How much GCSE revision did your kids do?

[Readingisgood]

How much GCSE revision did your kids do and when did they start?

DC is doing the core subjects, maths, English Language, English Literature, Combined Science, plus 2 other subjects.

DO school stop before for revision?

My son did barely any. My daughter did 3 hours a day for most of year 11 and more at weekends.

Thank you; and how dud they do in the exams?

3 years ago I was losing my mind as I couldn't get my ds to revise for his GCSEs.
He got 7, 8s & 9s.

My daughter revised, worked incredibly hard and got 8s & 9s.
🤷‍♀️

This all depends on the child, their friends, can they see the big picture or do they just want school to finish? We have always talked about education being a way out of poverty. I grew up poor, it really affected our childhood, not enough food never mind clothing and shoes. That shit haunts you. All of us made it out of poverty, 2 of us including me went on to uni and now live much better lives.

With this in mind, mine started the summer of year 9, read the English Lit books, watched the plays, read the poems for literature too. That meant they went into year 10 with some knowledge of the plot and the themes. They also understood the bell curve of GCSE grades so some children will be forced to get 3s and below.

I helped them figure out what revision methods best worked for them, flashcards, mind maps, brain dumps, all these things can be found on Youtube so your child can work out what works best for them. Mine did flashcards. I helped them with the first couple of sets to work out what was important and how to make those notes.

They make flashcards as they do the content, so this takes place in year 10 whilst it is still fresh in their mind. When they sat end of year 10 exams they looked at where they needed to improve, so many children just move on. Then same in year 11, flashcards throughout the year. Dh and I helping to test them, widen their knowledge. Don't rely on teachers knowing everything and teaching everything. Basically that meant revision was ongoing from year 10 but that was also the incredible school they were at, teaching and testing the knowledge.

As for results, mine came out with mostly 9s, but my eldest was at only at expected level at primary hence all the work he put in because he wanted high grades. My youngest was exceeding at primary and it all came very easily to them. GCSE have a link to how successful they will be at the next step ie A levels or BTECs. The higher the grades the more doors are open. The higher the grades a A level no university course it cut off from you, you can apply to any. That motivated my children to do exceptionally well.

Thanks. What do you mean some kids will be forced to get 3s and below?

@Readingisgood Grades are marked on a curve rather than to an absolute standard. So the bottom 30% or so fail (ie 3 or less) maths and English Language every summer. In theory if standards jump massively that wouldn't be the case, but standards don't jump, so it is pretty much a foregone conclusion.

Your DC is 'only' doing 7 subjects which is below the average (mode). If that is for SEN related reasons then revision may be a point of how much they can cope with doing rather than what is ideal.

Mine started a few months before the year 10 mocks and continued untill the exams so he had over a year of revision instead of binging during the last few months before exams. He got 7,8 and 9s

Some YP will not get a 4 in some subjects @Readingisgood – as in, not everyone will pass at a L2. Some will gain a grade 1, 2, or 3 (which is a L1 pass and can still open doors post-16). That’s often bc that is the level of their ability but ofc it may be due to lack of work or poor teaching.

It seems shocking in a way that the exams are set up so that a certain % will “fail” (I put that in quotes as GCSE grade 3 is still a pass at L1) but if you think about it, an English or maths exam that absolutely every 16yo in England can pass a) is not really worth having as everyone has it and b) would have to cover such a broad spectrum of ability within that passing grade.

To answer your original question, my DC were very different in their approaches but all IMHO gained the grades they deserved. They could all have done better in certain subjects but their focus was (reasonably enough) elsewhere (eg DS2 and Spanish – not a fan, he was focused on biology and maths).

DD’s advice on GCSE I recall well – she did geography and she wished she had written up and revised the case studies in year 10 to save her the work in year 11. Same would go for English lit texts – as a PP says, read them, watch the plays or films and write up notes, flashcards etc when you are studying them – so you don’t turn to R&J mid year 11 and think, wow, I last looked at this in Dec of year 10. For topic-based subjects do the same, for MFL learn vocab and verbs and grammar as you go.

I was amazed at ds2 who was doing past paper after past paper. I’ve never seen such diligence in my DCs!

@Readingisgood in simplistic terms they mark all the papers for a subject and then look at where the average falls, that becomes grade 4 which in old money is a low grade C, a 5 is a high grade C. Then they work out everything from there up to a grade 7, or an A. To work out the grade 9 they apply an algorithm from grade 7 upwards and then the grade 8 falls in the middle I believe.

Grade boundaries for past exams can be found online. To put this in real terms the grade boundaries move with the cohort, the students sitting the exams. A grade 6 one year can be a grade 5 the next with the same marks because more people have performed better and got higher marks.

Some boundaries are tight, History for mine was out of 210 total
125 grade 6
140 grade 7
156 grade 8
173 grade 9
This is calculated over 3 papers worth 80, 80 and 50.

As well as that grade curve the other thing to realise too is that it is an unfair playing field, state school children are competing against parents who have paid out tens of thousands of pounds to ensure their child has a better educational experience in private schools. I don't begrudge them because if I could have afforded it I would too.

How I helped my children, talked about post GCSEs, the grade curve, showed them jobs and pay scales, explained housing costs because minimum wage sounds like a lot of money when you live with your parents. It doesn't sound as great when you look at rental costs, all the utilities, broadband, insurance, food and travel costs. School also covered this on a PSHE day. Showed them what mortgage you could get on a teacher's salary. What that buys you locally - fuck all if buying alone because we moved here for an outstanding primary, secondary and sixth form. House prices reflect that, along with great transport links and local amenities.

I also looked on here a few years ahead of where my child was so that things like revision, A levels, uni choices etc were not a surprise, it was something I had researched and knew to help guide my children through it. I had very hands off parents, Dh had much more involved and supportive parents which is why he went to an incredible uni, great grades all the way through and a very well paid graduate job.

As the wonderful @clary says (who personally helped me through MN help my child get a grade 8 in GCSE French) her DD recommends flashcards at the time they do the work, which is what we did. I also told mine that there was no way I wasn't going to be on their case about homework etc because free education is not to be underestimated. There are no widespread resits, only maths and English language if you get a 3. If they hate maths try to pass it first time otherwise you will be doing it for longer. It would be difficult to have another go at Geography because you got a lower grade. I know women in their 30s having to resit maths GCSE to get the job/promotion they want.

Having said all of that you can still get children who won't/don't engage with any of it.

Both revising from easter onwards but DS1 definitely spent more time on it than DS2 who struggles to revise. Content was finished at school by about january and so at school there was also a lot of revision and consolidation happening. Independent day school.

DS1 got 9999999987
DS2 did less revision and got 988777766

Very child dependent. My DS was tactical and has a good memory. He only started revision after Easter y11 and then not very much. What he did do was go to every intervention laid on by the school.

He is in the middle of a levels now and I actually think he is doing less now then he did for GCSEs.

But he does like exams and does well in them.

My son failed one and got 5s and 6s in the others when he was capable of so much more. My daughter is due to get 7s and 8s. The work pays off, it’s that simple (unless they are very bright and have amazing memories!)

My son just finished his GCSE's yesterday so can't say results yet. But he did not revise at all other than 3 30 min revision sessions school put on just before a couple of exams started.

SEN though and autistic (mainstream)

Bear in mind even with 7 GCSE's subjects he we still have at least 15 exams to do. My son did 22 exams in total.

That is very good; school will be doing lots of revision and interventions so if they focus on it; there should need less at home.

We’ve just finished 23 exams over 7 weeks. DD did very little until Easter but she’s very bright and cramming may have worked. Who knows. She should get a mix of 4/5/6/7/8
She certainly wasn’t revising in yr10 til end year exams.
If she’d started work properly in Yr10 and carried on she’d have got 9s.
but she’s got ADHD so can’t focus that far into future and also plays a lot of sport and other things most nights.
She has no interest in Oxbridge.
Her and all her mates are sceptical about uni debt and return on investment.
They all know what grades they need for next step choices - mainly 667 for A levels

My DC also have no interest in trying for Med/den/Vet. They know people who got 10 grade 9s and then three A* at A levels who still didn’t get in. They didn’t want to give things up for 18mths to get 9s
So really depends what they want to do.

DC doesn’t need a lot for next stage; however it is good they apply themselves and get reasonable results to keep doors open

Out of curiosity. Why so many exams? Seems a bit mad to me

Any language will have four exams (from memory), most other subjects have 3 exams - it is a huge amount of pressure. And the more exams you sit, the less likely you are to have much space in between the exams. So maybe exams on consecutive days, or days with multiple exams.

My ds has just done A levels, he did 4 subjects and had 10 exams including coursework as well. For GCSE he did 11 subjects and had 25 exams. There's normally 2-3 exams per subject.

Such a pity those kids are short sighted and only thinking of the minimum you need for the next stage. I look at GCSEs results (including type of school they’ve been at) when I recruit - there are always mitigating circumstances but generally solid academics throughout is important surely (especially in a tough job market)….?

A lot. She was very keen. Very disciplined. Worked hard from the first day. No holidays the year she sat them. Same with A levels. My son did the minimum despite us working together to set a schedule, getting extra study books, a billion past papers, bribes… even a tutor for a couple (the ones he actually passed) and got poor results. She got top marks. I mean he could have worked as hard as she did and got decent marks (5/6/7), he would not be able to reach her level as he’s just not built that way. Unfortunately he didn’t even try.
I think my DD overdid it. She didn’t need to do as much as she did but that’s how she’s wired. And as demonstrated my son is wired the way he is and academics are not for him. I think they need to find a balance, but certainly do not wait til the end to start.

My DD did endless revision (too much) and got 12 x Grade 9. She is in her last A level today and thankfully has had a more relaxed approach (but she is still aiming for 4 x A*)

@Readingisgood when you say why so many exams, do you mean why do 16yos do so many subjects or why are there so many exams for each subject?

The second question – well the different skills need to be tested (eg MFL speaking, reading, listening and writing – tho some boards combine these but then it’s just longer exams); or for Eng lit, four texts are studied so that’s broken into two exams; for other subjects exams cover different topics or skills.

The first question – well a lot of ppl think that we actually specialise too soon. A 14yo in England can easily drop all of these subjects forever at the end of year 9: PE, drama, computing, history, geography, French, German, Spanish, DT, food tech, textiles, art, RS, dance, media (I have imagined a student taking triple science, health & social and business along with maths and two English, so eight GCSEs, not an unlikely number).