Current YR10s - revision over the summer?

[Jorah]

Dd has GSCEs in 2019. She's hard working and diligent and keen to do well. She wants to revise a bit over the summer and has a few revision bits from her teachers. What's the best way to do it? Is revision over the summer overkill? She could do past papers but obviously won't have covered quite everything yet.

hi

My dd is also doing GCSEs in 2019, she will receive some revision work over the summer but she is taking the time to redo revision notes and cards for her subjects and sort her files out.
She is also going to make notes and quotes for english lit as there is so much content with 3 sciences and history as well

If she really wants to, then I see no harm in doing a bit. But having just gone through Y11, it is a hard slog, so you don't want her to burn out.
One of the best things she could do is to go through all her work and make sure that she has everything - stick in sheets, finish anything off that hasn't been done etc. Make sure everything is organised so that she knows exactly where each topic is etc.
IF there are any areas that she is unsure on, then go over those - write some notes, do mind maps, look at bbc bitesize, get some revision guides etc. Then if she is still unsure, she can go to teachers in September for help.

Make sure she has a decent break as well.

I agree with making sure notes etc are up to date, and maybe ensuring she understands everything. But leave actual focussed learning until later.
Also agree that past papers will have more benefit later when more content is covered or she has attempted to learn it all.

making sure everything is up to date is a good idea especially as she's had a bit of time off ill. Maybe I will ask her to ask her teachers to give a list of everything that they should have covered by now.

She's at an independent school and they break up on Friday so she will have too long a break not to do anything. We are away for almost three weeks in total during the holidays so she can have a full break then.

It was really useful to keep up language vocabularly learning, little and often. DD is dyslexic so always likely to struggle, but arrived at the start of Yr 11 with a good grasp of her vocabulary, which saved her from any panic revision closer to the exam. A bit of maths practice might also be useful. Again more of a retaining/embedding skills rather than attempting something new.

That is an excellent idea needmoresleep

dd isn't dyslexic but is a terrible speller. She does really well in the oral tests.

And I'll add scientific keywords to the list as well

Hi, my Dd is in yr10 and is going to be doing some consolidation/revision work over the summer. She has 8-9 weeks off so it is a long time and her teachers have said (for example in MFL) to keep up with vocabulary as need suggests. Her confidence in one subject has been knocked and relationship with that teacher is strained so we are getting a tutor for the summer so she goes back in September in a better frame of mind. Dd is happy with 5-7 hours per week (not all in one day!) and that could include for example watching film of her English texts.

DS2 (has just taken GCSEs) did about an hour a day during the summer holidays between Y10 and Y11.
English lit: creating quote banks on the texts they read in Y10.
Maths: practice questions on the topics they did in Y10.
Science: not much, but he was already confident in these subjects.
Geography: creating revision cards for case studies.
French: Duolingo and vocab revision.

Maybe I will ask her to ask her teachers to give a list of everything that they should have covered by now.

If they finish term on Friday, I would think twice about asking her exhausted teachers to do this. They probably won't thank you. GCSE course specifications are available online and it shouldn't be too hard to work out which topics they have done and which they haven't.

Apart from that, I would agree that your twin priorities are making sure that she is (a) well rested and (b) organised by September. DD1 has just finished her GCSEs and is absolutely exhausted. Year 11 is a relentless year and you want her to be in a fit state to hit the ground running.

Thanks for your concern, she already has a list from them. It seems fairly fundamental that they'd do that to be honest.
I've had two others go through gcses so I know what a slog they are. Nothing beats prior preparation!

There are a variety of revision books like CGP. Just make sure you get the correct books for the exam board they are sitting.

Unless you're older two children did GCSEs this year, you probably don't yet know what a slog they are. The exam load for the 9-1 GCSEs is significantly higher than it was when there was coursework. And there is a huge increase in the amount which has to be committed to memory.

Yes hence the summer revision.

I was planning on encouraging my year 10 to have the summer off apart from any set homework. I want him in a relaxed state to knuckle down in September. He has worked incredibly hard this year and needs a break so that he’s in the right place to start year 11

Just asked my current year 10 what his plans were for the summer hols and revision and surprisingly he has a revision plan already worked out! Apparently he was talking to a friend from the year above who ended up losing most of his Christmas hols trying to catch up and has taken that on board!

It looks like school has been encouraging them to plan revision for the summer as well.

Ds has said he wants all his year 10 stuff on revision cards by the time he goes back in sept - mind you he wanted that done for his exams this year and only managed about half of what he needed so I think that's added to the learning curve!!

whojamaflip good on your ds! Even something is better than nothing. Maths particularly needs repetition. She has nearly 3 months off which is far too lo g to do nothing

Jorah you seem slightly determined not to listen, but let me just tell you this. As I mentioned, my eldest has just finished year 11. In the summer after year 10 she did quite a lot of revision, mostly tasks set as holiday homework, some of which were very time consuming. She managed to keep the pace going through to Mocks just before Christmas. And she did really well in those.

By Easter she was really flagging and had just about had enough. Very little revision happened, despite our best efforts. She did manage to pick up the pace again before the actual exams, but I think she missed out on some valuable work time over Easter (i.e. when she had actually completed the courses) because she just didn't have it in her by then.

I don't think anyone is saying you should forget about school work entirely. Just that it's really important that they pace themselves, because these new GCSEs are more of a marathon than ever and you want them to peak at the right moment.

I hear what you are saying! There's no need to be quite so adamant about it! All kids are different. Please don't worry there is no way dd will work any harder than she has to. She will definitely pace herself!

She will be having three weeks away plus another fortnight off, so that's 5 weeks of no revision. That's enough to recharge her batteries.

[hm, dc2 is away for 4 weeks, family holidays, camp. I would be glad if she agreed to tidy up her room and put her books into a nice pile instead of scattered all over the place]

dd finishes on Friday. On Monday we are going to go through her books, get everything sorted then put them in a storage box with a lid so they can disappear for a week. Then she'll do a two or three weeks with a couple of hours a day revision. Then nothing for the first three weeks of August, then a bit of revision for the last week including watching any films for English.

That's the plan anyway

I have a year 10 (midway through year 10 exams) - he’s exhausted- your dd must be. I would not spend tge first day of her holidays doing school work. Give her a proper break and then maybe look at things.

I don’t expect my ds to do any school work over the holidays it’s a long slog to tge GCSEs and he’s worked hard all year.

I am amazed anyone does any revision between Y10 and Y11 apart from any small pieces of preparatory work set by the school. The exams are a year away! You can't revise all year.