Alex’s gcse grow your grades 2026

Alex here in y11 hoping to cross the finish line with less than 70 days to my first exams, aiming for all nines and trying to balance it all.

mock grades from january:

maths (igcse edexcel) - 9
english literature (igcse CIE) - low 9 ( worst subject but I really locked in in my revision before the exam)
english language (igcse CIE) - 7
spanish (igcse edexcel) - 9 (no speaking yet)
french (aqa) - 9 (no speaking yet)
physics (edexcel igcse) - 9 (pretty solid)
chemistry (edexcel igcse) - 9 (super proud of this exam got 96%)
biology (edexcel igcse) - 9 ( scraped by 2 marks)
art (aqa) - working at an ‘8+’ level

hoping to do maths, chemistry, biology and Spanish next year for A levels.
outside of academics I also love theatre, working tech for school plays and musicals and do fencing competitively, which is quite difficult to manage as I train after school 6-8 three times a week. no regrets either way - I love it :smile:

)

have my French and Spanish speaking next week and need to begin my consistent revision, hoping to prepare for GCSEs after easter, I’ll probably post weekly or every couple days:
updating on revision (2/3 days)
study bunny (monthly)

Reply 1

zainabmohamed

Original post

by microscopicAlex3

Alex here in y11 hoping to cross the finish line with less than 70 days to my first exams, aiming for all nines and trying to balance it all.
mock grades from january:
maths (igcse edexcel) - 9
english literature (igcse CIE) - low 9 ( worst subject but I really locked in in my revision before the exam)
english language (igcse CIE) - 7
spanish (igcse edexcel) - 9 (no speaking yet)
french (aqa) - 9 (no speaking yet)
physics (edexcel igcse) - 9 (pretty solid)
chemistry (edexcel igcse) - 9 (super proud of this exam got 96%)
biology (edexcel igcse) - 9 ( scraped by 2 marks)
art (aqa) - working at an ‘8+’ level
hoping to do maths, chemistry, biology and Spanish next year for A levels.
outside of academics I also love theatre, working tech for school plays and musicals and do fencing competitively, which is quite difficult to manage as I train after school 6-8 three times a week. no regrets either way - I love it :smile:

)
have my French and Spanish speaking next week and need to begin my consistent revision, hoping to prepare for GCSEs after easter, I’ll probably post weekly or every couple days:
updating on revision (2/3 days)
study bunny (monthly)

Hi!
These are amazing predicted grades!
If you wouldn't mind could you give me some tips and insight on how you managed to achieve them?
Specifically for English Literature/Language and Sciences.

Reply 2

microscopicAlex3

Original post

by zainabmohamed

Hi!
These are amazing predicted grades!
If you wouldn't mind could you give me some tips and insight on how you managed to achieve them?
Specifically for English Literature/Language and Sciences.

Thank you! Honestly sciences is kind of just a long term love - bio and chem are my favourite subjects so that was motivational. Here’s what I did for the five subjects.

Science:

•

Long answer questions usually have set requirements on the mark scheme, I used this in physics for electromagnetism (speakers/motor effect) or chemistry (diamond vs graphite bonding) and others

•

I love the CGP practise books

•

Doing as many past paper questions as possible

•

As initial step in my revision I would make mind maps for sub topics separating the colours for what I knew and what I added from my past notes

English Literature:
My school only does drama and prose as part of y11 mocks as we did poetry in y10

•

I was largely averaging 17-19/25 last year now I’m just getting a nine because it was the exam I revised the most for

•

Brainstorm main themes and characters for each and create a broad essay plan for each

•

Learn quotes in flash cards

•

Practise essays, it forced me to make connections even if I hated it

English lang - we only did paper 1 paper 2 was in y10
I just practised the paper until it was second nature but still messed up, if your doing CIE make sure you know the different format of q3 like interview vs article vs letter

Sorry this came out too long hope it was helpful!

(edited 1 month ago)

Reply 3

taybah_2805

hi! congrats on ur amazing mock scores! i do the same maths board as you and i got an 8 in my maths mock - i was wondering if u had any tips? tysm!

Reply 4

James V

Love this!! If you need any help with English, let me know. I got 9s in both lit and Lang, and full marks in lit - id be happy to help!

Reply 5

microscopicAlex3

Original post

by taybah_2805

hi! congrats on ur amazing mock scores! i do the same maths board as you and i got an 8 in my maths mock - i was wondering if u had any tips? tysm!

I spent most of my revision time focusing on the last questions of the paper - like 20-25 either in past papers or on dr frost maths website - you can pick topics and I suggest picking the 3-4 difficulty or the Corbett math 5 a day. The best advise I also got is if the questions feel easy its not working, to improve try difficult questions.

Reply 6

microscopicAlex3

In the past 2 days I’ve:
Biology:

•

prepared for a test on coordination and response

•

cognitive exam style questions

•

200 educate questions on hormones, the eye and nervous system

Spanish:

•

practises oral 5 questions on theme C ( do I like where I live etc.)

•

5 on school - favourite subject, my primary school, teachers

French:

•

Barely anything - so unprepared for my mock speaking

I’ve also made a list of university open days that I’m planning on attending in June and September, looked at different degrees. Before school starts on Monday I need to lock in for French and my art coursework. 🤞🤞

Reply 7

microscopicAlex3

Today:

Practised French speaking

Art coursework - artist 2 experiment presentation and sketches from photoshoot

Total - 3 hours 20 minutes

Reply 8

microscopicAlex3

Tokay:

•

Practised quizlet for Spanish speaking

•

Did 3 full practises

•

1 hour of English literature poetry revision

•

20 minutes Spanish speaking

Was less productive than I hoped - French speaking mock’s tomorrow :frown:

Total: 3.5 hours

Reply 9

microscopicAlex3

This weekend:

•

poetry revision

•

art coursework - half presented two double pages and practical work

•

vectors revision

•

French speaking practise post-mock
total - 7 hours over 2 days

Reply 10

microscopicAlex3

02/03/26

•

Made radioactivity physics flashcards

•

French environment vocabulary

•

Chemistry consolidation on carousel - structure and bonding properties

Reply 11

CIE.EnglishTutor

Original post

by microscopicAlex3

Alex here in y11 hoping to cross the finish line with less than 70 days to my first exams, aiming for all nines and trying to balance it all.
mock grades from january:
maths (igcse edexcel) - 9
english literature (igcse CIE) - low 9 ( worst subject but I really locked in in my revision before the exam)
english language (igcse CIE) - 7
spanish (igcse edexcel) - 9 (no speaking yet)
french (aqa) - 9 (no speaking yet)
physics (edexcel igcse) - 9 (pretty solid)
chemistry (edexcel igcse) - 9 (super proud of this exam got 96%)
biology (edexcel igcse) - 9 ( scraped by 2 marks)
art (aqa) - working at an ‘8+’ level
hoping to do maths, chemistry, biology and Spanish next year for A levels.
outside of academics I also love theatre, working tech for school plays and musicals and do fencing competitively, which is quite difficult to manage as I train after school 6-8 three times a week. no regrets either way - I love it :smile:

)
have my French and Spanish speaking next week and need to begin my consistent revision, hoping to prepare for GCSEs after easter, I’ll probably post weekly or every couple days:
updating on revision (2/3 days)
study bunny (monthly)

Hi Alex! Those mock results are incredibly strong, especially alongside fencing training and theatre tech. That’s a serious workload to balance.

If English Language is the one subject you’re hoping to push from a 7 towards an 8/9, here are one or two things I've noticed in my time as an examiner that make all the difference.

Question 2(c) can be surprisingly tricky to get full marks on (3/3). One key thing to remember: you must include a quotation. If there isn’t an appropriate quote from the text, it’s not possible to award the mark... even if the explanation itself is very good. So always anchor the point with a short quotation.

Question 3 is really about the reading. Yes, there are marks for writing in the correct voice and form (interview, report, article, etc.), but most of the marks that actually influence your grade come from how effectively you select and develop ideas from the passage.

As a rough guide, stronger responses usually include around 14+ relevant ideas and developments (not including details) from the text. Top-band answers often reach 18–20 because they expand and shape those ideas carefully rather than simply listing them.

I'm not sure whether you have completed coursework or are doing Paper 2 for your writing component, but with the rest of your grades you’re clearly working at a very high level already. Often at this stage it’s just about sharpening exam technique and making sure you hit the specific requirements of the questions — especially in Paper 1, where some of the expectations aren’t immediately obvious from the wording.

Good luck with the French and Spanish speaking exams next week as well. And fair play for keeping fencing going alongside revision.

Reply 12

microscopicAlex3

Today:

•

1 hour of English lit revision on morality in To kill a mockingbird

•

1 hour on radioactivity for physics test

•

30 mins on cosmology and astronomy for physics test

•

15 minute son practise paragraph for English poetry anthology

I finished my speaking mocks:
‘Top band’ - Spanish, need to work on articles and knowing where to stop and will keep revising
32/35 for French, a little accuracy with verbs and articles but overall went well

Need to catch up on 2 double pages for art and going to a gallery for a sketch study

Reply 13

microscopicAlex3

Original post

by CIE.EnglishTutor

Hi Alex! Those mock results are incredibly strong, especially alongside fencing training and theatre tech. That’s a serious workload to balance.
If English Language is the one subject you’re hoping to push from a 7 towards an 8/9, here are one or two things I've noticed in my time as an examiner that make all the difference.

Question 3 is really about the reading. Yes, there are marks for writing in the correct voice and form (interview, report, article, etc.), but most of the marks that actually influence your grade come from how effectively you select and develop ideas from the passage.
As a rough guide, stronger responses usually include around 14+ relevant ideas and developments (not including details) from the text. Top-band answers often reach 18–20 because they expand and shape those ideas carefully rather than simply listing them.

I'm not sure whether you have completed coursework or are doing Paper 2 for your writing component, but with the rest of your grades you’re clearly working at a very high level already. Often at this stage it’s just about sharpening exam technique and making sure you hit the specific requirements of the questions — especially in Paper 1, where some of the expectations aren’t immediately obvious from the wording.
Good luck with the French and Spanish speaking exams next week as well. And fair play for keeping fencing going alongside revision.

Thank you for the advise! I actually got 83% which is equivalent to a 8/9 I believe last year but my schools English department set really strict grade boundaries in order to avoid overconfidence - still hoping to improve though

Reply 14

CIE.EnglishTutor

That’s an excellent result! 83% is already incredibly strong. On many Paper 1 series, a Grade 9 tends to sit somewhere around 86–87%, so you’re already operating around that top range.

It can feel frustrating when schools set stricter internal grade boundaries, but, as you've pointed out, it’s often done deliberately to avoid students becoming overconfident before the real exams. Although English can feel subjective, the Cambridge mark schemes actually make the marking much more structured/objective than people expect. In my experience, school marking can sometimes end up being slightly more generous than examiner marking, so departments often set tougher internal boundaries to keep expectations realistic.

Given the rest of your results, though, you’re clearly working at a very high level already. If you're trying to push over the Grade 9 threshold, one useful thing to do is look back over the past papers you've done and see if there are any patterns in where you tend to lose marks.

At that stage it’s usually not a knowledge issue — it’s an exam technique issue. Good luck with your revision!