My Worst GCSE subject
Hello, Reader!
Throughout my time at school, whether it was GCSEs or A Levels, people around me seemed to have the impression that I found all my subjects easy or that I was just lucky to get good grades. Now, this isn't to call anyone out- but I worked really hard to do well in my exams and I definitely did not find all my subjects easy. Today's post is all about the subject I struggled the most with during GCSEs and how did I get through it: it's not enough for me to just say "I struggled too but I did it, so you can do it too!" because, let's be honest, you probably wouldn't believe me and also it wouldn't give you any insight or guidance into how to overcome this struggle. So here it is... my biggest struggle during GCSEs was Geography.
When the time came to choose my GCSE subjects, I was given the choice between Geography and History. In an ideal world, I wouldn't choose either, simply because neither interested me very much (and still doesn't), but alas, it was obligatory to choose one of them. I weighted out my strengths and witnesses and compared them with what I imagined the two courses to be- as you can imagine, I didn't know much about either. The only contact I had with History at that point was in Poland, where I remember being grilled about remembering dates of important events, (which I'm still absolutely awful at,) and year 7 and 8 at my first high school, where I remember not understanding anything (likely due to my limited comprehension of English) and finding it incredibly boring. On the other hand, my idea of Geography was simply studying maps, memorising capital cities and learning about coastline erosion... could work with that. Unfortunately, the further into the course we got, the more I began realising how many statistics and case studies I would have to memorise for my exams. I was completely lost in the structure of the course, the lessons seemed to follow no logical order in the content and I started becoming increasingly frustrated with the subject. I could understand, more or less, what I was learning, I could relate information to general topics... but I couldn't see the whole picture at all and, in my head, the course was like a puzzle where none of the pieces fit together. Not only that, but the teacher was extremely unhelpful- whereas she tried her best, in her own way, she struggled to recognise that each of her students had different needs and therefore couldn't provide me with the support I needed, or any other struggling student for that matter.
I was left to figure out the course on my own. I had a notebook full of scattered information, a google classroom page full of powerpoints full of scattered information and a collection of past exam paper questions with no order or mark schemes. With that, I got to work. I collected all the resources I possibly could; BBC bitesize, wikipedia, past papers I came across online... anything I could find. From a complete past paper, I was able to figure out the overarching topics within the course, which then helped me to find more resources online. When I collected all this information, I was ready to create some revision notes. I used the process I explained in my "how to make effective revision notes" posts, pretty much exactly: organise the information, separate it into bitesize chunks, decide what needs to be memorised by heart. To supplement my notes, for easy revision on the go, I also made revision cards for case studies, statistics and definitions that I needed to memorise for the exam. I'll be honest with you, the only exam question practise I did for that exam was in the classroom. I don't remember whether this was because I didn't have access to past paper resources, or whether I was just fed up with the subject and I didn't want to practice 6-mark questions amongst my other revision, but I think that this would be one thing I would do differently if I had to go back in time and do it again. Although I did really well in the exam in the end, I think doing more exam practice would take off some of the stress and make me feel a bit more prepared, since this was the exam that I was dreading the most.
On results day, GCSE Geography miraculously blessed me with an A*. This was a huge relief, because of how unprepared I felt going into the exam and even after finishing the exam. If you'd ask me how I managed to get this grade, I would genuinely tell you I have no idea, because although I went through this whole process that I just explained, my only exam technique was to read the question and spill all information I could think of that was remotely related to the question, whether it was relevant or not. I don't know if that's a good exam technique, so I won't say whether I recommend it or not, but it worked that time, so perhaps it could be something to try as a last resort.
If your GCSEs are coming up, hang in there and give it your best. At the end of the day, what matters is that you've done all that you possibly could- whatever your final grade is. Best of luck!
Love,
Agnes xo
Throughout my time at school, whether it was GCSEs or A Levels, people around me seemed to have the impression that I found all my subjects easy or that I was just lucky to get good grades. Now, this isn't to call anyone out- but I worked really hard to do well in my exams and I definitely did not find all my subjects easy. Today's post is all about the subject I struggled the most with during GCSEs and how did I get through it: it's not enough for me to just say "I struggled too but I did it, so you can do it too!" because, let's be honest, you probably wouldn't believe me and also it wouldn't give you any insight or guidance into how to overcome this struggle. So here it is... my biggest struggle during GCSEs was Geography.
When the time came to choose my GCSE subjects, I was given the choice between Geography and History. In an ideal world, I wouldn't choose either, simply because neither interested me very much (and still doesn't), but alas, it was obligatory to choose one of them. I weighted out my strengths and witnesses and compared them with what I imagined the two courses to be- as you can imagine, I didn't know much about either. The only contact I had with History at that point was in Poland, where I remember being grilled about remembering dates of important events, (which I'm still absolutely awful at,) and year 7 and 8 at my first high school, where I remember not understanding anything (likely due to my limited comprehension of English) and finding it incredibly boring. On the other hand, my idea of Geography was simply studying maps, memorising capital cities and learning about coastline erosion... could work with that. Unfortunately, the further into the course we got, the more I began realising how many statistics and case studies I would have to memorise for my exams. I was completely lost in the structure of the course, the lessons seemed to follow no logical order in the content and I started becoming increasingly frustrated with the subject. I could understand, more or less, what I was learning, I could relate information to general topics... but I couldn't see the whole picture at all and, in my head, the course was like a puzzle where none of the pieces fit together. Not only that, but the teacher was extremely unhelpful- whereas she tried her best, in her own way, she struggled to recognise that each of her students had different needs and therefore couldn't provide me with the support I needed, or any other struggling student for that matter.
I was left to figure out the course on my own. I had a notebook full of scattered information, a google classroom page full of powerpoints full of scattered information and a collection of past exam paper questions with no order or mark schemes. With that, I got to work. I collected all the resources I possibly could; BBC bitesize, wikipedia, past papers I came across online... anything I could find. From a complete past paper, I was able to figure out the overarching topics within the course, which then helped me to find more resources online. When I collected all this information, I was ready to create some revision notes. I used the process I explained in my "how to make effective revision notes" posts, pretty much exactly: organise the information, separate it into bitesize chunks, decide what needs to be memorised by heart. To supplement my notes, for easy revision on the go, I also made revision cards for case studies, statistics and definitions that I needed to memorise for the exam. I'll be honest with you, the only exam question practise I did for that exam was in the classroom. I don't remember whether this was because I didn't have access to past paper resources, or whether I was just fed up with the subject and I didn't want to practice 6-mark questions amongst my other revision, but I think that this would be one thing I would do differently if I had to go back in time and do it again. Although I did really well in the exam in the end, I think doing more exam practice would take off some of the stress and make me feel a bit more prepared, since this was the exam that I was dreading the most.
On results day, GCSE Geography miraculously blessed me with an A*. This was a huge relief, because of how unprepared I felt going into the exam and even after finishing the exam. If you'd ask me how I managed to get this grade, I would genuinely tell you I have no idea, because although I went through this whole process that I just explained, my only exam technique was to read the question and spill all information I could think of that was remotely related to the question, whether it was relevant or not. I don't know if that's a good exam technique, so I won't say whether I recommend it or not, but it worked that time, so perhaps it could be something to try as a last resort.
If your GCSEs are coming up, hang in there and give it your best. At the end of the day, what matters is that you've done all that you possibly could- whatever your final grade is. Best of luck!
Love,
Agnes xo
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