1 STUDY TIP for EVERY subject I ACED in my GCSEs 📚

Summary

In this video, the creator reflects on their journey through secondary school, highlighting the challenges of adapting to new subjects and environments. Despite the initial overwhelm, they achieved top grades across 11 subjects, including math, sciences, and languages, while balancing a YouTube channel and other activities. The creator shares strategies for effective studying, such as understanding core concepts, consistent revision, and leveraging tools like Quizlet. They also promote their 'Student Accelerator' program, offering further guidance for academic success.

Takeaways

• 🏫 The speaker started secondary school feeling overwhelmed by the number of new subjects.
• 🌐 Transitioning from primary to secondary school involved learning 11 subjects, including unfamiliar ones like Latin and music.
• 💯 Despite not being naturally gifted, the speaker achieved top grades across all subjects through hard work and effective study strategies.
• 📈 The speaker managed to excel academically while balancing a YouTube channel, gym workouts, sports, and playing musical instruments.
• 🔢 In Maths, the speaker leveraged their strength in additional Maths to make IGCSE Maths easier and relied on understanding core concepts.
• 🧪 For Sciences, the speaker used consistent revision, past papers, and focused on weaknesses to improve their performance.
• 📚 The speaker's English proficiency was built on a foundation of reading and mastering essay structures.
• 📈 History was a challenging subject for the speaker, but they overcame it through extensive revision, model answers, and immersion.
• 🇫🇷 French was improved through immersion, vocabulary practice, and using idioms and level 9 phrases to sound more proficient.
• 🎵 For Music and Latin, memorization techniques and frequent revision were key to achieving top grades.

Q & A

How many subjects did the speaker have to take for their GCSEs?

The speaker had to take 11 subjects for their GCSEs.

What was the speaker's initial reaction to starting secondary school?

The speaker felt lost, scared, and overwhelmed by the unfamiliar environment and the number of new subjects.

What was the grading system for GCSEs mentioned in the script?

The grading system for GCSEs was distributed by a bell curve, with grade 9 being at the far end of the curve.

How did the speaker manage to achieve high grades while maintaining a YouTube channel and other activities?

The speaker had to become creative and find ways to study in less time due to limited availability.

What was the speaker's strategy for achieving high marks in Maths?

The speaker was naturally strong in Maths, took additional Maths, and did every single past paper to predict the type of questions that would come up.

What was the speaker's approach to studying for the Sciences?

The speaker revised consistently, wrote down the entire specification, and focused on their weaknesses by doing past papers.

How did the speaker improve their French language skills?

The speaker immersed themselves in the language by using it in daily life, listening to French songs, playing games in French, and even going to France for an exchange trip.

What was the speaker's attitude towards History before they started their GCSEs?

The speaker initially hated History and had a low enthusiasm for the subject.

What was the speaker's method for improving in English Literature?

The speaker read consistently since a young age, got familiar with essay structures, and wrote skeleton essays for every possible question.

What was the speaker's advice for students who want to excel in their studies?

The speaker recommended checking out their program 'Student Accelerator' for guidance on becoming the best student possible.

How did the speaker deal with the challenge of Additional Maths, which was considered the hardest GCSE?

The speaker focused on understanding the basics thoroughly and ensuring they knew each step of the process.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Overcoming Challenges in Secondary School

The speaker reflects on their first day of secondary school, feeling overwhelmed by the new environment and the multitude of subjects they had to learn, including GCSEs in maths, English, biology, chemistry, physics, French, history, Latin, music, and additional maths. They recount their journey from barely being able to speak English to achieving perfect grades in all subjects, despite the additional challenges of maintaining a YouTube channel, going to the gym, and playing sports. The speaker emphasizes that their success was not due to being special or gifted but rather through hard work and creativity in finding efficient study methods.

05:02

🧠 Strategies for Excelling in Maths and Sciences

The speaker shares their strategies for achieving high marks in maths and sciences. They discuss how their strength in maths and taking additional maths made IGCSE maths easier. They also reveal their approach to biology, chemistry, and physics, which involved consistent revision, identifying weaknesses, and using past papers to predict exam questions. The speaker suggests that understanding the fundamentals is crucial for success in maths and that for sciences, regular and frequent revision, as well as focusing on past mistakes, are key to improvement.

10:03

📖 Mastering English and History Through Immersion and Practice

The speaker discusses their experience with English literature and history, highlighting the importance of reading and essay writing for English. They mention their disappointment with their English results despite their passion for the subject and their strategy of reading multiple times to understand the literature deeply. For history, they recount their struggle and eventual success through intense revision, including writing model answers, engaging with a vast amount of historical content, and using memorization techniques. They also touch upon their experience with French, emphasizing the value of immersion and vocabulary acquisition for language learning.

🎵 Achieving Top Grades in Music and Latin Through Memorization

The speaker briefly discusses their approach to music and Latin, two subjects they were confident about achieving top grades in. They suggest that for music, memorizing a specific table and for Latin, focusing on vocabulary and set texts using memorization techniques such as multi-sensory learning and spaced repetition were effective strategies. The speaker also mentions additional maths, acknowledging its difficulty and recommending a strong focus on understanding the basics for those who choose to take it.

Keywords

💡Secondary School

Secondary school refers to the educational stage following primary education, typically for students between the ages of 11 and 18. In the video script, the speaker reflects on their first day at secondary school, describing the unfamiliar environment and the overwhelming number of new subjects they had to learn, which is a common experience for many students transitioning to this level of education.

💡GCSE

GCSE stands for General Certificate of Secondary Education, which is a key qualification in the UK education system for students at the end of their secondary education. The script mentions achieving top grades in 11 GCSE subjects, emphasizing the speaker's academic success and the rigorous nature of the exams.

💡YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing platform where users can upload, share, and view videos. The speaker mentions posting on YouTube twice a week, highlighting the balance they had to strike between creating content and maintaining their academic performance, which is an example of multitasking and time management.

💡Productivity

Productivity refers to the efficiency of an individual's work. The script alludes to the speaker's productivity systems, which likely involve strategies for managing time and tasks to achieve more in less time, a key theme for students and content creators alike.

💡Mock Exams

Mock exams are practice examinations that simulate the conditions of actual exams. The speaker discusses their performance in mock exams, which served as a gauge for their preparation and a motivator to improve before the real GCSE exams.

💡Revision

Revision is the process of reviewing and practicing material previously learned to reinforce understanding and retention. The script frequently mentions revision strategies, such as focusing on weaknesses and using past papers, which are crucial for exam preparation.

💡Past Papers

Past papers are previous years' exam questions and answers. The speaker emphasizes doing every single year's past papers to predict question patterns, which is a common strategy for familiarizing oneself with exam formats and improving performance.

💡Student Accelerator

Student Accelerator is a program mentioned by the speaker designed to help students optimize their study habits and achieve better grades. It is an example of the resources available to students looking to enhance their academic performance.

💡Immersion

Immersion refers to the process of submerging oneself in an environment where the language or subject of study is used exclusively. The speaker talks about using immersion techniques to learn French, such as changing the language settings in video games and listening to French music, which helped improve their language skills.

💡Memorization Techniques

Memorization techniques are methods used to improve the ability to remember information. The script mentions using techniques like creating PowerPoints with drawings for multisensory learning, which is a strategy to aid in memorizing vocabulary and facts, particularly for subjects like Latin and music.

💡Additional Maths

Additional Maths is a subject that goes beyond the standard curriculum, often covering more advanced topics. The speaker found it to be the most challenging GCSE, indicating the subject's depth and the high level of mathematical understanding required.

Highlights

The speaker recalls feeling overwhelmed on their first day of secondary school due to the unfamiliar environment and new subjects.

They had to learn 11 subjects in secondary school, including some they were not aware of in primary school.

The speaker achieved perfect grades in all subjects despite the challenges, emphasizing it was not due to being special or gifted.

They managed to balance academics with a YouTube channel, gym, sports, and playing instruments.

For Maths, the speaker relied on understanding fundamentals and practicing past papers to predict exam questions.

Biology, Chemistry, and Physics were grouped together as sciences, with the speaker achieving high marks through consistent revision and past paper practice.

The speaker admits to disliking sciences initially but managed to improve by focusing on weaknesses and using past papers to guide revision.

For English, the speaker emphasizes the importance of reading, essay writing, and familiarizing oneself with essay structures.

They read their English literature book multiple times to ensure deep understanding of the text.

History was a challenging subject for the speaker, but they overcame it through extensive revision and immersion in the subject matter.

French was another difficult subject, but the speaker improved by immersion and focusing on vocabulary and idioms.

For Latin and Music, the speaker used memorization techniques and spaced repetition to achieve high marks.

Additional Maths was the most challenging subject, and the speaker advises focusing on understanding the basics.

The speaker recommends their 'Student Accelerator' program for students seeking guidance on studying and time management.

They encourage viewers to check out their other videos for more detailed study tips and strategies.

Transcripts

I still remember my first day of

secondary school I joined and it was an

unfamiliar environment I felt lost and

scared and the worst part of it all was

that I had to start learning subjects

that I didn't even know existed and

everything was just so so

overwhelming in primary school the only

subjects that I had learned were maths

English and topic which was a

combination of like history geography

and like all the other Humanities and by

the end of like the sixth primary school

years I had barely just learn how to

speak English to like a conversation

level osar

and now I was told that I had to take 11

subjects for GCS maths English biology

chemistry physics French history Latin

music and additional maths it was tough

and there were highs and lows but before

I knew it my secondary school chapter of

my life was over and all that was left

was an envelope and in that envelope was

a set of perfect grades the grades for

gcss get distributed by a bell curve

like this with a grade n being at like

the far end of the bell curve right here

and I did this for every single subject

11 times the same subject that I didn't

even know existed at the start of

secondary school and I don't say this to

BR because by no means was I special I

know people who got better results than

me and then by no means was I gifted

either I still believe that anyone can

do it but there is something that worthy

of Praise in all of this and it's the

fact that I got these results while

still posting twice a week on YouTube

and making videos is a lot tougher than

you might think I still went to the gym

on most days I did it while I still

played Sports

kickboxing playing the instruments while

having

fun and so anyway enough yapping here's

how I got the results that I did for

each of the subjects and since I was so

limited on time I had to become creative

and find ways to study in less amount of

time so feel free to skip around and

I'll show you the exam board that I did

the Mark I got what a nine was and my

personal difficulty raisting for each

other subjects I took and so let's start

with the first subject XXL IG

SFS and so a nine for this subject was

163 marks out of 200 or 81% and I got

197 marks out 200 which was

98.5% and the difficult raising for

maths was this for me I've never been

gifted but I've always been kind of

strong at maths and also since I took

additional maths as one of my extra gcss

which was like maths but really hard

normal maths like igcs math just became

kind of easy and so for my like actual

gcsc exams this was one of the subjects

that I barely did any revision at

because I had to use that time for other

subjects because some of the subjects

were very very difficult for me to get a

night and to be honest I do think that

like I got lucky in the sense that the

papers are really really easy I could

have easily got full marks on this exam

and it was just like one question that

like I made a mistake on and I still

know what that question is and here's

how I got these results during school

time if I didn't understand a topic

which would come up quite frequently I

would always teams message my math

teacher and I'm grateful she'd always

reply and walk me through a problem even

though I was probably really annoying

her and so my tip for Matt is to always

understand why Sunny is sunny and don't

let sunning that you don't know like

Maring like just don't skip over your

weaknesses and think like I'll come back

to it later because when you learn more

things in maths when you learn more

advanced topics they all stack on top of

your fundamentals like it all relies on

you you knowing how to do like basic

problems so if you don't strengthen like

your foundations or like any type of

like problem the cracks will begin to

show and I did like every single year

past paper so I was able to predict what

type of questions will come up so for

example I knew in paper 2 mats I knew

that the last couple of questions would

always be like a sequence question a

vector question and some like cylender

volume type of question and so I was

able to prepare for that before I go on

to my other subjects if you want to know

exactly what I did the steps I took in

all regards of being a student how I

manage my time productivity systems I

used mindsets I had and even personal

resources that I was able to use to get

these grades you should check out

student accelerator which is my program

for students helping them become the

best student that they can be and me and

experts will help guide you into

becoming the student of your dreams and

if this interests you make sure to click

the first link in the description but

more about that

later all right and next I'll group

together biology physics and chemistry

as the

Sciences I'll group them together

because I actually got really really

similar marks for all of them so again I

did igcs at XL for all of them and the

exams for scientists were all out of 180

because the paper w and paper 2 and I

got 158 155 and 152 out of 180

respectively for Bio chem and physics so

they were all in the high 80% and the

grade n was around 141 for all three

around 78% the difficulty for each of

these for biology I'll say it's this for

chemistry this and for physics this as

you can see for me biology was always

just the easiest and chemistry and

physics were much more difficult and

also I decided like early 11 that I

hated the scientist I ruled out medicine

and and so like my enthusiasm for

Sciences kind of died down and so that

kind of explains the kind of lower marks

but that doesn't mean I didn't revise

because to be quite honest Sciences took

up like so much of my time probably the

second out of like all the subjects I

took I had done revision consistently

for these subjects since mock remember

little but often is always key for AEV

Vision but there was also a lot of

cramming involved the way I revised of

these subjects to get these results was

I revised of the specification I would

write down the entire spec as you can

see for all three of the subjects and

then I'd marked down which was my

strengths and which were my weaknesses

and I knew this by doing loads of the

past papers and writing down like the

mistakes I tended to make in notion that

way I literally had a bank of like all

the mistakes and my weaknesses and I

knew I had to just work on those and so

I just draw those again and again and

again and I also remember for the

2-month exam period I was always on

Quizlet on the bus like Quizlet on the

toilet like quiz I'd search up like for

example IGI biology paper one on quizl

and there'll be set other people have me

covering like the core like points that

you need to learn for the exam and so

just by like being able to do space

repetition and activ revising by doing

flash cards probably ended up getting me

a lot more marks just Spam all the past

papers that you have available and don't

neglect

mistakes the next subject is

English so IGCSE English literature I

got 139 out of 150 and the language Mark

actually wasn't shown but I bumped into

like my English teacher in front of my

gym and he said I did really well so

I'll take his word for him difficulty

for both this and to be honest I was

kind of disappointed with my English

mark because English has always been my

40 and in my mock I actually got 95% and

97% respectively for English language

and literature and now that gone down to

93% although like it may seem like I'm

being annoying like I'm arguing about

like the couple of like perets in the

'90s because IID always got that like it

did kind of suck but to be honest I did

no revision so what did I expect a nine

was 67% for English language and 80% for

English literature so I ended up

clearing those and the way I did that so

my tip for English is I just got really

friendly with words I always liked

reading from a young age and so I

consistently read since my 11 plus and

that ended up helping me a lot and also

I got really good at essay writing a tip

I have is to get really familiar with

English essay structures and understand

like what kind of like structures and

like analysis uh writers like and that

will get me loads of loads of Mark

because it's really clear concise and it

makes sure it TT all the boxes so using

this I also wrote skeleton essays for

every single 12 marker possible and kind

of just memorize them so that it was so

simple and easy also writing YouTube

scripts in my free time definitely

helped out a lot and I also ended up

reading my English literature book which

was Things Fall Apart like three times

so just make sure you really know the

text and poems and you'll be good for

English and the next one history IG sesi

and actually this one wasn't Ed XL this

was ciee like I don't know what it

stands for but yeah history cie IG SSI

the difficulty for this is this boy do I

have beef with history I actually ended

up getting a seven in my mock like I've

never publicly announced this before and

it's like covered up a lot of times but

I just hated history so so much OG

viewers will know that my mom forced me

to take this subject and although it was

interesting I was just like always kind

of [ __ ] at it I genuinely think like 99%

of the amount of revision I did for gs's

all went into history and the thing is

like throughout the year I'd randomly

get like 9 but then also randomly get

like sixes and it was just so

inconsistent which made me really

nervous because like this might be the

one subject that brings my entire GCS

grades down and so as much as I hated it

I knew I had to like lock in get a good

result because imagine I'd be like the

study YouTuber who got like 10 NES but a

seven like that just could not happen

like straight nines I had to get and so

this year I needed 113 out of 150 to get

a N9 for history which was so high that

was a 10% increase in Gray boundaries

from last year but I clutched up and I

got 85% which was 10% higher than what I

needed for a night and so that actually

that was the biggest plot twist and the

way I got good at history is actually

like a combination of love things part

of it was just brute forcing after

learning each topic I would watch little

summaries on YouTube about like every

topic I wrote down model answers for

literally every single possible Topic in

the spec and then when our school gave

us this like 100,000 Word document of

like every single question by it I did

most of them and I even had a onetoone

session with my teacher during study Le

history I just had to read the textbook

I really really get into like the

details and it felt so so like endless

like I'd read about like the Munich p

and then I realized that there was like

so much about that in itself that there

are like many events that I needed to

know inside out if I really wanted to

get a top top Mark and so that basically

ended up with me like sticking like

dates and about like history on the wall

and like just always looking at like

history dates doing flash cards on

Quizlet Etc because I was just exposing

myself to as much history as possible

hoping that I pick it up and it actually

ended up working I started to draw like

the spiderweb diagram in my mind and I

saw how everything was kind of

interconnected and once you see like the

interconnection especially with history

that's when it starts to make sense and

also having the questions by topic and

being able to do that really really

helped but to be honest I got really

lucky with the exam questions this year

because they were quite easy compared to

the previous year examples and so

there's that as well but thank God I'll

never have to do history

again next is IG sesy French also at

XL I needed 134 out of 160 and after

history this was the subject I was

worried about the most cuz I knew it was

tough these are really high grade

boundaries but I actually surprised

myself and I ended up getting 144 out of

160 only dropping 60 marks this was the

best I had ever done in a French test

period like during my school career so I

was actually really shocked most of my

peers either had parents that like could

speak French or had been learning French

all the way from primary

school so I was disadvantaged and I knew

I had to lock in the way I got such good

results for French was in two ways the

first was immersion when I was on the

bus or train I just randomly like look

outside the window I see trees and I

asked myself okay what's that in French

and I just like keep on immersing myself

and like trying to ask myself like

random pieces of French vocabulary

wherever I went I listened to French

songs I played valerant with the

language set as French I even went to

France for a week for an exchange trip

and I'm not saying that's necessary I'm

just showing you the extent I went to to

immerse myself in French and it will

really did help also for French a really

practical tip is that it's 90 80% just

vocabulary learn vocabs sets and

although it's really really boring just

grind these out just do like 10 20

French words a day do your bucking vocab

if you don't do your bucking vocab and

we lose the vocab Bowl I kill the dog

and you won't regret it because when

you're good at vocab you're able to

understand it when you when you hear it

and you're listening you're able to use

a wider range of vocabulary when you're

speaking you're able to understand what

vocabulary means when you're reading

which is literally the entire point of

reading right you're able to spice up

your writing you're covering all four

bases of the French examle also idioms

and level 9 phrases are your best friend

I made a set of like these 30 phrases

that I just memorize and I put

everywhere in my writing my speaking and

it made me sound so Pro and like when my

examiner asked me like what's your

favorite food and I could say like uh

it's actually sushi but it cost an arm

and a leg which is such a shame like

when I could say that

like okay don't put that in no French um

yeah it made me sound pro when I wasn't

and it's a really good way to spice it

up languages are hard to cry make sure

to do little

often and lastly Latin and music are

group together because I know a lot of

my viewers probably won't do these

subjects but I'll still briefly talk

about them the difficulty for both of

these were this and to be completely

honest I knew I was getting a nine for

both of these subjects and so I really

did not revise for this to make time for

Sciences French and history and so for

these subjects I just recommend like

since it's literally like these both of

these are just memorization based

subject for music I just memorized this

table that I made and for Latin I just

memorized the vocabulary and the set

text by using like memorization

techniques such as like making

PowerPoints with like drawings multi

Sensory Learning and just like looking

at them little but often to use to like

space repetition that what I did to get

a nine in these

subjects and additional Mass was

probably the hardest GSC that I took it

was really really difficult it's

basically like half of the A- level

course for Math and the difficulty

obviously will be this but um since like

I know like very very few people will do

do this um the only tip I can have is

the same for Mk basically just get down

to the gritty gritty no just get down to

the basics and make sure like when you

don't understand a topic watch video

walkthroughs read the mark scheme and

get to know each and every step and know

where you went wrong and anyway if you

got this far I wish you luck I really

recommend you check out my other videos

because although like I briefly talked

about one tip for each thing there's so

much to studying there's memorization

there's like note taking flash cards

like what technique should you even use

and I feel like I do a good job in

explaining all of these and you know

it's backed up by my results and so if

you're new here I'm looking forward to

seeing you around and make sure to take

AC in what you learn today if you want

the most amount of help and you really

want to like cement yourself in like the

top of the top for the students you want

to get into that echon of like eliteness

make sure to check out your T Ser

because it really really is valuable so

you can find out more about that with

the first l in the description as always

I'll see you in the next

one Bang