Need help revising for GCSE's

6

Hello, Im a year 11 student currently in my final year in high school a lot of pressure on me for getting good grade for my GCSE's but I have no idea how to revise.
The subjects I do are:
mathematics higher- Edexcel
English language/ English literature- aqa
higher combined science- Edexcel
Geography A - Edexcel
Spanish higher - aqa

and for nearly all of these im at around 4,5,6.
My exams are really close and I have no clue on how to revise and where I should start of!

any advice would be helpful :smile:

Reply 1

mehxmer

8

Hi there! Hope you're well. As a Year 13 student currently doing my A-Levels, I will say you have exactly 100 days left give or take when your exams are. My best advice is if you don't know the content DO BRAIN DUMPS (for the essay subjects at least it'll help trust me). However, if you have been doing pretty decent revision, my best advice is GRIND those past papers. GCSE's WILL matter (I get asked about it all the time, ofc they're not as important compared to ur A-Level results), but most places generally ask for English and Maths. For maths, I found MathsGenie videos really useful and then attempting practice questions straight after it. For Language, Firstratetutors does really good videos on how to answer descriptive writing questions/paper 2. And for literature, Mr Sally and MrEverythingEnglish are really good aswell! (Also as an A-Level Literature student), my best advice for Literature, at least now is making essay plans (e.g. if ur focusing on the theme ambition for macbeth, create an essay plan on what characters/quotes/context you're planning to add in each paragraph) etc. I never really did Spanish nor Geography so I can't really advise on that. My best advice is don't mess around now, you're going to get the longest summer break of your entire life, whether its playing games on your PS5, or going out with your friends PLAN IT AFTER YOUR EXAMS. Because believe it or not. These exams MATTER!! (also if you need any help with english, i'll be happy to read over any essays you like 🙂 )

Reply 2

uzumakithunder_

OP

6

Original post

by mehxmer

Hi there! Hope you're well. As a Year 13 student currently doing my A-Levels, I will say you have exactly 100 days left give or take when your exams are. My best advice is if you don't know the content DO BRAIN DUMPS (for the essay subjects at least it'll help trust me). However, if you have been doing pretty decent revision, my best advice is GRIND those past papers. GCSE's WILL matter (I get asked about it all the time, ofc they're not as important compared to ur A-Level results), but most places generally ask for English and Maths. For maths, I found MathsGenie videos really useful and then attempting practice questions straight after it. For Language, Firstratetutors does really good videos on how to answer descriptive writing questions/paper 2. And for literature, Mr Sally and MrEverythingEnglish are really good aswell! (Also as an A-Level Literature student), my best advice for Literature, at least now is making essay plans (e.g. if ur focusing on the theme ambition for macbeth, create an essay plan on what characters/quotes/context you're planning to add in each paragraph) etc. I never really did Spanish nor Geography so I can't really advise on that. My best advice is don't mess around now, you're going to get the longest summer break of your entire life, whether its playing games on your PS5, or going out with your friends PLAN IT AFTER YOUR EXAMS. Because believe it or not. These exams MATTER!! (also if you need any help with english, i'll be happy to read over any essays you like 🙂 )

thank you soo much, can you show me an example of what you mean by making an essay plan for Macbeth?

Reply 3

mehxmer

8

Ofc! Let's say you get a question: Explore how Ambition can be seen in Macbeth. What would you do first? Well, there's a few ways you could target this. Depending on how many paragraphs your teacher asks you to write (normally 3 per essay), plan one paragraph and ask yourself these questions: (What does Ambition mean in the play, Who embodies/doesn't embody traits of Ambition, Where can this be seen?, When does this happen? (Integrate what Act, Scene, whether some scenes mirror/contrast each other etc), Why is this scene/authorial intent (integrate context here), How can this be seen? (Analysis of quotes + explain). For example, if I were taking the character of Macbeth, I know Macbeth is a tragic hero whose harmartia (fatal flaw) stems from his pride for attaining power through overarching ambition. (This answers both the What/Who), this could potentially be seen in every act, but more specifically Act 2 Scene 1, "is this a dagger that I see before me?" (this is just an example but you could elaborate on this more with other scenes), then describe why Shakespeare decided to explore Ambition (perhaps link it to the Great Chain of Being? and the How is pretty self-explanatory in terms of using a quote that answers the theme Ambition and analysing it and ofc then zooming into language devices, other quotes that can be seen elsewhere etc. (I would replicate answering these specific questions for every paragraph, bullet-pointing your ideas in this order, and if you're confident enough, use the ideas you used for this to construct a paragraph. That way you're hitting every bit of analysis the examiner wants for sophistication on a mark scheme). Hope this helps! :smile:

(edited 1 month ago)

Reply 4

Emilia.7

11

Original post

by uzumakithunder_

Hello, Im a year 11 student currently in my final year in high school a lot of pressure on me for getting good grade for my GCSE's but I have no idea how to revise.
The subjects I do are:
mathematics higher- Edexcel
English language/ English literature- aqa
higher combined science- Edexcel
Geography A - Edexcel
Spanish higher - aqa
and for nearly all of these im at around 4,5,6.
My exams are really close and I have no clue on how to revise and where I should start of!
any advice would be helpful :smile:

Hi I’m in year 11 too but I do lots of revision so hopefully these tips would be helpful as they work for me!
Spanish - watch ur favourite shows with spanish dub. practise lots of listenings. Write practise questions for your speaking and check them with your teacher to make sure they’re accurate, this will also help u for the writing.
I love Seneca for science, history, and English lit
(Especially English lit I think it’s so helpful for content as well as context)
Good luck!!!

Reply 5

meek-acorn

9

Original post

by uzumakithunder_

Hello, Im a year 11 student currently in my final year in high school a lot of pressure on me for getting good grade for my GCSE's but I have no idea how to revise.
The subjects I do are:
mathematics higher- Edexcel
English language/ English literature- aqa
higher combined science- Edexcel
Geography A - Edexcel
Spanish higher - aqa
and for nearly all of these im at around 4,5,6.
My exams are really close and I have no clue on how to revise and where I should start of!
any advice would be helpful :smile:

alevel student here doing english lit and spanish, got 7 88 99999999 at gcse, if you need anything specific for those 2 lmk, my exam boards are the same as yours

maths: do your homework (sparxs?) and past papers (there’s so many, doesn’t matter if they aren’t your exam board too), if you’re unsure on content ask your teacher, watch videos from as someone alr said maths genie, and corbett maths

science: free science lessons, seneca learning.com for mini quizzes, cognito videos on youtube - make notes on videos, blurt topics and fill in gaps with a diff colour then make flashcards, i used seneca so much on the go/in little bursts, little and often is key

language: past papers are god, mr salles is jesus - practice essays, practice doing analysis fast, time yourself,

literature: i did macbeth jekyll and hyde love and relationships and lord of the flies if you want anything specific
books: know the plot - make rhymes for key scenes/chapters so you know what happens when, mindmaps on characters and themes with quotes, quizlet make quote flashcards or use other peoples, plan essays including quotes you’d use, mr everything english mr Bruff mr salles
poetry: pick 5 poems to know like the back of your hand that cover all themes/topics that could come up (for l&r: family, romantic, unrequited, etc), know quotes, know the key ideas for analysis, PLAN EXAM QS
write an exam Q or paragraph every week, alternating lang and lit and changing topic/Q

spanish: duolingo? if you want, it’s worth the daily practice for grammar
practice writing essays for that exam, just doing more reading and listening is the best way to revise those, drill tense endings (tengo tienes tiene tenemos tenéis tienen etc) speak to yourself in spanish about what you did that day (keep a journal?) make flashcards/quizlet use other people’s for vocab you forget
can’t help with speaking in afraid, the exams so different to what i did it changed in 2025 i did 2024

little and often, 1-3 hrs daily, 2-4 hrs daily at weekends/holidays, pomodoro blurting revising with friends chatting about topics asking your teachers exam papers and questions (get teachers to mark)

didn’t do geography sorry

Need help revising for GCSE's

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