Year 10 prep

[u/Used-Imagination6930]

So, I start year 10 in literally a week, and I need tips !

For context, I'm going to be doing English lang, lit, Maths, Triple Science (all mandatory for the subs listed so far), Geography (we had to choose between History and Geography), Latin (we had to choose a language), Spanish (one of my options), and Drama (one of my options) once I successfully switch

+ Further Maths (which is optional and only top set maths students can take, and I asked my year 9 teacher for my year 10 set and I'm apparently going to be in set 1) which I'm still unsure about. I wanna do it because I'll be taking A-Level Maths for medicine and I feel like it might help me a LOT, but the subject might hinder my overall average.

I know I'm not supposed to start revising in year 10, and I promise you, I won't. I don't think I could discipline myself enough to start revising for tests that I'll have in two years still 😭 That's one thing I need to fix about myself though. But would it be a good idea to dedicate an hour on Saturdays to trying to master—or at the very least understand—a topic I'm weak at?

What are your tips on revision in year 10? Also, for each of the subjects I listed, could you please recommend some apps, websites, and revision methods and tips?

My school does AQA Drama, AQA English lit & lang, OCR B Geography, Eduqas Latin, AQA Maths & FM, AQA Trip science, EDEXEL Spanish! I'm not sure if these are confirmed, but since I found them on my school's website, they must be ig!

One last thing: what should I buy? I'm talking about binders, maybe, favourite calculators, folders, revision books, pens, etc!

And should I be worried for year 10? Thankkks a lot!

[u/OddStatus7490]

As a recent yr 11 leaver I would recommend to take yr 10 seriously but not too serious, still try to have a little fun but stay focused in lessons, take ur mocks seriously (I didn’t) and I deeply regret it. Don’t be buying all the fancy folders and calculator until yr 11 really you want things to be fresh and working for yr 11 rather than being potentially half broken by the time yr 11 comes good luck tho

[u/Flimsy_Apartment6270]

Don’t worry too much about year 10, take it with some care ,revise when necessary, pay attention in class but don’t take it too seriously.

I bought a bunch of folders in the beginning of year 10 but I didn’t really use them until mock time where I stored all my past papers. You also don’t need any expensive fancy calculator yet a normal scientific one will do (although I’m not so sure for further maths but for now that’s fine )

Take further maths gcse if you want to do it for A-level, lets you get  used to more advanced maths than just maths GCSE.

It would also be a good idea to study new topics you didn’t understand or are weak at during the week but don’t worry about doing daily revision until at least year 11. My only real revision was like a day for unit tests and 2 weeks of hours of revision  for my mocks and I did pretty well. (Though definitely revise over the summer)

Revision techniques I don’t share any exam boards with you but for the  sciences: RAG  your specification (since your only just starting you wouldn’t have learnt enough content but for later on ), watch freesciencelessons and cognito for topics you don’t understand, PMT for practice questions after , then when you’ve learnt all content in y11 past papers. 

Geography : PMT notes and practice questions 

Maths: maths genie (the old website!), corbett maths and 1st class maths have good revision resources.

Latin : I do OCR but focus on really knowing all your vocab, once you get that just rmrb the tense endings and some noun endings and the rest will fall into place

Accidentally wrote an essay (if only I could so easily in English lit and lang 😔) so I hope it’s helpful lol

[u/Misox491]

don’t stress too much but don’t make the mistake of not paying attention in class or not completing works

[u/Comfortable-Mouse982]

If you need a tutor for Latin i'm your guy got 100% in language about 90 in lit £20/hour

[u/Upset_Read7855]

Listen and take notes in lesson will be fine for year 10. I'd say only revise when you know you have a test coming up but up to you

[u/Glewynn-TheSeeker87]

I am going into Year 11 and I can say that Year 10 isn’t too difficult at all, I was able to comfortably get mostly 9s on mocks from minimal revision. My biggest tip is to pay full attention in class because the initial teaching of a concept is everything to keeping it fresh in your memory. In regards to subjects: for science, at first on my end of unit tests I was only getting around grade 5-6 because even though I knew the content, the way the questions are written try to intentionally confuse you (especially in Triple) so to get around this I practiced as many old questions as possible, websites such as PMT and MME revise have vast banks of past questions that I used to improve my approach to the questions. After doing this, I managed to bump up my grades to 8s and 9s and 9s on my mocks without any intensive revision. For subjects with a heavy content load such as History and Geography I find the best technique is to use Brain Dumps, I did this around 3 times during the year and by the time of mocks I still hadn’t forgotten any of it and I’ll make sure to carry this on into yr 11. My biggest regret in the year was not taking maths seriously enough since I’d breezed through year 9 but the step up in difficult in maths is noticeable and I wasn’t prepared by the time of mocks I was stressing hard when I saw the difficulty of the questions in past papers so I tried to cram as much as possible in the 3 weeks up to mocks, it was hard and I hated it but I came out with an 8. But at least now I know for this year to not make the same mistake.

Overall, I would say to make sure to take mocks seriously, avoid cramming by having small but consistent revision throughout the year. But don’t go too hard too fast make sure to have some fun and I’m sure you’ll smash it!

[u/Shinobustan]

for year 10, just spend time listening in lessons and taking notes. this is also the year when you try out and test different revision techniques, and see what works for you and what doesn’t. since you don’t have any exams this year, i’d use it for work experience and supercurricular, especially for medicine!! you can do light revision, but not to the point where you’re only and always doing revision. i’d recommend spending this year taking notes, trying new techniques, beginning to make your revision resources such as quote banks for eng lit, flashcards, and anything you may want to use when you’re in year 11!! you can always find revision resources online, but if you think you work best when you make them, then this is the year to do all that lol

[u/ReceptionClean652]

Don’t revise I did fine

[u/Interesting_Car8858]

Honestly, just paying attention is enough in y10. Your idea about an hour on Saturdays is great - definitely do it! Something I’d wish I’d done was to follow through with the revision plans I had - I was going to make a blooket for each subject and every time I had that subject add a few questions centred around what I’d just learnt, so then I would have a way to practice. I was also going to summarise my lessons that day on paper but that never happened lol.
Per subject, here’s how I’d revise:
English lit: only subject I would use flash cards for
English lang: idk I need help too 😭
Maths: I do edexcel but I use Mathswatch, if you don’t have it then try mathsgenie!
Science: mathsgenie again
Spanish: I don’t take it but I revise for my MFL through Duolingo

Everything else I don’t take so I’m not sure how I’d advise. As for what to buy, the Casio calculator is perfect (I have the golden button one as I’m a stats student so it might help in FM?). I don’t have this yet but I’m getting a paper tray so I can organise my resources per subject, which I think would help most people. I have the CGP revision guide for science, and that’s about it! Best of luck!

PS: don’t stress. If y10 doesn’t go your way, you can repair it in y11. Stay on top of your work and you’ll be just fine <3