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Meet Alex
Alex is in her final IGCSE year, sitting Physics 0625 at Extended level. Her class tests are inconsistent. She understands the lessons, but her marks do not show it.
She has eight weeks before her exams and about five hours a week for Physics. She revises on a shared phone with limited mobile data, so anything she relies on has to work offline.
The diagnosis: where the marks actually go
Before changing anything, Alex sits one full Extended theory paper under timed conditions and marks it with the mark scheme. Then she does the step most students skip: she sorts every lost mark into one of three causes.
| Cause | What it looks like | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Method | Right idea, but no equation written, no substitution line, or no unit | One fixed routine for every calculation |
| Recall | Could not remember a definition, equation or fact | Recall checklists and the formula sheet |
| Application | Knew the physics but could not apply it to an unfamiliar setup | Exam questions on that topic, marked carefully |
The three causes are a common way teachers sort errors. Your own split will differ.
In this example, most of her lost marks are method marks in multi-step calculations, and most of those fall in two topics: motion, forces and energy, and electricity and magnetism. That tells her where to start, which is rarely where it feels most comfortable.
The 8-week plan
The plan spends time where the marks were lost. Weaker topics get two weeks each; stronger ones are kept warm with short recall sessions.
Week 8 repeats the week 1 diagnostic on purpose. Comparing the two sorts shows whether the method marks have stopped leaking, which is the honest measure of the plan.
What one topic week looks like
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Read the topic once
Open the free Glide notes for the topic and read each section once, slowly. No highlighting.
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Blank-page test
Close the notes. Write every equation, definition and diagram you remember, then check and mark the gaps.
Tip. The gaps are the week’s revision list. -
Recall checklist
Work through the checklist at the end of the chapter, covering the answers. Anything missed goes back on the list.
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Exam advice page
Read the common mistakes and the model answer marked point by point. Note the exact wording that earns each mark.
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Topic questions with the routine
Do past-paper questions on the topic, writing every calculation as known values, equation, substitution, answer with unit.
Tip. Mark them strictly. A missing unit is a lost mark, even in practice.
What to measure, and what not to
A plan only helps if you can tell whether it is working. Alex tracks three things, all from her own marked work.
She does not track hours revised or pages read. Both feel productive and say very little about marks.
What this plan cannot do
Start your own plan
Start with the diagnostic. Everything else depends on knowing where your marks really go.