When to start revising for gcse
When should you START REVISING for GCSE? | The Exam Coach
yo squad it's the exam coach checking in
with you in today's video you'll learn
about the exam coach way to determine
when exactly you should start revising
for your GCSE exams okay so this is a
question I get asked a lot and I know
for a lot of you watching you've
probably just got back to school and
revision exams all that stuff might not
be the first thing on your agenda or the
thing you're looking forward to most
this yet but let's talk about it because
we want to make sure you're on top form
exam season intro exam coach star
we're going to break it down take it
from the top make it nice and easy to
understand so let's begin with the
obvious question what's revision to
revise literally means to look at again
or to revisit it's from the latin phrase
rivas era or re whiz era rear is ER as
actually the right way to say every
visit it's just my childre of saying it
but that's all you need to know during
the process of revision we develop our
understanding and ability to recall the
subject we're studying the more you
revisit and test yourself over an
extended period of time the greater your
understanding and ability to recall that
subject will become okay so now we know
what revision is we can move on to step
one of the exam coach way to determine
when exactly you should start revising
step one write down all of the subjects
you are studying this year for GCSE do
it on a piece of paper a note-taking app
on your smartphone doesn't matter we're
just crack it down somewhere and get on
with it now here's the important part
write down how you feel about your
ability to achieve the grade you want to
achieve in each of these subjects use a
grading system from one to five and
judge it on how you currently feel right
now in this moment if you give yourself
a 5 it means
you feel confident about everything
you've covered in the syllabus so far
and if you were to sit a mock exam
tomorrow you'd back yourself to get near
that grade that you'd ideally like to
achieve if you were examined on just
what you've covered so far in the
syllabus if you give yourself a 1 it
basically means you haven't got a Scooby
what's going on and you need to hit the
books
pretty sharpish it doesn't matter if
you're a 5 or what
all that matters is that you do this and
you move on to step two for step two we
need to consider how long you have left
between now and when you do your first
exam whatever this is for you write it
down in two ways the number of days and
the number of weeks if you need some
help working it out it stays divided by
seven boom there's your answer
crack on smash at the exam page wait
love it step three now get yourself a
calendar that shows you the time you
have from now to start your first exam
chop it up into three equal parts so for
this example and to make things real
nice and easy let's just take the terms
this school yet
so term one let's call it phase one
because we don't think exam coach way of
course phase one that's gonna be
September to the end of December face -
that's term - that's gonna be January to
mid March late March time phase three
that's gonna be term three and we're
looking at late March early April - when
you start your first exam which is going
to be probably late May time let's go
with that so let's talk about phase one
phase one is not about revision in the
sense that we defined it earlier in the
video
you're not reviewing or revisiting
anything you're actually just putting in
the work hitting the books making sure
you're up to speed with what has been
covered so far in the subject is
studying for we do this to gather
everything we need lay a super solid
foundation for exam season and make sure
there's no gaps when it actually comes
to putting in a big shift at the desk
during exam season and when you're
revising this also ensures that you've
covered everything you need to know for
the exam at least once now those numbers
that we wrote down earlier from one to
five they're gonna guide you in each
your subjects they're gonna indicate to
you okay which ones can I afford to just
go class pay attention stay up to speed
on and which ones
aka my ones we're at another clue what's
going on do I need to put in a bit of
legwork figure out what's going on ask
the teacher more questions do some extra
study ask your friends for their notes
copy stuff get it down gather the
information and get cracking and
remember don't go anywhere without your
map that's your syllabus and your
subject specification you need to have
them on deck ready to go because they're
gonna guide you through
what you don't understand currently and
also they're going to map the way
forward so you can stay up the speed
with the cloth if you've got a lot of
ones and twos next to your subjects take
it on the chin put in the legwork take
ownership for that and figure out how
you can move forward you're not gonna
get anywhere by complaining or blaming
other people how do I know I used to do
it and I'm gonna tell you a quick story
now back when I was at school I didn't
exactly find it easy to concentrate pay
attention behave in class in fact
between the age of 1415 I had a pretty
rough two or so years and I definitely
didn't stay up the date with what was
going on in class when I hit year 11 I
thought okay about the last two years
where all I've done is enjoy myself
ghost muck about a bit not pay attention
I owe it to myself to actually put a
shift in I haven't worked hard yet I
don't even know what hard work it's I'm
gonna really commit to this and make
this happen because I've had it easy up
to now and it's about time actually put
a shift in and got things going and
that's what I did so if that distinction
helps you at all I'd encourage you to
think about it that way and in fact all
you're doing is paying back what you owe
you've had a great time you've closed it
now it's time to hit the books and smash
it on the flip side if you find yourself
with lots of fours and fives next to the
subjects you wrote down you obviously
don't need to do as much recovery
legwork as someone who's currently
wedging in one and two ten but you do
need to stay up-to-date with everything
that's going on make sure you understand
everything that's been taught before
double check that and something that you
can prioritize is your extracurricular
activities and your routine around a
balanced healthy lifestyle you want to
work on that and have that on point for
exam season so let's move on to phase
two phase two in this example is that
second term we're looking at January to
about mid-march late March times during
this period of time you want to be doing
what I like to call fundamental revision
basically all that is is you're looking
at the key things in each subject that
carry the most marks and making sure
those things are crystal clear to you a
good opportunity to do this is
mock exams they usually come in the
second term you prep for them you revise
you make sure those basics the big
topics in the subjects and nailed down
and understood a way to figure out what
the fundamental topics are in each of
your subjects is get the syllabus get
the past papers get the marks keys take
a look at them figure out which topics
are coming up often and which topics
proportionally take up the most space on
the syllabus proportionally take up the
most marks on a past paper and I
mentioned a lot in the marks schemes and
then you know okay I need to know that
that's key to this subject then what
will happen is once you've understood
and nailed down that fundamental thing
you need to understand in each subject
it will lead you to understand the more
detailed pieces which often get the
higher grade marks later down the line
and squad let me tell you something I
know that GCSEs have just changed I know
that everything's a bit fuzzy unclear
there aren't that many passed papers all
these different things that we got to
contend with but let me tell you
something else we're gonna down 999 and
take a police escort straight to nine
Ville we're gonna be there come a time
and that's what we're gonna do we're
gonna cruise the exam coach way smash
through these barriers we don't care if
it's tough we're just gonna dominate get
our head down go straight to nine Ville
smash it the exam coach way here we go
[Applause]
and one more thing just in case some of
you keen nine villas are saying hey
judge I want to get into the detail in
term two I want to be getting those
grade nines straight up turn two in the
mock exams I'd say okay if you want to
do that you can do that but don't risk
burnout and don't risk making revision
boring for yourself you want to be
peaking come a time the other thing is
you don't want to skip those
fundamentals you need to make sure those
fundamentals are easy for you are in
your head ready to go whenever wherever
you need them phase three is all about
going all-in on exam success this is
when you've really turned it on and
begin revising with intensity and
regularity all you need to do now is
fill in the gaps from phase two in Phase
two we focused on the fundamentals the
big topics in each subject that you need
to understand now what you need to do is
make sure you understand the detail
needed to get those top grades to hit
nine vail the way you want to remember
the detail is you want to use specific
revision techniques like active recall
and spaced repetition you want to do
reps and sets of this as if you were
training for a sports competition it's
about forcing your brain to recall the
information without assistance and doing
this regularly over a spaced period of
time so that when you hit exam day
you're good to go
in terms of your routine you want to
make sure you're still doing stuff to
relieve your exam stress but you also
want to make sure you're prioritizing
your revision sessions over extra
curricular stuff when it makes sense for
example if you've got an exam on a
Tuesday morning and you've got a bit of
Monday Night Football
make sure you get your revision session
smash the exam and then do something to
relieve some stress so over the course
of Phase three you want to be building
up momentum so you're on peak form and
everything is super clear in your head
and you're ready to go come exam day it
just makes sense just like you'd be
taught any other type of activity or a
sport first off you assess where you're
at and you gather all the theory in
infamy
you need to know secondly you get the
fundamentals on point and nailed down
thirdly you sweat the details to get to
that top level where you want to be if
you found this video useful give it a
like ask any questions in the comments
below subscribe to the channel there's
loads more content coming out specific
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too that's where the daily updates
happen but quick tips on the fly the
useful stuff that you can apply this
year for your exam performance I'm
checking out I'll see you next time
