Request for Last Minute Gcse Tips Please

[Ichangedmynameonce]

I've posted before about DS in year 11

GCSEs start next week. He's been a bit more motivated recently but.....

Does anyone have any last minute tips that will help him do better please? Across the board.

He hasn't really wanted our involvement and so I feel a bit powerless and as if I've left him down.

My main tip would be to print off some past papers so he can see the format of each exam and how much each section of the paper is worth. He needs to know
how long to spend on each section/ question. e.g for edexcel English lang 1, section A is worth 26 marks and section B 40 marks. You really need to leave enough time for B.

DD has had a tough year and also starts next week - she has also picked up pace recently. The most useful thing she has done is research the mark schemes which are widely available online and have really helped her understand what they are looking for especially for essay subjects. GCSEs seem massively formulaic so even if you know the content you can loose marks for not giving the answer the way they want it. Each board has its own quirks too.

Plough through past papers and focus on the markschemes. Put Seneca and flash cards to one side.

Lots of past papers and mark schemes. A realistic revision timetable that includes down time and other responsibilities so that it can be stuck to.

Make sure he is revising the stuff he finds hard - sounds obvious but lots of students avoid the bits they don't like and revise what they feel.comfortable with.

I am a science teacher and also have my own tutoring business - for subject specific advice I always recommend the free science lessons you tube channel and also focusing on the required practicals (Malmesbury science have great you tube videos for these) plus the skills.based bits.like analysing graphs etc. that are common to all of the papers.

Thank you all.

And thanks for not giving me a hard time and saying its stupid to even bother now!

There are some great videos on TikTok by teachers giving little tips - dd used some for her mocks.

The English lit ones especially we've found really good, a guy called GuigLit.

This is useful thanks - so difficult to know what the best use of time is when we’re so close

OP I just want to say I feel your pain and am reading with interest. Thanks for starting this thread.

Good luck to all the not-very-motivated kids and all the ones who are panicking because the penny has only just dropped on how much work they should have been doing all this time. I am rooting for you (especially because my DC is one such kid!) May you all do better than you hoped and get onto whatever route you want for post-16.

Thank you all. Reassuring to know we aren't the only ones. Good luck all.

It sounds obvious, but make sure he knows exactly what he is supposed to do on each paper, especially things like English Lit or History where there may be choices of questions - how many questions, from which sections.

Every year you hear horror stories of kids having missed entire sections or deciding to answer questions on books they’ve never read.

Every year you hear horror stories of kids having missed entire sections or deciding to answer questions on books they’ve never read.

I've marked multiple lit papers where this has happened. Poor kids

Thank you both! I had assumed he did, but definitely will go over.

At this point past papers, print them off and get understanding what the questions look like, how the paper is set out. Also time him so he gets an idea of how long to spend on each section. It is all about building confidence now.

I found with (revision challenged) DS it was helpful (at least for me anyway, as I felt I was being useful :) ) to do as much of the practical stuff round the edges as I could so that he literally had nothing to do but sit and work through past papers.

So that meant things like physically printing the past papers; making sure he had all the stationery that he could possibly need and when he mentioned stuff like he needed to revise x topic actually finding him some decent revision notes on that topic (disclaimer - DS's own notes would not be considered "decent" or even "notes" in some instances). Yes, some(most) of it he ignored but some of it I think he appreciated and he did start asking me if I could do specific things. Most importantly it just made the final revision period a bit nicer and as relaxed as it could be. Bringing frequent drinks and snacks was also appreciated :)

as well as being very familiar with the mark scheme, number of questions to be answered etc don’t forget they’ll need their pens and pencils in a clear pencil case and water in a see through bottle.

drum into them the importance of leaving their phone in their bag outside of the exam room

I have never heard of Guiglit. is that better than mr bruff for eng lit? Any other video options for students without good notes to revise from?

I agree - past papers.

Once he has done a few he will see similar questions coming up every time.

My daughter loves this site, and as an ex English teacher I love their approach

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6eeOJ9swsR/?igsh=enJxbDdtZ3FtOXo1

Plus videos like this on YouTube are great

Definitely past papers and mark schemes. But also, DD spent the night before the first one, doing a workout and having a bath and an early night.

It depends on how much help he will accept from you and how much time you’ve got. My daughter last year had done very little revision at this stage and one thing I did was get the exam board revision guide for each subject then I made flash cards with questions on one side and she then had to answer the questions on the other side of the card. The revision books were good and easy to follow. This was quite time intense for me though! Sadly I don’t think she’s learnt anything about starting early if her current approach to A Level mocks is anything to go by!

Remember that exams are about providing answers that match the marking scheme. It's handy to know the real facts, but you don't get the marks if they don't match the marking scheme. Consider:

• Practise to make sure that answers are worded clearly using the same style and terminology as marking schemes of previous papers.
• Recognise where the exam board has a preference to see dumbed down answers - e.g. most exam boards for computer science want to see 1000 bytes per kilobyte instead of the real answer 1024.

Agree with all above.
Don't panic. I'm SLT... past papers
Clear waterbottle and a spare pen!!!

My advice after DS did his last year would be:

Be on top of their timetable so they don’t accidentally miss any. Ticking them off one by one is fairly enjoyable.

Make sure they have the equipment they need - and have spares.

Don't get overly invested in particular papers or mistakes they think they’ve made. Just be generally a reassuring and supportive background presence. There’s loads of papers and no point them panicking over one - by staying calm they can do their best in them all (whether or not they’ve done lots of work). All they need are the grades for their next step.

Be available for last minute practice/testing if needed - but don’t push it on them.

If they are a panicker remind them to read the question properly, answer the right questions (in Eng Lit don’t write about a book you haven’t studied!) and to write something rather than nothing even if they are not sure. No swearing or addressing the examiner on the paper- can get you disqualified

Have something to look forward to - whatever that might be for your child - something they like for tea, for example. We celebrated the last one with a fairly low-key takeaway of their choice

Mine was fairly relaxed about the whole thing and I thought he might not have done that well given lack of obvious work, but he did great.

All super helpful, thank you