GCSE Exam Stress?
Here’s the Harefield Practice GCSE 5-Step Guide
to a Stress Free (or stress-reduced) exam experience…
Exams… Arghhhhhh!
First things first, exams can be stressful. Its normal to feel stressed and its very common to feel very stressed.
This guide is here to help you reduce that stress but if you are struggling, come and see us in the surgery. We can help.
GCSE Students are of an age where you can come with an adult (for example a parent) or you can come by yourself, whichever you prefer.
We can offer appointments (in a GP surgery appointments are called “consultations” ) :
· in person (you come and see the doctor face to face)
· by phone
· by video phone
· by text message
You can choose whichever type of consultation you want.
Contacting Us:
Take a look at our website: www.TheHarefieldPractrice.co.uk and click on the top left button “Blinx Online Patient Access” to get started.
(Blinx is the name of the product we bought to help you contact us.)
It’s pretty good and very easy to use.
GCSEs…
The first thing to say is that GCSEs are not as difficult as they feel. They come at a really inconvenient time, though. Often there are other stresses to deal with at the same time, for example with parents, siblings, grandparents, boyfriends, girlfriends and people who used to be your friends.
It’s also very tough having to do so many subjects at once, especially if you are not super-interested in every subject and ESPECIALLY if you do not feel confident in a subject. It’s true that there is a lot to learn, and it's easy to fall behind and feel lost.
It's also true that catching up is not as bad as you think it will be and however difficult or easy you find this kind of thing, it's better to do it without feeling really stressed.
Do Not Panic…
The Harefield Practice “GCSE-5” Guide is here to help!
It is just a really valuable guide, and not a magic wand, so this guide is NOT:
· going to teach you all of your subjects
· able to replace having to go to school
· a way to stop you needing to revise or do any work.
FACT: Generally speaking, the more work you put in, the better your grades will be.
However, it never hurts to get some help...
On the one hand, studying GCSEs teaches you a huge amount and studying can be fun and fascinating.
On the other hand, nobody is graded on how fascinating they found the subject.
You will be graded on your performance in the exams and so its worth spending some time planning for the exams.
Everything in this guide is freely (and legally) available online and it is all in the public domain for everyone to see.
There are companies online that will sell you much of the free information to save you the effort of having to find it yourself, but you can save yourself some cash by working out how to find the information yourself.
THIS GUIDE IS NOT CHEATING.
STEP 1
THE 4 LETTER CODE…
You need to ask your school or college what the 4-letter code is for each of the subjects you are studying.
Of course, you know what subject you are studying, but you need to know EXACTLY what exam you are studying for. Each exam in the UK has a unique 4-letter code.
Example:
In this example, we will use “Maths”.
Did you know, not everyone who gets their Maths GCSE this year will have taken the same exam?
In the UK, there are several Exam Boards (they are the boffins that set the exams) and in fact, each exam board sets several exams, several times each year, in each subject.
These are some of the common exam boards in the UK:
Edexcel https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-gcses.html
Cambridge https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/
They all provide Maths GCSE or equivalent. For example:
4 letter code: 8300, from AQA
https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/mathematics/gcse/mathematics-8300/specification
4 letter code: 1MA1, from Edexcel
https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-gcses/mathematics-2015.html
4 letter code: J560, from OCR
https://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/gcse/mathematics-j560-from-2015/
4 letter code: 0580, from Cambridge
Every exam (and so every exam course) has a unique 4 letter code.
You need to know your code and be absolutely sure you get the right code, or this guide will not help you.
Ask your teacher. They will know what code you are studying for.
Top Tip:
Buy or borrow a ring binder for each subject you are studying, and write the subject and the 4-letter code on the front. It is essential you get the right code.
STEP 2
Find the Syllabus / Specification for your subject (4-letter code).
The syllabus is the guide or instruction manual for the whole subject.
It contains everything that you will be taught across the 2 years and importantly, if it's not in the syllabus, it won't be in the exam. A typical syllabus is about 10-15 pages of “content” and then another few pages of waffle about how they assess you.
It might still look like a lot to learn, but knowing the boundaries and having a framework really helps, and if you go on to study A levels in a subject, they usually cover the entire two-year GCSE syllabus in the first day or two. It is not as much work as it looks.
Remember, you MUST make sure you get the right syllabus for your exact 4-letter code.
At this stage, all you need to do is find the correct syllabus online (they are free) and put it in the correct ring binder.
Page created: 07 May 2025