U In AS Physics To Studying Theoretical Physics At Durham University

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How's you're degree going now may i ask? do you recommend Durham, and how come you chose it over Manchester?

This thread is the follow up to my first thread regarding what to do if you have poor A-levels. I have wrote this after I completed my foundation year, when I decided that my grades were good enough to justify me moving to a better university for physics.



Educational Background: Poor GCSE's and A-level Results

My educational background is hardly something to boast about, if anything it is borderline poor/average and terrible for TSR's standards. At GCSE I have only 1 A grade, the rest are a mixture of mainly B and C grades or D and E grades in the subjects I am weaker at, such as English. I decided to do A-level Physics, Mathematics, Geography and Business.

A-levels did not go well for me, reflecting back, I failed to understand many concepts in mathematics and physics early on and quickly became overwhelmed with the content resulting in my grades being poor and losing a lot of interest in the subject. I was advised to not take mathematics at A-level as my teachers through I would struggle to cope. I often did not learn topics I really struggled with as I was in the mind-set that I was not aiming for an A grade, hence I can skip these questions, this certainly did not help.

My first set of AS results were expected. I did fairly poorly across the board and I achieved U in mathematics, U in physics, D in business and C in geography. I immediately decided to drop physics, advised by my teachers that I had no real future in physics so it would be best to drop the subject now before it gets even harder. I would most definitely not cope if I couldn't do the simple fundamentals.

My poor results were partly due to poor understanding at GCSE, and lack of learning technique. I went into A-level mathematics not knowing what a quadratic was, not knowing how to solve equations, among many other basic mathematical operations. I had no idea how to solve most of the problems. I decided to stick with mathematics.

My final AS exam results were equally as bad. I received An E in mathematics, U in business and C in geography. My final AS results on first sitting were as follows.

Physics U
Mathematics E
Geography C
Business E or U



Educational Background: Doing a Third Year Of A-levels

At this point, with only poor results to my name I was very demotivated and no longer wanted to continue education. I constantly thought about dropping out however, my parents forced me to stay in education and reluctantly resat my AS year.

I certainly worked harder this time, and to an extent knew what to expect. I still found it hard but my A-levels had improved slightly and I decided to swap business for psychology. After my AS exams I received something along the line of these grades.

Physics D
Mathematics C
Geography (A2) C
Psychology (AS) C

In my A2 year I worked immensely hard in physics, I did every question in the book and spent hours a day working on problems. At this point I had only mathematics and physics to focus on. My mathematics had improved and my physics understanding was at its pinnacle. With renewed motivation I felt ready for my first set of exams. This was short-lived as I crumbed in the physics exam, which really demotivated me as I worked so hard and did so well in mock tests. I ended up walking out with an E in the physics exam. To ease the blow I found out I got a C in core 3 mathematics which I thought I had completely bottled.

I entered my final set of A2 exams knowing that I only needed ~25% for a C in mathematics but a lot more in physics. I worked my absolute backside off in the final months and managed to raise my working grade and mock results to an A grade. Thats right, an A grade in the final hardest module in physics. In the final exam I got a B grade, and resat the first unit and got an A.

my results were high enough for me to leave college after 3 years with

Mathematics C
Physics C
Geography (A2) C
Psychology (AS) C

So poor/average results depending on whose standards you go by. With limited options I decided to apply for a 'Science Foundation Year' At Liverpool, Sussex and Loughborough universities. I felt this would be a good choice if I could match or exceed the motivation I had in my final months of physics.



Education At University: Studying A Foundation Year

For those who do not know what a foundation year is I will briefly explain. A foundation year is an additional year taken prior to the main degree. It is often taught at university, by lecturers and you have access to all the university facilities. People take foundation years for numerous reasons which include poor results like mine, taking the wrong subject combinations or holding no formal qualifications. On satisfactory completion of the foundation year progression into the main degree at the designated university.

In a last minute risky decision I opted to study physics with a foundation year at Loughborough. I got a lot of stick for choosing a foundation year. My friends were studying main degrees and often held negative inferior views about a foundation year but I hardly had many options. I put up with the negativity towards foundation years and persevered.

At Loughborough I completely revamped my academic technique and worked harder, far harder than I had ever done before. I will not go into much detail, but I took every piece of work seriously and anything I was weak at I worked on until it was my strength. All the hundreds of hours of effort I put into my work really paid off. My results were far higher than everyone else’s, even the people who had A/B grades and decided to do a foundation year for Various reasons.

My first semester results were as follows

Physics 92%
Mathematics 95% (98% in the exam)
Other modules 75%/86%/91%

These results were some of the highest ever recorded and the highest on the course of 140 people. Which is very impressive considering I joined the foundation year on the bare minimum requirements. With this academic potential I spoke to my course director, who was impressed with my results. I at this point expressed my intentions that I wanted to move university. I applied to some of the top physics courses still available through UCAS, but this was after the deadline so many places were no longer accepting applications.

I continued my work ethic through to my second semester. In this semester my results further improved. my physics laboratory grades improved and I got 100% in my experiments and formal report. This is an absolutely massive improvement on the E grade I got for my physics laboratory experiments at A-level. Overall I turned by weakness of laboratory experiments into my strength, I got 95% overall across 14 experiments, some physics and some chemistry which I had not done before.

My second semester results were as follows

Physics 92%
Mathematics 95% (96% in the exam)
Other modules 83%/88%/90%

Once again, these results were the highest and I was awarded the prestigious award for the highest foundation year results. Ecstatic with these results after being told I could not achieve this.

This leaves me in our current position, just after I have received my results.



Education At University: Applying Through UCAS With Foundation Year Results

I submitted applications to 2 of the best universities for physics which had far higher A-level requirements however, they do accept a foundation year as a recognised access route.

Manchester (A*AA) said they would accept me if I received 80% in Mathematics 1&2 and Physics 1&2 and 75% overall. I really wanted to go to Durham, however they closed applications some time ago but wouldn't accept any new ones. Just as a stroke of luck one day while checking UCAS Durham had vacancies for both physics and theoretical physics.

Optimistic at even thinking to apply with my 'poor' GCSE and A-levels I knew that Durham has a reputation for being strict on grades in GCSE, reinforced by the horror stories i've read on TSR. I submitted an application expecting a straight out rejection due to me having only done 'well' in one year of my academic life and poorly in the rest.

Durham took some time to reply, around 1-1.5 months. When I saw UCAS had changed I was expecting the worst in all honesty. No, Offer! I had received an offer from Durham university for both physics and Theoretical physics. This offer I had already met the requirements for so I effectively had an unconditional offer to study at Durham.



The Key To My Success: My Academic Reference And Foundation Year Results

Often I am asked 'How did you do it?'. To put it quite simply I felt that the reason that I got offers from both Durham and Manchester was almost entirely down to my academic reference being exceptionally strong (given my situation) and the results I had attained in my first Semester Results. To emphasise how good my academic profile was when I studied a foundation year I have included them. I decided to include them to give other students an indication as to how strong my academic profile was.


Semester 1 Module Results (Average Results)
Applicable Mathematics 1 - 95%
Basic Physics and Materials - 92%
Foundations of Physical Chemistry 1 -75%
Introduction Into Engineering Science: Applied Mechanics - 91%
Learning and Communications - 86%


Semester 2 Module Results (Average Results)
Applicable Mathematics 2 - 95%
Physics B - 92%
Introduction Into Engineering Science: Energy and Power - 88%
Materials and Materials Processing - 83%
Project B - 90%

Foundation Year Average Result - 89.5%


As you can see my results were both strong and consistent. Oddly, I did better in my second semester which personally was much harder than the first. The only explanation I have for this is the fact I spent a considerable amount of time analysing my strengths and weaknesses from the first semester to build an even stronger approach to academia.



An Adaptation of My Academic Reference Written By The SEFS Program Director





Educational Future: Self Reflection and Thoughts

I really cannot describe how happy I feel, I still do not quite comprehend that I'll be studying physics at Durham University this September. Finally, I have something to be truly proud of after being told I had no hope with physics at high education by both teachers and students, after being told how foundation years are inferior and I should not do one, too look back at all those who ever put me down and say I have received an offer from such a prestigious university for a subject I was told I had no hope at studying, it feels amazing. I can now answer those critics and say 'who goes to a better university now?'.

I do not want this feat to come across easy, or a foundation year a guaranteed access into a prestigious university. To achieve what I did on my course was exceptionally rare, only possible with intense amounts of time dedicated to study. I entered the foundation year with the minimum requirements and left with not only the highest results in the year, I also had the highest ever recorded results. Many students who entered with high grades underachieved on the foundation year but did enough to progress. To achieve the grades I did I worked consistently hard and dedicated many hours a week to my studies. Every academic weakness I had I put hours into study until said topic I not only understood, but it was also my strength.

Thank you for the time reading this, I hope this post inspires others that you can go to a top university from a poor academic background with the right amounts of motivation and work.

For anyone who is interested, I have taken a picture of some of my results and my UCAS track. The results are my first set of maths results before I resat the year and my physics results after I dropped physics and decided to try it again.

Just stumbled across this, First off congrats, second off - how are you finding it?! I assume you're now at the end of your first year?

OP, this thread was an incredibly interesting read.

I'm now at the end of my AS year and am very confused hoping somebody could help me out. In January I failed Maths Physics and Geography. I retook them in May and I think I done slightly better but not good enough to get into a top university such as Durham, which is what I'm aiming for.

I was hoping to be some sort of engineer but maths and physics this year have totally out me of it so that leaves me with Computer Science, which is something else that I'm interested in.

It's too late for me to apply to do a foundation year so I have to wait until next year, I should have applied months ago. That leaves me with either studying BTEC IT, which top universities aren't too keen on, or, retaking my AS levels, which is the last thing I want to do because I've hated this year so much.

OP has seemed to gotten out of his mess pretty well and I was hoping somebody could advise me on how to get out of my mess!
Opinions?


Posted from TSR iPad. Don't judge me by my red gems

He's banned...

He's banned...

Oh, I didn't notice. Thanks.

Well he's back under another username on here. He posted on this page

Oh, I didn't notice. Thanks.

Oh, I didn't notice. Thanks.

that was creepy.

Just stumbled across this, First off congrats, second off - how are you finding it?! I assume you're now at the end of your first year?

so inspirational

what did you get in your first year exams?

To save you the trouble of sifting through the thread, he got 62.

what classification is that?