How to Revise for GCSEs

[Roadtonowe]

DS is entering his GCSE year. Not especially academic, has to work really hard to get results. Is predicted 4s & 5s. He has dyspraxia and has had a maths tutor since year6.

School don't seem to be teaching how to revise. Just advised to purchase the revision guides to each subject and then make mind maps and/or flash cards if they'll help.

We are building a revision timetable to give him some structure but it's no good just to add "science" but need to be more specific eg photosynthesis otherwise he'll go off on a tangent.

How does he learn which revision technique(s) actually suit him? Which are most effective? Any tips or advise is gratefully received.

DD is autistic and finds the school environment difficult, she is academically able and should be on for 7-9s but her processing and working memory are weaker than her academic skills. So we do flipped learning and lots of repetition as a family unit, she has the text books at home reads the chapters on the topics she'll be covering before the lesson, for science watches the freesciencelessons videos (AQA) that leaves her on a better position to ask deeper questions in class and address any of her misconceptions

She has Pukka note books with dividers for each topic she summarises the days notes into when she gets home.

At the end of the week she goes through her notebooks and makes revision cards. We use a trivia pursuit board and revise by using her class subjects as the TP topics.

Revisits the revision cards regularly.

Theatre trips to see GCSE text performed and Thug Notes is great for analysis.

Doing past papers together, DD has the question paper open on the questions and works through them and I have the markschemes open on mine and we go through together at the end and work out where she went wrong if she did.

I appreciate DD is only just going into year 10 although her school teach GCSE content from year 7 and pretty sure her autism is what makes her so focussed but I think repetition and doing it as a family unit rather than isolating them a way makes a huge difference - and you learn something too.

Get onto Reddit r/gcse - goldmine of info from students

My dd loved 5 minute science videos. She did loads of flashcards.

Find out what kind of learner they are.

mine is a visual learner

then you can tailor techniques towards their preferred style.

using past papers to identify gaps in knowledge is helpful too