Acing science exams

[SnoopysC]

Ds is in year 8 at a generally good state school and is bright, academic and likes school. He has got excellent grades and does well in exams, apart from science even though he loves biology and chemistry. He revised well for his one science test earlier in the term and got 67%. I know he can do better than that but how?

For revision, he went though his science books from year 7 and 8 and did lots of the CGP books but he said there were things in the exam that he had were not in the CGP books.

He's frustrated about this but school don't show him how to do better they don't really teach them how to revise.

Can anyone recommend revision or other techniques to do well in science exams?Or recommend any books so he can read around subjects that is at the level of a 13 year old?

When he gets tests back can he see where he is going wrong and dropping marks? Does he attempt to redo the questions that he got wrong?
Do the school use knowledge organisers? If so they should be his key revision aid. How does the school structure homework for science? Is it via an online program? If so that may have an option for revising content that has been covered.
If they don't why not try websites such as BBC Bitesize. Bitesize also covers study skills so he could run through a few techniques and see what works for him. For example: Flashcards of key terms, mind maps of processes, and test-style question practice. You can be as creative as you like with revision if it helps it stick!

He needs to do past paper questions, at year 8 this will probably be foundation gcse questions

I disagree. Or at least not necessarily agree. He may well be learning some topics not in GCSE syllabus.
Surely he should he using his notes made in class as a starting point?

You need to start with the actual test paper he did.

He might revise really well and know a lot, but not realise basics like a 2 mark question wants you to make 2 points.

Or he might know everything and writes in so much detail (from his CGP books) that he runs out of time for the last questions.

Or he can learn a lot of facts but his reading comprehension lets him down and he misses what the question is actually asking.

Start with the test paper.

Thank you, and apologies for coming coming back late to the thread.

You need to start with the actual test paper he did.
@Testina that's a good idea, I asked him and he said he never got his test back, do I email the teacher to ask for it?

The point about reading comprehension is also an interesting one, I think he can struggle with that. He hates the idea of tutoring but would this help?

Does he attempt to redo the questions that he got wrong?
Redoing the test is such a good idea, I just have to get hold of the test, not sure how this is best done.

Do the school use knowledge organisers? If so they should be his key revision aid.
I have never heard of these and will enquire. It's a very good state school but they have given zero framework for revision, which I don't understand. It's all about revision but how do kids learn to revise?

His lesson notes are comprehensive, and his book looks good and informative. It's just that reading though them is not enough.

Would gratefully receive any additional advise.

His lesson notes are comprehensive, and his book looks good and informative. It's just that reading though them is not enough.

Reading through is never enough.

Not a bad idea to get into the habit of making revision cards or mindmaps with the key info, then trying to reproduce them or get you to test him.

Y8/y9 is a good time to practice revision methods so he knows what works come GCSEs.

OP, I think you need more information. How do you know that 67% isn't top of the class? In year 8, schools set their own tests using completely different methods. It could be that the school has deliberately made it very difficult to simulate the higher GCSE papers. The grade boundaries on a triple science paper would give a very good grade at 67%.

My dd is the same age and the opposite to what you've described your ds in that science is her best subject.
She's ASD and science is her special interest. But she finds the wordy and imaginative contexts they put in the questions very difficult to process.

I think you need a conversation with the teacher about what in particular he is missing marks on. There are so many different aspects to a science test. He could be doing very well on the recall and maths questions and struggling with applying his knowledge to a different context. This is harder to 'revise' for and will come with practice of doing exams. You say you have the CGP books. The KS3 workbook is good. Very challenging and has questions like this in it (my copy is one from a fair few years back).

I should have probably said I'm Head of Science. I often have questions like what you've asked in your op. Email them (not until new year!). Each school will have different advice based on how they are structured their assessment and how they do hwk etc. From a teachers perspective, I'd be delighted you were supporting your DS.

Re the CGP books, which did you get him? They do different ones for the different exam boards, so if you got the right one, it should match the syllabus. If you got the one for a different exam board or a generic one, then it won't match.

Also, which CGP books did you buy? From memory there are 3 kinds. There's a "complete" book which goes into a lot of detail (more like a text book) which is good if the actual knowledge itself hasn't been learned comprehensibly in school but takes a lot of time, then a "revision" book which covers the syllabus more briefly so is quicker to work through, and then a book of questions (exam practice workbook?) which is just a book full of questions. They've now also started doing revision cards I believe.

My DS had all 3 kinds of the CGP books - he used the thicker "complete" guide alongside his lessons throughout course to help him understand things he didn't quite "get" in the lessons and also did the end of chapter questions alongside lessons as test revision/preparation (his school did end of chapter tests every few weeks). He worked through the revision guide as his revision for his mocks (January?) and then worked through the question book as revision in the weeks ahead of the real exams. School provided "real" past papers for revision, being older exams they didn't use for mocks.

At sixth form, the school used the CGP "complete" books as the text book and actually provided the students with their own copies instead of a "proper" text book, and suggested pupils buy their own copies of the revision guide and exam practice workbook!

For sciences, DS always regarded exam technique as almost as important as learning the knowledge, which is something some of his teachers worked hard on. His exam technique included things like not writing sentences/paragraphs in answers but to write bullet point lists instead (unless actual explanations required), so for a 3 mark question, he'd just put down 3 bullet points which saved a lot of time and made him think about matching his answers to the marking scheme (CGP books helped with this as their answers at the back of the book were usually bullet points rather than sentences/paragraphs!).

DS got grade 9s in his GCSEs and A* at A Level, so CGP books worked well for him!

@SnoopysC

how do kids learn to revise?

They have to work out what works for them. Kids are different. They'll revise best in different ways. Schools can only offer suggestions (Google searches for revision techniques too - lots of examples on Google). It's not really acceptable for a school or teacher to "tell" a pupil how to revise, as pupils learn/revise in different ways, but they should offer alternatives/suggestions.

As someone said above, years 8 and 9 are excellent years for pupils to try out different revision methods and discover which works for them.

If they get a low mark using a particular revision technique, then they know it's not for them and can try other ways and a low exam grade in years 8 or 9 isn't the end of the World as there's time to recover for the real things.

Some people like revision cards, some make mind-maps, some plaster their bedrooms with post-it notes, some create their own mnemonics, some just read the text book again, some do lots of past papers or practice questions. Your DS needs to try different ways and will then have a better idea of what works for them. Also, different subjects lend themselves to different revision techniques too, so, say, flashcards won't work for every subject!

Our son's school brought in an outside "consultant" to do evening presentations to exam year students on revision techniques, and it was all just generic options that the pupils/parents could have googled themselves - a waste of an evening really as they just went through examples of flash cards, mind maps, etc!

There is an old saying that goes something like:

to read is to forget,
to write is to remember,
to do is to understand

Which highlights the importance of doing lots of questions rather than just lazily reading the book!