Podcasts for GCSE & A-Level Students

Short, practical audio episodes on revision, exam technique and how to actually learn — pulled from three decades of working with GCSE and A-Level students. Listen on the bus, on the walk to school, or while you're getting through chores. They're not a substitute for written practice, but they reinforce it.

Each episode runs 12–18 minutes, written and recorded by Fiaraz Iqbal — former Headteacher and GCSE/A-Level examiner. New episodes are added each term; bookmark this page or subscribe to the RSS feed when it launches in 2026.

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Episode 1 — Common Mistakes in A-Level Exams

A walk through the ten mistakes I see most often when marking A-Level papers — and how to stop making them. We cover misreading mark schemes, running out of time on the long-answer questions, throwing marks away on units and significant figures, and the classic "answered the question I wished they'd asked" problem.

Best for: Year 12 and Year 13 students approaching mocks or finals; parents who want to understand where their child is losing marks.

Duration: 15:30 A-Level

Exam Tips Study Skills Mark Schemes

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Episode 2 — Effective Revision Techniques

The single biggest cause of disappointing exam results is not lack of effort — it's revision technique. Re-reading notes feels productive but isn't. In this episode we cover spaced practice, retrieval practice, the difference between recognition and recall, and why doing past papers under timed conditions is worth more than three hours of highlighting.

Best for: any GCSE or A-Level student starting serious revision; parents who want to understand why "revising for hours" sometimes doesn't translate into marks.

Duration: 12:45 All Levels

Revision Time Management Spaced Practice

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Episode 3 — The Science Behind Effective Science Learning

Why does Biology feel like memorisation, Chemistry feel like rules, and Physics feel like maths in disguise? In this episode we look at how the brain encodes scientific concepts differently from facts, why a "scaffold" of underlying principles matters more than long lists of definitions, and how to build that scaffold subject by subject.

Best for: students taking Combined or Triple Science at GCSE; A-Level scientists who feel they're memorising rather than understanding.

Duration: 18:20 All Levels

Learning Theory Study Skills Biology Chemistry Physics

Topics requested for upcoming episodes

Listeners and current students have asked for these next:

How to read a mark scheme like an examiner
Choosing your A-Level subjects: a science-and-maths-focused take
How to use past papers in the last six weeks before an exam
Personal statement writing for STEM applications
The Year 11 mock results conversation: what they actually mean

If there's a topic you'd find useful, send a quick message via WhatsApp and I'll add it to the queue.

Want one-to-one help, not just a podcast?

The audio episodes cover technique. The actual gap-filling happens one-to-one. The first six weeks of tutoring are free.

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