• Question: what tips can you give me to get good grades in GCSE.

    Asked by inthujan to Arttu, Ceri, James_M, Monica, Philip on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: James M Monk

      James M Monk answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      I think a good attitude is, bizarrely, not to care too much if you get the answers right and obtain a good grade! When you attempt a question you already know before you are marked whether you know how to solve the question or not. So I always found that by concentrating on whether I understood the subject rather than on exams or the final mark I actually did well in the exams anyway.

    • Photo: Ceri Brenner

      Ceri Brenner answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      I’d definitely recommend lots of exam practice, by which I mean past papers and questions in text books. The more practice you get, the more you’ll feel comfortable at tackling the problems. In science there are lots of things to memorise (equations etc) but these will settle into your memory much quicker if you understand the method with which to tackle a problem and if you understand your subject area really well. I’d also recommend doing timed papers, like a mock exam, because sometimes the stress and panic of an exam situation can put you off when you’re in the exam hall. But if you walk in having already done a few practice runs, then hopefully it won’t catch you by surprise. Hope that helps, good luck!

    • Photo: Arttu Rajantie

      Arttu Rajantie answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      I haven’t done GCSE and therefore I don’t really know what those exams are like. However, at a general level I agree with both Ceri and James.

      In physics and maths in particular, you need a lot of practice. You can read a textbook and think it was clear, but then when you try to solve a problem in practice you realise that you don’t know how to do it. The only way around it is practising with different types of problems. With enough practice you will eventually become familiar with the techniques so that you know what to do.

      However, ultimately you should aim to understand the subject rather than just being able to answer the questions. That is much more useful in the long term, and it will also help in the exam because you cannot learn to solve all possible questions mechanically.

Comments