Year 11 (ages 15 to 16)
Year 11 is the GCSE exam year. Most exams are in May and June, with school mock exams usually in the winter before.
What changes
- Revision replaces new teaching for much of the year.
- Mock exams show which topics to focus on.
- Exam technique and timing matter as much as knowledge.
Exams and tests
Most schools run mock exams in the winter term. The GCSE exams are mainly in May and June, and results come out in August.
Topics worth practising in Year 11
- Percentages: Find a percentage of an amount, increase and decrease by a percentage, and work backwards to an original price.
- Standard form: Write very large and very small numbers in standard form, convert back, and multiply numbers written that way.
- Factorising quadratics: Factorise expressions, from taking out a common factor to quadratics and the difference of two squares.
- Pythagoras: Use Pythagoras’ theorem to find a missing side, in triangles, ladders and between points on a grid.
- Moles: Use moles, mass and relative formula mass, and work out the mass of a product from a reacting mass.
- Energy: Calculate gravitational potential energy, kinetic energy and efficiency, and link them in a falling object.
- Reading comprehension: Read a short passage, then answer questions on finding information, inference, word meaning and the writer’s methods.
- Language techniques: Name the language technique in an example: simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration and more.
- Spelling: Pick the correct spelling from common misspellings, with a tip for remembering each word.
- Electricity: Use potential difference, current, resistance, power and energy transferred.
Tips
- Sit a full mock paper under timed conditions, then revise the topics that cost you marks.
- Do a short round every day: little and often beats cramming.
- Look at wrong answers and read why each option is wrong.
Every school plans its own timetable, so topics and exam dates vary. This is a guide, not a timetable.