Maximizing A+ with just days to go

The IGCSE exam schedule will often have 2 completely different subjects on the same day. Given that a student is tested on 2 years worth of study material that often spans 2 - 3 books and workbooks, you need a clear plan on how to tackle your last few days and the last day specifically, to avoid getting overwhelmed despite the best possible preparation.

The actual schedules are shared at least 6 months in advance and many schools even model their pre-boards on the basis of these to create their own exam schedule. This gives you a great opportunity to test your plan as well.

For me the last day(s) study revolved around sitting with a print out of the syllabus sheets and marking off topics and revisiting anything that I may have starred or had difficulty with earlier. The goal was to mentally consolidate all the sections that I was confident with before I gave another shot to the 20% that I was never completely happy with. I also used Exam Mate for past paper practice and used the last day to revise all the questions that I had starred / marked to come back to.

For those of you who are able to make notes, that would be the best option - I suggest a very short concise version for the end; otherwise, you could check out ZNotes that I found pretty useful for science subjects for the last few hours though Savemyexams is much better if you have some time on hand. For Economics, TutorsInc turned out to be a godsend to help me frame my answers which I really struggled with due to my Dysgraphia.

( I used the unpaid / free versions for all except Exam mate)

Overview of Study Methodology

Each person studies differently but I prefer having some background understanding of the topic - its context in the world or how it links to what I already know before I am able to understand it well and it "sticks" a lot better. I also believe that exam based studying does take a lot of the fun out of learning. Thankfully, as part of my MYP curriculum, till Grade 8 we had no set textbooks and had research based study around topic statements. This allowed me to spend time really finding some great websites that were fun and informative.

There is a post in the Resources section which contains a list of websites which I used while studying and preparing for my 9/10th class exams.

Study Plan

With 9 subjects, several resources within each, school work, past paper preparation and of course school tests, I feel that the IGCSE board preparation is as much about the process of exam preparation as it is about actually understanding a subject. This is how I did it - please make adjustments based on what your weak/strong subjects are.

My logic was that for me, Maths, Economics and Physics demand a lot of room and tend to get very overwhelming if left to the end while Chemistry, Biology and English can be squeezed into smaller slots plus need a lot more revision closer to the exam.

1. Past Papers : It’s a great idea to solve chapter wise past papers after completing each chapter. Test papers give you a great understanding of the question pattern and even guide you in what to study. While mornings are always a good time to do these, you can also start scheduling these in the relevant time slot once the exam schedule is out. I used Physics and Maths tutor as well as Exam mate for both chapter wise as well as final past papers.

2. Syllabus Sheet : Our school recommended at least 2 books per subject plus I had a lot of used workbooks and reference books from a friend. While I used a combination for study, I finally tried to make sure that I had covered everything on the syllabus sheet under that topic. (Tip - Star sections that you want to come back to or memorise on the sheet so that its your BIBLE closer to the exam). Please make sure to print 2 copies each for all syllabus sheets which you can find under each relevant subject like here.

3. School worksheets : While answer schemes are available, the actual corrections made by your teachers especially in FLE and Literature provide a world of clarity on where you need to improve. Just going over past answer sheets gave me a very good idea of not just the topics but even the type of mistakes I was making. (For me this included reading numbers incorrectly, missing sub parts of the question as well as writing one long sentence instead of making 3 clear points for a 3 marker) . Try to avoid the last month rush in which all the children will be sending their sheets to your teacher and she may not be able to give you the time you need.

4. Group Study : On account of taking Additional Maths, I somehow ended up with a set of 11 friends that were reasonably serious about their studies without my handicaps. They were of immense help not just for solving doubts but helping me stay on track or not stay down for too long when I felt I could not cope. We also had a chat group on Microsoft Teams which approximated the best of what group study could offer - I would make it a point to periodically check the doubts that the class was posting to check my own progress.

5. Other Support : This could be teachers, parents, tutors etc. Everyone responds differently and you are free to pick your own form of torture (or not). I was grateful for a Maths Tutor (Thank You Ravi Sir) as part of my home stretch preparation - a gentlemen who was not just good with teaching but also invested enough in my success to say what was needed when I was slacking off.

Reference the actual text books, I never did complete the Bio or Chemistry and did only one each for Physics and Economics. I did not do workbooks for any except Additional Maths. I am not advising this as I used to read a lot of reference books that I found more interesting and covered the syllabus sheet in its entirety even memorising certain parts of it (there are a lot of definitions included in it). I was also really bad at taking down notes so I did rely heavily on third party resources for revision.

I did not do a lot of preparation for Computer Science, English and Hindi except a lot of past papers towards the end . We did have excellent teachers for each subject so between the classes and HW most of the syllabus was completed anyway.

Revision

A lot of kids in my class did one hour per subject per day but I kind of found it hard to switch once I had picked up momentum so in a 7 day week, I tried to give one subject one day with weekends mostly going to Physics and Maths. Language study was mostly HW based which I usually completed just in time (and this got reflected in my grades :-). I wasn’t diagnosed till Nov 2022, so I was struggling and didn’t see the results however hard I tried so I guess I just kind of gave up.

My biggest challenge was not so much creating or sticking to a plan but to adjust and adapt when a school review or homework was also competing for my attention. I often argued with my mom on the utility of plans in the face of such disruption but I think its best to have some kind of plan so you know how much you are lagging and how best to make up.

Biggest Challenges

• Motivation

Frankly I continue to find this hard. I think I was just as ok with an A and sometimes even with a B instead of wanting to strive for “the best score I could get”. I honestly don't think exam scores grade ability or competence - they just rank a student’s ability to regurgitate and package information in the specific format that the board expects. In this respect IGCSE is no different. A person a lot smarter than me, without the specific knowhow of PEAL paragraphs or knowing that 3 markers need 3 separate points will never be able to outscore me no matter what. So please DO NOT JUDGE YOURSELF BY YOUR PAST OR FUTURE MARKS. I don't.

• Staying the Course

IGCSE is a 2 year program and the questions often cover more than 2 or three topics in the same question. This means that you cannot afford to miss or have gaps in even one section as it will impact another section’s scores. Also a lot of the concepts within sciences overlapped and merged at many points which kind of created a nice picture at the end. A picture that you would miss if you left any pieces of the puzzle. Since grade thresholds allow you to get A pluses even at 80 and around, there may be a tendency to think that you can "let some sections go." Don't do that. Priortize the memorizing bit but conceptually cover all.

• Focus

During Covid, I felt a lot of the learning needed to be self-driven. I have found that to be the case even post Covid. Teachers need to pace the material for a wide group. This means they are either going too fast or too slow and very very rarely at the speed at which I need them to be. I expect that to be the case with everyone. For me the only way that this works is when I am able to implement some pre-prep work BEFORE I come to class. I have found just skimming a topic for even 30 minutes before a class to be a super useful hack for staying more focused in class.

I hope you found this useful. Ultimately, you will have to find your own way but I think that some of the points I have mentioned will be part of most plans.