. I feel like for maths, you know the things you can do and what bits you struggle with, it’s very matter of fact. So, say you struggle with factorising quadratics. Search it up, watch the Corbett maths video for it, make some notes. Then, go to MME revise or Physics and maths tutor, search the questions by topic and then go through as many as you can. Also, our school used Mathswatch, which I found quite helpful for some brief summary videos. Past papers are also brilliant for maths, do as many you can because the questions are always quite similar. Anything you’re stuck on, ask your teachers (or post on here!) and we will all find an answer! Hope this helps! Always ask if you need anything else!

Reply 13

OP

Original post by numb-chain

what is 'SMOPAA'

Simile
Metaphor
Onomatopoeia
Personification
Alliteration
Ambitious adjectives

Sorry I didn’t explain that, I think it might’ve just been our school that used it. It’s a brilliant way to shove in a load of things to impress the examiner, I found it really useful!! Also, that being said, don’t include poor examples of onomatopoeia like ‘smash’ or ‘bang’. Things like ‘whistle’ might fit more naturally but if you can’t fit it in freely, don’t force it in. Hope this is helpful!!

Reply 14

OP

Original post by Sugbug

Hey I am in year 10 and I want to get get grade nines and I found this website for science and maths called cognito and I wanna know if it’s good also I would like some help revising English and if anyone does health and social care Cambridge national please send me some links or websites to help me revise. Congrats on the grade also xx
Thanks

Hey, that’s a great attitude to have and it’s amazing that you’re already striving for those grades now! I must say, I’ve never used cognito myself as I remained very loyal to Freesciencelessons haha but I do know people who have an absolutely loved it. If it works for you, that’s all that matters. If you don’t see it working for you, try Freesciencelessons, he’s honestly so brilliant and includes exactly what the examiner wants. Past papers for science are essential, keep doing them, marking them, reading examiner reports. If you don’t understand something, ask a teacher at school. Honestly, I spent more time with the teachers than my family in year 11. Some topics seemed so hard to me but one question to the teacher and it was so simple, they’re really knowledgeable so use this. MME revise for questions by topic if there’s a specific topic you’re struggling with.

English: past papers all the way. There’s no really proven way to revise English as it’s so subjective. I did find Mr Salles and Mr Bruff very good for both Lit and language. Their question breakdowns helped me so much and their text explanations, especially for Shakespeare, were so useful. Quizlet is another great one for Lit, get your quotes off there and other explanations/interpretations of the quotes. The answers on Quizlet are great and are really helpful. Look at the previous themes asked about in questions and try and see what you would write about these if it were your exam. Then, think about other themes that haven’t come up yet, or other characters that haven’t appeared in a while. Create mind maps with a specific theme or character in the middle and then quotes with explanations coming off this.

I really hope this is helpful!! Best of luck, just ask if you need anything else!!

Reply 15

cargoesbroom

Original post by BlueTiger55

English language: this one was a rough one I won’t lie. I really didn’t like it and my teacher, although was lovely, continuously marked me down but gave me no way to improve which was so disheartening. What I would do is watch Mr Salles and Mr Bruff on YouTube, they helped me so much, especially the question breakdowns. Then, I also did past papers every single week, to the point where I had exhausted all of them. Do them, take them to a teacher to mark. If your teacher isn’t great help, like mine wasn’t, go to another teacher. I went to my year 9 English teacher who was so helpful and gave me great advice. For the actual exam, I would always do question 5 (the 40 marker) first. 5 minutes planning it and what the paragraphs will be about, very brief. Eg. if the pic was of a beach I would simply write ‘P1: Sky, P2: Sea, P3: Sand’ etc. although it uses up 5 mins, it’ll save you so much time and stress in the long run. Write ‘SMOPAA’ in the margin and cross it off every time you do one, make sure you get them all in if you can in each paragraph. Spend 5 mins planning, 40 mins writing and then 1 hour on questions 1-4! Hope this helps!!

Thank you!!

Reply 16

Sugbug