By Jason Bunting

Most of you are going to hate what I have to say here, but it’s true because I learnt it the hard way. First, let’s go back to when I sat my Year 11 modules, the first year of GCSEs. I was good at History, I still am and I’m currently in the first few months of doing it as an A-Level. But it didn’t really matter in Year 11 because I didn’t learn the stuff. Sure, I knew the fringe material, the basics of who was doing what but it wasn’t really in my head.

I made some lists and mind maps and my stuff looked oh-so-pretty but really, I just didn’t know it. I had done a lot without really doing anything, and when I say a lot it was much less than it should’ve been. So I sat in the exam hall and opened the paper. As I got stuck in writing vague stuff, a couple of points for a 6 mark answer, I literally had the thought “I’m going to have to repeat this”. I was targeted for an A* in that test and came out with one mark still on an A. Some of you might be thinking, “He got an A!” but really, when your target is 20 marks higher than what you received, it wasn’t great for me, especially not supposedly in one of my best subjects.

Next January rolled around and I knew I had to start revising, which I did eventually.  To be honest, I probably started way too late and I had to work twice as hard to catch up. Trust me; this is not the way to go. If you want good grades, revise early. So this time I made sure that I had a revision timetable, which is absolutely the most important tool to get good grades. I actually sat down and I learned about the rise of the Nazis, the Weimar Republic, and Hitler becoming Chancellor.

Crucially, I learnt about Northern Ireland’s politics which I found extremely boring which is ironic given that I live here. Still, I forced myself to do it. I attended every revision class going, I did all the past papers and I submitted extra work, extra questions, whatever I could to my teacher. Trust me; even if you think your teacher won’t like this or won’t mark it, they basically have to. They are there to teach you, so make them work!

At the end of it all when I went into the exam and I actually realised that if you know the subjects, exams aren’t difficult and you don’t get half as stressed. I came out with full marks in my GCSE in History, top in my year. I couldn’t believe it. Hadn’t I dropped 40 marks the year before on one paper? If there’s anything I learnt from my time in History and GCSEs in general it’s that there is no substitute for sitting down and learning things off. I know you hate it because it’s not as easy as just making a pretty collage of information on whatever but I promise you that in August, when you’re ripping open that envelope with your results inside, you’ll be glad you started learning today.

Do you have an article or story you want to share? Send your submissions to: feedback(at)s-cool(dot)co(dot)uk