Gcse y10 mocks timetable help

9

Hi, I'm in Y10, and I have mocks coming up. I'm really struggling to make a proper revision timetable to revise for my mocks that'll be in early April. I've watched some youtube videos, and everyone seems to b talking about retrospective timetable. And I think it's a really good idea - not having a fixed timetable and every time you do a topic, you write out the date and colour code the difficulty of the revision session. But I'm so confused about that. If I don't set specific days to revise for all 10 of my subjects and just choose random days to study for topics, what if I don't finish all of the topics for all the subjects in time or to go through the red-coded topics? Don't you kind of need to set aside days to study for a specific topic? I've been asking ChatGPT to make my timetable, and it always messes up something - I mean, I get it, cuz it keeps saying that I'm giving it lots of conditions and a list of topics to revise for over a very large amount of time, which any AI can't handle, apparently. This is to those with the top grades, I really need advice from you. How did you make your timetables for mocks in Y10? I know it sounds quite small, but I haven't even started revising with a whole week off - I've pretty much been just having long chats with ChatGPT to the point where I've given up on AI and want to do it on my own with help from actual people who have the experience.

Reply 1

SteveTheNoob1

16

Y12 here. 9999998888 + A. I didn't revise until late y11. I recommend that if you want to make a timetable, you do, but confidence levels on topics or subjects change constantly, and sticking to a fixed timetable can be detrimental if you're wasting time revising things you don't need to, or not revising things you do (as an example, biology was really bad for me for a while so i revised it a lot more, but then i got really good at it [best gcse biology score in my school :d] so didn't need to revise anymore and it freed time for other subjects). For each of your classes, I would recommend you write out a list of topics somewhere, and do the ones you feel least confident with. (if you want to know what I recommend when I say "do" just say so).

This part is really important. Don't spend 6 hours a day revising, because it will genuinely melt your brain even if you think it works for you. You will absorb more information, but your ability to apply it will drop drastically to the point where the info is useless for >2 marks. And make sure to stay healthy. Eat well, get good sleep (sleep is VERY important), and socialise. If it's getting too much, take a rest day. Powering through can be worse in the long run.

All in all, you're still in year 10, and if you commit to anything even slightly effective and stick with it until gcses, you will do well, but this method, at least to me, is the most effective, least stressful and least time consuming method I can think of for virtually anyone. If you don't finish all your topics, it's really not a big deal. Even if you just finish half, the half left is the half you're most confident with. Worrying about doing everything is pointless, you still have well over a year until exams, that's plenty of time. If you really want to worry about something, worry about turning bad topics into good topics, not ok topics into great topics. The difference between bad and good in terms of marks is much bigger than ok and great, and they take equally as long to do usually. Once you have no bad topics, turn ok topics into great, etc.

I hope this helps. You really don't need to worry as much as you probably are though.

(and please, do not trust chatgpt. i'm not going to get into the inner functions of ai, but how it fundamentally works [meaning nothing will change it], means that it can't reliably give good data, and it's very good at making bad data seem like good data.)

(edited 1 month ago)

Reply 2

LIFEchoicesHelp

OP

9

Original post

by AltAccount00

Y12 here. 9999998888 + A. I didn't revise until late y11. I recommend that if you want to make a timetable, you do, but confidence levels on topics or subjects change constantly, and sticking to a fixed timetable can be detrimental if you're wasting time revising things you don't need to, or not revising things you do (as an example, biology was really bad for me for a while so i revised it a lot more, but then i got really good at it [best gcse biology score in my school :d] so didn't need to revise anymore and it freed time for other subjects). For each of your classes, I would recommend you write out a list of topics somewhere, and do the ones you feel least confident with. (if you want to know what I recommend when I say "do" just say so).
This part is really important. Don't spend 6 hours a day revising, because it will genuinely melt your brain even if you think it works for you. You will absorb more information, but your ability to apply it will drop drastically to the point where the info is useless for >2 marks. And make sure to stay healthy. Eat well, get good sleep (sleep is VERY important), and socialise. If it's getting too much, take a rest day. Powering through can be worse in the long run.
All in all, you're still in year 10, and if you commit to anything even slightly effective and stick with it until gcses, you will do well, but this method, at least to me, is the most effective, least stressful and least time consuming method I can think of for virtually anyone. If you don't finish all your topics, it's really not a big deal. Even if you just finish half, the half left is the half you're most confident with. Worrying about doing everything is pointless, you still have well over a year until exams, that's plenty of time. If you really want to worry about something, worry about turning bad topics into good topics, not ok topics into great topics. The difference between bad and good in terms of marks is much bigger than ok and great, and they take equally as long to do usually. Once you have no bad topics, turn ok topics into great, etc.
I hope this helps. You really don't need to worry as much as you probably are though.
(and please, do not trust chatgpt. i'm not going to get into the inner functions of ai, but how it fundamentally works [meaning nothing will change it], means that it can't reliably give good data, and it's very good at making bad data seem like good data.)

Thank you - I just want to ask again, without a timetable, like following the retrospective timetable, do I just pick whenever I want to revise a topic. Just keep in mind that I'm not asking about revising my topics for no reason right now, but that I have mocks coming up in like 45 days and I want to make sure that I've at least covered all the topics at least once so that I can then judge which topics should be revised a second time. And for that, if I follow just revising whenever I feel like it but focusing on the the topics I struggle (not saying it's a bad idea), what if I don't get through all of the topics, because in the youtube videos that talk about building a timetable, they always talk about retrospective timetables, and in their example, they're always showing 1 subject (I mean obviously, because it's only an example, and I get that) but what I'm asking is how would I know when to do each topic. I know this questions seems so stupid and maybe straight forward to you but plz answer my question - it would help me soo much.

Reply 3

SteveTheNoob1

16

Original post

by LIFEchoicesHelp

Thank you - I just want to ask again, without a timetable, like following the retrospective timetable, do I just pick whenever I want to revise a topic. Just keep in mind that I'm not asking about revising my topics for no reason right now, but that I have mocks coming up in like 45 days and I want to make sure that I've at least covered all the topics at least once so that I can then judge which topics should be revised a second time. And for that, if I follow just revising whenever I feel like it but focusing on the the topics I struggle (not saying it's a bad idea), what if I don't get through all of the topics, because in the youtube videos that talk about building a timetable, they always talk about retrospective timetables, and in their example, they're always showing 1 subject (I mean obviously, because it's only an example, and I get that) but what I'm asking is how would I know when to do each topic. I know this questions seems so stupid and maybe straight forward to you but plz answer my question - it would help me soo much.

It's not a stupid question, I had the exact same questions when I first started doing this. You do bring up a good point though. When I started doing this, as I said, I was in late y11 already so I knew what topics I was good and bad at since we'd covered 95% of the content for every subject. You're in year 10 so there's a lot you haven't gone over yet, which i didn't take into consideration. I think you should do a few questions from each topic, gauge a confidence level (write it down as a rating if you don't feel like you'll remember it) and do the topics you're least confident with once this is done (it's a long process but definitely will leave you enough time to do this process). Once you know what you're good and bad at, you can do the process I outlined above, and that should work. I should note also that I didn't need to remember my content for long periods of time, since my GCSEs were less than 2 months away when I started revising. You will need to since you still have a long time, so just doing weak topics won't be enough. Every once in a while (i can't say how long, it's different for everyone), if you feel like your overall knowledge of a subject is weaker or just want to check if it, do the same process of checking every topic and then reevaluate everything. Don't worry if you need to do this 10x more for one subject than another, everyone has strengths and weaknesses, it's natural. I didn't even revise for spanish and got the highest score that anyone had got in my school in the whole time I'd been there, but had to spend a lot of time on eng lit just to get an 8. Feel free to ask any more questions if you want

Reply 4

LIFEchoicesHelp

OP

9

Original post

by AltAccount00

It's not a stupid question, I had the exact same questions when I first started doing this. You do bring up a good point though. When I started doing this, as I said, I was in late y11 already so I knew what topics I was good and bad at since we'd covered 95% of the content for every subject. You're in year 10 so there's a lot you haven't gone over yet, which i didn't take into consideration. I think you should do a few questions from each topic, gauge a confidence level (write it down as a rating if you don't feel like you'll remember it) and do the topics you're least confident with once this is done (it's a long process but definitely will leave you enough time to do this process). Once you know what you're good and bad at, you can do the process I outlined above, and that should work. I should note also that I didn't need to remember my content for long periods of time, since my GCSEs were less than 2 months away when I started revising. You will need to since you still have a long time, so just doing weak topics won't be enough. Every once in a while (i can't say how long, it's different for everyone), if you feel like your overall knowledge of a subject is weaker or just want to check if it, do the same process of checking every topic and then reevaluate everything. Don't worry if you need to do this 10x more for one subject than another, everyone has strengths and weaknesses, it's natural. I didn't even revise for spanish and got the highest score that anyone had got in my school in the whole time I'd been there, but had to spend a lot of time on eng lit just to get an 8. Feel free to ask any more questions if you want

I really appreciate you taking your time to answer my questions. However, I still want to ask the same question which I feel like I'm still confused about in your reply. Even if I go through all of my topics for all 10 of my subjects and decide which topics I'm going going to label as strong and weak, what I'm asking is, do I just pick random days to do all of my topics - what if I can't go through all of the topics for all of the subjects if I don't have an idea of how many subjects and how many topics of that subject I need to revise for each day. Can you plz give me a timetable that you think I should follow knowing that my mocks will start from the week of April 13th, and these are everything for my content that I've been given so far (btw, I've ordered my computer science topics with theory and then programming so that both theory and programming have been covered).
Computing (OCR):

1.

Architecture of the CPU

2.

Sub routines & Functions & Arrays & String manipulation

3.

CPU performance & Embedded systems

4.

Switch cases and 2D arrays

5.

Primary & Secondary Storage

6.

Writing to a text file

7.

Units & Data Storage & Compression

8.

Networks & Topologies

9.

Reading from a text file

10.

Wired and wireless networks, protocols and layers

11.

Programming Mix

12.

Threats to computer systems and networks

13.

Identifying and preventing vulnerabilities

Business (EDEXCEL) :

1.

Enterprise and entrepreneurship

2.

Customer needs & market research

3.

Market segmentation & the competitive environment

4.

Business revenues, costs and profits & Business revenues, costs and profits

5.

Cash and cash-flow & Sources of business finance

6.

The options for start-ups and small businesses & Business location

7.

The marketing mix & Business plans

8.

Business stakeholders & Technology, and business & Legislation and Business

9.

The economy and business & External influences

Religious Studies (EDEXCEL):

1.

Christian Beliefs 1

2.

Christian Beliefs 2

3.

Crime and Punishment 1

4.

Crime and Punishment 2

5.

Living the Christian Life 1

6.

Living the Christian Life 2

7.

Peace and Conflict 1

8.

Peace and Conflict 2

French Flashcards:

•

Module 1: 183 cards

•

Module 2: 157 cards

•

Module 3: 159 cards

•

12 cards per session

•

Complete Module 1 → then 2 → then 3 → repeat

•

Leftovers combine forward

French Grammar (EDEXCEL) :

1.

Present Tense

2.

Perfect Tense

3.

Imperfect Tense

4.

Near Future Tense

5.

Modal verbs

6.

Adjectival agreement and position of adjectives

7.

Comparative and Superlative

8.

Negatives & Direct object pronouns

Biology (AQA) :

1.

Organisation in animals & plants 1

2.

Organisation in animals & plants 2

3.

Cell structure & transport

4.

Human digestive system

5.

Communicable diseases

6.

Prevention & treating disease

7.

Respiration

8.

Cell division

9.

The nervous system

10.

Non-communicable diseases

11.

Adaptation & interdependence

12.

Reproduction & genetic inheritance

Chemistry (AQA) :

1.

Fundamental particle model =

2.

The periodic table =

3.

Bonding & structure =

4.

Chemical changes =

5.

Chemistry of the atmosphere 1

6.

Chemistry of the atmosphere 2

7.

Quantitative chemistry

8.

Energy changes

9.

Rates of reaction

10.

Organic Chemistry 1

11.

Organic chemistry 2

12.

Using resources

Physics (AQA) :

1.

Energy

2.

Electricity 1 — Fields & Electricity

3.

Electricity 2

4.

Forces

5.

Mechanics 1 & 2

6.

Pressure & density

7.

Waves 1

8.

Waves 2

9.

Radioactivity 1

10.

Radioactivity 2

11.

Space physics

ENGLISH: (no topic list yet from teacher)

Maths (AQA):
🔵 GROUP 1 — Number Foundations (1 session)

•

Place value

•

Rounding

•

Negative numbers

•

BIDMAS

•

Factors, primes, square numbers

•

Powers

•

Roots

These are the absolute basics → must come first.
🔵 GROUP 2 — Fractions, Decimals, Percentages (1 session)

•

FDP conversions

•

Percentages of amounts

•

Reverse percentages

•

Compound interest

•

Growth & decay

You need Group 1 before this.
🔵 GROUP 3 — Ratio, Proportion & Units (1 session)

•

Ratio

•

Proportion

•

Direct & inverse proportion

•

Converting units

•

Speed/distance/time

•

Compound measures

You need Groups 1 & 2 before this.
🔵 GROUP 4 — Algebra Basics (1 session)

•

Algebraic notation

•

Substitution

•

Simplifying expressions

•

Expanding brackets

•

Factorising

•

Solving equations

•

Inequalities

You need Groups 1–3 before this.
🔵 GROUP 5 — Graphs & Sequences (1 session)

•

Coordinates

•

Midpoint

•

Straight line graphs

•

Sequences

•

Nth term

•

Quadratic/cubic/reciprocal/exponential graphs

You need algebra before this.
🔵 GROUP 6 — Geometry & Measures
This is huge, so splitting into 3 sessions:
6A — Angles & Constructions (2 sessions)

•

Angles in shapes

•

Angles in parallel lines

•

Bearings

•

Scale drawings

•

Constructions

•

Loci

6B — Area, Perimeter, Volume (2 sessions)

•

Area

•

Perimeter

•

Surface area

•

Volume

6C — Transformations & Circle Theorems (2 sessions)

•

Transformations

•

Symmetry

•

Similarity

•

Congruence

•

Circle theorems

🔵 GROUP 7 — Probability & Statistics
Also huge, so splitting into 3 sessions:
7A — Probability Basics (2 sessions)

•

Probability

•

Frequency trees

•

Venn diagrams

•

Product rule

7B — Data Handling (2 sessions)

•

Averages

•

Stem & leaf

•

Scatter graphs

•

Pie charts

•

Bar charts

7C — Higher Statistics (2 sessions)

•

Histograms

•

Cumulative frequency

•

Box plots

Reply 5

SteveTheNoob1

16

Original post

by LIFEchoicesHelp

I really appreciate you taking your time to answer my questions. However, I still want to ask the same question which I feel like I'm still confused about in your reply. Even if I go through all of my topics for all 10 of my subjects and decide which topics I'm going going to label as strong and weak, what I'm asking is, do I just pick random days to do all of my topics - what if I can't go through all of the topics for all of the subjects if I don't have an idea of how many subjects and how many topics of that subject I need to revise for each day. Can you plz give me a timetable that you think I should follow knowing that my mocks will start from the week of April 13th, and these are everything for my content that I've been given so far (btw, I've ordered my computer science topics with theory and then programming so that both theory and programming have been covered).
Computing (OCR):

1.

Architecture of the CPU

2.

Sub routines & Functions & Arrays & String manipulation

3.

CPU performance & Embedded systems

4.

Switch cases and 2D arrays

5.

Primary & Secondary Storage

6.

Writing to a text file

7.

Units & Data Storage & Compression

8.

Networks & Topologies

9.

Reading from a text file

10.

Wired and wireless networks, protocols and layers

11.

Programming Mix

12.

Threats to computer systems and networks

13.

Identifying and preventing vulnerabilities

Business (EDEXCEL) :

1.

Enterprise and entrepreneurship

2.

Customer needs & market research

3.

Market segmentation & the competitive environment

4.

Business revenues, costs and profits & Business revenues, costs and profits

5.

Cash and cash-flow & Sources of business finance

6.

The options for start-ups and small businesses & Business location

7.

The marketing mix & Business plans

8.

Business stakeholders & Technology, and business & Legislation and Business

9.

The economy and business & External influences

Religious Studies (EDEXCEL):

1.

Christian Beliefs 1

2.

Christian Beliefs 2

3.

Crime and Punishment 1

4.

Crime and Punishment 2

5.

Living the Christian Life 1

6.

Living the Christian Life 2

7.

Peace and Conflict 1

8.

Peace and Conflict 2

French Flashcards:

•

Module 1: 183 cards

•

Module 2: 157 cards

•

Module 3: 159 cards

•

12 cards per session

•

Complete Module 1 → then 2 → then 3 → repeat

•

Leftovers combine forward

French Grammar (EDEXCEL) :

1.

Present Tense

2.

Perfect Tense

3.

Imperfect Tense

4.

Near Future Tense

5.

Modal verbs

6.

Adjectival agreement and position of adjectives

7.

Comparative and Superlative

8.

Negatives & Direct object pronouns

Biology (AQA) :

1.

Organisation in animals & plants 1

2.

Organisation in animals & plants 2

3.

Cell structure & transport

4.

Human digestive system

5.

Communicable diseases

6.

Prevention & treating disease

7.

Respiration

8.

Cell division

9.

The nervous system

10.

Non-communicable diseases

11.

Adaptation & interdependence

12.

Reproduction & genetic inheritance

Chemistry (AQA) :

1.

Fundamental particle model =

2.

The periodic table =

3.

Bonding & structure =

4.

Chemical changes =

5.

Chemistry of the atmosphere 1

6.

Chemistry of the atmosphere 2

7.

Quantitative chemistry

8.

Energy changes

9.

Rates of reaction

10.

Organic Chemistry 1

11.

Organic chemistry 2

12.

Using resources

Physics (AQA) :

1.

Energy

2.

Electricity 1 — Fields & Electricity

3.

Electricity 2

4.

Forces

5.

Mechanics 1 & 2

6.

Pressure & density

7.

Waves 1

8.

Waves 2

9.

Radioactivity 1

10.

Radioactivity 2

11.

Space physics

ENGLISH: (no topic list yet from teacher)
Maths (AQA):
🔵 GROUP 1 — Number Foundations (1 session)

•

Place value

•

Rounding

•

Negative numbers

•

BIDMAS

•

Factors, primes, square numbers

•

Powers

•

Roots

These are the absolute basics → must come first.
🔵 GROUP 2 — Fractions, Decimals, Percentages (1 session)

•

FDP conversions

•

Percentages of amounts

•

Reverse percentages

•

Compound interest

•

Growth & decay

You need Group 1 before this.
🔵 GROUP 3 — Ratio, Proportion & Units (1 session)

•

Ratio

•

Proportion

•

Direct & inverse proportion

•

Converting units

•

Speed/distance/time

•

Compound measures

You need Groups 1 & 2 before this.
🔵 GROUP 4 — Algebra Basics (1 session)

•

Algebraic notation

•

Substitution

•

Simplifying expressions

•

Expanding brackets

•

Factorising

•

Solving equations

•

Inequalities

You need Groups 1–3 before this.
🔵 GROUP 5 — Graphs & Sequences (1 session)

•

Coordinates

•

Midpoint

•

Straight line graphs

•

Sequences

•

Nth term

•

Quadratic/cubic/reciprocal/exponential graphs

You need algebra before this.
🔵 GROUP 6 — Geometry & Measures
This is huge, so splitting into 3 sessions:
6A — Angles & Constructions (2 sessions)

•

Angles in shapes

•

Angles in parallel lines

•

Bearings

•

Scale drawings

•

Constructions

•

Loci

6B — Area, Perimeter, Volume (2 sessions)

•

Area

•

Perimeter

•

Surface area

•

Volume

6C — Transformations & Circle Theorems (2 sessions)

•

Transformations

•

Symmetry

•

Similarity

•

Congruence

•

Circle theorems

🔵 GROUP 7 — Probability & Statistics
Also huge, so splitting into 3 sessions:
7A — Probability Basics (2 sessions)

•

Probability

•

Frequency trees

•

Venn diagrams

•

Product rule

7B — Data Handling (2 sessions)

•

Averages

•

Stem & leaf

•

Scatter graphs

•

Pie charts

•

Bar charts

7C — Higher Statistics (2 sessions)

•

Histograms

•

Cumulative frequency

•

Box plots

I really wish I could give you a set timetable to follow, but I don't know enough about what you know to tell you how you should approach this. When you say "do I just pick random days to do all of my topics", I'm assuming you're referencing the part where I said you should do a bit of all your topics to gauge a confidence level, but it's possible that's not what you meant so I'll respond to both.
If that was what you were referencing, then I'd say do it as soon as possible for every subject, then wait until you feel like you've forgotten whatever you consider a sizeable portion of a subject and repeat it just for that subject and continue like that.
If you were trying to ask what you should do after you've gauged confidence, then I would recommend for most days after (take rest days too), set yourself a reasonable amount of time after school (1-2.5 hours, you can fix it to a constant value if you want, i don't like to but i know some people do), and do the topic(s) you're least confident with until you reach a stage where you feel like you're ok with it (just to give an example, let's say you have 4 topics at a 1/10 and 3 at a 2/10. Do the most important of the 1/10 topics until you get it to what you consider a good standard (i don't know how you gauge ratings so i can't give a number here), and then move onto the next topic. Let's assume 15 topics per subject. x10 subjects gives you 150 topics to cover before April, so roughly 60 days. If you can do 2 of your weakest topics a day, and one ok topic (keep in mind the amount of weak topics will decrease over time as you do this so maybe it'll go from 30 to 5 in one month, and there'll be days where you do more than 3 topics a day), you'll pretty much have got everything to a good standard, and the only things left will be already strong subjects. I know it can seem overwhelming, but it works. And about the prerequisite part, if your confidence is 1/10 on a group 2 topic, find the group 1 topics which are needed for it first, and work on those instead. After you're confident with those, then move onto the group 2 topic. Also, maths is my specialty so if you're struggling to understand something, you can ask me and I should be able to explain it well enough for you to understand. I've got people who are failing maths to understand grade 7+ topics with ease before.

Gcse y10 mocks timetable help

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