*slams door open*

Today I’m talking about stuff that I don’t usually talking about on here (hello IGCSE). I know this won’t apply to everyone, so bear with me, but mocks are coming up and I’m really wanting to drop off some of my tips and tricks for those of you who want to focus on not only surviving, but crushing the exams like the epic boss you are.

To all the Year 9’s and 10’s I know: this post is for you. I honestly hope it helps in some way.

I’ve actually invited some of my friends over to give a couple more perspectives (say hi to Sieun, Jack, and Seung Won), so get ready for a long ride, haha.

 

 

What we’re doing:

I’m going to start off first and walk you through everything that helped me when I took my IGCSE exams. These will be practical things that I found highly beneficial. Of course, not everyone will find what I found helpful, but hey, I’m just going to throw them out there anyway.

After my friends and I have gone through all our general advice, Sieun and I are going to lead you in-depth into all the subjects that we took. They might not match up with what you’re taking, but I’m hoping you’ll be able to find at least one thing to take away, even if it’s just a tip from something core like English or Math.

 

 

General Advice

 

– Germaine –

 

1. Study for your mocks.

 

 

Look, studying for your mocks is so helpful — even if it’s just reading through summaries the night before.

Studying for your mocks gives you an idea of how much content you actually need to know for your actual exams. Besides, if you revise for your mocks, trying to get the content back into your head right before exams will be much, much easier.

 

2. On making notes:

 

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I find making notes incredibly helpful both to revise information and to keep textbook content stuck in my head (yeah, memorization sucks but there’s nothing we can do to control it, sadly). I’ve made both handwritten notes and typed notes before, and they have both helped me, so I’m leaving that to your preference.

 

 

You’ll want to start making notes early. Notes take really long to make, and it’s usually a tedious process. I’d definitely recommend starting in Y9 if you can, just as you take in all the content and try to process it as you go, but if you’re in Y10 and you haven’t made any notes… it’s still not too late.

Instead, make notes during and after mocks. If you have study leave, use that as well. Be wise about what content you write down — priority goes to only the most important facts. And then keep coming back to these notes. Read them every couple of days so the information stays fresh in your mind.

Side note: need to memorize definitions for biology or equations for physics? Use flashcards (you can even make them online if you want).

 

3. Metacogs

Okay, metacogs are seriously cool, especially for memorization purposes:

 

 

Okay, don’t freak out — I know it looks complex and messy and horrifying, but stay with me. I like metacogs because they’re a visual way of memorizing things. You start from the top and go clockwise, connecting related ideas together. What you’re really doing is mapping out the neuron pathways in your brain that are related to a specific topic (organic chemistry in this case) and it’s especially good for definitions and other things you have to memorize word-for-word.

 

4. Calendar blocking.

If you’ve been with me for a while now, you’ll know that I LOVE calendar blocking. Mocks are here, and exam season is coming up, so you might be panicking because there’s so much to do and so little time.

I use Google Calendar to schedule my days and put everything I do into blocks. For my exams, I color coded things that were constant: blue blocks were my breaks and meals, gray blocks were my exams, and everything else made up revision time and other things.

Actual examples from my exam days:

 

– Sieun –

 

Hello! I’m an international school student and a friend of Germaine. I would like to share a little bit of tips as to how to survive through the IGCSE exams.

Don’t:

• Study 8 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is not a good idea. REST. Take at least 6 hours of sleep per day. It will help you focus better.
• Don’t frustrate. Even if you messed up a test today, you’ve got to start studying for the test tomorrow. You’re not done until you’re actually done. IGCSE examiners try their best to give you the best mark possible — they’re not too strict. You should continue running until you reach the endpoint.
• Don’t panic from your mock results. Usually, grades you get in the mock exam go up in the actual one. I got a D in my GP mock, but I got an A in the actual GP exam 🙂

 

Do:

• ASK QUESTIONS TO TEACHERS. Your teachers love students who keep coming into their free periods to ask questions. If they don’t have time to meet you in person, send them emails.
  • For languages, do past papers and bring your essays to your teachers. Ask them if they could mark your paper. Ask them what you should do to improve — it helps a lot.
  • For humanities, just do past papers and go visit your teachers. Mark your paper with them and ask if there are any concepts you can’t understand. Most of the time, teachers are better than Google 🙂
  • For math or science, do past papers by yourself and mark them, then pick questions you still don’t understand after looking at the marking scheme.
  • Gathering all the questions you want to ask into a document is also a good idea. Screenshot a question from online past papers, then paste it into a document. Make one document per subject. It will save you and your teacher’s time when you go to ask questions.
• Make a study plan at least before March. Study plans help you to stay on track, and let you know how much more you have to do. But remember to make sure your study plans are not too much for you.
• Exercise. This helps you to have better stamina and prevents you from dozing off while studying or while you’re in class. At least 30 minutes a day, take a walk or do a sport you like with your friends. Time spent to rest or exercise is not being wasted. It is impossible for one to focus only on studying 24 hours a day. Resting is necessary, but watching YouTube while eating lunch doesn’t count as resting.
• Eat sweets before the exam / stay hydrated. Sugar helps your brain to spin faster 🙂 While waiting for the exam time, eat chocolate bars! It really helps.
• Balance things out. The exam continues for 2 months, you might be too tired to care anymore at the end and that may become a problem. Don’t stress too much (I know, it’s easier said than done, but still.) and eat bunch of chocolates 🙂 You can do this!

 

 

–  Jack & Seung Won-

 

Germaine: So I’m writing a post about the IGCSE and how to survive it. Do you think you have any tips and tricks for the subjects that you did?

Jack: My strongest advice is doing as many past papers as possible in a revision period for most of the subjects.

Jack: And don’t always trust the textbooks, because they really have mistakes here and there every so often, haha

Seung Won: Well I only have general advice

Seung Won: Tips I would have would be that your textbook is your best friend, and that you should grind a lot of past papers

Seung Won: This method probably will lead to you not learning much — plus, it sucks all the enjoyment out. But if grades are what you are looking for, it’s the way to go… at least for me

Seung Won: Oh, and I think sleep is the most important thing out of everything. Finishing your work by like 10 or something and doing whatever you want until 12 will be a gamechanger.

Germaine: Sweet. Thank you so much, guys 🙂

 

 

Subject-specific Advice

 

Sieun and I are going to quickly show you around in this second part. I know you won’t be taking the exact same subjects as we did, or have gone through the same curriculum, so take what we say with a grain of salt 😉

I’m just going to walk you through my tips for English (both language and literature), math, co-ordinated sciences, computer science, French, and history, while Sieun is going through additional math, global perspectives, Korean, and geography.

 

 

English Language

Honestly, I don’t have much to say about English. It’s like any other language, really: in order to get better, expose yourself to it more often (i.e. READ). If it’s not your first language, you could also find shows you like in English or listen to music in English.

Listen to your teachers. They (should) know the content of the class better than you do (this hasn’t always been true in my experience but that was probably just me being nitpicky). Also, practice with past papers and markschemes — these will show you where you’re going wrong so you can polish your skills before the exams hit.

And finally, remember PEEL, the ultimate tool for writing essays 😉

Point

Evidence

Explanation

Link

 

English Literature

Okay, first up, you’ve got to know the content, because all those poems, short stories, novels, plays, etc. are going to have to find a space in your head somewhere. So reread the content as you near the exams. Even if they are the most boring / terrible things you’ve ever read.

One of the essays you’ll write will have two options: an easy-ish question (about the whole of the play, story, etc.) or a harder question (passage-based). If you’re not planning on doing the passage-based question, you’ll need to memorize some of the quotes and their references, in case you need to use them in the exam (which sucks, I know — it’s why I only did passage-based questions and didn’t memorize any quotes)

There’s a lot of content, so another thing you can do is make summaries, including only the most important things you need to know: themes, characters, etc.

 

 

Math

There is no easy way to revise for math. All you need to do is practice, practice, practice. You need to understand the formulas and how you can apply mathematical concepts to seemingly random situations.

In my experience, IGCSE math exam papers have been near identical (except for the ones before the 2000’s. Do those if you want to challenge yourself) since they virtually ask the exact same questions, only with different numbers. Because of this, past papers are incredibly helpful for you to practice on in the weeks ahead. It’s hard at first, but it gradually gets a lot easier and you get to hone your skills in the process (that, and learn how to write an exam paper, but I told myself I’d try not to be sarcastic today).

 

Co-ordinated Sciences

Ah yes, the horror that is revision for co-ordinated sciences, a.k.a. another round of memorization.

With content-based subjects like the sciences, I definitely encourage making notes or powerpoints, drawing metacogs, writing summaries, creating flashcards for definitions, or using any kind of memorization trick you have up your sleeves. I like notes and was fortunate enough to have made a bunch of biology-based ones in year 9 and early year 10 before I had to worry about exams, so that was helpful (that’s a hint for the year 9’s out there). However, you can also collaborate on powerpoints with your classmates or see if you can reuse a senior’s notes.

Still, making your own notes is best as it helps you to learn them in the process.

Note: don’t just memorize the content. Aim to understand it as well, because that’s what’s going to carry you through the tougher questions.

Here’s how I studied for the three sciences:

Biology: went over notes. A lot.

Chemistry: went over my notes and used a senior student’s summary powerpoint

Physics: went over my own notes and made a separate list of formulas I would need to know

I wasn’t really a big fan of textbooks, so I mostly used what was in my notes and what my teachers had given me. However, I’d still encourage you to flip through any textbooks you have, just in case you’ve missed something.

That’s really all I can give you for the long-answer paper — aside from, again, doing past papers. I’d also like to add that you’ll want to focus more on details for the multiple choice paper — you’d think it’s easy, but it really isn’t, so you’ll really want to know the content.

As for the practical paper, I made a powerpoint on all the experiments I did over the course of the IGCSE and went over it multiple times (I legitimately made said powerpoint the night before the mock practical paper so if I can do that, so can you).

 

 

Computer Science

I was fortunate enough to have a great computer science teacher, so this was easier for me. There are two papers: theory and programming.

Theory paper: this is the paper that tests how well you know the content and how you can apply it to real life situations. So yes, memorize the content, but also understand it. For this, I made a powerpoint for each chapter on Google Slides, but I also had a couple of Cornell notes from year 9 that I skimmed over.

Another thing you should know for the theory paper is that calculators aren’t allowed. So do yourself a favor and make sure you can still do multiplication and division with just a pen and a paper — this will save you a lot of time.

Programming paper: if you’re not familiar with programming, this will be a tough one. But the thing is, programming is basically another language, right? So practice writing and reading it. Write in Python, Javascript, anything that you want to learn. You only have to remember not to spout actual code in the exam — rather you’ll be working with coding concepts you should already understand and a relatively solid grasp of pseudocode and/or drawing flowcharts.

Learn JavaScript

Learn Python

Write Python

Practice coding

 

French

Like all languages, in order to improve in French, you have to constantly be working on it. Whether that’s reading a French story, practicing grammar, or writing diary entries, it doesn’t matter as long as you keep learning and exposing yourself to the language. So do your Duolingo while you still have time and keep learning before it’s too late, because what you do in class isn’t usually going to be enough.

You’ll want to make sure you’ve got a solid hold on the imparfait, passé composé, present, futur, and conditionnel tenses as well as being relatively able to read, write, listen to, and speak the language.

 

History

Here’s another content-based subject, but with the added twist of the need to be able to critically think and analyze history. Just know that while IGCSE history may be tough and confusing, you’re going to be all right — even if you don’t get the grade that you wanted.

First off, memorize and understand the content — you’ll need it. But also keep writing papers, both the source paper and the other one with the 4, 6, and 10-mark questions (I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten what it’s called). If you suck at 10-mark questions, do a bunch of them and ask your history teacher to mark them.

You’ll also have to keep your eye on the clock, because time is short and there’s a lot to write. Always remember to consider things like cause and effect, because that’s very important to know when it comes to history. Good evaluations in a 10-mark question are also crucial to getting the full ten marks.

That’s my part done, so now I’m going to hand it over to Sieun.

 

 

Additional Math

Don’t:

• I know it’s usually at the very end of the exam season, but that doesn’t mean you’ll have enough time to study for it later. Add math is a massive subject, and you may panic when you realize how much you have to catch up on when you have the exam the next morning. Don’t push all your revision plans towards the end.
• Again, it’s not done until it’s actually done. During the exam, anyone could have made mistakes, so go over the test after you’re done. Go over it again and again, do proof calculations, and check all the answers again until the time is up. Don’t stop, and sleep when you’re done!

Do:

• Get a book with lots of practice questions in it. Ask the seniors at your school if they have a book you can borrow to practice. Do 3~4 pages (or whatever you think is reasonable. But remember, you shouldn’t be spending more than 30 minutes on this) of the book EVERYDAY. Doing a small amount of practice regularly and continuously is much more effective and easier for you than solving a whole book in a week.
• When you’re in the actual exam, skip questions you can’t immediately start solving. You might run out of time later, meaning that you might lose marks on questions you know how to solve. But remember to come back and work on the questions you’ve skipped after you reach the end!

 

Global Perspectives

Don’t:

• Don’t spend too long trying to understand the content when you practice with past papers. The sources you’ve just read in the past papers will never ever come out again. You don’t have to know every social issue. Focus on the skills instead.

Do:

• Read (or watch) the news. Doesn’t matter when, doesn’t matter how. Just spend 10~20 minutes per day to be aware of the important events happening around the world.
• The 12 mark question is asking HOW the argument is made. Never mention what they are saying. For example:
  • Sarah employed reliable statistics from WHO to support her argument. It is also a recent data, so it adds credibility to her claims. (o)
  • Sarah mentions that one-third of the children in Africa are suffering from malaria. This supports her argument which is that we should start fundraising and giving money to them so that they can buy medicines. (x)
• For the 18 mark question, it is asking WHAT the argument is about, and why YOU THINK SO. This is where you use your own logic to claim something. Always, always remember to use evidence from the sources provided. If you have your own personal anecdotes or evidences (this is why you should be reading the news), even better.

 

 

Geography

Don’t:

• Don’t try to memorize everything. You can’t, especially when you’re taking other subjects that require memorizing (e.g. history, science) too. Try to understand the concepts first, and after that, memorize special terms (e.g. names of the clouds, coastal shields, etc.).
• Don’t spend too long choosing which section to go with when you’re in the actual exam. You are just eating up your precious time that you could’ve used to think more about the questions you’re confused at. NEVER CHANGE AFTER YOU START ON ONE SECTION. Look at the question with the most marks (case study question at the end) and go with the one you’re more confident at. If you decide to change your mind and go with another section after you’ve started on one already, you won’t be able to finish either of them. Time is limited, and you’ve got to use it wisely.

Do:

• Focus on case studies. Make your own notes of case studies — at least 2 different examples per unit. Copying someone else’s doesn’t help. You will naturally memorize it as you gather information and summarize articles to make notes, either online or by hand. Here is one website where I got a lot of case studies for geology (Geo Case Study), and this is the website where I got all the coastal terms, which I found really challenging to memorize (Definitions of coastal terms).

 

Korean

Don’t:

• Try not to use dictionaries while doing past papers. However, after you’re done with one paper and have finished marking, pick words that you didn’t know the meanings of and memorize them. This will help you for reading and comprehending later on.
• Choose between descriptive writing and narrative writing before the exam, never change your mind when you see the topics! Even if the other type of writing has an easier-looking topic, you will struggle since it’s not the one you’ve practiced for the past few months. Focus only on one type of writing from the point you start revising. CHOOSE ONLY ONE AND DON’T EVER LOOK AT THE OTHER ONE!

Do:

• Try to learn more ‘essay words.’ Just by using a lot of ‘smart-looking words,’ your essay will look much more professional and well structured.

 

Some useful links Sieun recommends:

• Co-ordinated Sciences – 0654 (2017-18) (Science notes)
• IGCSE – Songs of Ourselves – Volume 2, Part 2 (Birds, Beasts and the Weather) (Eng Lit) → for the literature link, I’m not totally sure if it will help because the curriculum has changed, but it is really really useful if it has the poem you’re studying.

 

 

That’s it, that’s all!

Special thanks to Sieun, Seung Won, and Jack!

If you have any more questions or concerns about the upcoming IGCSE exams, ask away! I’d love to talk things through with you 🙂

Remember that you’ve got this and that those grades do not define you — you’re more than what you can spout out onto an exam paper.

I’ll be back with my usual content next week.

Make your mark,

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