revision help

hi! i'm in year11 and i've been stuck on the same grades since like year 9, my mock results were :
business - 5
eng lang - 5
eng lit - 6
french - 5
geography - 5
history - 6
maths - 5
science - 54

i'm always revising but no matter how much i revise i always get the sake marks and see no improvements whatsoever??? whether i revise or don't i get the same scores so i really need revision tips and how to revise mor effectively please as i'm aiming for grades7+

Reply 1

Super Sprinkles

Make sure you're actively recalling information (brain dumps w/o your notes, flashcards, making & using quizzes etc.) and then apply your knowledge with exam questions, because there's you don't just need to know information, you need to be able to use it to get the marks in the test. Eventually start timing yourself, and doing past papers under timed conditions nearer to the exams
For essay-style subjects, make sure you practise planning and writing your longer answers, then get teachers to mark them and give feedback (it's very difficult to self-mark these).

Using your completed EQs, note down anything you keep consistently forget/don't get marks in the exam - you can make flashcards for these, or make a document that you look over semi-frequently

Remember, lost marks are ways you can improve, not failures :smile:

Reply 2

Uni of Southampton Students

Official Rep

Hello @sophiyah!

Well done for your grades and revision efforts! These are really good, but as you would like to improve them even more, here are some revision techniques:

•

Flashcards, mindmaps, blurting, self-testing and timed past papers are all effective revision strategies;

•

Making yourself a revision timetable may help you organise your study so that you don't get burnt out;

•

Looking through feedback from classwork and past class assessments and asking the teacher if you're not sure how to improve on it;

•

Coming back to the same topic every so often will help you to remember the information;

•

Completing the test exercises in revision textbooks was very useful for me when I did my GCSEs;

•

Attending revision sessions hosted by your school so you are able to ask the teacher for more help;

•

I made a post discussing revision techniques based on psychology which may be helpful to you.

Which revision techniques have you tried so far?

Wishing you luck with your study and exams!

Poppy, 2nd Year Psychology Student

Reply 3

Jahnvi33

I usually go over content via flashcards and then prac qs to get the exam technique right. Good luck!!!

Reply 4

Manu7861

Original post

by sophiyah

hi! i'm in year11 and i've been stuck on the same grades since like year 9, my mock results were :
business - 5
eng lang - 5
eng lit - 6
french - 5
geography - 5
history - 6
maths - 5
science - 54
i'm always revising but no matter how much i revise i always get the sake marks and see no improvements whatsoever??? whether i revise or don't i get the same scores so i really need revision tips and how to revise mor effectively please as i'm aiming for grades7+

Hi, I recently completed my GCSEs and can only advise you for subjects such as:
English
History
Maths
Science
The best way to study for English is to do past papers and use the mark scheme to see where marks are given and see if you can look at grade 9 answers they will give you a good understanding on how to structure you answer
In history I got 9s and the best way is to create mind maps of each topic. This way allows you to easily understand every aspect and you can always add detail.
Maths wasn’t my strongest I got a 6 but in my mocks I would just about get a 4 the way for maths was my teacher printed of a booklet that had every style of maths question.
For science my teacher taught us a method we used mind maps but not the normal type.
So for each topic in science we would create a mind map and have all the key areas come of it. Then he numbered each area and at the back of the sheet would write all the content associated with that area. This method saved me when I came to silence and boosted me up by 3 grades

Reply 5

holikakes

Original post

by sophiyah

hi! i'm in year11 and i've been stuck on the same grades since like year 9, my mock results were :
business - 5
eng lang - 5
eng lit - 6
french - 5
geography - 5
history - 6
maths - 5
science - 54
i'm always revising but no matter how much i revise i always get the sake marks and see no improvements whatsoever??? whether i revise or don't i get the same scores so i really need revision tips and how to revise mor effectively please as i'm aiming for grades7+

Hey sophiyah - just practice practice practice! I did a whole bunch of practice papers and got my muscle memory ACTIVE! Got me from a 4 to a 7 in just weeks. In year 13 doing maths and i still use the same approach where i practice a lot. My sister(in year 11) did some easter revision courses online with neildoesmaths and found it super useful- not sure if you've heard of him. He's doing free revision in the form of a cram course too. I might join it for a level

Reply 6

jasm1ne_

Original post

by sophiyah

hi! i'm in year11 and i've been stuck on the same grades since like year 9, my mock results were :
business - 5
eng lang - 5
eng lit - 6
french - 5
geography - 5
history - 6
maths - 5
science - 54
i'm always revising but no matter how much i revise i always get the sake marks and see no improvements whatsoever??? whether i revise or don't i get the same scores so i really need revision tips and how to revise mor effectively please as i'm aiming for grades7+

I got a grade 8 on both English exams.

This may be crazy advice, but for my English GCSE Lit exams I made 'ideal' essays for each 'main' character that I thought could come up in questions, E.g. In Macbeth I made an ideal essay for Lady Macbeth and Macbeth.

These essays were made using loads of different resources, e.g. the internet, class analysis, etc. then combined into the best possible essay I could write. I then memorised these essays and wrote the ones that applied to the questions out memory in the exam. This is very long revision, but if you think you're not good at writing English essays on the spot it is really good. Depending on which ones you did, I can send the essays I wrote for them.

For English Language I memorised technical terms, you can get a lot of help from TikTok and the internet to learn best language, and I put these in my exam answers. For English lang exam you should follow structure for each question. Learning these structures will make it wayyy easier to answer the questions + learning the timing for each question as time is so harsh in the exam. You can find these on the internet if your teacher hasn't taught you. You should also write some creative writing sentences which you can put in your creative writing question before the exam. Again, create these from the internet and just memorise them.