• Question: how do i get better grades on my gcses?

    Asked by akee532harp34 on 6 Feb 2026.
    • Photo: Charlotte Gale

      Charlotte Gale answered on 6 Feb 2026:

      Annoyingly, the answer to that is probably different for different people. Finding something you are interested in with each subject helps, but I know that can’t solve everything. The most useful thing I found was working out how the exams were marked – for example, science exams often give you marks for stating facts that are relevant to the question.

      I would suggest looking at some past papers (you can usually find them online if you google the exam board and the subject), ideally doing some like they were real exams, and learning what kinds of questions come up and what marks are given in the answers – I found that for science and maths in particular, you can start to notice patterns and sometimes the questions will even be repeated in your real exam!

      Is there a particular subject you are worried about?

    • Photo: Carly Bingham

      Carly Bingham answered on 9 Feb 2026:

      I think one of the best places to start is to figure out how you learn best – do you learn from reading from a textbook, do you need to write things out to take it in, do you need a more hands on approach to learning? Once you’ve figured this out, you can apply it to your revision – I need to write things to remember them well so I had giant post it notes that I would write key things onto and then put them up on my wall.

      Practising on past papers can also help – it gets you used to the kind of things you might be asked and how you can answer them to get maximum marks even if you don’t quite know the answer, you might be able to get some credit for the bits you do know!

    • Photo: Charlotte Maughan Jones

      Charlotte Maughan Jones answered on 26 Mar 2026:

      The main thing is to find out how you learn. Everyone learns in a different way and so taking time to work out what helps you to learn information is going to be really important. Maybe you enjoy reading the information over and over again, or maybe you prefer watching videos or listening to podcasts. There are so many learning resources out there now so all learning styles are well catered for. Also never be scared to ask for help. Your teachers are literally paid to help you, so if something they have taught you doesn’t make sense, ask them to explain it in a different way.

Comments

  • Photo: Nazia

    Nazia commented on :

    Most people learn through a varierty of methods so, just reading through your notes or a textbook will not make the information stick in your brain. You might find making a mind map or revision cards and then using ‘look, cover, write, check, helps improve your knowledge. Using diagrams will help like the structure of cells. And mnemnics can be useful for example, ‘Kids Prefer Chocolate Over Fried Green Spinach’ to remember classification (kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species). And lots of past papers and looking at markschemes.

  • Photo: Steve P

    Steve P commented on :

    In short – be totally open and honest with yourself about your motivation.

    It is easy enough to identify several different study and revision methods, but a bit harder to identify what combination works best for you. However, one thing you can be fairly sure of is your motivation: Ask yourself what you will be willing to do do improve your grades, and be honest with yourself on your answers.

    Often people may say “oh, I’d do anything to ” but when you ask them what they’d be willign to sacrifice to achieve it then the answers can be quite illuminating.

    So, lets assume that you’ve identified ways of studying and revising – now ask yourself (and answer yourself honestly) whether you’d put the time and effort in to actually doing it by sacrificing, for example:
    – Several hours a week for the rest of my time at school by reducing time on social media / time with friends / time playing sport / time watching TV or listening to music?
    If your answers to yourself are either ‘no I won’t make changes or sacrifices’ or ‘I don’t really need to do that because I’m so smart anyway’ then maybe you’re not ready to prioritise study and revision in order to achieve better grades.

  • Photo: Caroline R

    Caroline R commented on :

    Great question! Find your learning style is the first part, for me I am a really visual learner so I found colour coding flash cards really helped me retain the information I needed. Music always helped me study and having some sort of sweet (normally haribo) also helped motivate me in study sessions.

    I also spent time on past papers, I need to underline key words in the question, particularly the essay style questions, to make sure I had answered the question fully. Also spend some time looking at command words in questions and work out what an ‘explain’ question wants compared to a ‘discuss’ question etc

    Ultimately, find what works for you! We are very unique as human beings and what works for some, will not work for others. As long as you go into your exams and say confidently to yourself “I tried my best” that is all anyone can ever ask of you. You got this 🙂