When preparing for your GCSE exams, you can sometimes fall into the trap of bundling together all your subjects rather than thinking about each subject individually.
It's a good idea to have a book or a document where you write down each subject you are taking, the grade you want to get, your predicted grade, how you should revise that subject, and how you can improve. This doesn't have to take a lot of time, just take a look at your school reports/ mock grades and ask teachers for specific targets if necessary.
Outlined below are the reasons why you need to split up your subjects and think about every subject individually
There may be some subjects you find more challenging than the others which means you need to specifically work more on this subject/these subjects.
If you are planning on doing A Levels, there are some subjects where you are required to get a certain grade (e.g. to do German A Level you had to achieve at least a grade 7). Work on these subjects specifically to ensure you can study the subjects you love in your sixth form college.
You should have different revision techniques for different subjects. For example, in subjects such as Maths and English Language, your revision should be mostly based around practising questions (as there isn't as much content to learn), but for English Language, History etc. you would have to do a lot more content revision as well as exam technique revision.
You need to know HOW to answer every question for each exam- there is exam technique advice in our HTSI subject courses. This includes practising specific question types for each subject, as well as working out how long you should spend on each question (e.g. a minute a mark or something more personalised).
Know all the exam details for each subject e.g. number of exams, dates of exams, content assessed on each paper, length of exams.
Being organised in this way and knowing what I specifically had to do in each subject really helped simplify the GCSE process for me. By keeping track of your grades and your targets, you know how you can improve and reach your potential!
- The Astute Student