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Losing heart

Hey guys,

I'm currently at college (UK) studying for my AS levels.

I wouldn't particularly describe myself as intelligent, but more of a hard worker, and I would put my academic success down to my ambitious state of mind.

I've struggled on some exam questions before now, and done my best to write out what i can, worried and then done perfectly fine.

I've recently just sat the AQA maths C2 exam (16th May 2012) and really felt defeated by it. It's not really in my nature to feel this way ever, but it's had such a big impact that I have a massive fear of walking into my other exams (even though they're not all for maths). When i think of my upcoming exams, the feeling of disappointment and inability keeps relaying in my head. The possibility of going into another exam and looking at the paper as if i'd never studied the course at all makes me want to not even go to my other exams. I thought i was quite confident on C2 and that i'd be prepared for any curve balls that AQA threw, but now it's completely knocked my confidence for the D1 paper (which i'm weaker at than C2 and will now need it to pull my grade up) and my other exams coming up. My friend's exam season is going great, all i hear is that their exam papers have been really good so far. I feel horrible and useless.

Has anyone else experienced this? can they offer any advice, i know that some people will say that I can't let it ruin the rest of my exam season but i have no motivation, I worked what felt like flat out for this C2 paper and it just hit me in the face.

Thanks

P.S this isn't really helped by the big expectation for me to do well by college and friends, I will feel really embarrassed if i don't do as well as thy expect because i feel it would make me look like i didn't bother to revise, when this is not the case at all :frown:

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 1

H011y94

Maybe you're just being harder on yourself than your friend is?

From personal experience with the AS exams, they're a whole different kettle of fish to GCSEs - I know I came out of mine feeling like I'd done great, enough to get all As, but actually got BBCD on results day.

Ironically, the one paper I thought I'd definitely got a U on came out as a C and the one I thought I'd aced to make up to it turned out to be a D :s-smilie:

It's hard to predict how you did and what you'll get and the mocks really don't prepare you for the change.

I guess what I'm saying is don't worry about it until results day, just do your best in the exams you still have to come, and hopefully you're just underestimating your performance. If not, there's always January resits (in which in one paper I improved from a D to full marks) and your A2 exams to make the grade up in. I personally now have AABC predicted and I'm pretty confident I'll achieve that (in fact, one teacher says I might now get an A* in their subject).

Think positively, try to keep calm and focus on your revision and you'll do fine :smile:

(your college seems to think you'll do well, so trust in them and your friends)

Reply 2

venenecinema

I am studying my AS levels at the moment as well, I found C1 and C2 impossible. Just try to forget about it and concentrate on doing well in your other exams.

Reply 3

JSHawkins

I can fully agree with you on that Core 2 exam, it was horrific to say the least. I've just accepted that it's more than likely going to be a resit, and just moved on revising other subjects. The worst thing you can do is keep going over what you could have done differently in an exam, because there's nothing you can do about it. Judging from the fact that since that exam I've had two more exams on the AQA board that have been pretty much standard, I wouldn't worry about them throwing you a curveball or something like that.

And forget about the expectations by your friends and family, it's you who's going to Uni not them, you've got more important things to worry about than what people expect you to do, they've got no idea what the exams are like so just don't worry about them.

Good luck anyway, remember exams aren't the be all and end all of your life.

Reply 4

Whitechark

Thankyou so much for your responses, it's reassuring to hear that you understand my situation but also remind me of the importance of my well being.

I have since planned out my revision for the next two days and pinpointed the exact things i need help with, i think i'm on my way to regaining my confidence :biggrin:

I still get a tug/drop feeling in my chest when i think about anything that might pop up that i can only stare at blankly, but i know that there is at least something i can answer on these exam papers coming up.

Thanks again!

Reply 5

ExamSham

I too found the C2 exam very demoralising and defeating after studying incredibly hard for it :frown:

I think the best thing to do is just take every exam one at a time and try not to get overwhelmed (which Im prone to doing). We all did the best we could, so all we can do now is wait for the results to come out and if we have to retake its not the end of the world..
I think a lot of people found this exam very hard so im expecting the grade boundaries to be relatively low.. well hopefully they are :biggrin:

Reply 6

Whitechark

Thankyou again for your reply, it's comforting to know that i'm not the only one that felt really let down by C2, primarily just because my revision/hard work counted for nothing on the day! Sad to say that i could have gotten away with doing nothing in preparation for it, although that's not a good work ethic and something i'd never practice in regards to an exam.

I've had one exam since, it was only a tiny one hour one with OCR, that went well, it's hard to know how i've done but there were no panic-ky moments and i wasn't stuck for any answers, but as i said, it's nothing to go by, i just didn't experience the horrible drop in both my stomach and my throat.