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How do I revise GCSE Chemistry/ Sciences effectivly

I'm in year 11 and I do higher triple and I don't know any of the content, to teach myself Chemistry I make notes while watching Cognito videos and from the specification but how do I actually revise it, I've tried online flashcards they aren't helpful and everyone say not to make physical ones as they are a waste of time/unhelpful and people say to do exam questions but I don't know how to do them as I don't know the content. How do I memories all the science content effectively to boost my grade from a 5- to 8 or 9?
Original post
by zgrdhxfmjh
I'm in year 11 and I do higher triple and I don't know any of the content, to teach myself Chemistry I make notes while watching Cognito videos and from the specification but how do I actually revise it, I've tried online flashcards they aren't helpful and everyone say not to make physical ones as they are a waste of time/unhelpful and people say to do exam questions but I don't know how to do them as I don't know the content. How do I memories all the science content effectively to boost my grade from a 5- to 8 or 9?

Who is saying physical flashcards are unhelpful? Revision from one person to the next will be different, so even if a revision method doesn't work for a friend, it might work for you. It does depend on how you use flashcards, you need to make sure you are testing yourself with them and reviewing the flashcards you are getting wrong. I would take a look at spaced repetition to help memorise your flashcards. How were you using flashcards?

Making notes from videos will not be helpful because it is very passive, you need to make sure you are using active revision techniques (i.e. active recall).

Reply 2

Original post
by flowersinmyhair
Who is saying physical flashcards are unhelpful? Revision from one person to the next will be different, so even if a revision method doesn't work for a friend, it might work for you. It does depend on how you use flashcards, you need to make sure you are testing yourself with them and reviewing the flashcards you are getting wrong. I would take a look at spaced repetition to help memorise your flashcards. How were you using flashcards?
Making notes from videos will not be helpful because it is very passive, you need to make sure you are using active revision techniques (i.e. active recall).
I've tried making my own flashcards on Knowt but i found them unhelpful, and I've tried the ones on PMT but I also find those unhelpful. I'm trying to find a way to learn the content and revise it a the same time as I don't have much time left, so I was told that physical flashcards would take too long to make and would be a waste of time, so I tried online but they didn't seen to help me so I assumed physical ones wont help me either.
Original post
by zgrdhxfmjh
I've tried making my own flashcards on Knowt but i found them unhelpful, and I've tried the ones on PMT but I also find those unhelpful. I'm trying to find a way to learn the content and revise it a the same time as I don't have much time left, so I was told that physical flashcards would take too long to make and would be a waste of time, so I tried online but they didn't seen to help me so I assumed physical ones wont help me either.

How are you using the online flashcards? Are you just reading them or are you actively testing yourself with them?

Reply 4

Original post
by flowersinmyhair
How are you using the online flashcards? Are you just reading them or are you actively testing yourself with them?

I tried to memories through them by going through them again and again but I found it difficult to actually remember anything
Original post
by zgrdhxfmjh
I tried to memories through them by going through them again and again but I found it difficult to actually remember anything

How are you going through them? Are you just reading through the flashcards?

Reply 6

Original post
by flowersinmyhair
How are you going through them? Are you just reading through the flashcards?

Yeah
Original post
by zgrdhxfmjh
Yeah

Flashcards are not going to work if you don't use them actively. Make sure you are actually testing yourself. Say the answer out loud if you can and then flip over the flashcard to see if you have got it correct. If you have got it correct put it in one pile, and if you have got it incorrect put it in another pile to review again in a few flashcards time. I used StudySmarter to make my flashcards because it did the spaced repetition for me (and I then also wouldn't lose my flashcards). You can do this with physical flashcards if you want or you could do it online, the choice is yours really.

Reply 8

Original post
by zgrdhxfmjh
I'm in year 11 and I do higher triple and I don't know any of the content, to teach myself Chemistry I make notes while watching Cognito videos and from the specification but how do I actually revise it, I've tried online flashcards they aren't helpful and everyone say not to make physical ones as they are a waste of time/unhelpful and people say to do exam questions but I don't know how to do them as I don't know the content. How do I memories all the science content effectively to boost my grade from a 5- to 8 or 9?

Hey @zgrdhxfmjh,

I would recommend choosing a specific topic (for example, energy changes) and looking over any notes/flashcards you might have on it for an hour or so. Once you've done that, try some past paper questions related to that topic to see whether or not you can answer them. Keep doing this for every topic in the syllabus until you feel like you have a good grasp of the overall content, and then try a full past paper.

Personally, I always liked making physical flashcards as I found I memorised certain pieces of information in the process of writing the flashcards themselves, but if you feel like online ones work better for you, use those instead. 🙂

Hope this helps and best of luck with GCSE Chemistry,
Eve (Kingston Rep).

Reply 9

Original post
by zgrdhxfmjh
I'm in year 11 and I do higher triple and I don't know any of the content, to teach myself Chemistry I make notes while watching Cognito videos and from the specification but how do I actually revise it, I've tried online flashcards they aren't helpful and everyone say not to make physical ones as they are a waste of time/unhelpful and people say to do exam questions but I don't know how to do them as I don't know the content. How do I memories all the science content effectively to boost my grade from a 5- to 8 or 9?

go through your old assessments from this and last year, outlie topics that you find outright hard and intermidiately difficult, move from there into study methods other breddas in this thread have told you to do

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