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Advice to get basically all 9s in GCSE (ask me anything)

Hey so I sat my GCSEs in the Summer of 2024 and I got these grades:
English Lang (Eduqas) - 9
English Lit (Eduqas) - 9 - 168/200
Maths (Edexcel) - 9 - 236/240
Further Maths (AQA) - 9 - 159/160
Biology (AQA) - 9 - 158/200
Chemistry (AQA) - 9 - 174/200
Physics (AQA) - 9 - 172/200
RS (Eduqas) - 9 - 218/252
French (AQA) - 8 - 192/240
Geography (AQA - 9 - 224/252
History (AQA) - 9 - 136/168
Business (AQA) - 9 - 152/180
I'm currently studying A Level Maths, Further Maths, Physics and History.
If any one sitting GCSEs this year or in later years wants ANY advice on subject specific revision, study techniques, youtube channels to use, etc, let me know and I'll be happy to help :smile:

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Reply 1

Original post
by EdTheEagle_2116
Hey so I sat my GCSEs in the Summer of 2024 and I got these grades:
English Lang (Eduqas) - 9
English Lit (Eduqas) - 9 - 168/200
Maths (Edexcel) - 9 - 236/240
Further Maths (AQA) - 9 - 159/160
Biology (AQA) - 9 - 158/200
Chemistry (AQA) - 9 - 174/200
Physics (AQA) - 9 - 172/200
RS (Eduqas) - 9 - 218/252
French (AQA) - 8 - 192/240
Geography (AQA - 9 - 224/252
History (AQA) - 9 - 136/168
Business (AQA) - 9 - 152/180
I'm currently studying A Level Maths, Further Maths, Physics and History.
If any one sitting GCSEs this year or in later years wants ANY advice on subject specific revision, study techniques, youtube channels to use, etc, let me know and I'll be happy to help :smile:


How did you get a 9 in English language eduqas

Reply 2

And how do you revise sciences and geography quickly

Reply 3

How do u revise history?

Reply 4

Original post
by Foolcool96
How did you get a 9 in English language eduqas


Okay so this one is very weird. From Year 9 I was on like 7s and then by the end of Year 10 I was able to push it up to a 9 on basically every test by following a pretty simple method.
You might see people recommend doing like just point quote, point quote, etc for a five/ten marker but this is really unhelpful when reaching for those upper marks, like 8/10 and above.
What you really want to be doing for these longer mark questions is point quote and a very solid chunk of analysis, maybe zooming in on useful words, or even better techniques the writer uses.
For a general five marker, I'd do this three times (four if I had time at the end to come back to it)
For a ten marker, repeating this five or ideally six times is perfect. This applies to the first parts of papers 1 and 2.
It's also important for the reading sections that you have very good coverage of all parts of the lines, not just loads from the end of the passage for example.

If you really want to get consistent 9/10 out of 10s however, try and think about how ideas or themes shift and change throughout the passage in question. Examiners LOVE that.

I'm gonna be real for the story part in paper 1 all you can realistically do is yap. I think I wrote my story about someone smashing the **** of a computer at school, did loads of description, a fair bit of funny dialogue and I evidently did pretty well. Try and pick something you'll enjoy writing about as well, makes things way easier. And don't end with "it was all a dream" 😃

For the non fiction writing the same applies, generally you'll end up with something that most students can relate to so obviously pick the option that you'll think you'll enjoy answering the most. If you can also come up with some curveball advice, or some niche ideas/points that other students definitely will not come up with, these are more interesting to the examiner making it more likely you'll get top marks.

Practice didn't really make perfect for me to be fair, I did no practice papers out of class, but if you follow the method I've outlined above you should be grand. Hope the advice helps

Reply 5

Original post
by Foolcool96
And how do you revise sciences and geography quickly


For sciences, I used FreeScienceLessons and made flashcards on every video he makes for GCSE on a website called Anki and then revised those like two nights before each exam and it was fine. Required Practicals are usually neglected by students, these are very important to revise, we got loads in 2024, especially in Biology!
For Geography, I used the notes on PMT to create Flashcards on Anki. Same process as sciences for reviewing them. Make sure you have at least some key info for ALL of your case studies, people sometimes miss info from case studies like on rivers/coasts for example. This is an easy way to lose four marks. I think in 2024 we had to write about both case studies for rivers and coasts so that was 8 marks down the drain for most people but it won't be if you revise it 💪

Reply 6

Original post
by HR_K
How do u revise history?


If you have a textbook, History becomes a breeze, especially at GCSE. Again, my advice kinda becomes very similar to previous subjects, but Anki flashcards are the way to go. You don't need to go super in depth, but some key stats and figures are helpful. Also when answering questions, make sure you have a good chunk of ANALYSIS which actually answers the question within the paragraphs. Several students just try to blurt down key information which whilst relevant, may cap you at a 12/16 for example without more development.
Hope this helps

Reply 7

what do you for maths and further maths

Reply 8

Original post
by Foolcool96
And how do you revise sciences and geography quickly


Do a past paper and just flash card every question you get wrong and do 20 mins a day. And use COGNITO. It’s awesome

Reply 9

Original post
by EdTheEagle_2116
Hey so I sat my GCSEs in the Summer of 2024 and I got these grades:
English Lang (Eduqas) - 9
English Lit (Eduqas) - 9 - 168/200
Maths (Edexcel) - 9 - 236/240
Further Maths (AQA) - 9 - 159/160
Biology (AQA) - 9 - 158/200
Chemistry (AQA) - 9 - 174/200
Physics (AQA) - 9 - 172/200
RS (Eduqas) - 9 - 218/252
French (AQA) - 8 - 192/240
Geography (AQA - 9 - 224/252
History (AQA) - 9 - 136/168
Business (AQA) - 9 - 152/180
I'm currently studying A Level Maths, Further Maths, Physics and History.
If any one sitting GCSEs this year or in later years wants ANY advice on subject specific revision, study techniques, youtube channels to use, etc, let me know and I'll be happy to help :smile:

english literature plsss????

Reply 10

For English language i get roughly 36/40 in section a but for section b paper 1 eduqas I get around 10/40 do you think I could plan a story from before if so can you give me a title and theme that could be adaptable for any question and something that I can write a lot about

Reply 11

Original post
by deserving-filame
what do you for maths and further maths


For Maths, use GCSE Maths Tutor (YouTube channel) and watch ALL of his YouTube videos, he goes through practically everything that could be asked. After that, spam past papers focussing on the later questions as they differentiate between the upper three grades. If you get to the point where you're consistently getting 70+ you're basically guaranteed a 9. People often skip out on Circle Theorems proofs as well, make sure you memorise these.

For Further Maths, similarly spam past papers. However, I'd use 1stClassMaths, watching all of his videos on the L2 AQA Further Maths Course (complete the worksheets he provides as well, they were integral to me getting a 9). What I did was if I got 90% on a Worksheet, I'd move onto the next one. If I didn't, I'd repeat. Also make sure you don't neglect normal higher gcse topics like completing the square, circle theorems, quadratic sequences etc

Reply 12

Original post
by CP2409
english literature plsss????


English Literature was really weird for me, my teacher had really high grade boundaries in class so no joke, before GCSEs the highest I had ever gotten in class was a seven.
The only thing you really need to do is quote memorisation, I'd use Anki for this. I studied Macbeth, An Inspector Calls and A Christmas Carol and for these, I chose to learn four quotes for each main character and theme, it took a while to memorise but it worked.
For poetry anthology, try and memorise about four quotes per poem and revise EVERY poem - a random one WILL come up in the exam and you WILL have to be confident in learning how to compare it to another one.
Context is also important, worth a good chunk of your grade for both poetry anthology and the 19th century text, make sure you make a Flashcard or two per text/poem to help you secure top grades.
In terms of paragraph structure if you're interested, my teacher taught me to use the PQEAWP structure. P: point. Q: quotation. E: explanation. A: analysis (this is where the bulk of your paragraph will take place, try and choose quotes with SEVERAL words/techniques to zoom in on and make sure you clearly identify and EVALUATE their effect (say how and why they're effective). W: Writers purpose (if a context based question, this is where I'd write about context. If not, I'd try and talk about what and why the writer was getting at when writing the section). P: Personal response (short section, identify what the effect is on the reader, does it elicit any emotions in particular)
I spammed this structure for EVERY paragraph in GCSE English Lit and I got a very safe 9.
You'll smash it

Reply 13

Original post
by Foolcool96
For English language i get roughly 36/40 in section a but for section b paper 1 eduqas I get around 10/40 do you think I could plan a story from before if so can you give me a title and theme that could be adaptable for any question and something that I can write a lot about


Ideas that you can really mess around with and may be relatable (first time experiences are good to write about, you can really dig deep into senses, eg what you can hear, see, in a given situation):
First day at school
First day at the gym
Breaking up with a partner/getting broken up with
Some sort of semi-traumatic event (a mate of mine no joke wrote about ending their life by jumping in front of train and they got a high 8)
An argument with a friend
The list goes on and on..
To be honest, for Eduqas, they give you a selection of ideas to work with, but you can really mess around with them and be creative so long as you stick to what it says.
The more creative you get the better but I'd DEFINITELY make sure to keep it relatively grounded in reality. Having a story when someone turns up at a school only to find Tung Tung Tung Sahur sitting at the canteen table isn't really gonna reach top marks. A normal everyday experience is usually better to get a good grade.
But try and be really descriptive using a good range of techniques: similes, metaphors, juxtaposition, etc are always safe bets.
Have fun writing it though, that's the most important thing. Best of luck!

Reply 14

Original post
by aaaxtox
Do a past paper and just flash card every question you get wrong and do 20 mins a day. And use COGNITO. It’s awesome


To be fair I used Cognito as well for Physics, would definitely recommend them as well, can sometimes go a little more in depth than FSL. Some goated advice here 💪

Reply 15

Original post
by EdTheEagle_2116
Hey so I sat my GCSEs in the Summer of 2024 and I got these grades:
English Lang (Eduqas) - 9
English Lit (Eduqas) - 9 - 168/200
Maths (Edexcel) - 9 - 236/240
Further Maths (AQA) - 9 - 159/160
Biology (AQA) - 9 - 158/200
Chemistry (AQA) - 9 - 174/200
Physics (AQA) - 9 - 172/200
RS (Eduqas) - 9 - 218/252
French (AQA) - 8 - 192/240
Geography (AQA - 9 - 224/252
History (AQA) - 9 - 136/168
Business (AQA) - 9 - 152/180
I'm currently studying A Level Maths, Further Maths, Physics and History.
If any one sitting GCSEs this year or in later years wants ANY advice on subject specific revision, study techniques, youtube channels to use, etc, let me know and I'll be happy to help :smile:


omg yes i’d definitely need help with RS

Reply 16

Original post
by carol_25
omg yes i’d definitely need help with RS


For Eduqas, I studied Islam as my option, but these tips should work no matter what option you take.
For ALL the key definitions, make Flashcards on Anki/Quizlet and just memorise these. They're easy to regurgitate in the exam, easy 16 marks overall just by blurting.
Our school recommended us to buy this textbook from the exam board that contained all the relevant information, I just made flashcards on everything in the textbook that was relevant to my course and spammed these before the exam.

They don't really expect a ridiculously good standard of essay writing in RS, so don't think you need to go super in-depth with analysis, but the more ideas and viewpoints you can put in them, the better your marks will be.

Quotations from Bible/Quran (I've probably butchered that spelling) aren't that integral to getting top marks, if you can at least shove in two quotes per essay and explain why they are relevant, maybe one or two for a five/eight marker if you want, this should be enough to impress an examiner.

Also make sure your SPAG is on point! There's 12 marks from SPAG and, taking me as an example, if I hadn't gotten those 12 SPAG marks I'd have been on 206/252 which would have been an 8.

Apologies if my advice is a little bit vague for this subject, but it's the only subject our school made us take in 2023 (when I was in Year 10) so my recollection of it is a little hazy.

Hopefully these tips will help you out though!

Reply 17

Original post
by EdTheEagle_2116
For Eduqas, I studied Islam as my option, but these tips should work no matter what option you take.
For ALL the key definitions, make Flashcards on Anki/Quizlet and just memorise these. They're easy to regurgitate in the exam, easy 16 marks overall just by blurting.
Our school recommended us to buy this textbook from the exam board that contained all the relevant information, I just made flashcards on everything in the textbook that was relevant to my course and spammed these before the exam.
They don't really expect a ridiculously good standard of essay writing in RS, so don't think you need to go super in-depth with analysis, but the more ideas and viewpoints you can put in them, the better your marks will be.
Quotations from Bible/Quran (I've probably butchered that spelling) aren't that integral to getting top marks, if you can at least shove in two quotes per essay and explain why they are relevant, maybe one or two for a five/eight marker if you want, this should be enough to impress an examiner.
Also make sure your SPAG is on point! There's 12 marks from SPAG and, taking me as an example, if I hadn't gotten those 12 SPAG marks I'd have been on 206/252 which would have been an 8.
Apologies if my advice is a little bit vague for this subject, but it's the only subject our school made us take in 2023 (when I was in Year 10) so my recollection of it is a little hazy.
Hopefully these tips will help you out though!

for eduqas RS do u only need to do one religion? that would be so good cz im already muslim😭

Reply 18

Original post
by ibelieve-icanfly
for eduqas RS do u only need to do one religion? that would be so good cz im already muslim😭


Lmao it might be up to your school tbf, everyone studies Christianity but your school might end up picking Buddhism, Islam or Hinduism etc

Reply 19

Original post
by EdTheEagle_2116
Lmao it might be up to your school tbf, everyone studies Christianity but your school might end up picking Buddhism, Islam or Hinduism etc

im homeschls and the online thing i go to only give 7 GCSE so i'd do it privately

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