10 Top Tips for Year 10s – Alexis Irvine, The Tiffin Girls’ School

But most of us will go on to regret not listening.

I’m sure there are a lot of people out there with amazing work ethics, who perhaps have already taken this advice, or who don’t need to. Maybe you’re one of them. But for others, the novelty factor of moving on to a new era of their lives may be starting to wear off, and the solid work ethic that they THOUGHT they had going for them may be slowly disappearing. There’s no reason you can’t survive this stressful period; almost everyone you see in Britain over the age of 16 has gone through this. Year 10 is your time to shine; in Year 11 it only gets harder, although I know this isn’t what you want to hear. 

So regardless of whether you need to hear them or not, to the new Year 10s, from those of us in Year 11, here are our top tips on how to survive. And we urge you to take them. 

MAKE NOTES

As one year 11 said, “Make notes for End Of Years and half term assessments and KEEP THEM because year 11 you will love you. ”

Make whatever kind of notes you will realistically use to revise, but don’t waste hours making notes that you’ll probably never end up using. Don’t overcrowd flash cards, and make sure any diagrams are clear. 

FIGURE OUT HOW TO REFRESH YOUR MEMORY OF TOPICS WITHOUT EXCESSIVE REVISION

After each lesson in any content heavy subject, for example, History, I think it’s very useful to make a few flashcards summarising only the key points from that lesson. For example, for History, a flashcard with the name of the event, the time-frame and the names of key historical figures or groups involved, plus 3 SHORT bullet points summarising the event, will suffice. These kinds of flashcards can be very useful for refreshing your memory before a big test, for which you must revise a LOT of content. This way, you can cut down the amount you are studying to only the main events that you had difficulty remembering, using the flashcards. 

DON’T STRESS UNNECESSARILY

You have two years, for some of you perhaps three, to learn the content. Year 11 will only get harder, so now is the time to build a good work ethic if you don’t have one already; you’ll need this when you continue onto A-Levels, the IB, B-Techs or whatever your preferred next step in life is.

Remember to build a balance of a good social life and a good school life. Try and excercise regularly. Try to stay healthy.

PAY ATTENTION WHEN COVERING REQUIRED PRACTICALS IN SCIENCE

These required practicals pop up all the time in tests and the theory you learn through them is often questioned, mainly in 6-markers (especially for people who take higher level triple science). Refresh yourself on these regularly; you need them more than you think. 

KEEP BRUSHING UP ON FOUNDATION LEVEL KNOWLEDGE

“Keep brushing up on foundation knowledge so you’re not overwhelmed with the harder stuff.”

If you’ve ever sat in a lesson with no idea of what’s going on, you’ll probably understand this tip. Make sure you understand the basic concepts, and can answer questions on them, because ESPECIALLY for science, GCSE content builds on Key Stage 3 content and you will soon find out that you’re constantly building upon things that you perhaps learnt only recently, or sometimes a long time ago. You’ll find that you’re constantly revisiting some topics, and exploring them in more depth. There will also be topics that two or more of the sciences will have in common, but will approach from different angles, so it’s important that you try to understand how everything fits together. 

DO THE HOMEWORK

I know it can be so tempting to just ignore the mountainous pile of homework set across a variety of subjects, but your teachers set it for a reason. Trust me when I say that though the latest Netflix show may be tempting, Future You will be grateful for the diminished amount of revision necessary for tests. Teachers set homework for a reason and doing it normally works out in your favour. Homework is generally designed to aid your learning and help you succeed and if you put the work in now then you won’t have to work so hard later on.

PLAN AHEAD

Before you cover a topic, or a book in English Literature, divide it into units and when you reach the end of the unit, answer a ton of practice questions on it. Even a few is better than nothing and it can really help you understand what you do or don’t understand and what you need to improve on. You won’t have as much time as you expect later on, to go back and revisit these topics, and it’s a lot easier to revise when you understood the unit the first time round. For essay-based subjects like English and History, as you most likely won’t have time to answer hundreds of practice questions, I would recommend planning answers to a variety of questions and maybe completing a practice introduction, point/ topic sentence, or paragraph here and there. Doing this can help you understand where any gaps in your knowledge are and can also help you get quicker at identifying exactly what a question is asking and how to answer it. As a bonus, it should only take around a maximum of ten minutes out of your day to plan the answer to a question for English Literature.

Revise with the goal of storing the information in your long term memory, as opposed to cramming- you’ll thank yourself later.

STAY UP TO DATE ON COURSEWORK

If you’re taking a heavily coursework-based subject, know that you won’t want to do the work any more than you do now, in a year, but you WILL feel a lot more stressed and have a lot less time to do it in. If you do the work when it’s set, and stay up to date on your coursework, then the workload is manageable. Work hard now; you can always relax later- but don’t overdo it; your mental and physical health should come first.

FIND OUT HOW YOU LEARN BEST

The fact that your friend does well on tests isn’t necessarily down to a certain revision method. If your friends have found out what revision methods work for them, that’s great. If they recommend them to you, feel free to give them a try, but don’t have too high expectations; everyone learns differently. Now is the time to figure out how you learn best, if you don’t already know. You may find that you need to use different methods for each subject, which is perfectly fine. The beauty of Year 10 is that as you have now narrowed down the subjects you are studying to a smaller range, you can now devote more time to each subject. Try a variety of study methods; combining them also often works really well. Find how you learn best; doing well in tests is less about the quantity of revision you do and more about the quality. Learn to study effectively and efficiently. 

DON’T BE AFRAID TO ASK QUESTIONS

Now, more than ever, is the time to ask questions. You may find it easier to apply formulas to data in the Sciences and Maths if you understand WHY the formulas work in the first place. Some of the explanations, of course, will be far beyond GCSE understanding, but it can’t hurt to ask. 

Remember, there’s no such thing as a silly question and there’s nothing wrong with making mistakes. The fact that you’re asking and attempting to understand shows that you’re trying. Perseverance and determination are very good traits to have and asking the right questions can make a big difference to your GCSE results. Take each day and each topic one step at a time.

If you struggle to succeed in a subject, remember that in most cases, your teachers will be more than willing to help. A few mistakes don’t mean that you’re bad at a subject, they simply indicate that perhaps you should try approaching a topic or even revision generally for that subject, from a different angle. Your teachers will probably have a few ideas of good starting points for revision, if you feel a bit stuck. Your friends and of course the internet are often good sources of information too. Just make sure any revision resources you find online are designed with your exam board in mind, because the content and exam styles between exam boards can differ occasionally.

Finally, remember that you’ve got this under control; you will come out the other side of this a more educated person. Good luck, and I hope this helps.