science foundation

toffuna101

so since my mind is slowly rotting from no sleep (exaggeration, or i hope it will be in the morning) im wondering how the hell am i going to do science foundation
for any of you wondering the specific science gcse that I'm taking is aqa combined science trilogy which means that generally everyone in my cohort has to take all three sciences.
now up until after my December mocks my teachers have been saying that ill do higher... but because i got a 4-3 on my December mocks and I couldn't take the test to determine my tier (due to the whole A&E situation if you've seen that post. i have yet to make an update on it, but i probably won't since A LOT has happened and i cba) im doing foundation
because of the higher grade boundaries and the fact that there's more common sense questions, im kinda worried answering it wrong because its so simple. the exams will most likely be hosted in the morning before too... (i only skimmed through the 2024 exam timetable, so please correct me if im wrong)
thankfully i am trying my hardest to revise since i need to get at least a five in one of the sciences in order to do psychology for one of my a-levels. let me know if anyone went through the same thing or is going through it rn

AnonymousToe

I did triple science with a different exam board (and didn’t even sit my GCSEs) so I’m of literally no use here, but if you’re worried about the style of questions it would be good to use past papers as part of your revision so you can get used to it?

lunarcat522

@toffuna101 This sounds really difficult, I was never the best at science when I was at school and avoided chemistry and physics at all costs! Have you found anything online that might help with these subjects like seneca learning or Khan academy or seneca learning? I found doing past papers over and over quite useful to even just familiarise myself with the nature of the question and how they expect you to answer. I'm sorry I can't help much as my knowledge of gcse's/a levels is limited as the system in Scotland is different, even the grading, but hopefully someone on here can help more in terms of resources etc.

I am studying psychology as one of my subjects and did it at higher (sort of like a level) and it was fairly straightforward and there wasn't too much science involved, just bits of biology and a small bit of maths (averages and standard deviation).

Could you talk to your school/college about your struggle with sleep - even just to let your teachers know that you're having issues with it? I've been in a similar situation and my college was able to put a note out to my lecturers just to let them know that there's personal stuff going on affecting my sleep and that might manifest in classes as struggling to stay awake, but it's not that I don't want to engage.

toffuna101

AnonymousToe wrote: »

I did triple science with a different exam board (and didn’t even sit my GCSEs) so I’m of literally no use here, but if you’re worried about the style of questions it would be good to use past papers as part of your revision so you can get used to it?

I have looked at practice exam questions based on a certain topic (for example: homeostasis), but due to my lack of knowledge consolidation in the present moment i havent been confident enough to actually complete a proper past paper WITHOUT the mark scheme (because i cheat...not sure if that is effective). also based on what my friend told me we haven't covered all of the content yet and it's February @AnonymousToe

AnonymousToe

@toffuna101 when I was revising for my a-levels, I did past paper questions by topic for the most part until the final couple of months. Like I’d use flashcards to go over all the content from the topic, then do past paper questions on that topic the next day or whenever. I used a website called physics and maths tutor - I’ve just had a look and it has resources for AQA GCSE sciences too.

I suppose even just using past papers at all will be useful, but like if you attempt the questions without the mark scheme first, you can see where your gaps are and what you need to focus on more / get help from teachers with.

lunarcat522

@toffuna101 Have you ever tried the revision method of blurting? It's where you choose a topic area and you write everything you know or can remember about the topic, and then you can identify where your gaps are and focus more on those areas

toffuna101

@lunarcat522 now that you mention it yes i do have a seneca account. whilst i do think that seneca is useful in terms of building up knowledge and completing homework assignments, i find it difficult to retain that knowledge since a lot of the seneca features are locked behind a premium pay wall...
i attempted to go khan academy just to do general revision for all subjects but since the content is based on the American education system it was hard to find content which matched the content that i was learning in England (this happened in year 9 btw)

toffuna101

lunarcat522 wrote: »

@toffuna101 Have you ever tried the revision method of blurting? It's where you choose a topic area and you write everything you know or can remember about the topic, and then you can identify where your gaps are and focus more on those areas

not really tbh.. i could try that actually

toffuna101

AnonymousToe wrote: »

@toffuna101 when I was revising for my a-levels, I did past paper questions by topic for the most part until the final couple of months. Like I’d use flashcards to go over all the content from the topic, then do past paper questions on that topic the next day or whenever. I used a website called physics and maths tutor - I’ve just had a look and it has resources for AQA GCSE sciences too.

I suppose even just using past papers at all will be useful, but like if you attempt the questions without the mark scheme first, you can see where your gaps are and what you need to focus on more / get help from teachers with.

@AnonymousToe I do use cognito and physicsandmaths tutor, they're quite useful

AnonymousToe

Is your difficulty with retaining knowledge, understanding content or exam technique? Because I suppose each of those things would need slightly different types of revision

toffuna101

@AnonymousToe I think at the moment it is more leaning to understanding the content and retaining knowledge, due to me experimenting more on the exam technique. For now I think only time will tell, especially due to my current mental state

AnonymousToe

It sounds like you’re doing your best despite everything else you’ve got going on so well done for that

As for understanding content:
Your school might run revision sessions where you can ask teachers for help? I think mine did.
BBC Bitesize is another resource you could use to help explain things.
I don’t know if you have any revision guides? I found the CGP ones helpful trying to understand complex things because they explain it more simply. You might be able to buy those through school for a lower price too.

For retaining knowledge:
It’s important to use an active revision technique (e.g. not just reading and highlighting) to make sure the information is actually going in.
I used quizlet to make flash cards, but basically the whole point is that you’re answering questions without seeing the answer. And you can do it over and over again until you remember the answers. I think anki? is a good website for flash cards that tells you when to go over them again before you forget. I’m not sure, I’ve never used it personally.
You can also do blurting, as was mentioned above, where you write out everything you can remember and then use your resources and a different colour pen to fill in what you didn’t know. Then you can make flash cards on those specific things to fine tune your revision more.
Everyone’s brain is different though so it’s kind of difficult to know exactly what’s going to work for someone. I almost exclusively used flash cards for retaining knowledge but they might not work for you at all, and that’s ok.
It’s important to keep going over it though so it’s in your long term memory. Like do your revision of say enzymes and then a few days later do a little recap, then like a week later recap again, etc. Just wanted to add that so you don’t render your work pointless lol.

You can only do your best though and it’s not the end of the world if you don’t get the grades you need. Sorry to bombard you with all that information - everyone revises differently so I wanted to give you options. (I did a-level biology and chemistry btw so I’m giving you advice based on them).

toffuna101

@AnonymousToe its alright, i don't mind all of that extra information