I try to say yes to most things. Life is much more fun that way. (So far, I have resisted golf, drugs and tattoos, but I’ve a big birthday coming up next year…)
Today I was invited to apply for a new TV game show, The Genius Game, which comes from South Korea. It’s from the makers of Pointless, Deal or No Deal, House of Games, Star Struck, The Wall, Survivor … all sorts.
I thought this was a spam offer, but the producer told me she found my email via my YouTube page, and read up about me in the Birmingham Mail.
I was a guest on a podcast in Birmingham, and didn’t know I’d made it into the paper.
Anyway, should I apply? What’s the worst that can happen, right? Be careful what you say yes to.
I’m sure they’ve asked me, not because I should apply, but because I am likely to get the word out.
But, the real benefit of today’s post is that the Birmingham Mail has taken my top revision tips from the podcast, and put them in print for you.
Zoe Chamberlain Parenting Editor
We've caught up with Youtube English teacher sensation Mr Salles on the Brummie Mummies podcast to ask him how we can help our kids get amazing grades in their GCSEs. If you’ve heard of Mr Salles then you’ll know you’re in for a treat. If not, look him up as he's sure to be helpful for your kids leading up to their exams.
Father-of-two Dominic Salles started putting videos online as a way of helping his pupils with their homework. Those videos - and many more - have now gone on to have millions of hits on Youtube.
He sits the exams himself to figure out exactly what kids need to do to get the top grades. Then he tells them how to do it. It’s as simple as that. So, if you have a child who hates English or feels they aren’t good at writing, they need to watch Mr Salles and read his books, especially his Guide to 100 per cent in the AQA English Language exam.
Read more: 10 game-changing revision tips your child needs to know about for their GCSEs
Listen to Mr Salles' top tips on the Brummie Mummies podcast:
"Most teachers assume because they are experts in the subject that their instincts about the exams will be right but, unless you’ve sat the exams yourself, you don’t realise how much of it is nothing to do with English and everything to do with the peculiarities of this particular exam," said Mr Salles.
"With English, the assessment criteria is so open to subjective interpretation and far too complex. I spend a lot of time thinking about what you actually have to do so that the examiners can’t disagree on your mark.
"I've realised it’s a test of character, awfully, I hate that and English shouldn’t be, but it is. It's just a case of how much you can write and can you just keep going?
"My son said to me 'Dad, English is number nine on my list for revision so I’m only willing to give it four hours.' But I found I could teach him in four hours so it is doable, even if you don’t like it."
Mr Salles' top tips for GCSE English exams
Just do practice exam papers - if you get a result you don’t like, do the question again. Research shows if you revise in this high stakes way, you replicate the exam and you’ll learn more
About 30 per cent of the marks comes down to writing speed. If you have a question worth eight marks, can you make eight points, writing around 300 words in 12 minutes? If you can, it’s going to be impossible to get less than a grade seven
Question five is worth 50 per cent of the marks on each paper. So do it first to make sure you don’t run out of time. Plan a story in advance and memorise descriptions of negative and positive settings and characters. Ensure it has the vocabulary, sentence structure and punctuation you need and you’ll tick off the assessment objectives as you blend it into whatever the question is
Let go of the idea your handwriting needs to be super neat. Sacrifice neatness for speed
Don’t sit and think. Writing is thinking so just get straight on with answering the question. If you're writing something that doesn’t work, you’ll instantly spot that and come up with a new idea. Each new paragraph of the text gives you something new to write so write something about each paragraph
Examiners never take away marks for something that’s rubbish. In English you can write a paragraph that scores no marks at all and the examiners will just ignore it. It's volume that really counts
For literature, narrow down 10 to 15 quotes on any text that will fit all of the theme ideas. This will then fit any question that comes up. Embed short quotes. Build an argument that shows how the journey of the text builds the author’s ideas. That’s easy - just follow the text chronologically as this gives you an inherent structure and will almost guarantee you a grade seven or higher
Write about the first and last paragraphs of a source to show the examiner you have read the whole text
In question 5, start each sentence with a different word, that will improve your writing by two grades because you’ll automatically start using subordinate clauses and connectives without focusing on it - that’s like a super power of writing
For persuasive writing, think about the long term consequences of your argument rather than just focusing on today
This is brilliant news Dominic!