GCSE REVISION 2018

ADVICE FOR PARENTS

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Contents

Contents .................................................................................................................................................................................. 3

Revision – Top Tips .................................................................................................................................................................. 4

Exam Tips: Advice for Parents .............................................................................................................................................. 5

Preparing to Revise ................................................................................................................................................................ 7

Revision Timetable Templates ............................................................................................................................................. 8

Revise areas of Weakness .................................................................................................................................................. 10

Effective Revision Techniques............................................................................................................................................ 12

GCSE Pod .............................................................................................................................................................................. 13

E-Learning .............................................................................................................................................................................. 15

Effective Use of Revision Guides ....................................................................................................................................... 17

Exam Technique ................................................................................................................................................................. 178

Using Past Exam Papers as an Effective Revision Tool .................................................................................................. 20

Preparing for GCSE English ................................................................................................................................................. 24

Preparing for GCSE Mathematics ..................................................................................................................................... 24

Strategies for Coping – Advice from The Guardian ...................................................................................................... 25

Exams 2018 – Timetable for Year 11 ................................................................................................................................. 26

Key Stage 4 Intervention .................................................................................................................................................... 28

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Revision – Top Tips

1. Mind set – Want to do it!

2. Work Smarter

3. Understand content as you go

4. Focus on your weaknesses

5. Stay on top of workload

6. Use mark schemes and practice questions

7. Maximise controlled assessment

8. Look after yourself – mind and body

9. Aim, Believe, Achieve

These messages are the key to successful revision – use them as conversation tools with

your son / daughter when talking about revision. They were taken from a You Tube

blogger ‘unjaded Jade’ who was successful in achieving all A*s in her GCSEs in 2016.

Whilst not all students are aiming for all top grades the messages and top tips remain

relevant regardless of the target grade.

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Exam Tips: Advice for Parents

A dedicated quiet space with good

natural light or lighting is best for

studying, with no distractions. If you

have other children who are not

studying for exams, make sure that

they know the importance of revision

time.

Ensure that your son or daughter has

one evening a week away from their

studies. It’s also important that they

take regular breaks during the study

periods.

Be around as a 'feeding station' –

feed your child lots of healthy

food and proper meals –

not too many sugary

snacks and junk food.

Offer to help with testing or ask if

there is something that you can do

for them.

Reassure them you are concerned

about their welfare more than the

results.

Know your son or daughter's revision timetable. Encourage them to tell you about what

they are studying. If you know that they are not at their best first thing in the morning,

encourage them to rest then and work when they are livelier. They should choose their

weakest/sleepiest time of day to be sociable and go out, or watch TV at those times.

Make sure that your child is using the

internet to study and not as a

resource to give the appearance of

study!

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Know exactly the date, time and location for each exam and incorporate this into the

revision plan. Make sure that they have the correct equipment they need for the

exam (calculators, rulers etc). Know what they are not allowed to take in to the exam

(mobile phones).

If your son or daughter has a medical

condition, for example diabetes or

hayfever, make sure that the school

knows about it. There are special

considerations for some conditions.

If there is a family crisis, for example

divorce or bereavement, again

ensure that your son or daughter's

teacher knows about it, since the

additional stress can affect your

child's exam performance.

Remind them of the importance of revision.

These exams are the passport to their future!

Break revision time into small chunks

with short breaks at the end of each

session often work well.

Time your child's attempts at practice

papers.

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Preparing to Revise

Preparing to revise is almost as important as the act of revising it-self. It is important for students to

structure their revision appropriately, ensuring that all subjects are covered and that appropriate

rest periods are included.

It is also important to ensure the environment in which your son or daughter is revising in is

appropriate and distractions are removed.

The Process:

1. Rank subjects most difficult to least difficult.

2. Identify topics within subjects.

3. Identify the barriers and remove them.

4. Decide what time you plan to commit.

5. Block-out leisure, work and school time.

6. The most difficult should appear more regularly in your plan.

7. Mix in one evening subjects you enjoy most and least.

8. Revise in 30min bursts with short breaks.

Top tips:

1. It is tempting to spend more time on the subjects that you enjoy or find easy- give

more time to those you find more difficult.

2. Have a quiet, clean and tidy place to revise.

3. Get a balance between revision, homework, hobbies and rest.

4. Aim for 2 hours a night and more at weekends when fully into GCSE revision

5. 1 hour EFFECTIVE revision is better than 4 hours ‘revising’ with friends, distractions etc.

6. Avoid Facebook etc. and put your phone in another room.

REMEMBER…PROCRASTINATION IS THE THIEF OF TIME

Subjects- most difficult to least difficult Subjects- most enjoyment to least

enjoyment

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Revision Timetable Templates

Monday 22nd

January

Tuesday 23rd

January

Wednesday 24th

January

Thursday 25th

January

Friday 26th

January

Subject:

Topic:

Method of

Revision:

Duration:

Subject:

Topic:

Method of

Revision:

Duration:

Subject:

Topic:

Method of

Revision:

Duration:

Subject:

Topic:

Method of

Revision:

Duration:

Subject:

Topic:

Method of

Revision:

Duration:

Subject:

Topic:

Method of

Revision:

Duration:

Subject:

Topic:

Method of

Revision:

Duration:

Subject:

Topic:

Method of

Revision:

Duration:

Subject:

Topic:

Method of

Revision:

Duration:

Subject:

Topic:

Method of

Revision:

Duration:

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Revise areas of Weakness

It is all too easy for students to fall into the trap of spending most of their time revising subjects and

topics that they are already good at – it makes us feel like we are achieving something, when in

reality we have not improved our understanding at all.

In order for revision to be effective, first, it must be focussed on those areas that students are not

very confident with, lack understanding of or have performed badly in exams on. By utilising this

approach each revision session becomes effective as students develop their understanding,

further – ultimately gaining more marks in the exams.

Topic RAG Rating (Red, Amber, Green)

Multiplying and Dividing

Adding Fractions

Percentages

Surds

Angle Rules

Solving Equations

Pie Charts

Probability

Ratio

Simultaneous Equations

Trigonometry

If students are ensure as to what they need to learn – direct them to the contents page of their

revision guides as a starting point.

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Example of a completed algebra topic RAG for maths.

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Effective Revision Techniques

Revision techniques are a very personal choice – what works for one student might not

work for another. It is important that students know what revision techniques work for them

and are then used as part of a balanced revision programme.

Below are several effective revision techniques that students can use to prepare for

Mind Mapping / Spider Diagrams

Using Past Exam Papers

Condensing Course Notes

Reading content

Use of Revision Guides

Read – Cover – Recite

Flash Cards

Sketch Notes

Questioning by Parents

Displaying Post-it notes of key content in room

Creating Videos and Podcasts

You-Tube for instructional videos

Teaching Others

E-Learning

SAM Learning

Peer Revision

Highlighting or Underlining Key Content

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GCSE Pod

www.gcsepod.com

GCSE Pod is an online revision tool for use in order to prepare for GCSE

exams. Students have access to 1000s of short ‘pod’ video clips which

help students with knowledge acquisition.

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E-Learning

The use of technology, apps and software to support students’ revision is an ever popular method

for preparing for examinations. E-Learning should be used in addition to traditional methods of

revision, rather than as a substitute.

Below are some recommended websites and apps that can help support your son or daughters

revision.

Websites • BBC Bitesize – Revision notes and tests for many subjects

• GCSE Pod – Online videos, teachers can set questions for students

• You Tube – Great for instructional videos on topics students are unsure of

• GetRevising.co.uk – Plan revision timetable online and revision activities for many subjects

• Revision World.com – Condensed revision notes on many topics across range of subjects

Applications

• imindmap – mind mapping tool

• Revision App – quizzes and revision notes

• Pixl Maths App

• GCSE Pod App

• Remember the Milk - note taking app for condensing revision notes on the go

• Evernote – note taking app for condensing revision notes on the go

• Gojimo – revision quizzes

• Subject specific apps

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Effective Use of Revision Guides

• Contents Page is a list of what students need to know for that subject

• Each page contains condensed notes on each topic along with exam style questions to

practice

• Students have been given a revision guide for each subject they study where available

Subject Exam Board

Year 10

Art & Design AQA

Business Edexcel

Computing OCR

Drama WJEC

English AQA

French AQA

Geography Edexcel

History OCR

ICT Edexcel

Maths AQA

Physical Education VCERT

Psychology AQA

Religious Studies Edexcel

Resistant Materials AQA

Combined Science Edexcel

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Exam Technique

Key messages to give to your child

• Read and re-read the question – do you understand what it is asking you to do?

• Understand the command words – Identify, Describe, Explain, Analyse etc.

• Timing – Keep track of time, don’t rush, but don’t take for-ever over one question.

An exam of 90 minutes should take 90 minutes – not 20 minutes

• Marks – If a question is worth 4 marks you need to make 4 valid points or 4 steps to

your working out – not one sentence.

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Exam Technique Test

First read through this sheet and then answer all of the questions

1) Write your name at the top of this page and then draw a smiley face in each of the four

corners.

2) List the names of the seven dwarves in Snow White

3) What football team are currently top of the Premier League?

4) List 3 fruits beginning with the letter ‘L’

5) How many loaves are there in a bakers dozen?

6) What weighs the most; a tonne of coal or a tonne of feathers?

7) Draw a triangle in the box below with sides of 4cm, 3cm and 2cm.

8) What is the capital city of Italy?

9) Who had the number one single in the UK charts at Christmas 2017?

10) Disregard all of the questions above apart from number one.

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Using Past Exam Papers as an Effective Revision Tool

The use of past exam papers is vital to practice whether any revision that has been done has been

successful. Use the web links below to access the exam board site for past papers. From here exam papers

and mark schemes can be downloaded and used. It is recommended that students attempt a series of

questions then check against the mark scheme to see how they have done.

Subject

YEAR 10

Exam Board

Specification Title /

Number

(Use this on website when

searching)

Art & Design AQA 8201

Business Edexcel N/A

Computing OCR J275

Drama WJEC N/A

English AQA 8700 (Lang) 8702 (Lit) French AQA 8658

Geography Edexcel Geography B

History OCR History B

ICT Edexcel N/A

Maths AQA 8300F or H

Physical

Education VCERT -

Psychology AQA 4180

Religious Studies Edexcel Religious Studies B 1RB0

Resistant

Materials AQA 4560

Combined

Science Edexcel 1SC0

Edexcel

http://qualifications.pearson.com/en/support/support-topics/exams/past-papers.html

OCR

http://www.ocr.org.uk/i-want-to/download-past-papers/

AQA

http://www.aqa.org.uk/exams-administration/exams-guidance/find-past-papers-and-mark-

schemes

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Using Past Papers – GCSE Maths Example

Use the Mark Scheme at the bottom of the page to mark the GCSE Maths Exam Question below.

1 Mark for the correct answer

1 Mark for seeing £60 - £56.75

1 Mark for correctly adding all

items

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Using Past Papers – GCSE English Example

Use the Mark Scheme on the next page to mark the GCSE English Exam Question below.

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The content that students might have included in

their answer – you don t get marks for simply having

this content in the answer

Award Marks based on the Quality of the response. English marking is

subjective rather than right or wrong.

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Preparing for GCSE English English revision should be straightforward – after all, English is easy, isn’t it? - We all speak it.

Unfortunately, the examiner is looking for quite specific skills in the exams.

The new specifications for English Language and English Literature mean that your child will sit 4

GCSE exams, a total of nearly eight hours of exams. There is no Controlled Assessment or

Coursework anymore.

So, they must continue to read and revise the set texts for Literature. Please buy them the study

guides to help with this. They should also be reading generally- newspapers, magazines, web

articles. These texts will help them in their exams where they will be faced with previously unseen

texts of various sorts which they must analyse and compare.

They should be reading generally anyway, as this will help to cement in their minds correct

grammatical structures and syntax which will help with their own writing in Section B of the

Language exams. This is where you can really help, by making certain that in their revision

timetable they have at least 15 minutes set aside every day for reading, in addition to their

revision.

For English specific revision, they have revision guides and workbooks and should, by now, be

quite a way through those. They should carry on working through those as they really focus on the

skills that the examiner is looking for.

GCSE English Language Exam Dates Tuesday 5th June & Friday 8th June

Preparing for GCSE Mathematics • Revision Guides & Workbooks

• Personalised Learning Checklist

• PiXL Maths App https://mathsapp.pixl.org.uk/ - FREE

Available from:

Apple App Store

Google Play Store

Amazon App Store

Or through your internet browser

• GCSE Pod

GCSE Mathematics Exam Dates: 24th May, 7th June & 12th June

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Strategies for Coping – Advice from The Guardian With the examination season in full swing, more young people are finding it hard to cope with the

pressure. "Cracking up", is much more common than many parents realise and, once it has

happened, is difficult to treat.

For parents, there is a difficult line to tread between setting expectations and encouraging a child

to work towards challenging goals, as opposed to placing children in situations where they

cannot cope or putting them under unreasonable pressure at home.

The reasons why examination stress is becoming a much more common complaint are complex.

At one level, society now recognises stress – the advice used to be simply to "pull oneself together"

– but also schools are changing. As they are set more demanding targets by government, many

are encouraging competition among pupils and fostering an ethos that does not tolerate failure.

Another factor in creating stress is the inability to structure study. Study patterns are set very early

in a child's school career but are usually not taught in schools. It is almost impossible to revise for

an exam without notes you have made yourself, but it is common to find students wading through

textbooks or searching hopefully on the Internet in the days leading up to their first papers.

The best way to combat stress is to recognise and deal with it. It is perfectly normal to feel stress

over examinations – it is a matter of finding the best strategies to reduce it. Stress becomes a

problem when parents and children handle it by denying its presence or by doing things to

reinforce it. For parents, making a family joke of a child's anxieties or imposing a revision schedule

are sure ways of increasing the stress burden. For students, going to a party and getting drunk has

the same effect!

Parents

Don't go on about it. Being asked how you feel often makes things worse. Try to be a listener rather than

to give advice. It is normal to say that each examination paper was a total disaster, so don't join the

inquest!

Be encouraging. Even if your child has been lazy over the past few months, now is not the time to bring

it up. Don't organise family visits and days out as entertaining distractions, either.

Talk to teachers if you're worried. An apparently stressed child at home may be coping well at school

and vice versa.

Avoid the doctor. Slamming doors, arguing pointlessly and crying are simple safety valves and not a

cause for worry. However, watch out for the child who is having real difficulty sleeping or is very quiet

and withdrawn, or the one who is apparently "studying" diligently but really doing nothing – copying out

the text book, for example. Watch out for side-effects.

Students

Relax for an hour a day at least – listen to music, watch television or take exercise.

Revise hard in slots of an hour or less – write rather than read – and take a 10-minute break (time

yourself) in-between.

Get regular sleep and avoid too much junk food and caffeine (coffee, Coke and tea). The best revision

is done in the morning.

Don't wind yourself and your friends up with frenzied hyperactivity. Stop planning your after-exams

parties and holiday

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Exams 2018 – Timetable for Year 11

Date Start Subject

Mon 14 May AM ICT

Mon 14 May AM Computing

Mon 14 May PM RE

Tue 15 May AM French

Tue 15 May PM Biology

Wed 16 May PM RE

Thu 17 May AM Chemistry

Thu 17 May PM Computing

Fri 18 May PM Drama

Tue 22 May AM English Literature

Tue 22 May PM Geography

Wed 23 May AM Business Studies

Wed 23 May AM Psychology

Wed 23 May PM Physics

Thu 24 May AM Mathematics

Fri 25 May AM English Literature

HALF TERM

Mon 04 Jun AM History

Mon 04 Jun PM Psychology

Tue 05 Jun AM English Language

Tue 05 Jun PM Geography

Wed 06 Jun PM Business Studies

Thu 07 Jun AM Mathematics

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Fri 08 Jun AM English Language

Fri 08 Jun PM History

Mon 11 Jun AM Biology

Mon 11 Jun PM Geography

Tue 12 Jun AM Mathematics

Tue 12 Jun PM History

Wed 13 Jun AM Chemistry

Thu 14 Jun PM D & T: Resistant Materials

Fri 15 Jun AM Physics

Tue 19 Jun AM Further Maths

Thu 21 Jun PM Further Maths

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Key Stage 4 Intervention

Timetable for Spring Term 2018

Day:

Lunchtime Activities: 1.20 – 1.40pm

Unless otherwise stated.

After School Activities: 3-4pm

Unless otherwise stated.

Monday

Science- KS4 ICT/Computing- book to attend

Geography, Rm6, 1.30-1.55pm, LFo

N/a- meetings

Tuesday

Design Technology- Targeted students ICT/Computing- book to attend

History/EPR (Invite only), Rm5, SPi EPR (Exam skills), Rm8, LCl

Maths- targeted intervention

Science Design Technology

Computing French

Wednesday

Design Technology- Targeted students ICT/Computing- book to attend

History (Content), Rm7, CDo PE, Rm8, BWi

B. Studies, invite only, JMo (To 7th Feb)

From 21st February Wk1: B. Studies (Content), Rm6, JMo

Wk2: B. Studies (Exam skills), Rm6, JMo

Science Art (Photography)

Mathematics drop-in- Max. 12

Thursday

ICT/Computing- book to attend Targeted maths intervention (WCu)

Psychology, N1 (ATi)

Music (Performing Arts) Further Maths

English ICT

Friday

Science- KS4 Science Club

ICT/Computing- book to attend

Art PE

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Notes

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IES Breckland

Crown Street

Brandon

Suffolk

IP27 0NJ

Tel: 01842 819501

Email: office@breckland.iesschools.co.uk

Web: www.breckland.iesschools.co.uk