The Mistake I Keep Seeing Higher Set GCSE Students Make Before Their Exams

One thing I have noticed after teaching quite a number of GCSE students is this.

From September, when students resume Year 11, most of the enquiries I receive are usually from students who are on the Foundation tier. I only have a few students from the Higher tier at that stage.

Then something changes.

About three or two months before the GCSE examinations, I suddenly start getting more enquiries from Higher tier students.

At first, it looked like a coincidence.

Now, I see it as a pattern.

The pressure starts setting in. Anxiety begins to build. Students suddenly realise there are topics they thought they understood, but when they try to answer questions, they begin to mix things up.

One mistake I see quite often is that many Higher tier students become so focused on the difficult topics that they forget the basics.

Yes, Higher Maths will test more challenging concepts. Nobody is arguing with that.

But being in the Higher tier does not mean basic questions disappear.

I remember asking one student a very simple question.

What is 5⁰?

The answer I got was 5.

The correct answer is 1 because any number raised to the power of zero is always one.

Now, this was not a difficult question. It wasn't meant to trick the student. It was simply checking whether the foundation was still there.

That is exactly what happens to many students.

They spend so much time chasing the hardest topics that they unintentionally neglect the knowledge they have been building since Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9.

The truth is, GCSE papers are not made up of only difficult questions.

Some questions are there to test whether you still remember the fundamentals.

Some questions are there to test your accuracy.

Some are there to test whether you can apply simple ideas correctly.

If those marks are lost because the basics have been forgotten, it becomes much harder to achieve the grade a student is aiming for.

This is one of the reasons I always encourage students not to wait until three months before their examinations before asking for support.

The best preparation starts much earlier.

When you start preparing early, there is enough time to identify weak areas, revisit forgotten topics, practise exam questions and build confidence gradually.

There is no panic.

There is no rushing through topics.

There is no feeling that everything has to be learnt in one week.

Instead of spending the last few months trying to remember everything at once, you can spend the school year strengthening your understanding one topic at a time.

That way, when the examination is close, your focus is no longer on trying to remember what you have forgotten.

Your focus becomes answering questions with confidence.

That is a much better place to be.