Almost done and on track?
There we are, only four weeks of school and College lessons to the first GCSEs and A-level exams. Fortunately, there are two weeks of Easter Holiday which offer you a very useful slot of uninterrupted study time. In case you have not done a proper study plan yet, don’t postpone it any further. Do it now.
- Have you prepared your flash cards containing all the important key words and skills related to your GCSEs?
Used them already? Parents, siblings, grandparents, friends etc. are testing you?
- Is your bedroom wall papered with Mind maps and info posters offering you every day revision?
- What about Bill Nye the Science guy videos, Mathsgenie.com and BBC Bitesize revision? Used it?
- GCSE and A-level past papers? Done some? Done several? Timed yourself when doing them?
Good exam writing skills will contribute significantly to your success. What are they?
When you receive your exam papers on day X, the first thing you need to do is to take a couple of deep breaths to calm down and to supply your brain with plenty of oxygen to work on its full capacity. Maybe take several sips of water and then do your very first scan of all the questions. Use a pencil to mark all the questions which you feel you are able to solve easily with a number one. After you have done those take another couple of sips of water and deep breaths to continue with your second scan. Check the remaining time. If you have plenty of time left mark the next group of questions with a number two and three for those which you feel are very tricky. If your time is very limited only mark the last set of questions and proceed. A-level papers contain quite a substantial number of multiple-choice questions. On average you have a 25% chance to tick the correct answer for one mark. Hence, do all those you know well and leave the others for your second or third solving iteration. Do not use more than 2 minutes per question.
There are of course the 6-mark questions in Maths and Science exams
Where you get extra marks for good written English. Make no mistake that does not mean in any Science or Maths paper that you are expected to write beautiful phrases of Oxford English rather that you offer short, decisive sentences, preferably in bullet points containing all relevant and important keywords. All those answers should follow a logical sequence explaining a scientific or mathematical concept answering the following questions.
- What am I looking for?
- Which equation or concept is needed for solving this question?
- Which variables and/or constants are given? Hence, list those. Look through your relevant equations for the desired variable and make it the subject. This might require using several equations and clever combinations to derive the final one you need.
- What is the outcome? What consequences or conclusions result from my methodology?
If you still need someone to help you with it? Contact me and I will help you.
I wish you all success in your GCSEs and A-levels. YOU CAN DO IT!
Cheerio,
Christoph