GCSE Revision Timetable - advice please

[Paperclipp]

I've had to stay off the GCSE threads as they throw me in a flat spin as every school & child is different so there is no point comparing- however I now need advice from those with experience

School sent an email last week saying pupils should have their revision timetable in place. DS needs quite a lot of help structuring/organising his time as can't step back & see the wood for the trees so I am helping him with this.

He has 14 'clean' days at Easter then 3 weeks of school (probably with revision hwk set at the weekends so I can't count on those as clean days) then straight into exams with no study leave which came as a bit of a shock

He has a good chunk of consecutive exams in the 3 weeks before half term then about a third of them more spaced after half term.
Half term is 10 clean days then he has 3 clean days the week after half term and 5 clean days the following week.

There is a lot of potential revision time during and after half term - much more breathing space. There is comparatively much less over Easter & in the run up to the pre-half term chunk of exams, and no days off in between them

Am I taking a risk leaving most of the revision for the exams after half term (papers 2 of the sciences, geog 2 & 3, eng lang 2 and maths 2) until half term itself. Is it too big a risk to leave these areas until then? He has so much content to get through before half term which is he less strong on (history, RS, ComSci and all of Eng Lit)

Really long post - reflects general stress level!

My son won't revise for paper 2s until half term as you said, too much else to be concentrating on!

However he has literally just revised paper 2 material for a second round of mocks at the beginning of March so it should be fairly fresh. I wouldn't have advised him to leave it til then otherwise.

Remember that your son is also revising at school (in some subjects, this might have already been for quite some time). So I'd suggest the first thing to do is work out what areas need more or less revision. He may be very confident already about some things, so they don't need so much focus.

You don't mention having to complete any coursework, so I'm assuming that's not an additional consideration (I will mention in passing that my daughter spent the first 10 of the 14 days of her Easter holiday working solely on coursework and I had to do a lot of biting my lip to avoid mentioning the need to start revision as well).

Think about "rest days" - depending on your child they might like a day totally off in a week or to intersperse longer rest periods amongst study periods.

English Lang probably doesn't need much revision so could probably be left. I don't think the maths papers split out well enough into subjects to leave maths though. The rest of the post half term exams, I'd say it depends how confident he is. I would personally not suggest leaving them until after half term "just in case".

I’d do more of the maths before half term which will also help the science. The English can be left until half term assuming he’s relatively confident and doesn’t need tons of practice with feedback

id be wary of blocking much revision during the exams themselves as they’re often so packed in, but does his school offer drop in revision sessions while on leave?

For some subjects you can't predict what will come up on paper 1 vs paper 2.

So for example for maths, you need to try to revise your personal top topics from the whole syllabus.

Whereas something like English you know if it is lit or lang.

So for some subjects if it is split by content then yes absolutely. Other subjects - maths, science not sure about others - you might get any q on any paper.

Obviously once paper 1 is done you can cross those topics off and never revise them again.

Hey @Paperclipp remember re no study leave - those last weeks at school after Easter will basically be (or should be) targeted revision anyway so may well be as useful as study leave tbh.

I recall DS2 shelving his post-half-term papers (some of history, some sciences, Eng lang) at some point, to be covered over half term. Not this soon tho! When are you thinking your ds would do this? I would say he should be looking at all subjects just now and maybe once he is done with the Easter hols, put aside the second section.

Agree with others tho, there are some things where it is harder to do this.

Eng lang 2 you will know what it will be so practice on that can wait. Maths I agree is more tricky to do that with.

I assume from your list he is not doing any creative subjects and no MFL - so no speaking exam looming large?

Thanks for your replies
Science is all AQA so topics are neatly split between either paper 1 & 2.
Maths he nailed in autumn half term as needs an 8 to do A level so he'll keep revision down to a stream of past papers and targeted tricky areas - he finds this the easiest type of revision as it's 'actively doing'
History coursework was done in Feb half term (hideous) and no languages.
4 Options are content heavy History, Geog, Comsci & RS
There's Further Maths - both papers are after half term and I'm not too fussed about...more important to get a strong single maths grade.

I guess I'm sat here mainly trying to timetable those 2 weeks over Easter which are uppermost in my mind and are looming. I feel like he needs every one of those days to cover the pre HT stuff: the 4 options (apart from Geog 2&3), English Lit (the weakest link) & the Science 1 papers, much of which were learnt in Y9 & 10. I could fill the entire holiday by giving him 2 days on each of those topics and chucking in some maths and extra Eng Lit.
Adding in Science 2, Geog 2/3 would need another 7-8 days...which we have at half term. Hopefully school might touch on some of it in the 3 weeks after Easter plus it's also the most recent stuff he's been taught (and in some cases is still being taught - eeek!)

I'm aware of sounding like a control freak but he's just equipped with the skills to structure this himself. I also have a Y9 daughter who I know I won't even get involved with when her time comes - chalk & cheese

Your plan sounds sensible.to me, especially if mocks coveted more recent things and timetable load lighter after the half term.
(Disclaimer, my dd who actually sat gcses did them a while back, more recent one missed gcse exams )

I would definitely do this - ignore the post half term ones for now. Not just because it's the best use of the time, but also to make it a bit easier to deal with mentally. GCSEs are such a slog, splitting the revision like this and setting some aside for now can make it all a bit more manageable.

He may already be doing this…
Rank each topic as a traffic light system with red not much clue, Amber some knowledge & green know it/understand it. Work on getting the Amber topics to green first. Then the red ones. A lot of kids focus on going over their already green topics. Parents focus on the red, which can be too overwhelming.

Some really great tips here. Am watching with interest. All thoughts of "how will they learn if you don't allow them some independence " have long since vanished here as my ds could feasibly fail if left to his own devices.

I think with gcses you do what you need to to see them through.
The stepping back time is 6th form if they choose A levels with a view to uni.

This. They take GCSEs at a really stupid age and most need a lot of supervision. It's a LOT of content and becomes overwhelming extremely quickly. It's helpful for them to have trusted adults that are there for them to motivate, reassure and organise. Even if they don't see it at the time!

I am sitting here filing science revision notes while my ds revises German. Fml, honestly.