Help! Need GCSE websites/books

[groovyolmutha]

Can anyone recommend good gcse websites and books for revision/ongoing learning? DD is very anxious.

DD about to do Controlled Assessment for Eng. next week. This is her first bit of gcse worth 25% of the gcse mark for English - which is hard to believe but true. It is in fact a gcse exam in the first term of year 10. How that can be right I do not know but this seems to be normal. As usual I am despairing of 'the system' - having been an O' level child.

Has to do a plan for 2000 word essay entitled 'Explore the ways writers present emotions in characters'/speakers' relationships in Macbeth and the war poetry you have studied'. It is quite a complex question and not sure I understand it myself (I have a degree with an English minor). I don't think question is at all well written and asking for misunderstandings but it is what it is!

She has loads of notes from school but none seem to 'answer the question'.
BBC has a site but not quite helpful. Found a good looking one called Edusites but it is subscription only and just for teachers. Need similar for pupils and parents. Anything out there?

Could do with advice re English and other subjects for rest of gcse courses.
N.B. please don't suggest asking at the school - this has proved unfruitful! There seems to be a standard response that a) pupils are told in class about resources and b) it is all online.
Just need something I can watch with her or say have a look at this.

My DS is in his first year of his GCSE's. He did the first part of his English one at the end of year 9.
That was Macbeth, he is now doing a controlled assessment next week about Of mice and men.

I'm actually posting on here because I'm interested in the replies because I find the info that comes from the school isn't great.

Thanks Ihatethecold. Hope we get some useful info!

Ok, first thing to say is that the teacher has set a bonkers question which is ludicrously wide but it does mean that there is an infinite choice in the way you respond. It is important that the essay has enough depth so rather than trying to be very broad covering lots of areas, your DC should chose four or five examples to explore using some quotations and explaining technically how the use of English supports the presentation of emotion. I am guessing that your DD may have studied some Wilfred Owen poetry. Some unifying themes in both Macbeth and Owen's poetry are guilt and madness so your DC could narrow the subject of response to emotion down to those areas perhaps looking just at Macbeth's response to guilt (e.g the banquet scene) and homing in on perhaps just one (or two) Owen poems that deal with guilt and its effects on soldiers.

Post-it notes are really useful in organising thoughts when faced with such a wide subject. Start with one of two paragraphs giving a bit of context for Macbeth and the war poetry and state what detailed areas you have chosen to explore and why (e.g. because both illustrate different emotional responses to guilt). As far as supporting material, there are some good analyses of war poems on the internet which help to explain the poet's thoughts and techniques. Watching the Macbeth banquet scene for example would be helpful in understanding which are the key strands to discuss. Good luck to your DC.

Dd goes on TES for worksheets its a place where teachers put worksheets exam q's etc up I'll put the link below. Dd likes the CGP books too! Dd is doing some igcse courses and the people who do the textbooks do a revision guide she uses them to revise from. She also uses mymaths and YouTube for videos.
www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resources
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1408508281/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=1428074405&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX110_SY165&keywords=gcse+biology+revision+guide&dpPl=1&dpID=51AdHf0ugIL&ref=plSrch - example of the revision guide I was talking about

www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/macbeth/ is a useful site.

If you want to get some revision guides, you need to know which board she's doing.

When the school says 'its all online' - do they have their own website/VLE, perhaps that has some info?

FWIW most of the controlled assessments they get to do more than they need and can discard the lowest score, so this one may essentially be a trial run (but obv don't count on that!)