Best free study apps for GCSE, and what is really free
With GCSEs about seven months away, the revision resources are everywhere, and most of them are free up to a point. Here is what each of the main ones gives you for nothing, from their own pages this week, and what you would have to pay for. Versed is ours; we say where it fits.
Free for everything
- BBC Bitesize: study guides, videos and quizzes from KS1 up to GCSE, with GCSE content for England, Northern Ireland and Scotland. The Bitesize app describes itself as free flashcards and study guides. There is an optional account. Best for: a clear, trusted overview of a topic.
- Oak National Academy: government-funded lessons and resources for KS1 to KS4, across subjects and exam boards. It says it is free, and always will be, with no paywalls, package tiers or hidden costs. Best for: following a whole topic as a lesson.
- Corbettmaths: maths only. Around 800 videos, 1,000 worksheets and 3,500 practice questions, and its creator says he aims to keep it freely accessible. Best for: maths practice questions with answers.
- Physics & Maths Tutor: free GCSE, IGCSE and A-level notes and past papers across maths, sciences and other subjects. It also sells private lessons and courses separately; the notes and papers are the free part. Best for: past papers by topic.
Free up to a point
- Seneca: it says it can be used for free an unlimited amount, including 600+ exam-board courses and past papers; sign-up is needed. Premium (UK only) adds more courses, predicted papers, AI-marked questions and an AI assistant. We could not find a price on its own pages, so we do not quote one. Best for: working through the spec with questions after each bit.
- Save My Exams: its own page says free gets you sample notes for selected topics, a limited selection of topic questions, short sample answers and a small range of past papers, with one or two subjects unlocked. Premium gives access to everything, including mock exams and its marking tool. Best for: seeing how model answers are written before deciding whether to pay.
For flashcards and tools
- Anki: free and open source on computer and Android; the iPhone and iPad app is paid (US$24.99 on the US App Store); sync is free. Best for: students who will set it up.
- Versed Tools: a grade calculator that works with GCSE grades, an exam countdown, a reader, a writing checker and more, all free with no sign-in. Best for: planning how many marks you need.
- Versed Learn: flashcards with spaced repetition, free to download with optional paid plans for extras, and guest mode with no account. It has no ready-made GCSE library, so you make your own cards. Best for: students who want a simple card app.
The method that works with any of them
Past papers and flashcards work because they make you pull the answer out of memory. In classroom experiments, quizzing improved results on chapter and semester exams (Roediger, Agarwal, McDaniel & McDermott, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 2011), and on delayed tests testing beat restudying even though restudying felt more confident (Roediger & Karpicke, Psychological Science, 2006). So use the notes sites to learn a topic once, then close them and test yourself. Our three-week revision plan shows how to space it out, and the same plan works months ahead.
A simple free set-up
Learn each topic from Bitesize or Oak, practise with Corbettmaths or Physics & Maths Tutor papers, and put the facts you keep forgetting into flashcards. Use the grade calculator to work out which subjects need the most attention. You can spend nothing at all and still cover it.
Prices and free limits change. Check each site's own page before paying, and note that we could not confirm Quizlet's free limits from its own pages this week, so we left it out of this list.
Versed is free to use in a browser: flashcards in your browser (guest mode, no account needed to try it) or get it on the App Store. Free. Start as a guest, no account needed.