GCSE Physics Week 5 Exam Preparation Tips

Hello again. Gosh, I can’t believe we’ve arrived at the final blog post already! Haven’t the past five weeks just flown by? I hope you’re not feeling too nervous about your upcoming exams, but if you are don’t worry! Firstly, that is very understandable and secondly, in today’s blog post we will be running through exam techniques and advice to see you through it all smoothly.

Exam period healthy habits and daily routines

Now I doubt it will come as a surprise to you when I say that exam periods are very chaotic. For example, there is no regular structure for things even as simple as going to school every day because sometimes you will have exams in the afternoon. But it is super important that you still get up at the same time every day and have a strong routine in place regardless of whether you have to wake up or not. I recommend you have a little think and jot down what some perfect morning activities might look like for you during the exam period. A routine may look something like this:

7:30 – Wake up, brush your teeth and get dressed

8:00 - Breakfast

8:15 – Read through some relevant flashcards for exams ahead

8:30 – Leave for the exam at school or get coffee and start revising at home

Etc.

Now, onto some more exam technique-specific habits to practise and keep at the forefront of your mind when working in an exam hall.

Before the exam

First of all, you must try to avoid people that stress you out before entering the room. This could even mean your friends who speculate as to what is going to be on the paper or simply just don’t respect that you want to be calm and focused before starting. The best way is to either politely ask them or just avoid them. As mentioned previously, breathing exercises are also a great thing to do before exams to help you gain a more peaceful mind.

During the exam

Okay so you’re sat down, the paper is on the table in front of you, firstly you are going to want to locate your nearest clock to keep track of your time. I’m sure you’ve been told many times before you need to ration your time and the best way is minutes/marks. So for a 1hr30m paper with 100 marks you should be spending just under a minute (54 seconds) per mark, this was calculated by (90/100)*60. But don’t worry too much, I remember in one paper I once did I missed out a whole 12marker at the end and still got a very good grade because I had answered all the previous questions properly. Now I’m not recommending you forget about rationing your time, I just mean if worse comes to worst then it’s not the end of the world if you do not get everything completed.

Give the paper a quick scan before you begin, to get a birds’ eye view of its content. This will help you to subconsciously work on the topics and questions you are aware of coming up, which allows you to formulate more robust answers. The best thing I can recommend you for physics is, as you read through note down the unit of each variable above it in each question. Underline the important parts of each question, this could be the command word. Circle all your variables or if you have a highlighter then use that to help it stand out. For calculation questions, write out the equation in full and show as many steps as you can for the rearranging.

If you like mind maps it could be really helpful to sketch a simplified one from your revision wherever there is free space on the page. This allows an overview of a topic which can visually trigger your memory of the information you are trying to draw out.

How to overcome mental blocks

To clear the mind and gain some objectivity you first need to take some deep breaths, don’t worry that you can’t understand this particular question. Next, re-reading the question might trigger something to give you the “aha moment” you’re looking for, try to take it in slower this time. If you sketched your mind map somewhere, it is definitely worth reviewing that in case of another eureka moment that might occur. But if none of the previous steps have worked then it is worth moving on, so you don’t waste too much time stuck on one question. This does not mean you will never answer the question, it just means you’re giving your subconscious time to keep working on it while you answer the other questions and come back to it at the end.

Mindset and perspective

As mentioned last week, exams are not the end of the world! You have prepared so thoroughly and studied so hard that whatever you get will be a triumph and if not, your success lies down a different path, I promise you!

Best of luck with your exams and everything beyond.

Imogen

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