Case study

GCSE Student Jessica Arnold is in the first year group to take exams graded 1-9 instead of letters. She says the new exam style has teachers and students in the dark about what grade boundaries will be. “Exam questions are a good way for me to put revision into practise, but there aren’t many for the ‘new’ exams, so it’s been a bit of a struggle.” Jessica is taking exams in French, History, Geography and P.E on top of compulsary subjects.

As a national synchronised swimmer, Jessica has had to prioritise her revision over the sport she loves. She said: “It has been quite hard to balance training and revision. “National Championships were at the end of April, so before that, I was training at least 5 times a week at the pool, and fitting in revision before sessions and on my nights off.” Jessica makes flash cards for subjects such as history and geography. Her wall is covered with timelines and case studies. Jessica said: “There is so much support available on the Internet, and I find the YouTube channels of ‘mrbruff ’ and ‘freesciencelessons’ really useful to take notes from.

The 16-year old sees breaks as an important way of switching off for a while. On weekends she tries to take breaks every hour.

“If I am really into the revision and don’t want to loose my train of thought, I won’t take a break because I will just lose motivation.”