My DD is due to sit her GCSEs in 2018 and has mentioned Easter revision courses as a possible support to supplement her revision. She is prone to procrastination when revising at home so I am open to possible signing her up to support the run up to the examinations. My questions are:-

1) From board members' experiences - did their DD or DS benefit from the courses?

2) If there are any particular course/institution recommendations, please PM me.


The school she is at is supportive, but like any parent, I want to assist my DD as far as possible.

Many Thanks

I think mst of them are a waste of time - to be helpful they need to be the right board and targeted at you own weaker areas.

I would check whether her school is running anything - most do help sessions after school. These are FAR more likely to be helpful.

Thanks for the reply. Are you speaking from the experiences of your DS/DD - if so, which course did they attend?

No, I'm speaking as someone who taught GCSE/A level for many years. Each board has a 'style' of questions so that is important and specifications vary quite a lot.

You can help more by downloading for free the specifications, past papers and examiners reports from the appropriate exam board(s).

Agree with G55 check what the school is doing, nearly all run holiday or after school revision lessons which I agree are far better at tackling specific problem areas. Friends who spent money on the revision classes have felt they were far too generic. If your Dd is worried she should talk to her teachers. They are invested in getting their pupils to achieve not just making money.

Absolutely agree with the other posters. All schools run some form of revision classes and, in our experience, the teachers fell over themselves to offer support when our son asked for it, in addition to the standard revision classes.

Our school unfortunately did not run any revision courses whatsoever (maybe because it is an Indie?).
We tried Justin Craig (terrible) and Wellington. Whilst Wellington was incredibly expensive DD loved the teachers (wellingtons own) and I feel confident it helped her. She did Maths and Double Science and went from A/B prediction to A*. We were particularly pleased about her Science double A* as she was really struggling. I think it helped her focus. I am a linguist so couldn’t help her with those subjects, and whilst I know the school should be helping her I wasn’t going to be taking any chances.

I agree with previous posters; an in-house school run course will be loads better because the school knows the board spec (and which choices from the spec) and they also know the students. IME the local 'crammer' college run courses are a massive waste of time and money. I know plenty of 6th form students whose parents spent hundreds of pounds on courses where all they did was past papers (most of which they had already done in school). Unless you can fully ascertain whether or not proper teaching will be taking place, and how well qualified and experienced the staff are, I would steer clear.

Another point of view here. That of the teachers who are required to run revision sessions, unpaid, for months before and after school and during their lunch breaks. As someone teaching in HE I am coming under similar pressure to ensure that all students pass everything they do, even if it means me spending far longer and giving more support than I might think is appropriate.
https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-net ... d-pressure