GCSE Maths Week 5 Exam Preparation Tips

OMGOSH!! DON’T PANIC BUT EXAMS ARE NEARLY HERE – EEEEEEEK!

Or maybe you’ve already started and have already experienced what GCSEs are like and now, looking forwards to your maths one, are feeling even more panicked. But stop hyperventilating and breathe.

I may have already shared this with you but: you didn’t come this far, just to come this far! Nor did you come this far with all the work you’ve done to let your anxiety and stress get the better of you! You’ve done the hard work; you’ve put in the time and now, it’s time to show that to the examiner.

So, in my final blog post to you guys (it feels like we’ve been exchanging letters, though you never seem to write back… rude), I’m going to talk about how you can get yourself in the right mindset and space for exams and look after yourself during this exam season.

I’ve not left just quite yet calm down; I’ve got more tips to give you first.

How to Ace Exams Period

1. Keep doing the thing you love

This one is quite simple – keep doing what you love! Often during exam season, people decide they are going to turn into a human who wakes up, studies, sleeps, uses the toilet, eats and nothing else. If your exams are all crammed into one week, fine maybe this makes sense. However, for the majority of us, our exams will be spread out over a few weeks – it’s not sustainable to lock yourself up forever just doing work, and even if it’s for 6 weeks not forever,– it’s not healthy OR sustainable. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you should go partying each night of exams but keep the things you love, still go to football training even if it’s less regularly than in none-exams season, still practice the piano, still dance to K-pop, still see your friends. Essentially don’t put your life on hold for exams. Even if you decide not to do anything during the week, try to plan at least one nice thing for yourself each weekend, whether that’s a nice walk, catching up with a friend, watching a film etc. Trust me, it’ll help you keep pushing through whilst helping your brain relax and thus be more productive when you come to revise and sit your exam papers.

2. Consistently get a good night’s sleep

Notice how the word consistently is underlined here. Some people will get 6 hours of sleep every night and then try to get 8 hours the night before an exam to help them feel rested. Though I’d rather you get 8 hours the night before than not at all, I’d much much rather you get 8 hours+ of sleep consistently in this exam period (and in life to be honest xoxo). It may not be possible every day, but do try to prioritise it. It gives your brain more time to process your day, thus allowing it to store more of the revision you have done and feel rested and ready to take on more information the next day.

3. Figure out what works best to manage your stress

Maybe it’s talking to parents or friends about how you’re feeling, maybe it’s doing some mindfulness, maybe it’s blasting music and jumping up and down or putting on chill music, lying down and listening to it; whatever it is that makes you feel less stressed – do it. Of course, we want to deal with the root causes of our stress (make a to-do list, actually do the work etc), but sometimes we just need something to deal with the stress or anxiety there and then. Try to figure out what this is, though you may not be experiencing stress now, it’s likely that at some point during this exam season you will, and you want to know what works for you straight away so you can manage your stress levels and avoid freaking out.

4. Get an exam night/morning routine

This one is super important and super useful! Get yourself an exam night (or morning) routine. By this I mean include things such as:

The night before

o Double-check the time and subject of the exam

o Pack your bag with everything you need the night before

o Sort out your clothes

o Do something that relaxes you (warm bath, mindfulness, listening to music, going on a walk etc)

o Decide what you’ll have for breakfast in the morning

o Ensure you get to bed early

The morning of

o Eat breakfast

o Double-check that you have everything you need

o Leave the house with more than enough time to get to school/the exam centre

Doing things like this, including preparing the night before and ensuring you have enough time to get to school, helps with things such as decision fatigue (when you can’t make any more decisions because you’ve made too many or are too stressed) and general stress because you know you are prepared with all you need and are where you need to be at the right time. As Scar from the Lion King sings – Be Prepared! (If you’ve not watched it you need to get on that asap!)

5. Exam day tips

Here are some of my top tips for the actual exam day.

· Avoid people that (can) stress you out – Some people like to ask you questions about things you don’t need to know, pretend to have not done a lot of revision when you know for a fact, they started studying last September and/or are just generally annoying or stress-inducing. Try to avoid these people, you need to focus on yourself and keeping a good mindset.

· Repeat affirmations to yourself – I’m a big advocate of affirmations! And feel free to use them every day, not just on the exam day. Sometimes you may not be feeling the most confident and maybe a little anxiety-ridden, maybe you can’t change that, but you can ‘fake it till you make it.’ Tell yourself ‘I am able, I have prepared, I am confident, and I will do amazing’. You may not believe it at first but after time you may find it boosts your confidence.

· Use the toilet before the exam – A very practical tip! I remember sitting in a paper that was 2hr 30minutes long and needing the toilet 30 minutes in but not wanting to go as I didn’t want to waste time. By 1hr 30 in I had to ask to go, but then became so stressed about the time I had spent going to the toilet. Obviously, if you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go, but going to the toilet before the exam will help minimise the risk of that happening meaning you don’t lose any precious minutes!

· Remember – minutes/marks! – Don’t spend too long on each question. To find out how long you should be spending on average per mark do minutes/marks. E.g., 2 hrs (120 minutes for 100 marks = 120/100, so roughly 1 minute per mark.

· If you get to a question you don’t know, move on! – If you get to a question you don’t know, take a breath, re-read it, write down anything you think is relevant and move on. If you’ve got time, you can come back to it later, if not at least you wrote something down! However, even if you can’t write anything down, the most important thing is that you don’t let it knock you off course, just leave it at the back of your mind and keep going – you’ve got this.

· Once you’re done – celebrate and treat yourself! – The ‘treat yourself’ will look different depending on when your next exam is and how much you need to study (for example if you have 2 exams in one day, maybe wait till the end of the day of the exam to celebrate and treat yourself) but at least at the end of each day, celebrate! Exams aren’t easy in terms of both content and managing stress - so celebrate! Maybe you can treat yourself by giving yourself a nap before you start revising for papers you have the next day or by going out for ice cream if it’s the end of the week or by having an hour on the PlayStation if you have a few days before your next exam. Each exam is its own hurdle, so celebrate yourself for getting through it.

And that’s it! It’s been an absolute pleasure walking you through your Mathematics GCSE preparation over the last 5 blog posts – I hope they’ve been helpful! All that remains now is to wish you the very best of luck with your GCSEs, you’ll smash it. Remember, you’re AMAZING!

Have any questions about how to prepare for your GCSE exams? Having problems with any hard to understand content or tricky past exam questions? Then ask Seyi. Seyi will be hosting a series of Q&A webinars in the 2 weeks before final exams. Post your questiogcsemathswk3ns here, and Seyi will answer them in these sessions.