Advice on GCSE revision guides please.

[hedwig2001]

My son has just started his GCSE courses. He is studying english, maths, triple science, computing, RE, geography and graphic products. Most are with AQA.
For keystage 3 we used CMP. Having looked in WHSmiths, I was a little overwhelmed with the choice at GCSE. Do we get basic revision notes? The ones with practice questions?
Any experiences? Any preferences?
Many thanks

DD1 is y11, so my methods are yet unproven, but for what it's worth

a) do you have an Oxfam bookshop or other charity shop with a good supply of books? If so check it regularly for revision guides. You can get them far cheaper and can take risks.

b) Science. Our school gets them at reduced price so maybe yours does too. We have the Edexcel one which the school got which covers everything but is very 'busy' and also another brand which covers all boards (so has unnecessary stuff) but explains things more clearly.

c) English. DD has found having the study guides for any set books very helpful, also a copy of the books at home (preferably the same edition so page number references match up).

d) RE we couldn't find a guide that covered DD's syllabus, so we bought a text book instead.

e) Don't know about geography but for history DD has found the guides invaluable.

f) Maths we have GCSE workbooks stuffed full of questions but no explanation, because I can do those direct for DD better. But having the questions is great as I don't have to work them out.

Generally the quality of notes DD manages to make at school are totally useless for revising from, so for her, revision guides are essential. Take your DS to Smiths to see what visual format appeals. Lots of people like the CGP ones, but DD finds them visually overwhelming so we avoid if possible.
Practice questions really helps them check if they understand the topic and have the answering technique.

DD asked for the CGP AQA ones for triple science and study notes for her Eng lit books. Nothing else yet!

be sure to get the ones specifically written for his exam board - otherwise you'll get pages of irrelevant information.

It depends on his learning style. Some young people love the CGP style, others find it a bit 'busy' in layout.

DS1 likes a revision guide to be laid out so that a topic is on one page or double page spread.

This is what we have bought so far:

Sciences (CIE iGCSE): we have bought textbooks, as none of the mainstream revision guides were specific to the board he is doing. Each topic is on a double-page spread and there are some questions from past papers included. He is finding the Physics and Chemistry quite tricky so has been doing extra study on these at weekends.

Maths (Edexcel): again, we bought a textbook (Rayner) as it follows the same scheme of work that they are doing at school. He revises Maths by doing practice questions and then marking them to identify areas of weakness.

German (AQA): we bought the Pearson revision guide & workbook, as you can also access audio files for the listening part. Disclaimer: he hasn't yet opened these, despite having a controlled assessment coming up.

History (OCR): this is his favourite subject, and he wasn't happy with any of the revision guides we looked at. He is making his own revision notes using his textbook, BBC bitesize and the why/what/how questions in the course specification.

Latin (WJEC): there isn't a revision guide, but he does practise using the Cambridge Latin website.

Classical Civilisation (OCR): again, there isn't a revision guide, but this is another of his favourite subjects. He is making his own revision notes.

English Literature (AQA): I have bought him the York Notes for the texts he is doing. He has looked at them once or twice, and also looked at BBC bitesize.

The Pearson guides for MFL are the best. Exam board specific for AQA/OCR and have a separate exam workbook available too (also with download tracks). Contains a listening and reading exam style question for every single part of every single topic as well as a full practice paper for both skills and helpful grammar section.

For English/ English literature: BBC Bitesize; Sparknotes; Shmoop (a bit American, but entertaining) all free from the internet. I'm an English teacher, and recommend these to my students.

Don't know about AQA guides, but for any Edexcel courses, purchase the Pearson guides they own Edexcel plus they are consise and easy to follow

Our school runs an informative "Year Ahead" evening for parents for each year group. In the yr11 one, they gave out handouts for each subject detailing the revision guides they recommend.

Do be aware that some revision guides are written and tailored for a particular exam board, then they bring out a briefly edited version and say that's for another exam board. They're not as good.

The guides ds1 found most essential for his GCSEs were the science ones and the MFL (German) one.

As a maths teacher that does aqa we recommended the Collins one. It has far more in it than the cpg ones.

Be careful though, what year is your dc in 9 or 10?? The spec is changing dramatically and at our school the year 9's are doing the new spec, so currently there isn't a revision guide that covers it.

Thank you all for your experiences.
I think I will take my son to WHSmiths to have a look.
Shiny, you raise a good point, as my son is in Yr 9 (3yr GCSE course at my son's school).