For Those Who Might Not Of Done Well In Jan/A-levels As a Whole

I wouldn't want to walk over a bridge constructed by an engineer who struggles with AS maths :/

Shame I struggled with maths, though I got 94% on an engineering report based around structures.

Congratulations on your Uni results You're very bright and that's proof A Levels don't mean much, well done

I wouldn't want to walk over a bridge constructed by an engineer who struggles with AS maths :/

Absolutely love this thread, very inspirational and has motivated me to try and work as hard as possible for my A2 exams! good luck for everyone collecting their results on March 8th

I wouldn't want to walk over a bridge constructed by an engineer who struggles with AS maths :/

Just an update, I got offered a place at Manchester for physics which is a very good university for physics.

Congratulations man , your story was really motivational as i might be following a similar route.

EDIT:
After my semester 1 results I have done well, in Mathematics I got 98% in the exam and Physics I got 93%




Some people might of not done as well as they expected this January or are not coping with A-levels very well therefore might see continuing onwards a bit of a lost cause. Just because you dont get A's and B's in exams Is not the end of the world.

This Is how my A-levels have panned out, hopefully some of you can take this in and realise that you are not stuckif you dont perform well at A-level and can still to go to a good university.

My Background
I go to a normal public school nothing special and my GCSE's were not amazing - enough to get me into sixth form. I was in a mixed ability class for maths mostly comprised of foundation borderline students, and top set science (Just).

I originally picked AS Physics, Maths, Geography, Business.

Maths/Physics I found very hard, the jump from GCSE was absolutely crazy and I quickly learn that the time I spent in the classroom at GCSE was useless and I had not covered any basic topics, I didnt know what a quadratic was, what lines were (like y=x) how to factorise ect and spent the first two months confused not understanding anything. Physics was just as bad and we were on a new syllabus to the teachers were learning at the same rate as the students were. Geography was not as bad considering I did not study it at GCSE I found this quite a nice break from my other subjects. Finally Business I did not get on with as it was long essay writing something I'm weak at and did not enjoy.

Ultimately I did very badly on my exams especially the January ones. The second term exams I did better on but still no way near enough to progress onto A2 and salvage a decent grade so I had a dilemma decided resit the year or drop out. Honestly I could of dropped out at any time but my parents persuaded me to stay on.

I found the lack of people in my year beneficial and allowed me to concentrate and understand my subjects. I rearranged what I was studying and did more A-levels over the 3 years but kept a manageable amount.

Now part way through my A2 year I'm coming on increasingly stronger at both subjects (maths and physics) though still not at a high grade like A, but that was not expected of me.

Now I have made my university choices with my grades looking to be CCDBc I have opted to go for a foundation year in engineering at Loughborough university which i would of never dreamed about before though I could of gone for the main degree at Nottingham Trent if I didnt want to do a foundation year, there are plenty of decent universities to pick from.



UPDATE: My Thoughts After Completing My A-levels
Having now completed my A-levels and my resit year I myself and my teachers agree that I have greatly benefited from it, maybe the extra time allowed me to be less overwhelmed by the change from GCSE to A-level. Towards the end of the year I was working at a very high standard in both maths and physics exceeding expectations in both subjects by pulling out very highly scoring mock papers. My quality of work and ability to answer challenging questions is so much stronger, this is purely down to pulling in lots of effort and time into these subjects.




JUNE 2011 RESULTS DAY UPDATE: Did It pay off?
Having worked really hard after christmas I managed to improve my physics enough to get a B grade in the last exam which is a really hard one and an A in a physics resit many good students got U's in the mocks in this. I even managed to get an A grade in one of my physics exams.
Overall I left with BCCCc having gone from UUU.



Afterword + The future:
Having changed my course I will be studying Physics with a Foundation Year at the University of Loughborough. For some people this might not be much of an achievement. However, for me this is an absolute dream come true without even considering my past.

I may continue to write my experiences through the foundation year and on to the main degree in a blog if there is a small amount of request for it.

University Update 1:
Having got my first set of results for semester 1 I can say I am doing well. I got 95% in my physics labs which is impressive as I only managed an E in them at A-level. Chemistry Labs I got 95%/95%/80%/80%. My Engineering report scored 94%. So far I believe I am averaging 89-90% across 12 pieces of marked work, I have not received my exam results yet.


Read This Before You Criticise My Choices:
Before I get shot down for
A) Doing a foundation year
B) Resitting a year
C) Not having A grades
D) Not going to a top 10 university


The point of this post was to emphasise that you dont need do well in your first set of exams to get where you want, if you put effort it you can get there it might just take a little longer.

Well to be fair, the foundation year is pretty straight forward. Certainly easier than A-level. First year hits A-level topics with slightly more complex concepts, but the work is hardly demanding or time consuming. Watch out for 2nd year. Good luck.