Using GCSE past papers as main mode of revision?

[deermi]

My son is preparing for GCSE mocks. He is aiming for 9's in most subjects, based on his past achievement in exams with more limited scope. For his revision, he told me he is using past papers, but nothing else. He either does the paper or just reads it alongside the marking scheme, and occasionally looks things up he doesn't know. But he says he doesn't often need to look things up because he has a good memory.

Does this sound like an effective way to revise? My instinct is that it isn't, but I'm interested in others' thoughts.

Yup best way to revise if you already have most of the knowledge.

Do the paper - mark it - focus on the gaps.

So much of exams is about technique. I always focus my revision (at school, uni and for a recent masters I did that was all exam based) on past papers so I understand how to answer the question to get the most marks.

It's a very good tool for obvious reasons (that this is what they will have to do). One big stumbling block tho is that there are not that many. No papers from 2020 or 2021, 2022 not out yet, no papers before 2017, or 2018, or for some subjects (DT for example) the ONLY past papers are 2019.

Also for a subject like English lit , the questions will surely be different from the papers previously set - no use being able to write an essay on male aggression in R abd J using the opening lines as that was 2017's question (IYSWIM)

So past papers plus exam style questions (lots of those aroubd) might be better

To a point. First reading it along side the mark scheme is not a good use of his time. It is short term memory only.

Using past papers and then properly marking them is very useful with 2 caveats
a) there is a limited number of past papers, due to the courses all changing and Covid meant there weren’t a many as normal,
b) that only tells you how to answer those questions - they won’t be asked again! In some subjects the past papers (see a) don’t cover the whole syllabus yet.

If he is smart then it might well work for GCSE but it is good to get into good habits now to carry him forward. So as well as answering the questions could he ask himself what else could be asked about this topic? Could he use the same question for a different area e.g. a method question in science for a different required practice or a question in English but relate it to another book.

A favourite of mine if to get students to write down everything they know about a topic, then look up their notes and see what they got wrong or forgot about entirely.

My dd is in year 12. She got 9s. She did lots of past papers but also going over all her notes. Just doing past papers is a bit of a risky strategy particularly for subjects where the content varies quite a bit - e.g. geography.

I would say that past papers are good but he needs to actually do them, then check with mark scheme. Reading them is pointless.

For essay subjects try to predict all the possible questions using the specification, text book and past papers. Then do essay plans for possible questions.

20 and 21 papers are out on exam board websites

@portico excellent, yes of course November series. Hadn't had reason to check lately.

It may work well for maths/sciences. Not bothering to do the whole paper makes quite a lot of sense if he is strong at the subject - writing out answers to questions you already know how to do is not efficient.
I think the worry would be, as others have said, that for things like Eng Lit, history and geography, not everything will be covered in the available past papers.
DD did a lot with revision guides and post-its - she put a post-it sticking out of any page where she didn't feel she could remember everything well enough - and then she knew which to come back to.

For sciences, if he genuinely knows all the subject content, it's a really good way to revise. The same questions obviously don't come up, but the same style of questions do get asked. Reading mark schemes AND examiners reports (Available on exam board websites) is really important, as it's often not obvious what responses will get you a mark.

I agree that the biggest issue is running out of papers, but the three main exam boards are similar enough at GCSE, that practising questions from other boards is also worthwhile. You can also buy papers "in the style of xyz exam board" from various places, as well. They aren't perfect, obviously, but good for revision.
Primrose Kitten did some good "predicted papers" for GCSE last year, if those are still available, for example.

He can also swap between triple/combined papers if he's doing triple, as he still needs to know everything on the combined papers!

I agree with those saying that for essay subjects it doesn't work as well, because there's a limited number of questions that have been asked, and learning how to answer those questions really well may not help when he's being asked something different.

But if he genuinely has all the subject knowledge, then it's probably the most productive thing he could be doing.

What would you rather he did?

It worked very well for DS this year. One thing I’d say is that it will make a big difference if he actually attempts the paper then looks at the mark scheme afterwards, rather than looking at both together. It’s easy to think “yep I know all that” when it’s there in front of you.

Learning where you can pick up or might lose marks is well worth it eg how accurate your graphs need to be, the fact there’s almost always a mark going on science papers for saying “repeat the experiment”, degree of accuracy that’s required in translations and so on.

My DS did the majority of his revision using past papers for his A levels and got top grades so there must be something in it!

Maths-wise, this is what I often do with my Y11 students. We mainly work with past papers (especially close to the exams if no new topics are needed to learn/revise).
It is a good strategy but I'd advise 2 things:
1 - how to approach the past paper
2 - when and how to use extra resources

1 - At this stage (Y11), timing the paper is quite important. So the student should have set time (either standard 90 mins or more if allowed due to SEN, etc. - you would know by now how much extra time, if at all, is your child allowed, usually it's +25%).
Prior to starting with any paper, the student should look at any "problematic" topics and revise a bit, then set a timer a work their best.
Specific exam techniques aside (I'm not going to add those as that would make a way too long message), when the time if out and there are perhaps some more questions left, grab another pen colour (or note clearly which questions were done overtime) and finish all that's possible.
Then and only then there's time to look at the mark scheme and:

1. check the answers (attempt to correct them by using the mark scheme - make notes whether you/the student understands it now - again, ideally in another colour "marking/correction" colour so it's clear what was independent work and what was done with help)

2. look at any problematic questions and try to understand the process by looking at the mark scheme a re-working it in your own terms. This would give the student an idea what needs to be practised as the next step, before doing another past paper. Which takes us to:

2 - In addition to past papers, it's certainly good to add extra resources. Depending on the exam board, it's best to keep to the specific exam board style questions (other exam boards papers and questions might be useful in the rare case one runs out of resources - which is almost impossible with the amount of great textbooks + workbooks and online resources, both free and paid, available for each exam board).

So using the past papers as a baseline for the revision is great when used well but unless one already mastered the whole necessary curriculum, there will likely be extra resources needed too.
This is just for maths, I can't speak for the best exam techniques for other subjects but I can imagine it might be quite similar.

Whew, this IS a long message already =)

Hi
is that true. I do see my son (Y13) spending ages learning content and less time on topical past qns. Did that reall help?

Definitely should be part of the strategy (I memorised off by heart about 5 year’s worth of past papers for my a-levels 25 years ago and some of the exact word of word questions came up. But many didn’t so I knew the syllabus inside out for the rest and got straight A’s. It is a very risky strategy only working through past papers.