Starting GCSE revision in the Summer between y10&11?

[Coffeewinecake]

DC has finished y10 and will start y11 in September. There is still some of the syllabus yet to be covered in all subjects. Mocks are after Christmas.

From your experience, as parents, teachers or both, would you recommend they started revision over the Summer of topics already covered?
And if not, why not?

Parent here, yes I would! DD really ‘locked in’ as she says at the end of year 10. She worked and worked, bless her. Results are out on the 20th, so I guess we’ll find out then whether it was worth it, but as things stand, I am so proud of her and know that it turned the dial for her in terms of her grades.

Oh gosh yes.

DD says she really wished she could go back and tell her year 10 self to revise geography case studies as it was all on to ddo them at the end of year 11. I would say the same for any Eng lit texts finished, science and history topics covered, vocab and grammar covered in MFL, maths topics done. Of course you cannot cover everything and ofc there are numerous topics not yet done; that would be normal tbh; but if you are secure on what is done then that;'s a great start to year 11.

Nope. Y11 is gruelling. Let your DC rest over the Summer, settle back in September and start thinking about mocks in October half term.

It felt like my DC worked solidly from October through to exams, which was hard enough, and I doubt they would have made it of they’d started any earlier.

Apart from re-reading the English lit texts which DC did over the Summer hols.

No, yr 11 is full on from October so I would let them rest and enjoy the break. My DC started working October half term for mocks before Xmas and then full on again from Feb half term and achieved all top grades. Would have burnt out if started sooner.

No I wouldn't bother. It's really not necessary, my DS certainly didn't - and he did v well in his exams. It's all about peaking at the right time - and that is the summer rather than mocks.

I think it's really interesting that quite a few people are saying don't.

These points of view are more than valid for sure. I was passing on what I recall DD saying – as she felt by April of year 11 she had forgotten much of what was needed for writing up geog case studies. That might be subject specific tho (and a different spec as well as this was 2017).

I think you definitely need to be led by your DC – what kind of person are they? Do they like to prep and get things sorted early or would that just stress them out? I still think it's worth going over year 10 work. It does depend on the school but my DC were still covering (eg) history and science topics and doing the last work on the Eng lit poetry in March of year 11, so not leaving a lot of time to go over what was covered in year 10. Some subjects have so much content.

We've already had one set of mocks, so hopefully most of y10 is under control.

I think checking there are no great gaps in y10 work is worthwhile. Solid revision, probably not.

In the summer between y10 and y11 I got DD1 to do:

• revision notes for all topics studied that she hadn't already made notes for for the end of y10 exams
• go through with me some science & maths she had struggled with in the end y10 exam

So not doing 'learning' as such, just starting y11 nicely organised.

I think my DD did some on a very ad hoc basis. She got 8/9s. She needed the structure of school and would stay there without distractions during term time to revise.

I think it will vary per child, what subjects they are taking etc.

Some are better having a complete break.

Others would forget too much and could feel behind when they start back, so doing a little but here and there would make a difference.

I think they need a break, and don't think they should be doing too much, but some to get things fresh in their heads before they go back is a good idea.

Really helpful comments, thank you.

Mocks are after exams so it feels like a long time to go without covering content from the start of y10, especially when there is brand new content to still cover once and then revise. The summer holidays also feel like too long to do absolutely no academics - they haven’t been set any holiday work at all.

DC is amenable to doing some work so will encourage re-reading English Lit texts and doing some online questions for other subjects so it feels less like “work”.

What option subjects do they do @Coffeewinecake ? That might make a difference (as in, history or geog probs worth doing something, drama or DT maybe not so crucial - not knocking those subjects but the structure of the course may mean there’s less to do rn). If they do an MFL I would recommend going over some of the topic-specific vocab (list on the exam board website if they don’t have one from school).

We're doing three weeks complete break and then re-reading English texts, watching some YouTube English and Science videos plus the small amount of homework that they have been set in the last few weeks.

We did some Seneca for science and history and online maths as well as some maths and English tutoring in the weeks we were at home, but not when we were away on holiday. So maybe 1-2 hours / day maximum in 3 weeks of 6.

DS has just finished year 11 and is definitely better with regular small doses than big revision sessions.

They are taking an MFL, history, music and computer sciences - thanks for the tip about vocab from the exam board. It seems obvious but when faced with a lot of subjects it can be easy to overlook the simple tricks to avoid wasting time.

Ah ok so supposing they know which topics they have covered, there is a list for AQA French here:
https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/french/gcse/french-8652/teaching-resources?secondaryResourceType=Schemes+of+work

You can download the item named KS4 vocabulary by unit and tier. The thing to do is to look at the units covered (may not have been done in order 1, 2, 3 etc) and see which words they know - great! Then try to learn the others. Start with F tier and once secure, move on to H tier (if they are doing H – they may not know ofc). There a lots of good ways of learning vocab inc look, cover, check and recording it to listen when out, and sticking post it notes around the house.

ETA: obvs if it's a different MFL or Edexcel not AQA then amend accordingly :)

Thank you @clary - very helpful!
Sorry for not being more specific but want to maintain some anonymity as I have had this discussion IRL.