The Student Room Group

When should I start using Past Papers?

For context, I am in Year 10 and I've just started studying my GCSE courses. A lot of people on the internet suggest using Past Papers, but I'm not sure if I should wait until I've covered more of the course before using them. I'm also worried about completing all of the Past Papers prematurely (considering I've got two years until GCSEs).

Any advice? Thanks :smile:
Reply 1
I'd definitely wait until you've at least covered a whole paper of content. I started doing them at the start of year 11 and I had still run out at the end. There's no harm in doing them a couple of times as long as they're a fair length of time apart but there are definitely other ways to revise and for now I'd start with those until you've covered more content
Reply 2
Some teachers will tell you to start now. I'm not sure there'll be much to gain from it in year 10 but the practise will still be useful. To be honest I preferred using Seneca Learning when I was doing my GCSEs, but it's a matter of taste.
Original post by TapirSparrow
For context, I am in Year 10 and I've just started studying my GCSE courses. A lot of people on the internet suggest using Past Papers, but I'm not sure if I should wait until I've covered more of the course before using them. I'm also worried about completing all of the Past Papers prematurely (considering I've got two years until GCSEs).
Any advice? Thanks :smile:

Hey @TapirSparrow!

I agree with 19whitec in that it might be best to wait a little while before staring past papers. Past papers are a great revision tool, but they work best when you've already covered a good portion of your course and can attempt most questions. In the meantime, try to see if you can source some topic-specific questions online every time you complete a topic in class.

Hope this was helpful and best of luck!
Eve (Kingston Rep).

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