At EdPlace, we know that GCSE examinations can cause stress both in the build-up to them and also, throughout the exam window, which is why at EdPlace, we advocate an early and planned approach to tackling this key milestone.
Our GCSE resources cover the full range of topics for your child to study and get a good grasp of. They’ve all been created by our team of GCSE teachers who really know how to help your child succeed in the exams.
Our resources are organised by exam boards (AQA, Pearson Edexcel, OCR, and Eduqas) so make sure you always select the relevant one for your child to ensure they're really maximising their study time. (To find out more about how to assign an activity click here.) We’d recommend keeping pace with the topics that they are studying in school so that you can consolidate their learning as they go, or alternatively, they can work their way through the activities topic by topic. Just be careful that they don't jump about and miss key concepts.
You’ll also see that our activities are organised into 3 levels of challenge. If your child is just starting out on a topic, the 1-dash level of difficulty will allow your child to get to grips with the ideas, the 2-dash will allow them to build and consolidate, and the 3-dash activities will really allow them to test their understanding at the highest level. If your child is working to a target GCSE grade you may also want to think of the levels in this way:
- 1-dash activities roughly equate to grades 2-4 in difficulty;
- 2-dash activities are the equivalent to work required for grades 5-6;
- 3-dash activities work at the level of difficulty needed to access the top grades 7-9.
To practice long-form answers in more detail, your child can always refer to the 3-dash activities. These activities will often include questions offering multiple marks and will require ‘manual marking' towards the end of them. Why not get them to set up a timer and see how long it takes to write an answer? After this, you can mark their work to show them how well they're are doing! A full mark scheme is provided, use this to really hone revision skills and understand what teachers and examiners are looking for in the perfect answer.
Your child can use our student dashboard to keep track of their overall progress throughout their GCSE revision, and remember, for any activity where they achieve less than 70% they’ll have the opportunity to revisit it.
Once you’ve progressed through a course and feel like you have a good understanding of the whole subject, it may be time to try a practice paper. We’d recommend doing this around the end of term 1 of Year 11 - doing it too soon isn’t a great idea, so please bear this in mind. Our practice papers are written by our GCSE teachers, and they mirror the length, and style of the different exam boards so you can simulate the conditions of the actual day. Unlike our 10-question activities, the practice papers include a timer, so you can practice your true examination techniques. Remember, it’s essential that you’re not only able to answer the questions to the best of your ability but that you also do this within the time limit - just like the real exam.
Adopting some of the revision habits we’ve suggested will not only help reduce stress levels but will also enable your child to feel more confident for your exam and future studies. Revision itself is a skill, and as with all skills, we only improve when we put in the time to practise.
1:1 tuition or 1:3 group sessions
If your child needs an extra hand preparing for their GCSE exams Edplace Tuition is available. Should you choose to take advantage of this option, our Tuition team would be happy to offer you the advice needed and can arrange Tutor(s) best suited to the needs of your child. Our Tutors cover a range of subjects including maths, English and science. To start your lessons contact our friendly customer support team at help@edplace.com with your information. If you are already a customer you will find this option on your homepage when you login to your parent dashboard.
We hope this article has provided you with guidance on often and for how long your child could benefit from using EdPlace. If you have any further questions or need any other support, please contact our friendly Customer Support team via email at help@edplace.com.