If you’re preparing for your GCSEs, your exams are just a matter of weeks away. But don’t panic, there’s still enough time to put in some vital revision sessions to give your grades a boost. Use past papers the right way and you can get ahead for your important GCSE English.

Past papers are an essential tool you have at your disposal when it comes to revising. They let you practice exam conditions beforehand and can provide support in a number of ways. If you’ve gotten some practise papers to work your way through, these six tips can help you get the most out of them.

  1. Stick to the time limits

To be successful in any of your exams, time management is an important skill to master. It’s a good idea to get used to this before the exam so you get used to allocating the right amount of time to each question that you’re tackling.

  1. Get to grips with the structure

The structure of your GCSE English paper can vary depending on your exam board, going through past papers helps you to understand the structure of the paper, for example, whether it’s made up of long-form questions, those that require shorter responses, are a mixture of the two. It’s a factor that will also help improve your time management.

  1. Review them with the marking guide

Simply answer questions on a past paper isn’t enough, you also need to understand how they will be market. Taking a look at the marking guide alongside your answers can give a huge amount of insight and help you to form better responses.

  1. Find out what each question is looking for

Even with a marking guide, it can be difficult to understand exactly what markers are looking for. Our video tutorials and resources are perfect for this. They’ll show you answers that are designed to pick up maximum marks, giving you a blueprint on a range of areas, including structure, depth, and key focus areas.

  1. Compare your answer with examples

Just looking at perfect answers can help but comparing them to yours can provide even more benefits. It’ll help you to realise exactly where you’re going wrong and potentially losing those all-important points. You’ll notice that there will be fewer differences between yours and the example ones the more you do this exercise as you get into positive writing habits.

  1. Practise, practise, practise

Don’t just do a single practise paper and move on. Make it an important part of your GCSE English revision, completing one frequently right up until your exam date.