GCSE Revision Courses for Year 11

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Hello, my daughter has just sat in her room, refusing to leave as she says she needs to study for GCSEs but has recently told me that she's just in her room watching You tube videos etc as she's overwhelmed and doesn't know where to start. She's miserable and overwhelmed. so... I'm looking at a revision course over Easter hols - either OXSS or Justin Craig. Anyone had any success with these courses? They all promise that they can cater the courses to both your childs exam board and to their specific weaknesses in each subject. Anyone have any experience of these courses?

Aren’t they doing revision courses at her school? I thought most did, especially in the Easter break.

I think this query or one like it has appeared before.

Tbh it’s January – Easter is a long way away and IMHO it’s a bit late then to be looking at much more than consolidating learning and final revision. If she is stuck now, ideally a solution needs to be found now.

Take a look at “how to revise” type threads on here, but a few things my different DC have found helpful:

• Walk and talk – we go outside and work through a past paper verbally; again and again if necessary
• Refine notes down and down until the key points are on a flashcard
• Audio – record useful tips from Youtube, someone saying the essential vocab, whatever might help and then listen to it on the way to school or when out on a walk
• Timelines of what happens when – useful for a basic structure of an Eng lit text – which ghost visits first in ACC and what happens?
• Using different colour pens for different aspects of the work can help
• A real focus on what you are revising - not just “Eng lit” but rather “five key themes in Macbeth
• Brain dump – how much can I write down or say on a specific topic in 5 mins. What did I miss?
• Teach someone – get them to explain it to you or their younger sibling
• Body double – you work quietly on something in the same room as them (not necessarily academic work – you could be writing your novel or doing your accounts. I discovered this by accident when DD was doing her uni course remotely and I was wfh in Covid

In terms of the Easter courses, if you do go for it, be aware that they are quite pricey (just looked out of interest at OXSS and it works out at about £50 per hour for the Easter week! A good tutor would only cost that and could be much more targeted) and you need to be sure that they are targeted at the correct GCSE board. My subject is MFL and I have good knowledge of the different specs – and what you need to know and do for them is not the same, even though French is French IYSWIM. HTH and all the best to her.

Would you not be better off getting her a tutor? They could give specific homework to support her in addition to a weekly tutoring session. Online would be a bit cheaper than in person too, and IME teenagers prefer online.

Thanks very kind of you to answer so fully - my daughter is ADHD and stubborn as hell. So I'm afraid any input from Mum or Dad is not well received. I think she suffered from feeling a bit isolated during the holidays = so I actually thought studying with other kids might help.
Is there anyone out there who has actually used Justin Craig or OXSS for their kids?