0:00 Introduction
0:10 Have GCSEs become more difficult?
7:48 How valuable are qualifications?
16:34 School and tutoring experiences
31:28 Should you worry about your results?
39:26 Preparing for exams
54:43 Outro

Introduction

[Music] The Education Lounge podcast when you were taking GCSEs did what did you think like an a-level it’s funny you’re saying that I

Have GCSEs become more difficult?

I think I actually looked at the the actual paper that we did and compared it to I was just doing a quick comparison between that year and uh 2017 which was The the first year that they brought the um the examinations in um and I I do definitely feel like the new GCSEs at least in terms of in terms of maths um There are a few more challenging questions towards the end of the paper whereas I think previously there’d only be maybe a couple of challenging questions in in in my opinion I still feel like those who

Work hard and work consistently throughout their time in uh secondary school will still be the ones who go on to achieve the top grade but I I think overall you’ll still probably find the same sort of percentage During the top no I think I think that’s true because I think if like if you’re exposed to a high level education than the top students will will adapt to it to some level so I like I remember doing GCSEs when I was younger And certainly with maths it was very easy I found it quite simple but then now I look at it and I I kind of think actually you know the first year of a level was actually easier than

The what they do now in GCSE I think in terms of application like the types of questions that you get and the problem solving but even though like you’ve seen yeah you’ve got sort of obviously like a level you you do a few extra topics and that kind of thing but I think in terms of the depth in terms of the type of question that you get it’s it’s a bit um it’s a bit easier um oh it’s a bit it’s a bit harder now than it was back then um even at GCSE level and then a level I don’t teach much of it because I generally concentrate on history um but what about maths maths a level yeah it’s one of the more challenging a-levels for sure

Um you know it’s up there with you know I would say physics has been you know one of the more challenging a-levels but again you know the same is what I said for GCSE you know if you’re if you work Consistently and you know you’ve got some sort of routine or pattern for studying and you’re you know you’re studying throughout the throughout your time at a level um during a level course and not just not just at the end yeah Not just cramming at the end um then again you know you are likely to be one of those who achieves I was definitely a last minute larry when it came to when it came to light exams I remember just like even even sometimes it was the

Night before I just I just crammed the whole thing in one go and throughout the whole year I’d be getting like awful marks no I I was I was too but then I I realized you know I’ve just got to change my way I can’t I can’t be so lazy throughout the Throughout the course of now I don’t yeah I don’t think I could do that with with the current say the current levels I do think you did to get a top grade to get like a nine or something like that I think I would have had to work relatively hard throughout the whole whole time rather than just what What do you think of the GCSE grading system the one to nine yeah um it match you know ucas yeah like I noticed because I was like why are they doing this and because I was like it seems like a semantic change

That means nothing um in the grand scheme of things because you’re just changing letters for numbers yeah and surely like numbers are harder to understand than the letters so I was like what’s the motivation behind that I think it’s you know you cast points I think they match up to uh so so nine you you’re getting if you’re getting top grade of a nine that matches to nine new cast points so Maybe it makes sense in that way and I know you know a levels it it’s completely different it’s like a hundred and you get so many points for one a level four yeah yeah when you’re applying to uni and so so that’s why I think they didn’t

Do that change for a level and I mean it’s strange right because you’ve got you’ve got this number system for GCSEs which you know each number translates to translates to some sort of letter grade yeah you know eights and nines being Your your top a star um but then when it comes to a level right it’s it goes back to letters um yeah no it is weird but but then but then that’s that’s why I think it’s Because of that because the ucas um because it because I I was like what what could this be so I kind of just explored it and I was like oh so a nine in GCSEs actually matches nine new cast points that you achieve yeah yeah I mean

I just I just think it’s I just think it’s a little odd I think it should be consistent consistent yeah it should be the same throughout your GCSEs and and a levels yeah you find students sometimes get and parents especially get well confused by the let by the number thing Which is what yeah I was just going to say that yeah because they’re like what does that mean like seven or eight is that good yeah that’s really good I I get that I get that all the time I get parents coming and and I’ll have both students and parents come in at GCSE instead of telling me the the number that they were given assigned they’ll tell me the the letters so they’ll be like all right okay I’ve got an a star and then I’ll and then I might write okay is that an eight is that a nine is you know what what is that

Um so yeah it’s a bit of a strange system at the moment I think you know how you you can have students who not are students but you can have students that achieve like say a three or two or one or something So the the sort of failing grades do you think that psychologically it’s probably less painful receiving a three compared to like a d um like that might be One reason why they’ve gone down that route too I don’t particularly no I don’t particularly see that I think if if you failed you’ve you failed right if it’s yeah you know eventually yeah I mean if this

System is held in place eventually you know that one will be synonymous with our previous what was it uh a u and e well like even if you didn’t turn up to the exams you get you still you get a one So they still haven’t got they they took the you out completely in terms of because you you obviously went and and me too we we both went down a semi academic group I suppose because we we did a levels and then we

How valuable are qualifications?

Did university and we both did a master’s degree yes yes so like obviously not everyone’s like like that so they they won’t necessarily go down an academic route do you think That GCSE’s has the same value for everyone at a levels right that’s a good question um I would say let’s make this this may be Controversial but it is in my opinion yes like so if I can I’ll relate it back to related back to matt for example so you know very often in in in class I’ll get asked oh you know why are we

Learning about fractions ratios percentages like when are we ever going to need them well if you go on to become a baker right your your ratios and proportions matter yeah your ratios and proportions Matter um if you go on to be a pharmacist you know you’ve got to be able to you’ve got to be able to calculate um infusion rates I think there’s uh and I’m not a scientist by any means but um I think there are mathematical equations that link I think the transport of water and I think other things from the kidneys there are actual mathematical equations for that I believe so well one of the things we learn about in GCSE uh also a level maths is uh

Parabolas right and they’re actually used as reflectors of light and radio waves right so I don’t know if you’ve seen but telescopes and spotlights they use parabolic mirrors And it’s the same with microwave antennas and uh and radio telescopes right so that they are if you look at a microwave antenna it’s parabolic in shape right so I mean even things like Uh car engines right I’m trying to think I think on the top of my head here um you know a car engine needs air and uh fuel to burn right so those ratios again

Matter yeah right so and I I imagine it’s the same with you know I’d let you talk about english but I mean definitely english yeah I don’t know I have no idea why I said I I imagine english is useful isn’t it interesting though he’s like you know Obviously english is important like your ability to communicate um send correspondence uh be accurate in your writing that kind of thing and but I actually think that English is a is a challenging subject to study but I don’t think it’s um necessarily the most valuable to learn how to write um in the most useful way and that’s one of my sort of criticisms of

The GCSE english language what do you what do you mean by that so I think one of the reasons why um I was able to cope quite well with university and and and other things Was is simply because of uh studying history I think history and uh philosophy too because I did philosophy a level and I did a philosophy degree I think those taught me how to write well more than english now english is is is quite um it’s useful if you go on to study literature and that kind of thing and you go down that route and it’s good

For um understanding the emotion the motive side to writing but I think in terms of presenting findings or like or doing research well And that kind of thing I think history is absolutely brilliant because um you’ve got to think critically about sources and that’s I think that’s a really important skill thinking critically and analyzing And then you’ve also got to synthesize all of those thoughts into an argument that flows and I think there’s nothing more valuable than history like in terms of something that you can learn and and it’s actually one of those

Subjects where you can talk about it with other people like you can talk about a historical event and you don’t sound like a weirdo whereas if you if you you went to a party and started talking about parabolas I’d be like okay okay So so I do think there’s certain subjects I think that are sort of extremely valuable um and then maybe although having said that I don’t want to like judge a subject as not being valuable because I do think there’s something you can learn from Anything um like some there’s a few we call them like softer subjects yeah so one of them’s uh media but maybe media’s like the sort of thing that the student’s

Interested in and you know it’s a bit easier to get a higher grade that’s what what they typically say but it could be valuable for a certain student um was it one of our friends he did textiles For a level and he thought it was going to be a bit of a dos subject and it became this intense project worked based subject and he ended up dropping it because he was like it was so much work compared to everything else um but it Was a very good route to go down if you want to do like fashion no I think even subjects like I don’t know whether they offer a GCSE but I think they do that sort of college level but you know other art subjects like photography which I think are you know very useful

Um yeah I think I was reading recently about someone who studied photography um and you know he he loves his loves his career now I think that’s that that’s important isn’t it um I think the the question is is for me is is what you learn at this level at secondary level is it applicable to the real world and that’s why I come back to I think a lot of I think a lot Of subjects are I mean you mentioned media I think obviously now um you know with with social media being as it is a subject like media will be I’d know many it’d have a high demand

Um so no I I think I think that GCSE’s are valuable but I think we still need sort of changes in our in our education system because you go through you know what four or five years Without having any sort of official exams you know you go through year seven you’re 89 and you’re 10 and then bang at the end of year 11 you’ve got this you’ve got this one exam so that’s something that I’ve I’ve said on some previous uh Videos um that I I believe in some sort of continuous assessment throughout throughout the years because I I know quite a few people who who are

Just like last minute larry’s like me essentially they they leave it last minute but throughout the whole year they’re just chilling and they they end up with like a top grade and then you’ve got people who like working consistently doing quite well and then they I’ve seen this happen um just some people struggle to perform in exam conditions um and first of all more more assessment throughout the years would be would help in that regard yeah because I’d get more practice yeah that was a Big thing I when I was younger I didn’t really practice that much for exams I did pretty well but like I felt I probably should have taken more papers like in the past and past papers and stuff like that yeah

School and tutoring experiences

Before actually taking the final exams because I went in a little bit cold and then I felt like my performance was slightly inconsistent sometimes um and if I’d done more past papers that’s definitely an advantage that They’ve got now it’s so easy to like the internet is a lot more organized than it was when we were younger when we were younger yeah so so like now I don’t think there’s an excuse for not practicing enough for the exam like not having enough test practice But yes like doing some official exams in previous years would probably help people in the long run because I get more used to it my wife she comes from vietnam they’re obviously very used to exams

They take so many all the time they have like a test every every week even our primary school level but I I think that I think that can be good as long as there’s learning yeah yeah oh and she she obviously Learned a lot like she’s like in vietnam they seem very in a lot of asian countries they seem a lot further ahead in things like maths oh I I’d agree with that yeah I don’t I think that’s definitely true they’ve got a few alternatives and I Know you’ve you’ve spoken with children who or students who’ve completed their gcts and they’ve decided not to go through the a level route yes um and like like you know you from your

Experience you know how difficult maths can be at a level and then sometimes students get say like a six or sometimes a seven um just kind of depends and so they’re they’re clearly decent at Math so above average but they need but you still think that to do an a level in maths um [Music] would would sometimes be an unwise decision Yeah I I mean I from from my experience from what from what I’ve seen if you’ve got students who have got six and even sevens at GCSE’s

Um and and I’m talking about math in particular here you know if they go on to do mater a level they tend to struggle they they tend to find that jump quite difficult yeah and I think you’ve got to know the I think you’ve got to know the individual too so like you know were there extenuating circumstances that led to that that led to that grade at GCSE level if there were um [Music] Then I’d recom then I may recommend that look I’ve regarded yeah um but if there weren’t yeah if they weren’t quite hard and they came out with a yeah six or seven then

And and it’s not the you know it is it’s not the end of the world if you don’t if you don’t go and do a levels you know many people go down there of doing a b tech or there’s like there’s a t level thing as well working on yeah well you know you Find others that look for working opportunities uh as soon as they finished I think there’s various sort of school leaver programs out there um that you know companies offer things like plumbing courses and things Which actually um mostly for childbirth yeah yeah but more I think more importantly can also lead to quite a successful career yeah at the end of the day I think nothing you know if you work hard right you will have

Success a successful career at some point you know you will see the fruits of that labor it may not always be straight away but at some point you will definitely you will definitely see it and you know I think there’s this This train of thought that you have to you have to do a-levels you have to go to university um to be successful uh but I don’t think that’s what I’ve seen with with friends of mine that you know that’s that’s just simply not the case um and you’re also still A member of society that’s valuable yeah as long as you can sort of uh yeah I think if you can if you can become the top say 10 10 in your field like no matter what that field is that’s

That’s that’s good and you’ll probably do quite well yeah um so go for the things that you you generally got aptitude for and are really interested in doing and can go at it like a hundred percent um For me it was quite because I almost went down the academic route by default I just didn’t really know what I liked so I was like okay I’ll go to university I’ll study something relatively open open-ended so I did philosophy in Ancient history and uh classical literature and that was quite wide um so I studied all kinds of things like um so that’s why I think history is really valuable um for teaching me about how to

How to write better and philosophy is really good for sort of honing your argumentation skills um and then I did my master’s in um economics and uh politics I had to argue my way on to that because I hadn’t done it at a level I didn’t I hadn’t done like economics before I hadn’t done um politics at all so yeah like um I studied something quite open-ended and I went just for things I was interested in um but if I look at like my wife she went for accounting because she was like this will make me money also kind of depends where the student’s from because in

Obviously she’s from vietnam if you don’t I I think like poverty is a real dane like a real danger like for for vietnamese people or like for certain countries yeah probably like a Lot of it a lot of indians they they want to study something that’s going to produce at the end of the day going to get that return on investment whereas in in the west I feel like we’ve got a bit more leeway we can kind of study what you’re Interested in and you’ll probably find your way so you can probably find your way to success yeah that’s a valid point good I mean going back to what you said about you

Know your your master so you’ve obviously you know done quite a difficult masters course um what sort of what what sort of um experiences and um advice can you give To current students now you know the you know GCSE students a level students you know what what advice can you pass on to them one one of my sort of I I think one important piece of advice That I’d always give someone is if you don’t understand something at first it doesn’t mean that you’re stupid it it actually means that you’re accessing it at the wrong level so

Always look for always look for a different way of accessing the topic if one way doesn’t work so it’s like what we do when we teach um if a student doesn’t understand A topic yeah try a different way of looking at the topic so um you’ve got to try different things in order to to make make it make sense um like we’ve done that quite a lot of time So say something like place value when children start learning place value it can be quite a challenge um because they don’t really understand the number system and it’s very abstract and then when they actually

If you come at it from loads of different angles then they start to understand it but they might not understand it straight away or they might not be ready to understand it because they they they’re missing something else like in in there like they they need to children need to learn from the con Concrete first um especially key stage one but even at key stage two some some of those some of those kids those year fours and year fives they still struggle um with the concept of number for instance Yeah fully get it so you need to keep sort of tackling that as an issue and what I found was learning something completely different you can feel like you’re drowning in it so drowning in the subject it’s a bit like

Learning a language and then like deciding to read like I know a difficult work of literature in that language don’t do it all right it will be quiet it will just put you off because it will just be too above your level so it’s important to find a resource that Teaches you in a simple way so one of the first things I did when I was doing um economics for the first time was I just read a comic on economics like and and it just had the history of economics but in the comic form And it sounds ridiculous no no I imagine something like that is quite fun yeah yeah I I mean I I’d like to read something like that now that you’ve mentioned now that you’ve mentioned it yeah I’ll recommend it link in description there’s um

Yeah so so like I’d always say tackle a problem for multiple angles or tackle a topic from multiple angles um you I mean you’ve seen it with like say maths math student when you teach a topic initially you take it from the very beginning it’s Like teach them the foundations that they need then you increase the difficulty and then you’ll add something else and you’ll be like okay well all right um this is oh so like for instance quadratics you you when you’re teaching quadratic formulas or quadratic equations you Would never start with like this is the formula like that would you like you’d start saying okay well let’s look at the shape of a quadratic well you know ask ask yourself where you know where does that formula come from you

Know why why is it why is it useful these these sort of questions are quite important so I do try and encourage my students to dig a little deeper and and strive for strive for excellence yeah mastery of The topic yeah because it’s a deep understanding if you push yourself to try and understand that topic in depth right then it it doesn’t it virtually doesn’t matter whatever question you’re given whatever sort of difficult problem-solving question you’re given if you’ve understood that Topic in detail right you’ll be able to tackle it and so I think uh what I see quite often is because GCSE exams can sometimes be a little or at least they were GCSE and a level you know sometimes a little formulaic in their their question styles

So I you know you’ll see people trying to question spot and I’m like look look hold on hold on a minute let’s try and understand this topic fully and then you don’t even need to worry about you know different question styles right because You’ll be able to tackle yeah some people some people want to think like a robot yeah as in and but they’re not a robot so robot will be able to do it much better than them exactly yeah and plus they’ll never reach the level that they need to unless They were to you know actually think like a human so try and actually do some problem solving on around the around the topic and think critically about it that’s something that I’m noticing quite a lot because I’ve been teaching a level

Um history and like one of the most important things is for the first time the girl that I’m teaching she she needs to learn how to think critically actually think critically about sources Stuff like that don’t and and actually getting her trying to teach her the skill of thinking critically is is the challenge because I think up to that point you’re just it’s like they’re in a sort of reception mode um they’re just receiving all of this Information yeah and then churning it out yeah so but now it’s like at a level especially they’ve got to start thinking a bit more critically about things especially in history um I know there’s like source work and stuff like that but at a level it’s

Really it’s really key like it’s so much more important um and then I’m also trying to encourage well she wants to go down a sort of more academic route so I’m also saying okay well you can take this Information and if she wants she wants to be a lawyer right and I was like this is really really important for skill as a lawyer is to think critically about a source or a piece of information like how can you think of this piece of information in more than one way So it’s it’s again showing the relevance of of um education taken the right way so if you if you take your GCSEs and your a level’s the right way and you take that information into your degree it can be it can be useful and

That that’ll be a useful skill throughout your life I mean let’s let’s say that you’ve so you’ve you’ve tried your best you know you’ve you’ve you you’ve done all all you can and you

Should you worry about your results?

You haven’t achieved particularly great results right um at gcc and a level what do you do from there would I mean should you be worried at that stage like you’ve tried really hard and failed Yeah essentially um [Music] there’s this kind of link between success and like eventual success and and failing early is what so so don’t be too disheartened by the fact that something’s That you failed at something the important thing is to remember that like first of all failure is expected in life at some point I think at some point you need you need to fail right you need you need to get things wrong in order to learn I mean um

Again relating back to maths people think that a lot of these formulas that we have in maths um you know pythagoras theorem and things but people think that these were just created on the spot um you know without the without the mathematician making mistakes I mean That couldn’t be far off the far off the trees it’s you know they’ve had to make mistakes to come up with these yeah these formulas that we use now so what I’ll say is if you’ve made a mistake don’t don’t be afraid don’t be worried You know if you’ve if you’ve not got the results you’ve wanted right I’d say take some time sit down and identify okay why did that happen right and then put measures in place to prevent that from happening

Right so if it was simply a case of you know you didn’t work hard or you you you put in a lot of hard work but towards the last month right then obviously that’s that’s a correction that should be relatively easy to spot maybe not easy To correct but yeah definitely easy to spot right and then you you say to yourself okay well you know next time around this is this is what I’m gonna do and again you might find yourself when you’re making these corrections you might find yourself still slipping up But I think the the important thing is to not be too hard on yourself you know if you’ve tried to make changes just like yourself okay you know I’ve made too much of a change too quickly let me let me dial this back a little bit mm-hmm right but

They keep the key for me when when I’ve seen students who maybe haven’t done as well right I do say to them look ask yourself why right and try and make try and make some adjustments now right so that I know people who’ve like and it’s easy to stop their GCSEs a bit but then they’ve gone on to do really well at a level because they I think they they develop and learn from it but then I’ve also known I’ve known some people who’ve who’ve never really failed at anything and then they get into like their mid-twenties or they go to like you know cambridge or someone like walks with a cambridge and then they just crumble

Because they’ve never had I I think like they’re so used to being perfectionists and they reach that point of like where you’re working at such a high level that their failure is inevitable at some point yeah like At that at that kind of level though there’s they’ve been on easy street essentially their whole lives in not maybe not in terms of like working hard and stuff like they’ve worked hard but they’ve never had that sort of shock of failure and then it really hits them hard and they have like all kinds of sort of Mental health issues as a result so failures just treat failures inevitable I suppose would be good advice but learning from failure is equally as important yeah learning from those

Learning from those vegas will allow you to turn it into success eventually exactly yeah yeah it’s it’s like um one of the that’s why something like when when I started with a student One of the first things I do is give them a test because then I can see where they failed and then I know what they need to address now whether that gets addressed is complete it’s kind of you know it’s a combination of things It’s down to me as a tutor it’s down to the student as well like putting in the effort and understanding that those areas are important to address and then it’s down to the parents to ensure I don’t know they’re sort of keeping up with it

Um but if we’re able to tackle those like pain points I always think like if if if if something’s painful to do it’s worth doing um like I’ve had quite a few kids who Um they struggle with writing or like they don’t want to write but that’s the most important thing for them to do is they struggle with it yeah and if they keep keep doing it then work on your weaknesses yeah you’ve seen That a few times with you know like GCSE math students I’ve seen like they struggle with you know fractions or something like that and you’re like this should have been fixed a long time ago like it should have been something that was tackled yeah a long time ago but it wasn’t probably because it was a

Point of pain to work on it um and it’s like uh when I remember GCSEs I think that was like you know algebra I always struggled I did struggle initially with algebra when I was in key stage three Uh so like year nine but I spent like extra time just on my just on my own just practicing algebra just to get better at it and once I got good at it I was I was just like fine I was in my maths improved like across the board as I went from I was in set three I eventually ended up in set one like for a level or the first year available I mean I think it came from tackling

That pain point because I knew that I I was confused by as soon as like letters were introduced I was like it’s weird and then I started tackling it and it didn’t it wasn’t really a pain point anymore Sorry no I I I I definitely agree with that you work on the things that you’re or prioritize I think your your weak areas right um without without forgetting your Strengths but yeah I mean just going back to it so just I I just want to say to those who’ve received GCSE results recently uh and a level results if they haven’t gone the way that you’ve

Wanted right it’s not don’t worry it’s not it’s not the end of the world right but you must try and identify what went wrong and what measures you can put in place to prevent those Prevent those sort of failures and the all disappointments in the in the future but it’s definitely not not the end of the road um [Music] so don’t panic yeah definitely don’t panic yeah panic’s usually the the worst reaction you can Have all right okay so we’ve just spoken about those who who finished GCSE’s a levels let’s um let’s talk about those were just about to start so maybe so I know it’s a little weird because some some schools start

Preparing for exams

The GCSE syllabus when they’re in year nine and I think others sort of take a stronger focus when they’re in year 10. so let’s let’s say um those who are starting year 10 because that’s probably the easiest to start with what advice maybe we’ll do This maybe we’ll do uh some advice for those who are starting year 10 some advice for those who are starting year 11 and maybe in particular those who’ve sort of done well in the year 10 and going into year 11. but but Also those who maybe have slapped off a little bit in year 10 going into year 11 so we can maybe give some advice for those people and we’ll do something similar for the for the year 12s and and the year 13s should we start with the year 10s yeah

So what what advice would you give to students starting year 10 now I’d say consolidate your key stage three a little bit so make sure that you’ve got strong foundations on which to build because Although although it seems like a bit of a nameless time because you don’t have an exam at the end of the year seven eight and nine I’ve noticed that the students that have a very solid knowledge of their key stage three in science math whatever Um we will do better at gcc because they’ll be able to step up to the level a lot quicker and there’s a lot of topics that obviously cross between key stage 3 and GCSE so there will be some additional stuff that you’ll learn

But so much of it is um it’s just sort of adding on an extra layer of difficulty so basically what you’re saying is make sure that your foundations are strong yeah right and you’re going to achieve that by maybe uh Going back through some old textbooks that you that you have uh keystone textbooks go through some questions from there make sure you’ve read you know if you’ve got a good set of notes read your notes first and then maybe go through some questions yeah um that’s that’s a good start I think for those That are in year 10 and what about across the year then what what would you um first of all I’d say work consistently yeah and use your holidays as well like those half terms and I was about to mention this

Because it can be tempting to switch I know that I did um I know like if I had worked a lot during that sort of even a little bit like a little bit every day um it goes a long way um to sort of Achieving that final result and it puts less pressure on you for that sort of final sort of period between it it definitely does yeah it takes a huge so I I always say look Yeah yeah 10 is one of the most important years in your in your academic life right because if you put if you study consistently and you study hard throughout that year it takes a huge amount of pressure off

For year 11 you know you’re not in a you’re not in a mad rush for year 11. so definitely listen to your teachers in school is what I’d say make sure you’re completing their homework on time um make sure you’re using your weekends too right I mean you’re not in school on the Weekends right so the weekend shouldn’t just be for fun and play I mean it’s it’s fine to dedicate some time for that but you know you’ve got so many hours on the weekend that should be spent you know consolidating and also learning new new Material yeah because what ideally what I say is what I’ve said about the uh yes and so make sure you’re working consistently throughout the year make sure you’re doing the homework that your teachers are giving to you in school and make sure that’s been done on time but also go a little go a little further

And then in that summer period where you’ve got you know six weeks off right that is such a valuable period where you can be working and getting ahead so try and get ahead of where you are in class yeah I’ve noticed a massive drop off sometimes at the start of the Year from the the end of the previous year and yeah you know that summer holiday period like you you notice that they’re rusty um and then that’s the time you know when they go into year 11 from year 10 to 11. yeah I find that Um actually the first few months are quite important because you’re going to be I mean you’re not going to have that much time at the end if you if you don’t have really strong foundations at the end of year 10 it’s going to be quite hard so make sure

You use the summer summer summer time wisely it doesn’t have to be crazy you’ll probably have some holiday homework and that kind of thing so make sure you do it all but also kind of go a bit further if you can because the ones who go further tend to Tend to do quite well and then I’d also say what I’ve noticed sometimes is usually a student who’s in a poor position doesn’t know their exam very well they sometimes don’t even know like The board of the exam and they don’t know that’s why make sure you know your self-awareness self-awareness like knowing what actually comes up in in the paper um it makes you more efficient in your

Working and keeps you organized so I’d say know your exam that’s yeah I mean what I’d say so for those who are going into year 11 Should we start with the the ones who may be sort of underperformed in year 10 or haven’t haven’t worked as hard right again I go back to if you’re if you’re in that position now um what would you what would you say to Those those who’ve underperformed in year 10 and just about to start year 11. I’d say what advice would you want first of all I think you need to identify those pain points that we talked about um so I’d I’d start just by

Taking a test just to see or like going through some test questions and just seeing where it is that you need to focus where are you missing some key ever so information it might be hard for you to identify sometimes Because like um we’ve got many years of experience teaching so we we can usually work out why our students struggling with a certain question and and then locate the topic but what I’d say you’ve is is ask your Teacher if if if you struggle on a question and you’re not too sure why go to someone who who has a bit more experience and just to point you in the right direction um and say like okay well you you’re not understanding that because

You don’t understand this um so it’s good to find someone who who knows a little bit more about it whether whether that be someone who’s really good at the subjects at school or whether it’s a a teacher or a tutor um Or maybe even a parent in some cases if you’re if you’re lucky um and then I’d also say like tackle that tackle those pain points early on um in the year so in in that septum in that september Period especially at the beginning because a lot of the schools will sort of they might not ramp it up straight away they they sometimes have a quite a slow slow lead into the year so use that time at the beginning of the year um as wisely as possible and try to do some extra work on the weekend

Um think about it this way just um work really really hard in year 11 because you’re only gonna have um you want it to be a first-time thing you don’t really want to be in the position of having to do retakes and that kind of thing yeah so Um because everyone who in my experience has done retakes they they find it really a drag um and also I find that the material in isn’t like they’re not they’re not going to have that much time to learn the material as well because Retakes tend to be at the beginning of of of year 12 um when they’re at college and what I found is that sometimes the classes they’re not really focused on what the student needs to do so you won’t necessarily get that help

Um in school that you’ll get in year 11. um that’s that’s been the case with some of our year I’ve taken some we’ve taken some like retake students and yeah they don’t the what I find is that the focus isn’t Really on them it’s on their sort of the the teacher’s current cohort in year 11 and not not on the year 12 student I mean I think yeah I I’d echo some of the things that that you’ve said so if you’re If you’re in it if you’re in that position where you maybe haven’t done as well as you wanted to in year 10 you know in your nwa exams you maybe haven’t performed as well as as you should ever could have you know make sure you’ve identified

Weak areas and start looking at those weak areas now you know try and speak to your school teachers um you know ask them if they can spend maybe a couple of minutes outside the lesson so during a lunch time or maybe a Couple of minutes before or after school to just sit down and explain maybe something that you don’t understand what you’ll find is that most teachers will actually be quite happy to do that um they’ll sort of be quite quite happy That you’re that you’re quite keen and eager to to make some changes and then if you’re someone who’s sort of on the other end you’ve done well in year 10 you’ve you know you’ve achieved a good set of sort of

End of year exam results continue that right you know what’s what’s working for you continue it repeat it and and see if see if there’s any ways that you can improve on it right so are there ways that you can be more efficient so with with a levels Something that I’ve I noticed with my a levels is some well it’s definitely more of an issue now than it was for us because we had one year of a levels and then the next year we had four end-of-year exams for Um official exam board yeah but now because they’ve got exams at the end of the second year only yeah that sometimes especially with I think when math is less maybe less a bit less of an issue because it all

Builds on itself so well um so there’ll be a lot better mathematicians by the end of the year too but in something like history or english you need to go back and revise your year one stuff and know that really well and keep Refreshing it otherwise the the sheer amount of material will really get you at the end of the year too yeah I I mean I’d say in in general it’s a similar sort of thing for um [Music] subjects like maths physics chemistry Make sure so if you’re one of those who’s going into year 12 same thing that’s what we said for those going into year 10 and year 11 make sure you’ve consolidated your foundation so um I could I can speak on maths there

Will be things like your your indices your suds make sure that you’ve got those you know make sure that you know your laws of indices inside out um and again just make sure that you’re consistently working throughout the Throughout the year go through your textbooks work through those questions go through um questions that your teacher has given you and then if you’re if you’re entering year 13 now right um vital yeah It’s important I will take the year 13 in particular that you start reading ahead so what I would do I’d speak to your teachers in advance and find out what they’re planning on teaching for that week and you try and read up on that topic before you go into lessons because I

Think that gives you quite a good platform when you’re in lessons you know you’re you’ll find that you’re probably a little less confused right because what I find sometimes if people go in they into their lessons they they try and take in what their teacher said and then it’s sort of a Backward approach where they’re um they go home and they try and try and learning that topic independently which is which is fine there’s nothing wrong with that but what I’m saying is what will help is if you know what your Teacher is going to be teaching you beforehand right so you can read up a little bit on that topic and then go into your lesson prepared or at least semi-prepared so that that’s the advice that I’d give year 13. something I advise my yeah some of my a-level kids to do is to

Um read their head a little bit so exactly what you said so read the text early don’t because sometimes they go through them in class and it’s just it’s so slow um and they’ll have a much better understanding of the text generally if They they read it ahead ahead of time and preferably more than once um and yeah I would like history or something like that there’s so much packed in and sometimes the course textbook can be quite dense I’d always say like do some Pre-reading from like a sort of general guide or something a bit more accessible to begin with like before you start uh the second year so you know it basically like you you’ve got something

Your knowledge can latch on to so they’re not sort of learning it blindly and hearing names for the first time and stuff like that I find that I think that’s quite helpful and practice writing essays whenever you can And that kind of thing if that’s what your subject demands okay for those who have finished GCSEs and a levels well done um for getting through those years of work and in particular to out to our students

Outro

Well done to all of you guys I hope you’re you’re all happy with your results I know I’ve spoken to some of you already and I think you’re beaming mostly for your beaming and over the moon that’s good continue that hard work and thanks for joining us today [Music]