Which is more important? 

Exam skills or Knowledge? 🤔

I know you think this is a trick question and that the answer is obviously knowledge. But that is not the case; the government put limits on the number of marks that can be given for just remembering the content, meaning remembering everything written in your revision guide and dumping it onto the page in an exam isn't going to work. For example, in science, only 40% of the marks come from the pure recall of facts; these will be short answer questions worth one or two marks. Unfortunately, 40% in a science exam will not get those top grades. If you're aiming for top grades, you need to know HOW to answer particular types of questions. Fortunately, this is much easier than it sounds! 

GCSE Science example in physics is 30% of the grade, and this can be intimidating to lots of students. But there are a few simple steps to follow to make these questions really easy!  Highlight all the numbers in the question Work out what is what – use the units Find an equation Pop in the numbers Rearrange Do the maths Add on the units Watch me work through lots of 'hard' examples and show you how to make them easy! 

A-Level Biology ExampleThere are a few set questions that come up every year.

• data analysis

• comprehension

There is no way you can learn the content for these before the exam because these question types are both looking at the information given in the exam and using your knowledge to interpret it. What you can learn is how to answer these questions. What clues to look for in the question, how to approach graphs and annotate them, and the key phrase the examiner wants to see. My Head of Biology, Dr Edwards, has years of experience guiding students through exams and will be running workshops on these skills next week

Of course, the best place to see us demonstrate exam skills (and knowledge!) in action is via the walkthroughs we've done for the predicted papers. Members of my YouTube channel can get access to a full video walkthrough of the 2024 papers with lots of guidance and advice on how to answer the questions. To access the walkthroughs of these papers, you need to be a 'Plus' level member. Not yet a member? You can sign up today!