Please Can Somebody Help Me Balance My Gcse Revision? Xxxx

[missfroggie26]

I'm 15 and in 22 days I have my first ever official gcse exam on the hardest 2/3rds of the course. This has taken a year to learn and we've only just finished learning it. It seems like a mountain load to revise and I'm not sure how to go about it or even if I know all the stuff needed properly. I would be grateful for any advice because I want to do well on this exam for myself. I have worked out there are 11 main topics on the exam but that only leaves 2 days per topic and for most of those days I'll be at school so I won't have much time to revise. :/ I also need to juggle history coursework, a french speaking exam to prepare and learn for and 2 major english exams 9 days after the biology exams, I'm feeling really overwhelmed and I need some help. If anyone out there on the internet is kind enough to help me sort out a revision timetable for myself I would be very grateful because I've tried and I can't seem to fit it all in to the short time period I have :,(

Please help me, I know it won't really matter to you but it would be a great help to me so i'm appealing to anyone out there :) xxxx

[Tilly2]

What is your exam timetable?

[black_cat51]

have you tried the BBC bitesize revision website?

[boxtops]

Missfroggie - please be assured that there are loads of young people like you, feeling the same pressures at the moment. I suggest that you look at the 11 topics and see which you think needs most revision - with only three weeks to go, it's best to improve your weak points and not worry too much about the better parts. I remember well taking the exams (they were GCEs in my days) and it is a huge pressure. Make sure you eat properly over the next few weeks, and above all, get enough sleep - nobody performs well if they are tired, so that's really important. Good luck!

[missfroggie26]

Well on the 13th of May I have the biology exam and then on the 20th and 22nd of May I have the two English exams. My coursework will be on the 1st to the 10th of April for both History and French. I'm also supposed to be teaching myself a programming software for computer science as part of the course is to learn a computer programming software on your own :?

[black_cat51]

this just in: 1-10th of April has already happened

[boxtops]

Surely your course tutor can help with the computer part, point you in the right direction..... how long have you known that you had to do that? The space between the other exams sounds about right to me.

[Peter Pedant]

Hi miss piggie:
you got really helpful advice on 16th in the student room.
Did you take any heed of it ?

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2656310

and good luck
try to s[end more time studying and less time posting

[Buenchico]

Start by imagining that your exams will all take place in exactly one hour's time and place each subject into one of three categories:
Category 1: "I'm reasonably confident about this subject, even without any revision"
Category 2: "I can also do quite well in this subject but I wish that I'd done a bit of revision"
Category 3: "Help! I know absolutely nothing about this subject".

Then do absolutely NO further revision whatsoever for Category 1. (You probably know it as well as you'll ever do). Dedicate nearly all of your time to Category 3 but, if you've got a few spare moments (or the Category 3 subjects are just leaving you more and more confused) take a look at Category 2.

I spent many years teaching GCSE (and A level) Maths. While I usually followed the 'official line' of encouraging my pupils to revise I always told the most able (who were also the most likely to get themselves into a tizz over revision) the truth: Last-minute revision is largely pointless. (I've only ever spent a total of 40 minutes revising in my life). If you know that there are a few important things that you need to check up on (such as the date of a battle or the names of the parts of plants) then by all means look them up but otherwise simply relax. Listening to your favourite music or going swimming will probably benefit you far more in your exams than spending hours simply confusing yourself through reading books.

[Lulu77]

Take a deep breath....and don't panic. There is no way to do it all, and no one expects you to, the point of an exam is to demonstrate that you were

a) awake
b) listening
c) understanding what was being said to you

during your lessons.

You've done the hard part by breaking it into main topics, if I were you I would prioritise the topics (or if you have time) segments of the topics that you have difficulty with and start from there, and if you're really struggling make a list things you're having trouble understanding and sit down with someone who can go through it with you. There's also lots of advice online and radio 1 are very examcentric at the moment (surgery is an exam special this evening).

Best of luck, I'm sure you'll do great.

[jno]

that's not necessarily true for everyone, Buenchico; different people absorb and retain information in different ways. I could never remember detailed stuff for more than a couple of weeks, so the later it got the more I picked up. missfroggie needs to be aware of what suits her best, not what suits me or you.

Very sensible advice about ranking your subjects according to how confident you are.

[factor-fiction]

I pretty much agree with Buenchico. Many students spend hours 'revising' but don't benefit from it.
There are two main elements of revision.
The first is to answer exam type questions from past papers or practice papers- initially using your notes to help you but eventually trying to do what you can without them - but make sure you go through the answers and mark scheme.
The second type of revision is useful for remembering things such as formulae, quotes, parts of the lung etc. legal case names.. this needs active learning- break them down into small groups of lists or questions. Learn the first 10. When you can do those learn the next 10, also checking you still know the first 10.
Finally get someone to work with you and test each other- eg for Biology name the parts of the heart, for English list the main 5 linguistic features and presentational features, Maths- area of a circle.
Also- make sure you get plenty of sleep the night before. Don't bother trying to revise the night before- if you don't know it then you never will

[missfroggie26]

thank you everyone i'm going to rank the subjects and go from there :)