Dreaming Spires Revision

Returning for January 2017, the weekly crammer course is making an appearance again. Running on Mondays at 1 pm from the 16th of January, it spreads the 8 sessions over a longer period of time. We're also running the Easter crammer as usual -- eight straight days starting the 10th of April, at 7:30 pm. Either one is £80 to get tutored in person by the author who wrote the book "How to Ace the CIE iGCSE English Language exam." The basis for both it and the Easter crammer will be last summer's exam, so if you're revising on your own already, you might want to avoid doing that one so you come to it fresh.

I've just closed the window on the last live webinar for the August crammer course. The students have been inundated with Dos and Don'ts from examiner's reports, mark schemes, and my own experience on "the other side". Even before the week had ended, people were asking when I'm next offering the course. That would be the Easter holidays next year, 2017. Easter is really late this year, so a crammer at that point will really be the final polishing before exams start in May. If you want to get a head start on what to study, then buy my revision guide: there are plenty of examples there of good practice, tips for revision, and ways to improve your writing in advance of taking the crammer. Buy it here from Amazon, either as a Kindle book or paperback:  http://tinyurl.com/hr8bmyl What would it add to your child's study to attend the crammer if you've got the book? New examples, for one. A chance to have homework and questions marked by me, with my e...

STOP PRESS! STOP PRESS! Due to overwhelming requests, the August crammer that starts the 22nd is meeting at 2 pm instead of 7 pm. Remember that this is 8 days in a row, starting the 22nd and finishing the 31st. If you or someone you know is sitting the CIE English Language iGCSE 0500 (Higher Tier), please register ASAP for the last few places.

Today is the annual rite of GCSE results, and I've felt such a part of it after receiving all the lovely emails from students who took the Dreaming Spires crammer course earlier in the year. Below is just a small sample of their effusive reports, but remember that I'm teaching my online crammer again from 22nd of August (7 pm). As always, I'll be sharing all the tips and tricks from being a current examiner. If you can't make the live course, then you can get the next-best thing by buying my course book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/English-Language-iGCSE-version-Higher-ebook/dp/B01E42XQK0/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1460534833&sr=8-2-fkmr2&keywords=how+to+ace+the+gcse+english+language+exam *************** “E” did your English revision course at Easter, just letting you know she got an A*. (Much to her surprise:-) ) *************** Dear Dr P, I got my results for my English language GCSE today and was overjoyed to see that I h...

If you're taking the CIE exam in the autumn, or you are expecting a full timetable in term time, then you might want to be one of fifteen students who takes my live, online crammer starting the 22nd of August. Live and Online iGCSE Revision with Dreaming Spires For eight straight days (22nd-31st, not counting weekends), we will meet for one hour from 7 pm UK time, when I will go through a set of past papers, question by question. I'll tell you how an examiner views answers, and the best way to save time while honing down to the nub of question in the most efficient manner. The format will be just like my revision guide, but with new examples, and of course, you will have my direct input into your child's work. At the end of the eight days, I will mark a mock exam for you. Click on the registration tab to reserve your place today.

It's only about 48 hours now till many candidates are due to sit their first part of the 0500 CIE iGCSE English Language exam. The nerves are probably jangling. It's coming! It's coming!!!! To my mind, though, they have each done about as much as they can do, and revising another paper or writing another story isn't probably going to help much now. Instead, the best thing they can do is get out a blank sheet of paper and just write about the exam, such as the fact that there are two passages in the insert, one of which will go for Questions 1 and 2, and the other one, for Questions 3a and 3b. They can remind themselves that Question 1 will want them to re-vamp the information in a different format with a different viewpoint, and no matter how the exam board might word their question, it's looking for how well a student can both re-iterate what's said in the insert and how well he or she can read between the lines. They need to remind themselves that it...

THREE to give away! Follow the Rafflecopter link below to enter your chance to win a FREE copy of the new 0500 revision guide. Everyone who enters receives  a free pdf file about the importance of copywork for improving a student's writing abilities. Starting 18 April ... a Rafflecopter giveaway