Note: English is a language that you can’t study. The only thing you can do to improve your skills is to read stories, books, magazines, newspapers etc. See “reading voraciously” as a strategy in Section One.
Review all the tests and exams done in class and learn from your mistakes. Try to print out old IGCSE/GCSE papers, this way when it comes to the real exam you’ll know how everything is organised. (Mostly from “Circle the answers” to definitions). You can mostly find past papers on your exam board’s website, and there are many other sites which offer them too.
If you can’t answer a question, don’t waste time by hopelessly trying to figure it out. Move on, then come back to it later. [7] X Research source
Run through the exam quickly before doing any questions, that way you know what questions are to come and you don’t get a big shock. Use the number of marks available for each question as an indicator of how much you need to write. Don’t write an entire paragraph for a one mark question, and don’t write one short sentence for a six-mark question. Use information given in the question. Use tables and graphs if given to back up your answer. Answer the question. If there are two parts to a question ensure you answer both. Don’t write more points than required: is it’s a 3 mark question, write 3 points only; the examiner will not pick out the best points out of many. When asked to draw a line of best fit, draw a line which has the same number of points on each side and goes through as many points as possible. Show your working clearly when you are doing calculations. You will be awarded extra marks. Always give the correct units in an answer to a calculation. Always label diagrams with as much detail as you can. Draw diagrams in pencil as you may need to make changes later. When drawing graphs, always label the axes with their name and the units you are using e. g. Time (seconds). Check your spelling, punctuation and grammar carefully as there may be extra marks awarded for this.
