I got all 8/9s on my GCSEs, ask me anything!

10

Hi!

I got all 8/9s on my GCSEs (mostly self study) so I am here to help!
The subjects I did were:
English lit AQA- Macbeth, AIC, Jekyll and Hyde, and Power and Conflict
English lang AQA
Spanish AQA
Maths AQA
History Edexcel- Migration, Cold War, Anglo Saxons, Weimar (went from a 5 in my previous mocks to a high 8 in the real thing)
RS AQA- Islam, Christianity, I forgot which themes
Photography
Combined science AQA

I am not good at marking essays, but if there is anything I can try to provide feedback on I will (I have forgotten quite a bit of info but I will try!)
If you have any questions about GCSEs in general beyond subject specific, let me know!

Reply 1

coolblackguy

14

Original post

by Beeeeeeela

Hi!
I got all 8/9s on my GCSEs (mostly self study) so I am here to help!
The subjects I did were:
English lit AQA- Macbeth, AIC, Jekyll and Hyde, and Power and Conflict
English lang AQA
Spanish AQA
Maths AQA
History Edexcel- Migration, Cold War, Anglo Saxons, Weimar (went from a 5 in my previous mocks to a high 8 in the real thing)
RS AQA- Islam, Christianity, I forgot which themes
Photography
Combined science AQA
I am not good at marking essays, but if there is anything I can try to provide feedback on I will (I have forgotten quite a bit of info but I will try!)
If you have any questions about GCSEs in general beyond subject specific, let me know!

1. what were your mocks like compared to ur final results
2. Did you have any self doubt before sitting exams/while waiting for your results?

Reply 2

coolblackguy

14

Also - forgot to add this - how did you get good grades in English language, spanish and maths??

Reply 3

coolblackguy

14

Spanish im less confident on speaking, listening and reading

Reply 4

Mickey Mouse 1

14

Original post

by Beeeeeeela

Hi!

I got all 8/9s on my GCSEs (mostly self study) so I am here to help!
The subjects I did were:
English lit AQA- Macbeth, AIC, Jekyll and Hyde, and Power and Conflict
English lang AQA
Spanish AQA
Maths AQA
History Edexcel- Migration, Cold War, Anglo Saxons, Weimar (went from a 5 in my previous mocks to a high 8 in the real thing)
RS AQA- Islam, Christianity, I forgot which themes
Photography
Combined science AQA

I am not good at marking essays, but if there is anything I can try to provide feedback on I will (I have forgotten quite a bit of info but I will try!)
If you have any questions about GCSEs in general beyond subject specific, let me know!

Wow. Amazing grades! How did you memorise your quotes for English Lit? Also, what are you doing now after having finished your GCSEs? Thank you for your help!

Reply 5

username7245361

OP

10

Original post

by coolblackguy

1. what were your mocks like compared to ur final results
2. Did you have any self doubt before sitting exams/while waiting for your results?

1.

I had been quite consistent in studying, on most of my mocks I had gotten 7-8s, so most of my real grades were about a grade higher than mocks. But for history I had received a 4 in my last mock before the final GCSE, but a really high 8 in the exams. But I do know that some people got significantly higher on the actual exams than mocks

2.

Yes, I am a quite anxious person so I was really stressing out, especially before exams, feeling that I had not revised enough, and then after wondering if I wrote the right thing. So it is normal, so if you can, know your ability, and remember that you put in everything you can so you do not receive the post-exam regrets

Reply 6

username7245361

OP

10

Original post

by coolblackguy

Also - forgot to add this - how did you get good grades in English language, spanish and maths??

English language- I would annotate images to practice for P1, Q5, and prepare a basic story that I could apply to most prompts- if I am being honest I did not revise too much for this as I was quite confident in my ability
Spanish- I made flash cards from the speaking booklet and just tried to memorise that, also do practice with friends, no matter their spanish ability. For listening, I did past papers and used youtube videos to practice listening to them speaking, and my ability to identify words. Reading- I did practice papers, and read spanish news to familiarise myself with the language :smile:

Maths- just constant practice papers, I did every single paper that I could have access to (on my exam board/ tier) and would then do practice questions, especially targeting the questions I got wrong. Make sure you do practice papers under a time limit, even stricter than the actual exam to ensure that you have more than enough time! (By the time I got to paper 3 I finished that GCSE in like 30 minutes, so had so much time to review all my answers!)

Reply 7

username7245361

OP

10

Original post

by Mickey Mouse 1

Wow. Amazing grades! How did you memorise your quotes for English Lit? Also, what are you doing now after having finished your GCSEs? Thank you for your help!

Thank you!
I mostly made flash cards that were like fill in the blank, so like "Is this a ____ I see _____ __"
I made essay plans, especially for poetry, where I planned which poems I could compare to hypothetical questions that could come up, the quotes I would use, so I could remember what key ones to remember and my favourite analysis points.
I also did mindmaps with a quote to really just get as much out of it as I could.

I am currently studying english lit, history of art and psychology. I would definitely recommend doing 4 a levels if your school allows, and then dropping one, as you have much for appreciation for your time and will also realise what you truly love. I know so many people (including myself) who ended up falling in love with their 4th subject, which for me was art history, and wanting to study it at university!

Reply 8

dojvoj

5

Original post

by Beeeeeeela

Hi!
I got all 8/9s on my GCSEs (mostly self study) so I am here to help!
The subjects I did were:
English lit AQA- Macbeth, AIC, Jekyll and Hyde, and Power and Conflict
English lang AQA
Spanish AQA
Maths AQA
History Edexcel- Migration, Cold War, Anglo Saxons, Weimar (went from a 5 in my previous mocks to a high 8 in the real thing)
RS AQA- Islam, Christianity, I forgot which themes
Photography
Combined science AQA
I am not good at marking essays, but if there is anything I can try to provide feedback on I will (I have forgotten quite a bit of info but I will try!)
If you have any questions about GCSEs in general beyond subject specific, let me know!

hello how didd u get a 9 in mcbeth what strcture did u use and what analysis
and also for english lang for he cretive writing did u memore descripton and adapt it or did u do ssomethng else

Reply 9

Mickey Mouse 1

14

Original post

by Beeeeeeela

Thank you!
I mostly made flash cards that were like fill in the blank, so like "Is this a ____ I see _____ __"
I made essay plans, especially for poetry, where I planned which poems I could compare to hypothetical questions that could come up, the quotes I would use, so I could remember what key ones to remember and my favourite analysis points.
I also did mindmaps with a quote to really just get as much out of it as I could.

I am currently studying english lit, history of art and psychology. I would definitely recommend doing 4 a levels if your school allows, and then dropping one, as you have much for appreciation for your time and will also realise what you truly love. I know so many people (including myself) who ended up falling in love with their 4th subject, which for me was art history, and wanting to study it at university!

Wow! Thank you so much! This advice is amazing and really helpful. It’s so interesting to hear about what you are doing for A-levels. This was really good to hear. Wishing you the best for the rest of A-levels and uni! :smile:

Reply 10

Ab0204

4

Hey for religious studies how many quotes did you learn for each section and theme?

Reply 11

username7245361

OP

10

Original post

by Ab0204

Hey for religious studies how many quotes did you learn for each section and theme?

I tried to learn about 2-3 specific ones for each subtopic eg. worship, the crucifixion, punishment. And I would also have versatile quotes like "love thy neighbour" and "god is love" as well as the rest of the 10 commandments that could be used in different questions :smile:

Reply 12

jahiiyaa

2

hiii, well done on your gsces!! do you have tips for history (specifically on the resources you used and how you went from getting a 4 to a 8) :smile:

)

Reply 13

km.h

10

Original post

by Beeeeeeela

Hi!
I got all 8/9s on my GCSEs (mostly self study) so I am here to help!
The subjects I did were:
English lit AQA- Macbeth, AIC, Jekyll and Hyde, and Power and Conflict
English lang AQA
Spanish AQA
Maths AQA
History Edexcel- Migration, Cold War, Anglo Saxons, Weimar (went from a 5 in my previous mocks to a high 8 in the real thing)
RS AQA- Islam, Christianity, I forgot which themes
Photography
Combined science AQA
I am not good at marking essays, but if there is anything I can try to provide feedback on I will (I have forgotten quite a bit of info but I will try!)
If you have any questions about GCSEs in general beyond subject specific, let me know!

did you have any particular methods for memorising stuff or was it mostly exam practice and repetition? and what would you recommend I should prioritise near the exams? thank you!

Reply 14

username7245361

OP

10

Original post

by jahiiyaa

hiii, well done on your gsces!! do you have tips for history (specifically on the resources you used and how you went from getting a 4 to a 8) :smile:

)

Hi! I recommend only learning what you need to know to answer a question.
You DO NOT need to memorise the entirety of a textbook but rather a few points within each topic, such as for Weimar, within propaganda I would focus on 3 types of propaganda and remembering 3-4 key pieces of information for each! Really saved me a lot of time
Also, the examiners are positive markers and cannot spend too much time per paper, so, if you get a date wrong by a few years or write a piece of information that you are not 100% sure is accurate, (I literally got the name of a key event wrong in a 12 marker for one of the papers I only lost 3 marks in) worst case scenario you just won't get a tick, you would not lose any marks, so basically just write as much as you can!

Reply 15

username7245361

OP

10

Original post

by alxxex

did you have any particular methods for memorising stuff or was it mostly exam practice and repetition? and what would you recommend I should prioritise near the exams? thank you!

•

Flash cards, my favourite is gizmo!

Close to the exam, for subjects like maths and science- exam practice, do the practice papers you did ages ago again, just get as much practice as possible! I literally did every single maths paper I could, and many of them I did twice.
Also, close to the exams, focus on aspects you continually get wrong, such as for me, I did a ton of vector questions (i don't think they even came up in my exam ☹️ after all that effort) and essay plans, do not waste the time writing the essays unless writing is a hard part for you!

Reply 16

km.h

10

okay thank you so much- this is really helpful esp because I think I do waste a lot of time writing the actual essays!

Reply 17

hellothere12357

9

Hii, do you have any quotes for Macbeth? Im struggling with it a lot at the moment and am unsure how to revise for it, Im aiming for an 8 in the gcse and got a high 6 on my recent mock x

Reply 18

averageduck

15

Original post

by Beeeeeeela

Hi!
I got all 8/9s on my GCSEs (mostly self study) so I am here to help!
The subjects I did were:
English lit AQA- Macbeth, AIC, Jekyll and Hyde, and Power and Conflict
English lang AQA
Spanish AQA
Maths AQA
History Edexcel- Migration, Cold War, Anglo Saxons, Weimar (went from a 5 in my previous mocks to a high 8 in the real thing)
RS AQA- Islam, Christianity, I forgot which themes
Photography
Combined science AQA
I am not good at marking essays, but if there is anything I can try to provide feedback on I will (I have forgotten quite a bit of info but I will try!)
If you have any questions about GCSEs in general beyond subject specific, let me know!

Congrats on such amazing grades! How early would you recommend revising for your GCSEs - should I be making flashcards in the summer holidays/ did you revise every day from the start of year 11? Also, if you finish a topic in a specific subject would it be better to make revision resources then or leave it until before the exam?

Reply 19

username7245361

OP

10

Original post

by averageduck

Congrats on such amazing grades! How early would you recommend revising for your GCSEs - should I be making flashcards in the summer holidays/ did you revise every day from the start of year 11? Also, if you finish a topic in a specific subject would it be better to make revision resources then or leave it until before the exam?

Make your revision resources early! you will thank yourself later, as when you have so much content it so overwhelming to start revision resources later. Plus, you can us these resources for all your mocks as well!
I personally did not start revision properly until like January of year 11 (if I could go back I would probably have started earlier tbh), but it really depends on the person, as I have always been relatively good at exams and in school, but if you think that you need it, starting revision early can be beneficial as you will feel much more confident going into exams and it will allow you to truly cover everything without cramming it all last minute and getting burnt out :smile:

. and starting earlier will allow you to know what revision techniques work and don't work for you, before it is as important!

I got all 8/9s on my GCSEs, ask me anything!

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