Any GSCE teachers (or helpful mums) out there? A mocks question

[Nottomorrowbuttoday]

Hi

My DC has just started Year 11. He has mocks in 6 weeks (he also had mocks at the end of year 10, the school does a 3 year GSCE programme). Not full mocks this time or last but fairly complete. Anyway, he did ok to well. Not as well as he thinks - a lot of swagger - but a good start. These upcoming mocks mean more as the grades will go to his 6th form college choice.

He has only just decided after years of us saying that flashcards are the way to go. The school has yet to give them 'topics' for the subjects, although he knows the English texts etc

He's spending his time doing 'flashcards.' I don't know why but I feel this is not a logical approach - maybe generate flashcards as you revise topics? Not just generate a stack of flashcards?

I wondered if there was any wisdom around this that I could suggest to him (I didn't do this at school a million years ago). Or any advice on how he should approach the next 6 weeks to get the most out of his time (a couple of hours a night) to prep.

Thanks very much

I think past papers are the best way to revise. All of them can be found on this site.

https://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/

Flashcards have their place, but it's best to mix it up. So much support out there now.

His mocks will almost certainly be a past paper. The more recent papers are locked but even then there are YouTube videos on every paper. Just make sure he knows the exam board for each subject so he gets the right ones.

In my experience, quite a lot of kids spend an awful lot of time making flash cards, lists, highlighting stuff, re-reading notes and so on as revision aids, but never actually get round to doing revision that works. What that does is teach them to recognise something they half-know, not to recall information away from their notes/ textbook.

For my subject, I made a load of 20 question tests for each topic, all of which could be answered in single words or short phrases. They had to do the whole thing in 2 minutes with pen and paper. If they missed a question or got one wrong, they had to look up the information about the correct answer. Then after 5 mins, do the same test again. Repeat until they could get all right in 2 minutes. Then do again in a minute and a half. Then do again in a minute. Take a short break and then do a few longer test questions on that topic.

Test, check, revise, repeat until they were secure in their answers. This tests recall, and it works. I got them to carry a couple of tests in their pockets to do in the dinner queue, or on the bus, or whenever they had a few minutes to spare.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zhdrkhv

Flashcards are ok and they are better than no revision at all but they are limited. Don't fall into the trap of thinking, 'I've made thousands of flashcards so I'll be ok'
Flashcards can be a good way for someone else to test your knowledge, especially if the tester doesn't know the subject well.

The thing that makes flashcards effective initially is making them - all that writing and concentrating - the flashcard is just a byproduct and flicking through them can actually be unhelpful after a point b/c the brain complacent. (preprinted flashcards are not that great b/c there's no effort involved in writing and thinking about them)

Writing is particularly effective too: study a list of formulae or irregular verb forms or a topic and then try to write as much as possible from memory. Also mumbling them to yourself (think about how you know the times tables inside out)

The most effective way to prepare for exam questions is to choose a topic, study it thoroughly for 20min or so and then work through a (question on a) past paper to test how much you've absorbed. @LoserWinner is on the right track.

The most effective way to prepare for exam questions is to choose a topic, study it thoroughly for 20min or so and then work through a (question on a) past paper to test how much you've absorbed

It can be even more effective to try to write down everything you know about a topic first, then look it up and fill in missing information and correct errors you made. Then do the exam question.

The act of making flash cards, condensing information onto the cards can be helpful, they are also good for self testing. They shouldn’t be the only method of revision though, particularly for maths where you actually need to do some maths to improve.

As pp has just said, revise then test - topic test papers in pmt.com are useful.
He should have covered paper 1 content in science already. Suggest after refreshing his memory he uses full past papers in this way: round 1 - answer all questions in as much detail as possible. Round 2 - check answers using class notes, revision guides or text books (not google - need to look for the information ‘manually’) correct/improve answers. Round 3 - check answers against mark scheme, again, correct where necessary.
I get my students to use 3 colours. This way each past paper is acting as the revision tool, but not being wasted with half hearted attempts.

Flash cards have their place for things like languages, but my dd school recommend Cornell notes for things like history/ business studies.