When should y11 start revising for GCSE?

[SilverPosey]

I work in a local coffee and cake shop. Yesterday a woman and her husband came and got two coffees to have in, and a brownie to take away. As i handed over the brownie the woman explained it was a treat for their daughter who was at home revising for the GCSE. My daughter is y11 too and she hasn't started revising yet, I was surprised this girl was already revising when the exams are still more than a month away. If you have y11 kids are they revising already or do you think its okay to leave till closer to the exams?

My yr11 is ramping up the revision this holiday - he’s planned for 2 hour blocks twice a day with some fun stuff inbetween. He worked moderately hard for both sets of mocks and has been to a couple of science and maths sessions at school at lunchtimes per week since half term so I think is probably on track

Much to my surprise, my DS has already done some- but only by going to the extra revision sessions at school since Feb half term. I don’t think he is doing much revision at home and I don’t think he will do a great deal even when the exams are close.

Obviously I will encourage him to, but having already been through this with older DC, my experience is that you can’t force them to do it. If he continues to go to the before and after-school sessions, I certainly won’t be hassling him to do loads at home.

(I never really got the hang of revision either when I was at school to be fair. 😂)

Mine had mocks in Nov, and 2nd mocks in Feb so has been revising since autumn half term. The school has had extra revision sessions run at form/break and lunch time since Feb half term, and before that the parents were invited in to a ‘how to prepare for GCSEs’ evening meeting. He’s also got 2 days Mandarin speaking practice at school over the Easter hols.

Much to my amazement he is revising right now too. He’s already done his Art GCSE exam which was last week.

My 3 DC all started revising for GCSEs at February half term. Their school put on revision sessions during the Easter holidays as well as their own revision (apart from DC2 as that year GCSEs had been disrupted by lockdown before Easter).

Good greif.

The time to start revising for year 11 GCSEs in in year 10

Your DD is a long way behind

How has she done in mocks? Does she look on track for whatever it is she wants to do next year?
I'm in the little and often camp, I also think that listening in class, taking care with homework and having good notes means that there is less revision to do towards the end because you have a good grounding.
My DS has mocks in November and March so has been revising (albeit a bit patchily) since October.

Revision starts for us (teacher) as soon as the coursework is complete.

Has she worked hard for the unit tests and mocks so far? If they’ve all gone well then perhaps she doesn’t feel that she needs to do a brat deal more.

Our school have been offering after school revision session since February half term (their mocks were the week after half term). Our ds was extremely well prepared for those and will keep plodding on now as well as attending any extra revision sessions that are on offer but by this stage he doesn’t feel that he needs to be doing hours and hours each day.

My older two didn't revise really. Both got good enough grades (6, 7, 8) to go on to the next stage of their education, which is what they wanted.
All they really need is to pass maths and English and ideally get 5 grades above a 4. What's the point in stressing them out?
DD will probably revise because she's just like that.
DS1 has A levels this year and will be revising for those as he's doing Maths and History (plus politics) which you really do need to revise for A level (as he discovered during mocks!). He plans to start second week of the holidays.

My Y11 dd has been revising for several weeks now

DD1 started at Easter and very quickly realised that there was tons of stuff she didn't know. Cue huge panic and non stop revision until the exams and she thankfully did well.

DD2, having learned from her sister's mistake, started revising in the November of year 11, just slow and steady stuff looking back at topics she hadn't done for a while. She also did well but was far far less stressed!

DS's secondary runs study sessions during Easter for yr 11 and 13.

The exams soon come round

All they really need is to pass maths and English and ideally get 5 grades above a 4. What's the point in stressing them out?

This is my philosophy too. No-one will be interested in their GCSE grades in a few years’ time so as long as they get what they need to move onto what they want to do next, that’s fine IMO. I appreciate that for some children, quite a lot of work and revision will be needed to get those grade 4s, but I think most averagely academic children can get 4s or 5s with relatively little work. That’s not to say I encourage my children to coast, but nor do I want to pile on unnecessary pressure and stress.

For GCSEs, I don’t recall doing much revision at all. For A Levels and even my degree, I did a bit more work but I was a crammer- everything was left til the last minute. Some of us thrive on that! It worked for me, in that I needed the adrenaline of the last-minute panic. I just wasn’t motivated otherwise (In recent years I have wondered whether I have ADHD- others in the family have it. I will see about an assessment at some point 😂)

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While my GCSEs were pre Gove changes, I have since done A Levels, a degree and two professional qualifications with much, much lower pass rates than GCSE. And for me revising more than 6 weeks out is useless and so I would be starting now for exams in early May, but not really ramping up until 4 weeks before the exam when every spare waking moment would be revision.

BUT! By the time I got to my professional qualifications I absolutely knew what was best for my learning style, in a way I probably didn’t for my GCSEs (which for the most part I revised for the evening before and got all As and A*s, but I appreciate that might not be replicable under today’s curriculum… with a caveat that I am currently self teaching a language GCSE and I suspect I’ll be taking an approach in the lead up to the exam next year of practicing it for 30mins-1 hour per day but no additional ‘revision’… I’m not at school doing 6 hours of study every day though).

My point being is that every students learning style will be different, but to not be already revising means your DD must be v confident in hers and that she could pass the exams tomorrow, and the additional learning is for a better grade - which was always my approach.

They should have started a long time ago! My son is Year 11 and he hasn't done enough but he has done some. They start in about 5 weeks. That's no time at all and will fly past.

Does anyone know someone who has tried out one of those Easter revision courses or a summer course between Y10 and Y11?

@TheBottomsOfMyTrousersAreRolled I'm just one of those lucky annoying ones that remembers stuff after reading about it once... I did my GCSEs late nineties and my degree 5 years ago.
Pretty much every test I've ever done I've sailed through it.

My dd is doing her A levels now but it feels like it’s been non stop revision for her since year 10. She needed to do well in her end of year 10 exams to support her application to sixth form and then it was GCSE mocks etc.

Should have started quite a while ago. It's a marathon, not a sprint. So many subjects, such a lot of content. I teach two y11 classes. Some of them have major gaps in their knowledge which I've been telling them to address since early in year 10. They are leaving it too late. My ds is in y11 too. He made himself a revision plan in September and has been gradually revising all year. Admittedly it's unusual to start that early, but he's pretty chilled out about his exams now!

Meant to say - it was important for him, because he was going to be applying for a place at a grammar for 6th form and wants to do 4 A Levels, which meant higher entry requirements.

im current year 11 and I’d be quite worried if I was you, I’ve been revising since october and I’m extremely stressed right now. this last 5 weeks I’m trying to go over everything for the last time after covering and understanding every thing for the last 4,5 months. easter is the most important time for revision and I’m aiming for 7 hours per day right now with an hour and a half of chill at night. try to motivate her by telling her just weeks of real hard-work will lead to a stress free long summer. 5 weeks is no where near long enough I’d get started get right now or it’s not looking good.