There are so many different questions that students have when we start to look at study skills.
What is revising?
How do I revise?
What do I revise?
How on earth can I learn it all and remember it for the exams?
These are all important aspects, but one of the first things to consider is when to start.
When to start revising – that doesn’t match the title of “When to start studying?” but it is this latter question that I want to address. When we call it “revising”, students imagine that a few sessions of reading, about three weeks before the exams, should do the trick. The reality is that studying and reviewing the material should start at the beginning of the course – no matter whether that be GCSE, A Level, Degree or a professional qualification.
I’ll write that again so it can sink in a bit. Studying should start at the beginning of your course! Studying just means learning the material you need to cover.
Many people think that revision starts a few weeks before the exams. You could leave it that long before you start, but that way is not as effective as regularly reminding yourself of what you have learned. It is also super stressful as you try to cram it all in over the last few weeks before an exam – or lots of exams. Last-minute cramming is not the same as learning. It can be done, if you are lucky, but you are likely to forget the material almost as quickly as you have learned it, which means it won’t be available for future use.
So, here are my tips on when to start studying and how to plan that time:
Get a schedule ready for the beginning of the new academic year. It may help you to write your weekly and monthly schedule on a planner. Write in your non-academic commitments as well as your academic ones. Be specific. Instead of just writing “Revise”, give a topic name or a chapter number. If you allow time for all the hard thinking at the beginning of the week then you can just follow the schedule for the rest of the week, rather than wasting half your study session working out what you are meant to be doing.
Allow time each week for going over the notes you made in class. Edit or re-write those notes, using information from the textbook as well as your class notes. Make flashcards if they will help. At the end of each chapter or module, make time to revise that chapter/module to make sure you understood it. If in doubt, ask your teacher! They are much more likely to be helpful if you ask for clarification just a week or so after finishing the topic, rather than a week or so before the exams!
Remember to do your own research on a topic instead of just relying on the teacher to spoon-feed you all the information you need. Use textbooks, look things up using reliable internet sources, watch good documentaries.
In order to perform at your best academically, you need to take care of your mind and body just like an athlete who is preparing for a major competition. Feed your brain well by eating a balanced diet, allow for exercise and for relaxing time and look after yourself by getting enough sleep. That starts from the beginning of the course, too!
Who is the author?
Teri is a languages and study skills tutor based in Surrey. She has been teaching adults and children for the last 17 years, including those preparing for GCSE, IGCSE, A Level and adult qualifications.
There are some ways that you can prepare yourself before you even read a word of the actual paper:
Make sure that you know how long each exam is. What are the requirements of that paper? What will you need to do for each section and how long should you spend on it? Which paper is to be taken on which day? Be sure to prepare for the right one!
Time management is key in exams. Keep a close eye on the clock and make sure that you don’t get so involved in one section of the paper that you forget to leave enough time to do the rest!
So, now let’s look at the reading exam itself. Extracting the important information from a text in your target language is a key skill and probably one of those that you will use most in real life – from menus to museum leaflets. A few key tips could make a significant difference in the way you approach this part of the assessment and also in the score that you receive.
The reading paper presents a range of text types from picture-heavy “adverts” to extracts from works of literature. One of the first things I would say is that you shouldn’t allow yourself to be intimidated by the literature component – the extracts have been chosen very carefully and the key parts will be using the vocabulary and grammar that you have already been taught.
The main hints that I have for the reading exam are these:
When it comes to the reading paper, make sure you read the questions BEFORE you read each text! It may sound odd, but the questions will give you a good idea of what the text is about. Then you can read the text and already have in mind which information is likely to be important.
NEVER leave an answer blank. An intelligent guess is more likely to gain marks than a blank, which is guaranteed not to score at all!
Watch out for the little words that can make all the difference. Words like “not”, “already”, “never” etc. can change the whole meaning of a sentence and provide the key information for answering the question successfully.
Check WHO is doing the action in the sentences. It is not uncommon to find that someone does the action mentioned in the question, but not necessarily the person you might think. For example, if Jenny is talking about her weekend and says that her brother tidied his room, then tidying the room is NOT an activity that Jenny did!
Practice question words and question formation. Some of the tasks may be explained in your target language rather than in English, so do be sure that you can understand what you need to do.
Remember to answer the questions in the language in which they are set. So, if the question is written in English then answer in English. If it is written in your target language, then answer in the target language.
Look carefully at the tenses! There will probably be occasions when an activity in the question is mentioned in the text, but in a different time frame. For example, don’t get confused between what a character did last weekend and what they plan to do next week.
Likewise with the section which requires translation into English. The text itself is quite short but it will be full of little details which make all the difference. Tenses are important again, as are negatives, time phrases and prepositions. Try to fit in all the little bits of information in order to gain maximum marks.
Try to get as much practice of the reading paper skills as you can.
BBC Bitesize offers a range of resources to help you and there are also revision books that you can get which have the answers in the back so you can check how you are doing. As with so many things, little and often is key, so start revising soon!
Teri Fleetwood is an experienced language tutor with over 16 years experience of tutoring to the GCSE and A Level curriculum. For more information please look at the rest of the posts in this blog and also check our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/LanguageLearnersSurrey/ If you would like to discuss 1:1 or small group tuition, whether for exam preparation or pleasure, then do get in touch! teri@language-learners.com
During the writing exam, students are asked to write a range of different types of language in the same time period (i.e. during the exam). You may, for example, be asked to write an article for a school newspaper, or it may be a letter (formal or informal). Make sure you know how to set out each different type of writing, and remember to include your town, the date, a greeting and a closing if it is a letter!
When it comes to scoring maximum marks, there are a range of techniques which will help to open up the higher grades.
One key point is to answer the correct number of questions! For some questions you will have a choice of which question to answer. Don’t try to answer them all as you will run out of time, and some of your answers will be ignored. Try to pick the question for which you have the most ideas that you can express in your target language, and be sure to cover each bullet point.
In order to score well you should also show a range of grammar knowledge and constructions.
GCSE examiners are very keen to give out points – it’s a bit like Tinkerbell and fairy dust! Sadly, if there is nothing there to see, then the dust won’t stick!😊
Higher Level candidates should try to include as many of the following list as possible:
A range of tenses (past, present and future as a minimum, but for a higher mark then present, perfect, imperfect, future, conditional and pluperfect if possible);
Complex grammatical structures – e.g. um…zu for German, après avoir +past participle and avant de +infinitive for French;
A range of people doing the verbs (to show you can use correct endings);
Opinions (3 different ways of showing what you think);
Modal verbs (can, should, must);
A set phrase or two using the subjunctive;
Word order: especially for German but also with French (adjective order);
Correct endings depending on gender (and “case” for German);
Time phrases – not just “at 12 o’clock” or “tomorrow” but also “rarely”, “often”, “never”, “always”, etc.;
A negative or preferably two;
A question where possible.
Additional things for all candidates to think about:
NEVER leave an answer blank. An intelligent guess is more likely to gain marks than a blank (which is guaranteed not to score at all!);
Make sure that your written pieces contain work on each of the bullet points. If there are four bullet points (Edexcel) then make sure that it is clear that you have answered all of them, otherwise you lose marks. Check to see that you have used the relevant tense or tenses for each point. If there are two bullet points (AQA) then be sure to expand on each and use a variety of tenses as well as giving your opinion;
Read the translation passage twice before you start to translate any of it. Get a good idea of what it all means in English, as that will keep you on the right track in your target language. Then if you have a tricky sentence, you can make sure it matches with the general idea of the passage, rather than mistranslating sections you were confident with in order to make them match with your guess for the tricky part;
Pay careful attention to the use of tenses in the translation section. Past, present or future DOES make a difference and you should be able to recognise which one is needed;
Watch out for the little words that can make all the difference. Words like “not”, “already”, “never” etc. can change the whole meaning of a sentence and provide the key information for answering the question successfully, especially in the case of the translation passage. Try not to miss them out of your translation.
Teri Fleetwood is an experienced language tutor with over 16 years experience of tutoring to the GCSE and A Level curriculum. For more information please look at the rest of the posts in this blog and also check our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/LanguageLearnersSurrey/ If you would like to discuss 1:1 or small group tuition, whether for exam preparation or pleasure, then do get in touch! teri@language-learners.com
The second part of our blog series on the GCSE language exams looks at the listening paper. Sometimes students can get quite worried about this paper, or can be left wondering why they missed out on marks when they thought they had understood what was being said. These tips will help you to prepare well, and also give you some idea of the little examiner “tricks” to look out for.
What can I do to prepare for my listening exam?
When it comes to the listening exam, there is one way to prepare which you can start now, which only needs to be done for 10 minutes or so at a time, but which should be done consistently to get the best results.
What could it be?
Listening!
Specifically, listening to as much of your target language as possible, in as many different accents as possible, and as many different contexts as possible. While the exam board is not going to present you with an impossible accent, getting practice with as many native accents as you can will prepare you better than if you have only ever heard your teacher speak.
What should I listen to?
Pretty much anything. To get you started, here are some ideas that we have used with past and current students:
Try a music radio station using your chosen language. Make sure that it is one which plays music in your target language rather than just American music!
Alternatively, use the internet and look for “Extra!” in the relevant language – it’s a great little sitcom aimed at language learners and available in French, German, Spanish and English.
Use BBC Bitesize – this revision website has a range of activities together with the answers. You can choose Foundation or Higher Level.
You could try looking for TV shows online as well. There are many clips on popular video sharing websites. Or you can see if your favourite show is also available in another language via your streaming service.
If you are reasonably confident, then you could try using the news. Deutsche Welle have the “news read slowly” in German and there are several sites offering something similar in French. Alternatively, Euronews can be good (although rather fast) as you can read the text at the same time.
What else can I do to prepare?
Try some exam papers, which can be found on the exam board website. Your school teachers may want to use it too, so you can always look for past papers from other years – all practice is good practice. There are several GCSE revision workbooks available, with web links to listening tracks. Use them regularly, in small bursts rather than one long session.
Do you have any tips for the actual exam?
Of course! Here are some helpful pointers:
You will be given some time to read the questions before the test starts. Do use that time wisely and get some idea of the different types of question and what you have to do. It may sound odd, but the questions will give you a good idea of what each extract is about.
Remember each extract will be played twice, so you don’t have to get ALL the information the first time you hear it.
Also, make sure you have put some sort of answer for every question, even if you are not sure it is right. A blank answer is guaranteed to get zero points, but if you put something logical and sensible then you have a better chance.
Listen carefully for the “stretch” questions. You may think that you have a good idea of what the extract was about, but did you hear the words “not”, “often” or “rarely”? Sometimes the different options for a question will all be mentioned in some way, but there will be other words like these which change the meaning of the answer. Here is an example in English:
Q: What did Ben do at the weekend?
Extract from Ben: “I wanted to go to the cinema at the weekend but I didn’t have any money so we played football in the park instead”.
If you answer “went to the cinema” then you won’t get the point as this is what he WANTED to do, but couldn’t. The correct answer is that he played football in the park.
If you found these tips helpful then please feel free to share them with your friends. There will be more useful hints like these in the next few weeks as I cover the Reading and Writing papers. If you are looking for information about the Speaking test then please look for my blog post on the subject.
Teri Fleetwood is an experienced language tutor with over 16 years experience of tutoring to the GCSE and A Level curriculum. For more information please look at the rest of the posts in this blog and also check our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/LanguageLearnersSurrey/ If you would like to discuss 1:1 or small group tuition, whether for exam preparation or pleasure, then do get in touch! teri@language-learners.com
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