GCSE revision books

[TawnyPippit]

Right, so Ds is revising for his GCSE mocks, which are immediately on his return after Christmas. I said I would get him a revision book for each subject. Fairly easy I thought - I work right next to a huge WH Smith in an area renowned for the desperate yearning of parents for decent GCSE grades (as an aside, the Bond 11+ section is even bigger...) But after a quick look at the options, I am stumped!! Could I have some advice, (desperate) please?

First, I get that it would be bad to get the one for the wrong board, but if there is no board stated, its ok to get a generic one, right? The Letts ones, eg, seem to cover all boards. (Ds seems to be doing minority boards in everything - sigh).

Are the shops going to be selling off the "old" style GCSE ones (and assuming the answer is yes), does it matter? For info, I suspect DS won't be studying the guides to the letter for advice on mark breakdowns etc, just using them as a back up. Or do I need to be rigorous in checking that it is 2018 specific?

If he is doing IGSE, is it that different from the GCSE from the same board? (I couldn't see any iGCSE specific guides, hence the question).

Are any brands better than others? Or is it just a question of personal preference?

Any and all advice gratefully received!

I bought the CGP guides and they all mention the" new syllabus" "9-1" on the cover.

I'm not a teacher so can't comment on the importance of board but Amazon had all of the ones I needed.

Hi OP. Yes the old specs differ significantly from the new ones for a number of subjects and it brings a lot of confusion in terms of question type DS might face etc. I've not been able to tutor with the old revision books. The IGCSE is also very different from the standard AQA etc. Even the basic type of questions they face. My advice is go for the CGP. If he's using them as a backup, they are succinct and if you get the complete guide, have extra practice papers etc. Also ensure he looks at the mock papers available for his exam board online. Best of luck for your DS!

If you're going to spend the money on a revision guide, it might as well be one that's relevant to the course he's doing.

In subjects like English Literature or History, there could be very little overlap between exam boards.

In some subjects, the new 9-1 course has a fair amount of content that wasn't in the old A*-G course.

If you really can't find revision guides relevant to the specification (DS2 has this problem for the Eduqas Latin course) then email the teacher (or relevant head of department) for advice.

Yes the board will make a big difference for some subjects as the topics covered maybe different.

I teacher GCSE RS and our students study a less popular religion in terms of exam choice so there is only one specific revision book they can use.

It is best to ask School which revision guides they recommend. Often the school can bulk buy them at a discount.

Best if possible to get correct Board and ensure it's new style. Do bear in mind, though, that all Boards will have practice specimen papers and answers on their websites as well, which it's often helpful to look through.

You lot are all super helpful - thank you so much!

I think it sounds as though Amazon is my friend here. Its not exactly the best time of the year for last minute purchases from Amazon (or maybe it is ) and I fully expect a little pep talk from DS about leaving things to the last minute.

Interesting re RS Chaos, that's one of my outliers as well (plus English lit).

The school has supplied him well with past papers for the break, so its really just a question of having back up for where his own notes are a bit deficient (which, realistically, could be not exactly a small issue!)

Everything I ever knew about Land Law came from the wonderful "Land Law in a Nutshell" so this is a trip down memory lane for me!

If the school have supplied past papers he can't be doing the new syllabuses as there aren't any past papers.

It's not worth getting it wrong, I'd get in touch with the exams officer and get the exact board and paper for each subject.

Often schools sell the books cheaper than Amazon, a high street bookseller is usually the least likely/most expensive place to get the correct guide ime

And IGCSE's will be different

Due to a combination of subject choice and some iGCSE courses, my DS is only doing maths and English as the new 9-1 style exam, all others are on the old A-g syllabus still. That has been hard to track down.

The past papers may be specimen assessment materials released by the exam board. Teachers should not be on the old specs at all now except for resists.

Seeline - similar here - 5/9 are iGCSE's (which is probably why he has past papers).

Sandy they are probably specimen papers.

OP get hold of the papers and write a list of subject and exam board. Also tier for maths and English and language (if applicable).

Then go to amazon!

English and maths have been 1-9 since last May so there are 2 sets of past papers there too.

I agree with others, CGP are excellent (make sure you get the right board) and my son relied heavily on them. I bought all of his from Amazon and as well as the physical book you get a code for an online version - worth every penny.

Dermymc - I did that (wrote the list) went down to WH Smith then got a bit confused and retreated!

I get the point about "tiers" - Maths I know he is "higher" (although believe me, he is not at the high end of "Higher"!) but I don't have that info re English so am assuming it is not tiered.

Does anyone know what "Gateway" means - that sounded like a level or tier?; it was on the Sciences books (he is doing Dual Award and a couple referred to Gateway.

I'm feeling the love for CGP from here, so will have a look at those.

Cgp recommended here too.

If he's not at the higher end, I'd definitely get a foundation book too. Even better is a 4-5 borderline book. This will focus on the mid level topics which sounds like qid suit him better.

Tbh I'd also be contacting school and seeing if they recommend any.

Definitely get the right books for the right board and right level.

We've got nearly a full set from CGP and they're rightly highly recommended - they're very good. The only ones we didn't get from CGP were History - the CGP one simply didn't cover the options which the school have adopted, so would have been pretty useless as they covered the wrong subject matter.

Very easy to get the wrong ones - DS's school do a mix of exam boards including AQA, Edexcel and WJEC - the differences between aren't usually too great, but there are some subtle differences, especially in science between AQA and Edexcel and it's simply pointless doing revision questions on topics they've not done and which won't be in the syllabus.

Revision is stressful enough - getting the wrong book just wastes your child's time and may demotivate.

I've been getting myself in a muddle with revision guides too. I wanted to get the CGP ones but they don't seem to do them for WJEC maths/science. Does anyone know how similar the foundation tier syllabus is to other exam boards? Don't want to cause issues if it's got bits he won't have been taught!

AGnu You need to search for Eduqas (the WJEC exam board changed name) and you’ll find them.

CGP are great (and funny!) but not so great for lots of practise questions (usually only one per page) and at this stage, that’s the best revision. I’d also get the Revision Workbooks that just have practise exam questions. Pearson are really good for these.

Wales isn't doing the reformed GCSEs and have gone in a completely different direction for maths. WJEC is the Welsh GCSEs and Eduqas the English reformed ones so make sure you get the right ones if actually WJEC!

Feel your pain - told minefield .....
I;ve found its better to order online - search through Amazon (igcse is a good search or international gcse)...I did ask our school for exam boards but ended up looking at some of the books that DD was already using. School ordered Maths for us which I thought was pro active - did ask teacher about ordering CS too - but teacher could not be bothered to arrange this. We have been using all the CGP science books for sometime now - school recommended purchase sometime during YR 10 - so Maths Physics and Biology - Worth every penny and I do think these books have contributed to DD's high exam results - DD''s note taking NOT brilliant.
I've brought some extra bits and pieces for DD - Of Mice and Men - Spark Notes ( DD not looked at this yet - but it looks fab)
If your ds is doing computer science - there is the revision notes/exam papers and practice workbook available through CGP(new exam this year).
English Lang - I have just looked through some books I thought would help DD -I opted for the SNAP revision guide it was simple/condensed with good reviews - something i think DD would use because it was not too heavy.
I've just struggled with History - guides are all individual on topics - and pricey - dd has the last 7 years exam papers via school - I would like to find some films to watch to change nature of revision ..

OP if you want to PM me about the RS exam revision guides then I will try to help. If you know the exam board and religions he is studying (normally Christianity and Islam) that would be helpful. And if he attends a religious school eg Catholic or Jewish.

Thanks Chaos! Actually I think I'm sorted - it is OCR B, which was the only one he was doing on that board but I did find a guide to cover it, so ordered it and now have the full set (plus York notes on the 2 x literature texts).

As an aside from sorting out the York notes, it seems that "doing a Shakespeare" is no longer mandatory for Eng lit which DH and I were a bit tutty about. Everyone knows that you do an easy Shakespeare (say, Merchant of Venice for the girls, Julius Caesar for the boys), and then a deathly dull Victorian text - eg Mayor of Casterbridge, with random wife-selling thrown in. Ds seems to be doing two texts which are actually readable and interesting. We seem to be raising a generation with no appreciation of turgid and inpenetrable literature.

My kids are doing/did AQA and studied Romeo and Juliet as one of their set texts.