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Ask me any questions! - I got all 9s/8s at GCSE!

Hi, I'm in Y12 right now, but I'm happy to help younger students with any problems! I took Maths, Further Maths [AQA L2], History, Latin, Drama, English Lit, English Lang, Triple Higher Sciences!

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Reply 1

Would you say the further maths paper especially the non calculator is hard?
Also would you suggest getting a tutor for Further maths?
Did you do GCSE or IGCSE for all your subjects excluding FM?

Reply 2

I take history do you have any tips on memorising the structure for each question and writing much faster for that and the Englishes? Also how can i improve at maths im constantly fluncuating between 4s and 6s and im stronger at calculator

Reply 3

Original post
by seagullsatemybag
Would you say the further maths paper especially the non calculator is hard?
Also would you suggest getting a tutor for Further maths?
Did you do GCSE or IGCSE for all your subjects excluding FM?

I did GCSE for all 11 subjects, I wouldn't say it's too much harder. There is some new content like differentiation, very very basic matrices and trig identities. My school honestley wasn't the best at going through it, but 1st Class Maths has very useful videos + questions on his website, he does step by step solutions on hit yt videos too. i wouldn't recomment getting a tutor, only because it's not that difficult if you're on track to get a grae 8/9 in normal maths.

Reply 4

Original post
by No13
I take history do you have any tips on memorising the structure for each question and writing much faster for that and the Englishes? Also how can i improve at maths im constantly fluncuating between 4s and 6s and im stronger at calculator

I practice the stucture quite slowly at first, like making sure I hit all the points without time pressure. I did eduqas, so we only had about 5 questions though. For time management, i think practice is what's best. for english essays though, i only wrote 1 para at a time, so i got the stucture perfect and i knew i could write fast enough. But, i am naturally a fast writer. + don't ovethink too much because it takes time you can use for writing instead. Maths isn't a concept/understanding subject - it's just practice. some useful websites are mathsgenie, corbettmaths [their 5-a-days are very useful], 1st class maths, and just your maths textbook exercises too!

Reply 5

Original post
by bhs009
Hi, I'm in Y12 right now, but I'm happy to help younger students with any problems! I took Maths, Further Maths [AQA L2], History, Latin, Drama, English Lit, English Lang, Triple Higher Sciences!

Hi, when did you actually start revising for gcses, like properly locking in? And when you started did you already have a good grasp of each subject?

Reply 6

What was your set method for revising Maths and Further Maths?

Reply 7

Original post
by erenswifey
Hi, when did you actually start revising for gcses, like properly locking in? And when you started did you already have a good grasp of each subject?

I revised really well for my mocks, like for all the content in my mocks [it was usually 1/2 of the papers besides maths and science in my school] i had all my revision resources made so i didn't have to make them feb-may. also that knowledge really stuck with me so i had less to do for my actual exams, so i did have a good grasp of my subjects. a lot of my friends who didn't revise well for mocks started in easter holidays, and they did average.

Reply 8

Original post
by AshTheBookThief
What was your set method for revising Maths and Further Maths?

exam questions + mark them, if i got anything wrong [not a calculation error, but a understanding error], i would watch a yt videos, by mathsgenie, gcsemathstutor [idk if they have further maths content] and 1st class maths. i would also do the corbettmaths 5-a-day from the beginning of the year, so i was staying consistent. corbettmaths also further maths gcse 5-a-days too.

Reply 9

Original post
by bhs009
exam questions + mark them, if i got anything wrong [not a calculation error, but a understanding error], i would watch a yt videos, by mathsgenie, gcsemathstutor [idk if they have further maths content] and 1st class maths. i would also do the corbettmaths 5-a-day from the beginning of the year, so i was staying consistent. corbettmaths also further maths gcse 5-a-days too.


Thank you so much! That’s really useful as I didn’t really have much of an idea of how to go about revising maths

Reply 10

Original post
by bhs009
Hi, I'm in Y12 right now, but I'm happy to help younger students with any problems! I took Maths, Further Maths [AQA L2], History, Latin, Drama, English Lit, English Lang, Triple Higher Sciences!

What would you recommend for the Englishes. I seem to have mastered all my other subjects, but I can't seem to crack English. I was predicted a 5 in English literature and a 6 in language, where I'm predicted a 9 in all my other subjects. I seem to write as such an unadvanced style, and I really want to get all 9s

Reply 11

Original post
by tam_4004
What would you recommend for the Englishes. I seem to have mastered all my other subjects, but I can't seem to crack English. I was predicted a 5 in English literature and a 6 in language, where I'm predicted a 9 in all my other subjects. I seem to write as such an unadvanced style, and I really want to get all 9s

For english lit, I made my own really good structure, for every module besides poetry, i had the same structure for each paragraph, which honestly just came with time and practice. structure: 1.topic sentence 2.first quote 3.analyse 4. different perspective/interpretation or context 5.second quote 6. analyse 7. different interpretation or context [whichever one i didn't do first. my thesis/introduction was the structure from first rate tutors
. i also made gizmo decks/flashcards for key quotes, context and fancy words. for english language, it's honestly just how many exam questions you do. but for the creative writing, reading books helps because you pick up phrases and wordings that are really easy to slip into question 5.

Reply 12

Original post
by bhs009
For english lit, I made my own really good structure, for every module besides poetry, i had the same structure for each paragraph, which honestly just came with time and practice. structure: 1.topic sentence 2.first quote 3.analyse 4. different perspective/interpretation or context 5.second quote 6. analyse 7. different interpretation or context [whichever one i didn't do first. my thesis/introduction was the structure from first rate tutors
. i also made gizmo decks/flashcards for key quotes, context and fancy words. for english language, it's honestly just how many exam questions you do. but for the creative writing, reading books helps because you pick up phrases and wordings that are really easy to slip into question 5.

and watch the mr everything english videos for english language because he goes through it really well.

Reply 13

do you have any revision methods that you found worked really well for stem subjects? I'm predicted quite high on all my humanities/languages however I'm finding it hard to get the sciences in particular and I feel like I just don't think in the way they want me to when trying to solve problems. Additionally, I'm struggling with keeping up with actually revising for my GCSES after school due to the excess homework and test revision (they never stop I swear). Do you have any tips with time management or how to go about prioritising effectively? this was a long one and I apologise haha, I really appreciate you reading this

Reply 14

Original post
by Tias0
do you have any revision methods that you found worked really well for stem subjects? I'm predicted quite high on all my humanities/languages however I'm finding it hard to get the sciences in particular and I feel like I just don't think in the way they want me to when trying to solve problems. Additionally, I'm struggling with keeping up with actually revising for my GCSES after school due to the excess homework and test revision (they never stop I swear). Do you have any tips with time management or how to go about prioritising effectively? this was a long one and I apologise haha, I really appreciate you reading this

no it's okay!! for sciences: i made gizmo decks [flashcards] to help understand and memorise the content. I did a lot of past papers and exam questions too, and I think marking them myself, understanding where i went wrong was really useful too. read the examiner's guidance next to the answers too. the more exam questions i did, the more i realised a lot of qs [especially bio and chem] were really similar, just different scenarious. also, keep track of which questions you did wrong, so like at the end of each week or two weeks, you can go back and redo them. put the wrong answers + questions on a flashcards to test yourself on your weaknesses.
timing: start with around 2 - 2.5 hours an evening depending on your extracurriculars. don't watch yt/videos or listen to music if you know it's distracting. maybe you could watch a summary video on a topic while doing the questions for that topic too, just to help you a bit. try and stick to a routine everyday. like doing the same things when you get home from school.
sorry for the long response!
What is the air speed velocity of an unladed swallow?

Reply 16

What A levels are you doing and how are preparing your revision?

Reply 17

Original post
by bhs009
no it's okay!! for sciences: i made gizmo decks [flashcards] to help understand and memorise the content. I did a lot of past papers and exam questions too, and I think marking them myself, understanding where i went wrong was really useful too. read the examiner's guidance next to the answers too. the more exam questions i did, the more i realised a lot of qs [especially bio and chem] were really similar, just different scenarious. also, keep track of which questions you did wrong, so like at the end of each week or two weeks, you can go back and redo them. put the wrong answers + questions on a flashcards to test yourself on your weaknesses.
timing: start with around 2 - 2.5 hours an evening depending on your extracurriculars. don't watch yt/videos or listen to music if you know it's distracting. maybe you could watch a summary video on a topic while doing the questions for that topic too, just to help you a bit. try and stick to a routine everyday. like doing the same things when you get home from school.
sorry for the long response!


thank you so much for taking time to respond!! I will definitely put these tips into practice :smile:)

Reply 18

Original post
by maneve
What A levels are you doing and how are preparing your revision?

i'm doing maths,physics and history [and further maths, which i haven't started yet]. maths: bicen maths + zeeshan zamurred videos, bicen maths lesson plans [they're the dr.frost ones], dr.frost questions, textbook exercises. physics: flashcards, pmt exam questions for each topic. my school gives us thick booklets full of exam questions, so i do those too, i think my teachers make them up!. history: hundreds of flashcards, the occasional essay [like 1 every two weeks - homework set by teachers], blurting on a whiteboard/paper.
hope this helps!

Reply 19

Original post
by bhs009
i'm doing maths,physics and history [and further maths, which i haven't started yet]. maths: bicen maths + zeeshan zamurred videos, bicen maths lesson plans [they're the dr.frost ones], dr.frost questions, textbook exercises. physics: flashcards, pmt exam questions for each topic. my school gives us thick booklets full of exam questions, so i do those too, i think my teachers make them up!. history: hundreds of flashcards, the occasional essay [like 1 every two weeks - homework set by teachers], blurting on a whiteboard/paper.
hope this helps!

Thank you so much for responding back to me. You are doing so much. Well done you. Are you getting good marks for any tests that you have had so far? Do you use Anki flashcards at all? If so do you think that they are any good as I'm considering moving from my manual cards to them.

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