GCSE Prep

My eldest will be doing her GCSEs next year and I want to help ensure she is prepared for them.

Her plan is to stay on at her school for sixth form and I think to do that she needs to get the grades she is predicted in English, Maths and History, so the aim isn’t to push her to improve her grades, more to make sure she is prepared and not too anxious and can perform at the expected level in those subjects.

There is an after school revision session that she goes to twice a week, but talking to her it’s just a place to spend time where they are left to their own devices, there is no teaching or guidance in these, and she doesn’t feel she knows how to study. Does anyone have any recomendations here for books, videos, or podcasts that give some guidance on how to study effectively that I can share with her?

The thing I found useful when I last did any exam prep was doing the past papers, even if it’s just to get used to writing none stop for 3 hours, and learning the discipline of making sure to spent 45 mins per question if there are 4 questions on a 3 hour test etc so I plan to get a load of those printed out and get her to do one a week in fake exam conditions each weekend.

I would happily pay for a tutor to help with the studying if a knew where to start in finding one, are there any good sites or other places I should look to get decent local tutors?

Any other advice or things I am missing completely?

I always found a good strategy, aside from being comfortable with the material… is to go through the exam answering all the ‘easy wins’ first, skip anything that looks difficult to you, and then re-visit questions that are more difficult, that takes a bit of time stress out of the general stress…

Then hopefully you’ll have about 30% time left to concentrate on the questions you might really struggle with, and do a final sanity check over all your answers.

If you blast through a 2hr paper in 1hr 45 mins, use all the time avialable to double or tripple check everything, for silly mistakes.

I really only know about science. And I’m a bit out of date on gcse

But

Loads of great stuff on Youtube. For example “science shorts”

BBC Bitsize and Seneca for online interaction. I’d consider paying for Seneca if it going well.

Physics and Maths tutor for past papers

Check the specification for exactly what she needs to know. Then make she it’s learnt

We made this video for A-level but it contains loads of good advice and it’s not too long

I assume the school will give specific advice and coaching on exam technique and studying as the time gets closer – as most schools seem to.

to get a load of those printed out and get her to do one a week in fake exam conditions each weekend.

whilst that may be good for getting used to writing that long (are GCSE’s really 3h papers?) it won’t tell her if she is answering the questions the right way – that needs someone who understands the marking scheme.  In some subjects you might be able to do that.

personally I’d expect some parental fall outs if you are going to dictate to her how to do this and it involves lots of her weekend studying, especially if it’s a lot more than her friends…  you need to bear in mind that this is “only” GCSE.

There will be tutors around – it’s big business!  I’m not convinced they are a good idea but plenty of people will disagree with me.  If you tutor in maths, English and History to get into A-level she will “need” the tutor at A level, then what does she do next?  If it’s for one subject she just doesn’t get and needs the marks but will likely never use in real life that might be different.  Controversially I would suggest that in most cases an attentive parent working through any homework problems with the teenager could achieve almost as much.  If they can’t solve it with them they will at least help them focus their questions to the class teacher, who by and large if there is a pupil struggling who wants to learn will try to help.

The biggest problem modern teenagers have with studying is the risk of distraction.  Social media / phones / internet.  But there is content on line that can help too – if you can get her to focus on the learning and not get sucked into funny tictok clips you are probably on a winner!  How you achieve that will depend on your relationship as much as anything.

Which exam board is she with?

WJEC have loads of pupil centred resources to help, past papers (inc. mark schemes and examiners comments), exam walkthroughs, interactive resources, blended learning resources, knowledge organisers. All freely available.

It’s probably worth looking at your exam board’s online content.

https://resources.wjec.co.uk/Pages/ResourceByArgs.aspx?subId=3&lvlId=2

Just been through this with lad 1 who sat his this year and now we have lad 2 now in Yr11 coming up to mocks. Some observations and tips.

 

As stated, reduce distractions, obvious glowing rectangles aside, do focus on are they hungry, need ‘other’ things for school such as uniform/PE kit/outside of school general life things, all of this adds up to becoming a distraction if not in place in a way that makes them feel calm/settled and in the headspace to study.

 

Are they organised? It’s a big ask to memorise the range of subjects, so having a dedicated space for past papers/books/flash cards/notes is golden. We bought some cheap Ikea drawers and together we organised by subject, so he built a mental model of where things were and as a result less time was spent asking/looking/searching for the right reams of paper and books for a given subject.

 

Make a timetable for revision, once they’ve got a timetable they know when to study evenly across subjects (and you’ll know what they’re doing) and that way you can check in and be part of what they’re doing and help, small things like asking how a certain subject is going as you’ll roughly know that’s what they should be spending time on.

Also we found that having them revise downstairs to start with and not alone was useful as you can check in and ask/help with things if needed, which is an underrated thing of just ‘being there’ for them.

 

We’re hoping to replicate what we did last year and in a way having two boys in consecutive school years is on paper a pain, what with the next 3 years being exams each year factoring in A levels! but I can report it worked well with lad 1 so there’s no reason it won’t work again as a method, but all kids and families are different, so on reflection by doing some of this I think it signals your support and care for them at what is quite rightly a full on time in their lives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maths teacher here. Lots of past papers for maths, backed up by extra topic specific practice on the topics they get stuck on in the papers (video/practice questions on free websites such as MathsGenie or CorbettMaths). Done in a strategic/sustained/manageable way – our year 11 students do a paper a fortnight.

DM me if interested in online tuition…

I assume the school will give specific advice and coaching on exam technique and studying as the time gets closer – as most schools seem to.

Yes, that is what we are finding (two girls in Yr1 1). Yr 10 was all about learning, but Yr 11 has a much greater focus on revision, technique, sitting past papers, revisiting stuff they learned in Yr 10 etc.

The school should be covering it and giving study tips. There’s plenty of other sources online, just encourage them to try different systems till they find one that works.

I’d also add to try and not be “those” parents. GCSE’s are important, depending on what the kids want to do, but happy and healthy kids are even more important.

Thanks all.

Should have mentioned that the teachers at the school have said they are happy to mark and give feedback on any papers the students so in their own time so would be using that service.

She is very organised, and keeps on top of the chaos of secondary school life far better than I ever did, as parents the two of us mostly leave her to it and there are no issues with homework & deliverables, so I’m not worried about being ‘one of those parents’ if anything we are too absent and are aiming to at least be there for the 6 month run up to the exams.

I have my office at the bottom of the garden which she already uses to do homework in as its quiet and saves tidying her own room up so the plan would be to disconnect from the carnage of the house by being down here.

I’ll check back in with her about if she has been given any study tips or practice as that was half the issue previously – the time was there but she didn’t know what to be doing with it.

Sounds like you’ve got a good kid there, and you’re doing a great job yourselves.

I would just do what it would seem you’re already doing.  No need to go crazy and burn them out a year ahead of the actual exams