GCSE science revision help

2

I’m in y11 and I still have no clue how to revise sciences. In my mocks I got a 5 in chem and physics and a 6 in biology and I’m doing triple higher . I did little to no revision for these and in gcse I want to get 7,8,9s . I tried making flash cards but I’ll make a long set and I’ll leave them for a bit then il l try to review them and forget and know nothing .its December and I’ve only made it for a few topics. I thought instead I’ll make notes of the spec,videos and the textbook then constantly blurt of them . And create a shorter set of flashcards with just definitions.does anyone have any tips for me as I need them asap as I’m starting to worry.

Reply 1

Oscar Heslopy

5

Original post

by Mjn.08

I’m in y11 and I still have no clue how to revise sciences. In my mocks I got a 5 in chem and physics and a 6 in biology and I’m doing triple higher . I did little to no revision for these and in gcse I want to get 7,8,9s . I tried making flash cards but I’ll make a long set and I’ll leave them for a bit then il l try to review them and forget and know nothing .its December and I’ve only made it for a few topics. I thought instead I’ll make notes of the spec,videos and the textbook then constantly blurt of them . And create a shorter set of flashcards with just definitions.does anyone have any tips for me as I need them asap as I’m starting to worry.

flashcards are very useful dont get me wrong, but flashcards only help to reinforce your understanding. So trying to memorise a sequence of words without actually understanding the underlying meaning is pointless, because everytime you learn something new you'd spend time making new flashcards, revise the new ones and not revise the older ones for a while. So to improve your grades start by buying a textbook which is compatible with your specification and read through the textbook. Get an A4 piece of piece of paper and whilst reading the textbook use chat GPT and ask your teachers to further your understanding. Once youve made useful notes convert them into Anki flask cards preferably. The best advice I can give you is to not rely or lean on using flaschards to heavily. Once you've made neat notes for a topic on A4 sheet just stack them in a pile and revisit and reread the notes everyday. Once you've memorised the notes apply your knowledge by trying out past papers on physics maths tutor. I personally did the same mistake as you for gcse's and i dont want you to walk down the same path as me. Make sure to get in touch if you have any more questions

Reply 2

username7381256

9

Original post

by Mjn.08

I’m in y11 and I still have no clue how to revise sciences. In my mocks I got a 5 in chem and physics and a 6 in biology and I’m doing triple higher . I did little to no revision for these and in gcse I want to get 7,8,9s . I tried making flash cards but I’ll make a long set and I’ll leave them for a bit then il l try to review them and forget and know nothing .its December and I’ve only made it for a few topics. I thought instead I’ll make notes of the spec,videos and the textbook then constantly blurt of them . And create a shorter set of flashcards with just definitions.does anyone have any tips for me as I need them asap as I’m starting to worry.

Preferably I would use the CGP revision guides, they are much more better than the others that currently exist. To use it the most effective way, learn the contents that are your weakest point and make sure you understand it before making notes. Also use Physics and Maths tutor for notes and flashcards. After you understood every topics, do active recall on them. Then all you need to do is apply your knowledge on to exam style questions then do a lot of past papers. Especially physics, that has a lot of maths within it so its all about practice. Also make sure you know the formulas off by heart e.g. by doing flashcards, I don't know if they are given in the 2025 exam series.

Reply 3

username7381256

9

YouTube channels I recommend:

.The organic chemistry tutor
.Free science lessons
.Cognito
.Wayne breslyn (in the case of chemistry)

Reply 4

Daniel_Akinyeye

8

What I did to revise, was I went to the actual specification for my exam board and made flashcards from there. I also made flashcards as I went on.Also remember that in your exam you’re not just blurting knowledge, there’s technique, so you have to do exam questions like crazy. The more you do, you’ll realise that they recycle questions quite a lot, so you’ll get used to answering the questions. Another thing you should do is prioritise what you’re bad. My brother told me to write down all the topics in each subject in an excel spreadsheet, and colour code them, so I did red = horrible or know nothing, yellow = alright and green= amazing at. You wanna try to get everything to green, starting from the red ones.

But just bear in mind that what I did doesn’t work for everyone. I could make flashcards from the spec because I already understood everything, and all I needed to do was remember it. If you need to understand a concept you should probably watch freesciencelessons or look at the CGP books.

Reply 5

Mjn.08

OP

2

Original post

by Oscar Heslopy

flashcards are very useful dont get me wrong, but flashcards only help to reinforce your understanding. So trying to memorise a sequence of words without actually understanding the underlying meaning is pointless, because everytime you learn something new you'd spend time making new flashcards, revise the new ones and not revise the older ones for a while. So to improve your grades start by buying a textbook which is compatible with your specification and read through the textbook. Get an A4 piece of piece of paper and whilst reading the textbook use chat GPT and ask your teachers to further your understanding. Once youve made useful notes convert them into Anki flask cards preferably. The best advice I can give you is to not rely or lean on using flaschards to heavily. Once you've made neat notes for a topic on A4 sheet just stack them in a pile and revisit and reread the notes everyday. Once you've memorised the notes apply your knowledge by trying out past papers on physics maths tutor. I personally did the same mistake as you for gcse's and i dont want you to walk down the same path as me. Make sure to get in touch if you have any more questions

Thank you but I’m worried it might be too late to make notes on all my topics and flashcards as it is December but I will do it anyway and lock in . What is better digital or physical flashcards

Reply 6

Anonymous #1

memorise mark schemes

Reply 7

Anonymous #1

jj

Reply 8

Clover_

10

Hey,
This is what i used to get 3 9s in triple science gcse (i did aqa).
-PMT notes are very useful, and i would annotate them in the PMT mindmaps! These are particularly useful if you want specific topics, and although they are not super detailed, they will help you get the marks in the paper!
-Doing past papers! Dont worry if you've done them all. Keep doing it again and again, and you will get the hang of how to answer the questions as the papers are pretty much the same anyway.
Good luck!

Reply 9

username7432243

5

Original post

by Mjn.08

I’m in y11 and I still have no clue how to revise sciences. In my mocks I got a 5 in chem and physics and a 6 in biology and I’m doing triple higher . I did little to no revision for these and in gcse I want to get 7,8,9s . I tried making flash cards but I’ll make a long set and I’ll leave them for a bit then il l try to review them and forget and know nothing .its December and I’ve only made it for a few topics. I thought instead I’ll make notes of the spec,videos and the textbook then constantly blurt of them . And create a shorter set of flashcards with just definitions.does anyone have any tips for me as I need them asap as I’m starting to worry.

Hi! I’m in year 11 as well and one thing that really helped me get to a 9 (for all sciences in higher tier edexcel) in my mocks were past paper questions because it helped me understand how to answer certain questions and what knowledge is really needed. Mark schemes are also really helpful because they give you the key details and points to make in every answer without any unnecessary details. Science with Hazel and Cognito are both YouTube channels that helped me understand content more visually and pmt helped with question practise. Savemyexams is also extremely useful for revision notes.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 10

CoalL

6

So for me, my main focus is on understanding and youtube videos help a lot, i mainly did free science and cognito. I found seneca useful for biology, it has a lot of repetition and active recall and sort of tailors to the markscheme. After that is really just past paper questions. If you wanted to cram though, I do suggest you to focus on your weaknesses and try to watch videos to understand your concepts first, then open like questions and a markscheme, to compare patterns and trends on how and what to write for your answers. That’s mainly what i did, so obviously might not apply to everyone😅

Reply 11

username7511100

6

Original post

by Mjn.08

I’m in y11 and I still have no clue how to revise sciences. In my mocks I got a 5 in chem and physics and a 6 in biology and I’m doing triple higher . I did little to no revision for these and in gcse I want to get 7,8,9s . I tried making flash cards but I’ll make a long set and I’ll leave them for a bit then il l try to review them and forget and know nothing .its December and I’ve only made it for a few topics. I thought instead I’ll make notes of the spec,videos and the textbook then constantly blurt of them . And create a shorter set of flashcards with just definitions.does anyone have any tips for me as I need them asap as I’m starting to worry.

Hey I’ve posted all my GCSE Grade 8/9 notes on my tiktok account @ayxsh_bee if that helps xx

Reply 12

Anonymous #2

Original post

by Mjn.08

I’m in y11 and I still have no clue how to revise sciences. In my mocks I got a 5 in chem and physics and a 6 in biology and I’m doing triple higher . I did little to no revision for these and in gcse I want to get 7,8,9s . I tried making flash cards but I’ll make a long set and I’ll leave them for a bit then il l try to review them and forget and know nothing .its December and I’ve only made it for a few topics. I thought instead I’ll make notes of the spec,videos and the textbook then constantly blurt of them . And create a shorter set of flashcards with just definitions.does anyone have any tips for me as I need them asap as I’m starting to worry.

dont worry, use cognito videos, from the website, not the youtube videos. for chemistry the best thing no question is to search up past paper questions answer hem and look at the markscheme. chemistry is very repetitive, the same questions often pop up with different reagents or scenarios, so if you want that 9, doing past paper question is literally the easiest way to get it

Reply 13

illustrated-expo

12

Original post

by Mjn.08

I’m in y11 and I still have no clue how to revise sciences. In my mocks I got a 5 in chem and physics and a 6 in biology and I’m doing triple higher . I did little to no revision for these and in gcse I want to get 7,8,9s . I tried making flash cards but I’ll make a long set and I’ll leave them for a bit then il l try to review them and forget and know nothing .its December and I’ve only made it for a few topics. I thought instead I’ll make notes of the spec,videos and the textbook then constantly blurt of them . And create a shorter set of flashcards with just definitions.does anyone have any tips for me as I need them asap as I’m starting to worry.

Try annotating your existing school work with different colored pen for extra info/what you need to know more. I don’t find flashcards useful as it consumes time and not effective for me. For bio, I used these revision notes Biology: all topics
Read from the notes and add your own annotation to your school notes

Reply 14

JoyceAn

8

You have a lot of time to revise but I guess it depends on what subjects you’re doing next year that you might focus on instead. If you really want to get 8’s and 9’s I suggest making the flashcards and revisiting them often so you eventually memorise the content. If you know you won’t look at them I suggest looking at other revision methods like blurting. You watch/read information on a topic and blurt out what you remember this is so you actually know what you need to revise in depth. After learning the content make sure you familiarise yourself with the mark scheme and exams. I looked at a lot of past papers in mid year 10 and was able to get 8’s and 9’s in the year 10 mock exams because I knew what the exam wants you to say and how to answer 4 and 6 markers.

GCSE science revision help

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