The Road to Top Grades: How to Achieve Grade 9s at GCSE and A*s at A Level
🕒 Read time: 5 mins
I sat my GCSEs in 2023 and my A-Levels in 2025, achieving eight 9s two 8s and a 7 at GCSE level and 4 four A*s in A-levels. Part of this is natural ability, but a bigger part is how I revised, when I started and what I was doing in school in the build-up. If you are doing your exams now I am sure you will hear loads of contradictory advice about what to do and what not to do. I can’t guarantee results or any fool-proof methods that will definitely work for you, I can only tell you my way of doing things to prepare myself and hopefully you find some tips that help you out.
Start taking it seriously
The hard work starts as soon as you start the course for both GCSE and A-Level. At the start you do not have to be putting in extra hours at home, you can still enjoy your free time and not have to worry about revising, however you will have to do the bare minimum. This means paying attention in class, writing good notes in lessons and also doing your homework that teachers set. If you miss out on any of these you make revision later down the line much harder.
I would like to put a huge emphasis on creating well laid out notes in your textbooks, if your work if clearly labelled has a title and all the writing is legible, it is so much easier to create the necessary revision resources if you know that you have all the topics in your books where nothing is missing and it is neat enough. One of my bigger struggles with GCSEs was that my English notes were all over the place and this made my revision so much harder when it got close to the exams, because I had to rewrite my notes for “Lord of the F lies” in time which I would have rather spent memorising quotes or perfecting my essay technique. It is so important to keep on top of work if you miss it and make the most of your lessons with teachers who have spent years perfecting what they say to you to make the best of your time in the exam hall.
On another note, for A-Level, I had to always read ahead for my subjects. Because there is so much content to go through, especially with the sciences, I found that my time was better spent in those lessons where I knew vaguely what the teacher was talking about and I could spend more time writing down and understand what was going on than trying to wrap my head around the first difficult principle addressed in the beginning of the lesson. I would not suggest writing your own notes before the time in class but just reading over the topic that you know you will cover the next day in bed the night before can do wonders and will help you make the best of your time in sixth form or college.
The main thing to consider is that you are working towards your GCSEs or A-Levels as soon as you hit year 10 or 12, so you have to work in class like you are and make the most of the opportunities that your teachers give you to learn and prepare for the exams at any time when you are on the course.
The exam period
When in study leave, revision can be so difficult to even get started. When it was getting to the last 2 weeks of both my GCSEs and A-Levels, I was really struggling to get motivated to revise and start doing work in the morning. The concept of getting up and sitting at my desk for a couple of hours just made me want to stay in bed even longer. Luckily, your exams will be in summer and hopefully (although I make no promises) the weather will be nice. Even the smallest of changes such as sitting outside and reading your notes, while not the most productive, can get you more in the mood to revise and start working harder and I found the change of scenery and atmosphere thoroughly refreshing and allowed me to get up and start the day well. I also would video call one of my friends who took a same subject as me and we would just talk about the subject and test each other. This is another maybe less efficient way of revising but in those hours where you can’t be bothered to even pick up a pen, that is better than just mindlessly scrolling on your phone. Just being on call with a friend is a good reminder that everyone else is doing the same as you and you are not alone in the struggle.
GCSE advice
I found GCSEs particularly difficult due to the number of subjects you have to study. There was almost too much choice on where to start and what to do. Before you start a revision timetable or just start revising randomly it is important to reflect on what you feel are your weaker subjects, but also on what you want to achieve at the end of it. If you want to be well rounded space out your revision equally, if you want to excel in STEM then focus on those, but you also must bear in mind your own natural ability in the subjects you want to do well in. Those subjects that you are just better at than the others will need a lot less revision than others and although it may be tempting to just revise the subjects you are good at, it is more important to take a look at the subjects you find harder.
A-Level advice
For A-Levels, you have to utilise your time well. When you see people messing around in free periods you should go to a study room or your school’s/college’s library and do some work, especially in year 13. You cannot use the time to mess around if you want to achieve good grades, if you have that time at school where you would be doing nothing else you might as well use the time to reconcile over your notes or finish reading up on the next topic. Doing those small things help you stay on top of your work. It is so easy to fall behind in A-Levels with the amount of new content and facts you have to memorise, so if you stay on top of those in year 13 then you won’t have to spend time repeatedly going over the easy stuff and spend more time on exam questions, past papers or any other form of revision you prefer.
Malachi is a dedicated Maths and Science tutor currently on a gap year with an offer to study Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge. As a Tutor and Content Writer for Learn Science Together, he combines his strong STEM background with a passion for helping students succeed. Having achieved A* grades in Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics at A Level, Malachi writes engaging articles that aim to inspire confidence, curiosity, and ambition in young learners pursuing science and mathematics.
