Caitlyn’s story: How revision support helped student achieve her potential in science
In early 2025, Caitlyn was a Year 10 student who was unmotivated and passive, not seeing the point in studying science subjects at all and often claiming, “I don’t need them”.
After receiving the results from her first ever set of mock exams, Caitlyn was upset but not shocked to see she had achieved a U (ungraded) in foundation double chemistry. Everybody around her suggested there was not enough time or resources to bring the grade up to at least a pass.
Despite this, Caitlyn decided to try and prove people wrong. Following advice from a teacher, Caitlyn began revising using resources from Revise Chemistry with Mr B – secondary science teacher Jon Blackbourn’s SHINE-funded project.
For approximately four months, Caitlyn dedicated around three hours per week to chemistry revision using the YouTube videos created by Jon. Caitlyn gradually became more confident in chemistry and science as a whole. This improvement also began to show in class, where she started to raise her hand more often and became more confident in answering questions, even if the answer was wrong.
As the second mock exams approached, Caitlyn also began watching TikTok livestreams hosted by Mr B every Wednesday for around an hour. In these livestreams, Mr B would work through past-paper questions and answer questions from students in the chat.
With just two weeks to go before the exams, pressure began to build and Caitlyn started to doubt her abilities, thinking, “Do I even really know this?”
To combat this anxiety, Caitlyn used short, capsule-style revision videos that Mr B had recently started uploading to an app called Revyze. These videos helped Caitlyn learn essential information for difficult topics such as electrolysis and the structure and bonding of carbon in just a few minutes. This not only relieved her anxiety but helped Caitlyn feel confident going into the exam and able to achieve the best grade possible.
Not even six months after achieving a U in chemistry, Caitlyn opened her results to find she had achieved a grade 5-5, equivalent to a high C/low B. She said: “I was over the moon and so incredibly proud that I had achieved such an amazing grade in such a short time span which then allowed me to move onto the higher paper – less than six months after getting a U!”
By December 2025, Caitlyn had achieved a 5-6, allowing her to stay on the higher paper and continue working towards an even higher grade with the help of Mr B and his resources in the months leading up to her GCSEs.
Caitlyn’s hard work paid off come results day. After sitting the higher paper at GCSE, in the summer of 2026 she achieved a grade 6-5 – roughly equivalent to a B – a remarkable improvement from the U she had received less than 18 months earlier.
Caitlyn has now started at college, taking the next step in her education with the confidence and belief in her abilities that she developed along the way.