How to revise! GCSE year 11

[Panic71]

Whilst having lunch with my son today he got quite upset and said that he keeps being told to revise but isn’t told what revision should look like.
Can anyone offer any words of wisdom as to how to structure revision for a year 11 student doing 9 GCSE subjects.

A few elements:

1. Ensuring a full set of notes for the topic, this should be done first and with a textbook or class notes. File these away nicely to return to.

1. Memorisation efforts: flashcards, mindmaps from memory etc. this should generally be created next. These are also an invaluable resource (can use quizlet but handwriting will also help commit to memory.)

1. Practice questions. By the end this should be about 70% of revision, especially for sciences, maths and English language. GCSEs work on a very specific mark scheme and there are a LOT of application of knowledge questions. Do these after the flashcards/ notes so the knowledge is there- can do a set of open book and then a set closed book in timed conditions to check knowledge. Make sure to go through the mark scheme after and correct (remember it is specific and be a harsh marker). For essay subjects like English lit or RS making essay plans will also fall under this category.

Please please encourage filing away properly as every resource created now will be useful as the mocks and real exams approach. Creating resources like good notes and flashcards for every topic test is a good way to stay on top of it all, and then refreshing via questions and flashcards regularly.

Past papers. As many as you can.

My daughter has just got great grades. She uses a different variety of methods but they are generally all 'active' so not just reading.

She makes endless flash cards. Wilko do great ones with a hole and metal ring which keeps them together if you can find similar

Mind maps

Blurting - this involves picking a mini topic. (DONT revise it first) then basically write down everything you can remember about it on a whiteboard or similar. Then take that and cross reference it against your notes to see where you have gaps and use that to target revision.

On you tube there are these 5 minute science videos on all the different topics. She watched those endlessly and it helped her go from a 7-7 to 9-9 (and she hates science)
Understand all the requirements of the exam and exactly what you need to include in the more essay subjects.

She was very conscious to spend time revising the subjects / topics she found hard rather than staying with the comfort of stuff she knew

Go to revision sessions - her school did topic specific ones and even though she's a strong student she still went and did learn from them.

She got all 9's and I honestly believe it's down to the fact she has great revision and exam technique - she is bright but not super bright.

Oh yes and tons and tons of past papers - she just found them herself by googling I think.

This is incredibly helpful - thank you.
Do you have links to the videos please?

There are two elements to revision

1. Understanding the material. You are not going to be able to answer a question on photosynthesis if you don't understand it.
2. Practising - lots and lots of past questions.

DC's school recommends active rather than passive revision so mind maps and questions and making up funny rhymmes to remember things are good. Making flash cards unless you are using them to go through constantly not so useful.

Break the syllabus down into chunks (some subjects like science work better for this). then target revision e.g. you're not revising Spanish, you're revising "leisure" vocabulary and phrases. Identify the areas that need more work. It's not good spending hours revising quadratic equations if you already know how to solve them.

Little and often probably works better. Revise one subject for 25 minutes, take a 5 minute break, then look at something else (unless you have a hyperfocused child who will find that annoying).

Thank you 🙏

1. With regard to: Ensuring a full set of notes for the topic, this should be done first and with a textbook or class notes. File these away nicely to return to.

Would you literally copy these notes directly from the text book to start with?

I would recommend buying a copy of "Teach yourself how to learn" by Sandra Yauncy McGuire. Very few young people are taught how to learn so they have ineffective study strategies such as just reading and highlighting.

I'd also recommend sharing this with your son: ncase.me/remember/

Never ever copy.

It takes zero processing power in the brain. It's literally pointless.

Try and express the idea in his own words, but that doesn't mean just switching word order around or looking up a synonym in a thesaurus. Get him to try and do it as if he was explaining the concept to someone else - without looking back at the page.

Search the page topic (e.g. gcse photosynthesis) on youtube for easier-to-digest explanations. There's loads of good ones around.

No, don't just copy out the textbook, use the textbook to make a summary of key points, or a mindmap or a timeline or whatever.

Time spent copying and highlighting is generally time wasted.

@Fluffycloudsfloatinginthesky I am also interested in those videos!

How many hours a day, and how did she split this? Thank you!

Blurting - this involves picking a mini topic. (DONT revise it first) then basically write down everything you can remember about it on a whiteboard or similar. Then take that and cross reference it against your notes to see where you have gaps and use that to target revision.

This is a great technique. Retrieval practice - the act of trying to remember something - makes it stick in the brain more than simply reading about it. Your brain says 'oh, you're trying to remember this, that means it's important, I'll stick a flag in it which will bump it up in your brain and make it more easily accessible'.

Self testing is also important - so a question on one side of the flash card then the answer on the back would be better than just a flash card with the info to look at.

The ‘never copy’ thing is interesting as I used to revise by simply writing out over and over again information - not seen as sensible these days but I got top marks doing this !

DD uses the blurt method for languages and found it helpful. other subjects she uses a lot of flash cards. She has similar thoughts to your son OP about ‘how to revise ‘ esp with languages until she read about blurt but started to get the hang of it in Y10 exams and they have 2 sets of mocks to come so he’ll crack it. I got her a mini whiteboard which she uses and finds helpful.

As a teacher, this is the kind of strategy I try really hard to teach year 11s. This is IMO what works best for most people.

Getting them to have the self-control to stick to it is another thing. It can be really tempting to sit “making notes” from books while listening to music/chatting to friends/watching a movie and kidding yourself that you’ve done 3 hours of revision. Likewise it can feel more productive to work on topics you already know well, when it’s the slow, hard work on the ones you don’t know that really makes a difference to the overall grade.

For maths - find a shaky topic, watch a video on it ( [https://corbettmaths.com/contents/ or https://www.mathsgenie.co.uk/gcse.html ) actively pausing and attempting to do the next line of working then unpausing. Then try some questions, marking them as you go along. If you get them right, try some harder questions or move onto a new topic, if you get them wrong fix it. Look at the markscheme and see where mistakes were made and then try another question, go back to the video or a different video. Do this till confidently answering the questions.

Use mixed revision (e.g. past papers) to identify topics which need further work, then repeat the above.

DD hated flash cards, they just didn't work for her at all.

She did a mix of mind maps, working through exercise books and past papers. It helped her finding the areas she had holes in her knowledge and then went back to the actual lesson material and lots of videos and worked through that and did past papers again.

We had a tutor for maths for 3 months, she had problems due to illness and missed lessons and couldn't catch up on her own enough.

On top of all, a kind of dedicated timetable. We split each afternoon into blocks she had for revision and/or homework and activities. Each day had one to two subjects for around 30 minutes. That meant DD knew exactly what to do and it helped her staying focused.

When mock dates were announced we shuffled it around as she skipped some of her activities for these weeks to have more time.

Also, encourage him to attend revision lessons in school.

I'm just about to set up a revision mentoring service for this exact reason! Kids just don't know!

What is key is learning how to make notes and paraphrase/summarise and reformat notes (into flashcards/mind-maps/diagrams etc )

re-vise - re-vision - look again!

Have a look at the Cornell note taking method.

One good way:
Have him make notes by paraphrasing and summarising (not copying!), then reformat them into flashcards with info on one side and a couple of cue words/questions on the other and then get him to teach you what he has learned using just the cue words. Make him really explain things to you so you fully understand! 😊

@Goingcrazyimsure is there a demand for that so you reckon? My daughter has been thinking about tutoring (we are in a grammar area (she doesn't go to one) so quite a lot of the pupils from there offer tutoring once past GCSE's) and I joked to her she should actually do revision technique sessions as I really think that's why she did so well?

Sticky notes stuck to fridge, bathroom mirror etc, anywhere he goes often!

My sons school said reading through the notes and highlighting bits isnt very useful.

There was lots of re writing them down to flashcards and mindmaps and lots of practice papers in our house.

The best tip we were given is left to their own devices students tend to revise the bits they already know best. So to put effort into the bits they arent doing as well in.

I shall let you know! I am a secondary teacher and I'm setting up a tutoring business and lots of my students last year needed this support more than academic support (another COVID hangover I think ☹️) so I thought I'd offer this too! I don't know if parents will pay for it - my idea was to offer support sessions but also daily mentoring (phone/online/WhatsApp etc.) to check in and see how they were getting on with timetables etc. and to help with anxiety/stress ...

For those that asked the YouTube Videos are called free science lessons and they cover all combined and triple. She then makes Cornell notes on these.

She has also just said when she looked over flash cards she didn't just think the points in her head she said them out loud or wrote them down (so she didn't just think she had remembered it)

For English she also used physics and maths tutor (covers everything) as they had character profiles and poetry stuff. She made mind maps from this.

She also uses Seneca (school subscription) and cognito (science & maths) website.

@Panic71

she did about 45 minutes an evening from jan / Feb then about 2 hours from Easter that is weeknights. She didn't start revising at weekends until Easter. Maybe 3 hours a day at weekends from Easter and same each day during holidays. She would start the day with her least likes subjects.

Her school didn't have study leave and still set homework so she didn't really do much more during exams - some evenings she didn't get home until 5/6 so those evenings there was no revision just homework.

So not huge volumes but obviously effective!

You must be so SO proud of her hard work.

@Panic71 I am - I honestly had no involvement she has always been self motivated so I have just left her to it.

She was predicted some 9's but the end result amazed both of us.

Her school are also excellent - a lot of people assumed she would leave and go the local grammar with those grades but she is staying where she is now for 6th form. They take 20% of their intake as selective (they tend to get the ones who don't quite make the full selective schools) and they are really focused on getting great results and provide lots of support and extra sessions - some days school was running until 5pm in that last half term.

Her goal is Oxbridge and this actually makes me think she has a shot!