All the UK exams boards have today (7th Feb 2022) released information on which major topics will appear in the summer 2022 exams.
The move is one of a number of steps taken to recognise the disruption that students have suffered in their GCSE years. This particular initiative to release advance notice helps students prepare for their summer exams by reducing the focus of their attention.
The Joint Council for Qualifications explains:
“Advance information is intended to communicate, ahead of the examinations, the focus of the content of the examinations (or part of the examinations) that will be assessed in the examination papers. As stated by DfE, the purpose of advance information is to support revision.”
The exam boards are listing the major focus of the exams. It works by giving a list of the topics that will be the subject of the big mark questions. They do not reveal the nature of the questions or offer any way of guessing what exactly might come up.
It’s important to note that because a topic isn’t included as a major focus it doesn’t mean that it won’t appear. The exam boards say topics could still appear in low tariff or synoptic questions. Low tariff means simply low scoring questions, while synoptic refers to linked content. For this reason, it’s still really important for schools to cover the full specifications. And it also means that students should plan to revise the whole subject.
We are currently amalgamating the information to make it for Study Buddy customers to get the information they need against their subject. But in the meantime, you should visit the exam boards to find out more.
Although the exam boards don’t have exactly the same inclusions and exclusions in their Advance Information, discrepancies are mostly down to differences in terminology and syllabus structure.
As always, far and away the best advice is to start revision early. Cover as much as you can. And cover it well. Little and often is always going to have a better, lasting effect than a last-minute panic. Our products cover the full specifications and, once we’ve completed our compiling, we’ll be passing bespoke guidance to each of our customers.
Our GCSE and A Level bundles contain everything you need to manage revision, straight out of the box. All tailored to the exact courses you need.
