Private Studying GCSEs (Self-Studying)

I’m currently doing my English and Maths GCSEs with my college and I’ll be doing Biology, Chemistry, and Physics privately. I plan on doing pharmacy for my career so I’m not sure if I need physics. I’ll be having a tutor for about 4-5 hours per week, but I’ll still need to study alone for a good bit. But like are there any tips or ways I can self study effectively and still leave free time for myself?

Reply 1

Haruspe

A good routine will be essential, and really helpful if you make your own timetable of when you're going to study each subject and roughly what you're going to do in it.

For studying effectively, it's different for everyone but you definitely need to do a range of things to keep it interesting. For example, I'm doing my A Levels and am having to do a lot of self study- for the sciences in particular, I find it helpful to make digital flashcards (I use Anki), which is a low-effort way to ensure I do a little bit of each science subject every day (physics and chem for me).
Then I go over content I learnt over the past week to make sure I understand it- I read my notes/textbook and watch a video or two, then do a couple of past paper questions. That gets me into the mindset of that subject, and I find that spending half an hour or so on the previous content really helps with then going on to learn the new stuff.
It's all about consolidation, and reviewing the content so you don't forget it all. And because it's a routine now, it doesn't feel like it massively impacts on my free time. But I still make sure to listen to myself, and if it's just not working for me then I'll try something else or give myself a break.

Are these GCSE on top of A Levels?
Because you should ideally have a full working week, but if the GCSE are on top of A Levels then that will massively impact how you balance your work and free time.