Well, that's it... so long!

This is the last post to this blog. Thank you for visiting it - almost 1000 hits is amazing for a blog that was aimed at just 17 people, and was only open for six months.

The reason this will be the last post is because the Year 11s at Cromwell Community College have now finished their GCSE exams, except for Paper 3 / 4 for which advice lies below.

Well done year 11 - you got through it! If I'm around on results day I hope to see many of you to find out how you did. Remember, you get what you deserve - all your hard work will have paid off, I'm sure.

Good luck for the future

Mr Burdett


ADVICE FOR PAPER 3 / 4
The smart money suggests this will be on LEDC cities - i.e. shanty towns probably.
Therefore revise your Sanjay Ghandi Nagar stuff, although remember that this is only a tip - it might just as easily be on MEDCs, or people in rural areas, etc.

Good luck!

Revision: Rivers, coasts and sustainable cities

This session covered quite a lot!
The first hour was spent working on water landforms and people, then we looked at the issue of sustainable cities (since none of you turned up for the revision session! (TUT TUT!!!!)

You can download what we did, as always, from here. Click on GCSE Resources and look for WLP and PP sustainable cities for today's PowerPoint.

Revision: Using coursework for case studies

In the revision session on Thursdasy afternoon we covered how to answer case study questions using the places from your coursework.

Using these examples is a good idea because you know them in so much depth. But make sure you do revise the specific information that is going to impress the examiner, and DON'T write down what you did in your coursework as that won't be what the question is asking!

You can download the powerpoint we did during the session from the GCSE Revision section of our download website.

Revision: Map skills

Today I wasn't here! So the activities were a bit different.
We started by looking at the various map skills using a powerpoint which you can download from here (click on GCSE revision and look for 'Map Skills revision') although it does need a teacher to go through it with you.

Everyone then made up their own journey around the local area, giving map directions using the map skills we had just talked about.

Still not sure how to use a map? Why not visit this great interactive site from the Ordnance Survey which has loads of ideas about using maps and understanding map skills.

After school revision sessions

Revision sessions are running 3.30pm to 4.30pm* every Thursday until half term from now on, in H3. Use them or lose them! I am happy to run them but please remember I don't get paid for them, so if you don't turn up enough I may stop running them!

Rant over.

*The session is split into two. The first half hour, up until 4pm, is a group led, activity based session in which you will be expected to work individually, in pairs or in groups on activities that I give you. The second half hour is for individual issues - you only need to stick around if you have an issue about your course that you want to discuss with a teacher.

The future topics can be downloaded, as can all the ICT based resources that we use for these sessions, from our 4shared site: http://mrburdett.4shared.com and go into the 'GCSE Revision' session.

See you next Thursday at 3.30pm!

Further updates

We only have a few lessons left before we start revision. Some tips to improve your revision are:
- make a timetable
- be realistic - you aren't going to get up at 7am on Sunday to start revision
- build in plenty of breaks but make them short and effective - DON'T watch TV (5 mins turns into 50 mins very easily) - try making a drink, doing a household job (that will also put you in parents' good books), deflea-ing the cat, or whatever. It's also a good idea to get outside for some fresh air
- avoid coffee as it will make it difficult to sleep. Sleep is vital to comitting your revision to your long term memory
- plan your revision to join up with the class revision we will be doing

More specific school stuff includes:
- attend the afternoon revision sessions. These will run from next week on either Monday or Thursday, 3.30-4pm
- if you want more detail, there will then be a 'personal' session from 4-430 where you can ask your own questions rather than just doing what the group does
- vary your activities. You will get some ideas from class - share them with friends
- read guidance carefully

And academic advice:
- a few detailed case studies are better than loads of little ones
- avoid writing lots of details for People and Place - focus on your exam technique
- for defitions, try writing them out and sticking them around the house in places you often go (e.g. the inside of the bathroom cabinet, or on the TV remote control) and move them about to add variety

Keep checking back here for more advice and factual information!