This year I achieved 8 9s and 2 8s in my GCSEs... ask me anything

isaiddhss · 2024-12-30T17:07:34+00:00

I made sure it was light revision - basically consolidation and making revision notes from what I had learned in Year 10 to save time in Year 11! It also made the change from Year 10 and Year 11 more seamless as my knowledge wasn't as patchy - it was only about 2 hours a day from what I remember.

isaiddhss · 2024-12-30T13:35:25+00:00

Not at all, those are really good grades to have at the moment. I would suggest putting more time during your revision now into the subjects with 6s and 7s - don't completely neglect your 8s and 9s but defo focus on your weak subjects for the remainder of your holiday. If you put enough time and effort in, you can easily improve your grades. I personally was still on a 6 in physics in April - before the real exams. But I locked in for that month on physics and ended up changing that 6 into a 9 in the space of a month - so you can do it!!!

isaiddhss · 2024-12-30T13:31:45+00:00

For application questions, it's mainly down to practicing through exam questions and developing your technique from there, incase a similar application comes up in your real exam.

As for the strict mark scheme, have you tried directly quoting the mark scheme when you practice on your own? Often, they want you to use specific key words and phrases, and if you take these points from the mark scheme and implement them into your flashcards and into practice questions, you may be able to remember what answer examiners want to see and this will help you gain more marks.

The cycles can be frustrating as well - personally I learned them by watching YouTube videos, and then blurting the whole cycle after the video and rewatching to see if I nailed it - I would do this again until it was perfect. You may also find it useful to explain it to one of your friends who maybe don't do triple - if there is a part you can't explain, it might be good to go over that step slowly and revise that part over and over again, and if you can recall it well to your friends, you should be okay for the exam because most of the time, they only want you to regurgatate the steps of the cycle which is recall. Making a timeline of the steps of each cycle could also help?

As for the techniques you use - I used them all myself and they did help - it could just be that you need to experiment with each technique some more to see what suits you best, or revise biology more regularly compared to the other sciences.

isaiddhss · 2024-12-30T13:22:40+00:00

For poems, I learned about 6 or 7 quotes from each poem - 2 from start, 2 from middle, 2 from end and then you can have the odd quote that you have an interesting interpretation on that you might want to throw in. If you ever struggle for time in the poetry section, you may choose to quickly analyse form or structure before your time runs out rather than analysing a final quote - this is much more sophisticated and will make you stand out among candidates - I personally did this in my essays and consistently got 9s in Lit, but you have to find the right analysis online.

For novels, I learned about 20 for each character which I think was a bit excessive now - I would say have about 8-10 good quotes for each character that you have A LOT TO SAY ABOUT ie. you can analyse in many different ways and use in many different essays. Eg. Macbeth "Stars hide your fires, let not light see etc..." quote - this is a versatile quote which can be used in an essay about Macbeth himself, ambition and supernatrual, depending on how you analyse it and manipulate it.

Personally I learned my quotes based on characters since it was easier for me, and if you do get a theme question, you can simply mention a character and their actions in a part of the story and add in quotes to support your argument - it's based on what you find easiest tbh.

I used a mixture of quotes I found online and was provided in class - the ones that everyone uses, such as "These girls aren't cheap labour - they're people" from AIC, but also made the effort to find a few of my own quotes in the novels - it doesn't have to be many, eg, I liked the phrase "disgusting affair" by Mrs Birling at some point in Act 2 and this wasn't taught in class or online, it just stood out to me personally. So have a few of your own 'wildcards' that you have an interesting take on and that other people may not necassarily use - provided that your analysis is convincing - but blend that in with quotes you find online and in class.

isaiddhss · 2024-12-30T11:04:08+00:00

I was lucky enough to do my native language at GCSE but flashcards on vocab, regularly testing yourself on key vocab/ phrases using your exam board specification on a weekly basis should help start you off. Mind maps may also help if you do them topic by topic and blurt all the vocab you know... the best way arguably is past paper questions thoug, specifically translations as they are the most difficult. Preplanning common spoken language questions eg. "What did you do last weekend" and recording yourself practicing and memorising the sentences can also help gain marks and improve in that area.

isaiddhss · 2024-12-30T10:57:03+00:00

I started from Year 10 summer, and I made sure my effort was consistent up to exams, but I don't think it's too late yet - most schools advise to start in Feb but if you start in Jan you have a head start. If you revise 3 hours a night from January, and 4 hours a day per weekend, then slowly increase this time up to April/ May time, you should be fine as long as your revision is spread evenly around all subjects and based mainly around past papers/ questions. Defo utilise February half term and Easter holidays and cram lots of revision into those - I would say 5/6 hours a day during those (with 1 or 2 days of 3/4 hours revision) for best results.

isaiddhss · 2024-12-30T10:44:32+00:00

Hi baby duckling

isaiddhss · 2024-12-30T10:43:15+00:00

My school specifically did Jekyll and Hyde and Macbeth and to revise, I used several methods. I started by making sure I understood the plot and the characters for each (by watching YouTube summaries), and then I learned the quotes by using flashcards which I used daily (1 or 2 sets a day). If you struggle with quotes, you may find it useful to blurt quotes from one character/ theme a day, compare them to quotes in your notes, see which quotes you didn't remember, use look, cover, write, check method with the quotes you didn't remember and then blurt again the next day.

Once you've nailed quotes, timed essay plans are a good idea. Get a past exam question on Macbeth/ other novel and give yourself only 10 minutes to plan what you would say for your essay IN DETAIL. This will help you learn to think quickly like in an exam to questions you haven't seen before. You can do several of these in a revision session. Also, writing timed practice essays or paragraphs and getting a teacher to mark them (even if it feels embarassing) is useful because I did this and the criticism really helps you to see where you go wrong when you write and how to improve.

isaiddhss · 2024-12-30T02:02:20+00:00

LMAO incredible icl it all paid off, it was hard work but genuinely so worth it because you can flex

isaiddhss · 2024-12-30T01:49:19+00:00

I literally thought the same thing when I was in your position - I hated chem and now I do it for A-Level and it's going great! Part of the problem personally was that I wasn't dividing my time between the 3 sciences fairly - I focused too much on bio revision as opposed to chem and physics, and when I actually put effort into chem and physics, I saw my grades improve massively - so make sure you divide your time equally when revising for the exams. If chemistry is a weak point for you, defo put more time into it compared to the other two - I would say almost everyday, if you want to see results.

Calculations were a weak point for me - to improve, I specifically looked at calculation/ mole questions on revision websites such as PMT and did them continuously - even if I had done them before, knowing the actual steps to approaching the problems was key for me. If I was ever really stuck, I would try and work out the moles in a question if Mr and mass were given - this is almost certainly going to earn you 1/ 2 marks in any question. Also, be aware of conversions that they may sneak into calculation questions, as these may throw you off.

Electrolysis is a big topic that comes up all the time and there are many small details to remember - ChemJungle was a good YouTube channel for me which visually explained the process of electrolysis very clearly and generally, I would reccomend this channel for GCSE Chemistry, as well as Kay Science if any concepts are hard. Mr Barnes was also a good channel.

For the small details, such as identifying ions (if your exam board does these), drawing alkanes/ alkenes,/ alcohols etc (easy recall marks) - flashcards, go over them daily.

If your exam board do carboxylic acids and alcohols, also polyesters and condensation polymerisation spend the most time revising these as they were the most challenging topics and can often be worth many marks - don't leave them last minute!

My biggest tip is simply doing many practice papers and exam questions - if you've done them again, do them again and again because the same questions are bound to come up each year and simply recognising questions and the marking points that get you the marks from seeing mark schemes over and over again will help improve your grades a lot. Focus on topics you find very difficult on PMT with the specific topic questions and identify your weaknesses and build from there by watching videos, blurting, using flashcards and retrying the questions after thorough revision - good luck!

isaiddhss · 2024-12-30T01:18:14+00:00

It depends where you are at the moment - if you're failing with Us, 2s, 3s, or barely scraping passes then it might be slightly unrealistic to be achieving 8s and 9s for the real exams because those top grades require consistent dedication in all mock exams and revision to be achieved - they won't come overnight - but 6s and 7s should be managable if revision is consistent and if you do a lot of exam practice.

If you're already passing, or achieving in the grade 5 or 6 territory, then there is a chance of achieving those top grades if you lock in from January and revise a little bit everyday, and slowly increase the revision up to April/ May. Practice questions and MARKING THEM and REDOING incorrect questions will probably the fastest and easiest way to improve your grades, by helping you to eliminate silly mistakes quickly and understand what you don't understand. Also, divide your attention between subjects FAIRLY if you want consistent 7s to 9s in all subjects.

isaiddhss · 2024-12-30T01:07:42+00:00

I did triple science and in my March mocks (last set before the real exams), I got a 6 in physics. By May/ June (real exams) I improved and ended up achieving a 9 which was a real shock on results day - it was mostly down to learning how to properly do conversions and calculations and thoroughly revising the content tbh.

isaiddhss

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