Starting GCSEs

Me along with thousands of other students this September have started a two year process of GCSE’s and have just gotten through our first term. It can be both a daunting and exciting thing.  It’s a start of a very long two years which will only ever pay off if we work for it and with the first term done and over with, I think we all have had a pretty good taste of what the subjects are now like. 

It’s okay to be taken aback by the shocking amount of coursework and homework that you get. It’s okay to feel a little overwhelmed by everything that’s happening. It’s a natural feeling. I mean, it’s the first time we’ve really stepped into anything like this, we can’t be expected to always keep a level head about it but there does come a point where you just have to try to. 

The start of GCSE’s does mean the start of a very long road, as to whether or not we are able to enter further education or whether or not we will be able to get a job after leaving school. That thought alone can leave you panicking a little bit and stressed out. 

Some of your GCSE’s may be sat this year and for some people they may all be sat at the end of Year 11. I know for me I’m going to be sitting my Maths Foundation Tier, English Language, Welsh Full Course and my Chemistry, Physics and Biology exams for Core Science. Which does mean that yes, revision notes are going to have to start being made and that the outcome of my results this year will determine what happens next year within those subjects, the more that I can pass this year means the less exams that I’ll have to sit next year and that’s probably the same for a lot of you out there. 

Revision timetables can help you organise
what you do with your time.

These are possibly the first set of proper exams that you would have sat; I know that they are for me. Don’t panic about them, it’s more than likely that these exams are going to be sat about May/June time of this year, you’ve got a good few months where teachers will make sure that you go into the exam knowing the material that is likely to turn up. All you have to do is make sure that you’re absorbing as much as you can in class and then making sure that you’re making revision notes and then looking over them when you go home. 

Try and get homework done as soon as possible, if you can try to at least start it the night that it’s been set. I know that a lot of them time you’re shattered when you come home from a full day at school and all you want to do is just relax for the rest of the night. It’s that mentality of ‘I’ll do it later on’ to ‘I’ll do it tomorrow night’ but it’s a pretty huge probability that you’re going to end up getting even more homework tomorrow and putting the things that you had gotten that day behind to do the homework that you had before. 

Personally, I’ve found that’s it’s just being able to organise yourself and prioritising things that you know place above other things that are going wrong. Looking at the next two years as a whole is frightening but looking at it week by week helps you get through it. Just be positive and believe in yourself. 

Good luck guys!