So when I came into year 10, I completely disregarded the fact that I have GCSE’s next year and didn‘t revise in subjects that I didn’t like (chemisty and biology). I messed about each and every lesson and never payed attention. Because of this, I completely changed my mindset and I’m starting to organise my work and get ready to revise once I have a appropriate place to study (in a few days). I don’t know what topics where in y10 for chemistry and physics; I need tips on revising for it and what topics took place in y10 (AQA)
top of page
bottom of page
Hi there,
I was in a similar position myself the year before I took my GCSEs. It's good to see that you've changed your mindset; this is an excellent first step towards securing a grade you deserve in your final exams.
With regards to Chemistry and Biology revision, I would first ask your teachers what topics have been covered so far, and then download the AQA Chemistry GCSE Specification here and the AQA Biology Specification here. Before starting your revision, you could go through the specifications for the topics your teachers have taught you so far, and colour code each specification point in regards to how confident you are on this point.
For example, I used the colours red, yellow and green. Green meant that I was completely confident on this topic and did not need to visit it again. Yellow meant that I was unsure on certain parts of the topic and would perhaps need to revisit the theory or do some practice questions on the topic. Red meant that I had no clue what was going on in the topic, and I would need to either make notes on it again or ask teachers for help.
This may seem quite boring, but it will definitely help you streamline your revision and make it much easier to improve your weak areas. Making notes, mindmaps or doing past papers questions help a lot in consolidating knowledge. There are also a great number of youtube playlists and series going into detail about GCSE Chemistry and Biology topics, and while these may not be as detailed as the textbook, I always found them easier to focus on and understand.
After revising a set of topics I would use past paper questions to test myself and see where I went wrong so I could quickly revisit any specific areas I was unsure about.
Once you've learnt all of the topics in your specification, you should focus on doing past papers regularly, marking them and focussing on any weak areas. For some papers there are model answers and examiner notes available. These are also very useful, and using them consistently while doing exam papers will allow you to develop very strong exam technique.
You might also find it quite useful to revisit the specification after learning all the topics, and going through the same steps as before, as sometimes there can be areas you forgot or might not be so sure about.
I hope you find this useful. Doing all of this helped me a lot in going from grades 5 and 6 to two grade 9s in Biology and Chemistry respectively. As long as you pay attention in lessons and put the work in from now, I'm sure you'll achieve very good grades in your GCSEs. Best of Luck!