The GCSE Handbook to help you survive your GCSE
1. What are GCSEs
2. How to do well in your GCSEs while still finding time for yourself.
3. What happens after doing your GCSEs
4. How GCSE exam boards matter.
5. Choosing a secondary school to take your GCSEs
6. How better GCSE's give you greater opportunities.
7. Don't underestimate the GCSEs
8. Options after your GCSEs' university and a-Levels aren't for everyone.
GCSE's are free national examinations you take during years 10 to 11 at secondary school. GCSE are very important even if you don't want to go down an academic path, having GCSEs gives you more opportunities than those who don't have any, furthermore it's evident to employers that someone who has GCSEs made an effort to attain them and is therefore more "employable" depending on the job and employer of course.
The problem with GCSEs is that children have to take them at such a young age and really don't understand and can't really comprehend the importance of taking GCSEs exams and how much it could help them in the future, the fact the government has stopped termly retakes and has made the exams slightly harder is another huge blow for the millions of young student across the country who find they need to grow up quickly or be left behind by their fellows peers who are working hard to attain the best grades in their GCSE examinations.
So the real question is how can we get children taking their GCSE exams to understand it's importance while maintaining the understanding that it's not the end if you don't do amazing in your GCSEs but it can put you behind those who have performed better, there are countless examples or very successful people who don't have any GCSEs but still maintain a happy affluent lifestyle, it's important to note that this isn't the majority of people and most people who are doing well today have some sort of basic qualification in their portfolio. So the answer to the questions presented at the beginning is to get your child to read this article and maybe they'll have an understanding of the bigger picture.
How to do well in your GCSE's while still finding time for yourself
You can still do very well in your GCSEs while still finding time for yourself, if you revised for one hour a day up until 2 months before your exams you'll find you already know most of the content and you'll be able to take the exam two months before and pass with a decent grade, however it's understandable to achieve even an hours revision a day for many students is hard and some parents would say it's impossible for them to get their child to sit down and go through GCSE material for one or even two hours of the day, the time when parents could simply tell their children what to do seems to be a distant memory so many parents are seeking other ways to encourage their children to revise for their GCSE examinations.
You can try different methods to encourage your child to revise such as a reward system or incentive when they achieve good grades in their GCSE exams or homework, but still many parents offer this for their children and it still isn't enough.
Some parents try and find the best tutors for their child in an attempt to give them the best possible chance to do well however some children don't understand the privilege of having a private tutor or even the fact they are being given extra help outside of school hours so they don't do any extra GCSE revision of their own and ultimately the tuition isn't as helpful, it's important to note this isn't always the students fault, many tutors don't actually care about the students progression and due to the fact they are freelance tutors ( working for themselves) means that the work they do isn't regulated by anyone and they can easily charm parents with nice words and technical terms that most parents just go along and agree with.
So how can you do well in your GCSEs and still have the time to do what you want?
The first and most important step is really understanding the importance of GCSEs and understanding that these exams are the most important exams you'll take in your childhood, they are even more important than A-levels as not everyone has to take A-levels but everyone needs to take a GCSE, in addition to this if your intention is to finish studying after you've done your GCSEs and do something else or an apprenticeship then your GCSEs are very important as that will decide if you get onto the apprenticeship or program you want. In other words, nothing is more important than getting great GCSE results and it should be your primary goal to attain some good GCSE grades. Most children taking their GCSEs play PlayStation or X-Box for hours on end but won't spend an hour or two learning, this is the sad reality of the modern age and many parents are simply letting their children down by allowing them to decrease their attention span, by playing fast moving games for hours on end.
The answer is simple, an hour a day will give you the A* grade, then go and play the video games for hours, to get the most out of GCSE revision children need to understand that this is a genuinely important qualification that could possibly determine how their lives will go. Once a child understands this, they'll want to do well because they understand a small investment in their time will go a long way to giving them the lifestyle they desire when they're older, with a tightening job market and unstable economy GCSEs have never been more important.
What happens after doing your GCSEs
This all depends on your plans and what you've decided to do. For those who didn't manage to attain any GCSEs the two primary answers would be nothing or to start working, a secondary category would be to retake your GCSEs which I would say is the smartest option, the key thing is not to be in the position of having to retake however there is absolutely nothing wrong with trying again, often when people fail they find a new found focus that helps them perform better if they hadn't failed the first time.
For those children who went on to do well in their GCSEs, they not only have multiple job options that will allow them to move up the ranks working on an apprenticeship that could earn them a professional qualification but they could also go on to take A-Level at a sixth form or college and then go onto study at university. It's clear that after GCSEs some children are in front of other children with no GCSEs and the ones who worked hard to attain the best grades have much more opportunities.
How GCSE exam boards matter
GCSE exam board usually vary slightly in their difficulty however some schools choose very hard GCSE exam boards, this can an advantage or disadvantage depending on how you look it at however it's important to check what exam board a school uses for their GCSE students. iGCSE is harder then normal GCSE, you can also have extensions is exam boards such as OCR and OCR MEI, this goes for many other exam boards such as Edexcel and AQA also.
Choosing a secondary school to take your GCSEs
Choosing the right secondary school can make or break your child's education and many children want to go to their friends secondary school regardless of the schools academic progress, it's sad to say that there is such a thing as a bad school and a good school but due to lack of government funding and a huge lack of proper teachers in schools, we are seeing some schools with a very low pass rate and on closer inspection you find that these schools are simply teaching students how to pass exams and not giving them the understanding or teaching that the students need and deserve.
Evidently choosing a school for your child to take their GCSEs in is very important and can actually be the difference between a pass and a fail in their GCSEs as the school you choose will determine the quality of teaching they receive, their peer group and will shape your child into the man or women they will become.
Parents should take an active role in researching and selecting the school their child is going to be at for the next 5 to 7 years.
How better GCSEs give you more opportunities
To understand this concept and understand the importance of GCSE's we can give you a simple example.
John is the government with 100 jobs to give away, John awards all of these jobs to large companies who have tendered for the work. Lets say 50 of these jobs include anything to do with construction ( Which is a relatively high percentage) and the other 50 of these jobs is something that requires a professional skilled qualification.
Not the construction company only needs 100 workers, 10 technical jobs and 90 manual jobs but 300 have applied, due to the fact they only need 100 workers they shortlist 100 people who applied for only manual labour jobs as anyone strong enough can do this, if you don't have any GCSE qualifications then you'd fall into this category.
To make a long story short, we are simply trying to show you how much harder it can be when you don't have any qualifications as instead of companies seeing you as a asset they see you as a replaceable commodity as your doing a non-specialised job that most other people can do.
Don't underestimate your GCSEs
The days of being able to retake your GCSEs several times within the same year are over, meaning most GCSE students don't have the same advantage many of their peers before them had. Not only are exams harder but GCSE students are required to take them all in a short period of a month, this adds significant time pressure hence the one hours study a day suggestion.
