Our GCSE Survival Guide science expert, Kit Betts-Masters, explains exactly what parents need to know about the science GCSEs and how to get prepared for revision early. Kit is Director of Learning Science at Abbeyfield School in Northampton, and the science teacher behind “Gorilla Physics”, a website and YouTube channel dedicated to helping students get the top grade in their exams.

For me, the biggest challenge in science education is convincing people that it’s okay to not understand every single thing. I truly believe that science is for everyone and can open so many doors for your future, but if you get bogged down struggling with one topic, you’ll forget to focus on how brilliant the subject is.

My advice to parents is to never accept the phrase ‘science just isn’t for me’. It may be difficult to keep promoting something to a student who claims not to be interested, but even though it can be difficult at times, it can also be one of the most rewarding subjects they are taught at this level. As a teacher, there’s nothing like seeing a student finally grasp a concept they’ve been struggling with and seeing them really grow in confidence. The key is to get them out of the ‘I don’t know’ mentality and keep them striving forward.

Where to start

So many revision sessions start by going back to the beginning or recapping the basics. This is simply the wrong approach. By the time you’ve revised for a couple of mocks throughout a year and made it to the final exams, you’re pointlessly going over the same content at the start of the textbook over and over again. You have to start where it’s hardest, where you’re struggling and on topics you don’t fully understand.

When a student finally grasps a concept they’ve struggled with, that is what gives them confidence, not repeating the same topics they feel most comfortable with. This process of starting with the hardest topics first is what helps students who are hovering around the 6-7 grade mark suddenly push up into those highest grades and really make progress.

Every school now legally has to post its curriculum on its website with a year by year, term by term breakdown of what is being covered and when. Ofsted are checking that this information is displayed so it should definitely be available and is a great way for parents to stay informed and up to date. 

Structure & Crunch Times

Year 9 is often a bit of a foundation year where students cover the foundations that allow them to understand the rest of the GCSE topics. This year will give them a good grip of the core concepts - things like energy in physics, reactions in chemistry, and cells in biology - these are all the building blocks for their learning over the next two years. The trouble with the science GCSE is there is so much content to cover and, depending how their department is organised, teachers can be trying to fit 3 years of content into year 10 and 11, which is why it is important to build a good knowledge base from year 9.

At the end of year 10 students will always face either half a gcse paper, some form of PPE or a mock exam, either way this is a very important time for them to be revising and working hard as it gives them a good indication of what’s to come in year 11. Most schools have two mocks in year 11, one around November or December and the other in March, and this is when they should be really knuckling down. 

While these crunch points are important, it is also crucial to not just focus on the ‘bigger’ mocks and exams. Paying attention to every single end of topic test and quiz can be the best way to really embed knowledge and give it the staying power it needs to reach the year 11 exams. All of these topic quizzes are really important to keep up good knowledge recall and summarise topics.

If students do two things right they will be: revising well for every end of topic test and learning how to improve on mistakes, and revising really well for mock exams. If they do both of those things from year 9 and always know where they can improve, then they’ll be doing everything they can to get the top grades.

Combined vs Triple Science

The triple science course means covering more content in the same time frame, which is why it isn’t always suitable for every student and some schools opt to have only their top classes studying for triple science. The content for combined science usually finishes around December and the rest of year 11 is spent consolidating their knowledge and building up to end of year assessments. 

Triple science students on the other hand still have a bit more to learn, so this eats into their revision time, which can mean it is harder to identify students’ strengths and weaknesses as they go along. Tools like Tassomai, with the Tree feature especially, can be even more helpful to these students as they have less time to reflect on their work at the end of the year.

Positive attitude

Try to ban phrases like ‘science isn’t for me’ or ‘I don't get it’ because that doesn’t help anyone. Once a student grasps the simple idea of keeping all variables the same and only changing one thing at a time in order to test its impact, they will be able to see how often that idea applies in their everyday life. Making any kind of decision based on evidence is essentially… science. 

Science is definitely seen as a trickier subject but I think it is also one of the most interesting. There are so many ‘wow moments’ and incredible things to learn about like how explosions work, stars, and how we came to be - I can’t stand students trying to tell me that it’s boring. The best thing students can do is to focus on how fascinating these topics are and not panic if they don’t fully understand them straight away. I’ve had so many students that started off by thinking ‘I’m really interested in this topic but I’m too thick to ever understand it’ and they’ve gone on to be really successful and do brilliantly in their exams because they were engaged and enthusiastic even when they thought they couldn’t do it.

There’s a route into science for everyone and if parents can find out what areas of science interest their children most and encourage them to explore it, it can lead to great things. Let’s not forget that there is a vast range of careers in science, most of them much better paid than average and any student is capable of getting there. If this is the sort of thing that would incentivise your child then have a look into science careers and see if you can inspire them that way.

Little and often 

Fitting science revision into their regular practice is a great way of making it seem less overwhelming. Start with areas they find the hardest - the red leaves on their Tassomai tree for instance - and work their way to the easier stuff that doesn’t need so much work. As they work on the stuff that they find the hardest, it will then become the easiest and all of the topics will reshuffle over and over until they are confident in almost everything. Knowing the facts is a great start but make sure they know how to apply their knowledge in other areas too so that they aren’t thrown off by unusual situations in assessment questions. 

Sit down with your child and make sure they’re really getting the topics they’re covering. Having a good mixture of reading, videos, and quizzing is great for keeping the momentum up and not allowing their knowledge to stagnate. Learning to recognise their weak spots and to pinpoint the moment when they start to understand for themselves is key to improving their metacognition and their skills for life beyond school. 

Mocks are a great time to check in with how your child is doing but they’re also learning experiences and students aren’t expected to know everything straight away. Some of the best learning you can do is learning from your mistakes. This process helps improve their self-analysis and to build their confidence over time through self-checking. This is exactly what Tassomai’s algorithm is doing for them: finding the gaps in their knowledge and bringing them back to their attention. 

Spirals

Most revision sessions take kids backwards to the beginning of a topic and this can sometimes do more harm than good. Students can come away more confused from rereading something than they were before, which is why I think it is always better to test your knowledge rather than try to spark it through going over something that might cause more confusion.

Getting stuck is a good thing! It creates room for discussion and problem solving. If a student comes to me and says they got really stuck on a topic over the weekend and spent ages on it, I think that’s much better than another student telling me they covered loads of topics. In the same way, I would far rather one tell me they’ve done 10 minutes of Tassomai instead of an hour of reading! It’s all about how much they are taking in when they revise and what breakthroughs they are making rather than how much is necessarily covered or read at a time.

Higher practice

The science community has really latched onto recall practice - and of course Tassomai is fantastic for this - but we need to remember the higher level thinking skills that get students the top marks as well, and that come from applying their knowledge. This is the bit that teachers should be best at helping with during their classes. 

If a student is struggling, the best resource they have is their teacher. No teacher I’ve met minds having students come to them for help - every teacher cares massively about their students and we all want to help as much as we can. We would far rather students came to us for help than struggle alone and get bad grades. Teachers truly want the best for their students and they aren’t the big, scary figures they can be made to seem. Parents, use this resource! Get in contact with your children’s teachers if they need a bit of extra help - you’ll almost certainly get the response you’re looking for. 

- Kit Bett-Masters

Read more from Kit in his blog post on ‘How Students Can Train Their Memory to Retrieve Facts Fast and Accurately’ here.