Bad AS results to great A2/A-levels results - success stories?

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I would if I were you but it depends whether you think you can still get an A overall at the end of A2 without a resit. If you think your D was nowhere near what you were capable of then I some its best to resit and it shouldn't take away from revision for you A levels too much if you believe you are capable of much more than a D

Yeah your right , thanks :smile:

Reply 61

username1039383

i went from BCDD to A*AB. dropped one D (business) the other D became an A* as i put in a lot of work. the BC became A B

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 62

i-love-coffee

AS January grades: BBB
AS June grades: ACD

AS overall grades: ACC :/

Re-took AS in A2 January: changed my AS grades to ABB (woop!)

A2 January grades: AA
A2 June grades: AAB

Overall grades: ABB with one B 3UMS of an A - oh well, I'm off to study LLB Law at Sheffield! :biggrin:

How hard did I work to change them? After getting ACC in my AS year when I was predicted AAA I decided to stop going out and studied every day. Yep every fricken day.

AS - ABB
A2 - AAA

everythings possible! work hard, consistently throughout the year, don't leave it to april/may. ask teachers anything youre not sure about. best of luck.

Reply 65

leinad2012

Original post by The Velour Fog

I made sure to attend classes and display knowledge in class, completing homework and essays to a high-standard. I also requested extra essays to complete outside of class. I managed to get great grades in these, enough to ensure that the teacher knew I was capable of getting decent grades.

Ahhh ok, sounds like you deserved it! Did you submit your application late on (November time) or early? Just thinking how much time I'll have to show I'm willing to do the work

Reply 66

Mux123

Original post by Dursty

I did retake a year yes, although I did have some extenuating circumstances. I'm happy to show you my PS but i'm unsure if there could still be plagiarism issues, can anyone answer that?

There is no issue sharing personal statements with another, however there can be issues if a person does plagiarise the content within the personal statement. I assure you I will not plagiarise otherwise my ucas application will be red flagged.

Reply 67

Dani-Rose

AS June 2012 results: CCCU

The U was in maths which I dropped straight after, and the Cs were in psychology, history and politics.

A2 June 2013 results: AAB

A in history, psychology
B in politics

Reply 68

SyedaK

Original post by nukethemaly

During my AS year I got DDDE in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Maths. I was really lazy during my AS year and hardly put in any effort or attended lessons. Those results were a big wake up call. I started working harder, retook almost all my AS modules along with my A2, and I got my results back yesterday. I got A*A*AA in Maths, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics.

SO YOUR LIFE ISN'T OVER! You can still get the grades, you just need to be willing and hard-working.

I've just got my results yesterday and got BBDD (AS) i'm planning to retake the DD's but all my exams are in june obv. Would I be able to manage that.

Reply 69

Use Err Name

Original post by ItsJustMe17

Hey there I got my AS results ABCD yesterday in English lit&lang, Economics, History and biology respectively. Obviously dropping biology which I hated anyway but I was wondering if I still have a good chance of studying law at a really good uni? I'm definitely going to try much harder in A2 as I didn't really this year. I'm sacred I won't be predicted AAB/ABB which would mean not applying to unis I want?
Just feeling a bit disheartened so any advice is appreciated

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You should at least be predicted ABB, considering predictions are usually one grade above your AS results? I was luckily predicted AAB after some tactful pleas, which meant I secured all 5 offers. Don't feel disheartened though, if you don't get a uni that you like before your exams, clearing will more than likely have what you want providing you achieve at least abb. Resit what you feel is necessary, it'll only mean that you need to begin revising earlier in summer but it'll be worth it. I can't even describe the feeling that I had when I saw my firm confirmed on track yesterday morning. The 'hard work' (not as hard as I ought to have worked after my dreadful AS performance!) definitely paid off! Good luck :smile:

Reply 70

RoseBrilliante

Original post by so123

Hey guys,
In As mathematics I got both A's in C1 and C2 but in statistics i got a D so it all added up to a B. Do you think i should resit statistics to achieve an A?

I think you should: depends how far off an A overall you were. People (at least the ones at my sixth form) found stats(1) to be much more easier the second time they did it for some reason *shrug*

Reply 71

CupcakeFaerie

First ever AS exams I took I received CCEU (March 2011) Lots of retaking and a couple of years later, I came out of college with AAC and I'm off to do Psychology at Manchester :smile:

Reply 72

Lay-Z

ccdd(maths economics physics further maths) to AAB (maths economics physics)

Reply 73

yaboy

Im just wondering if you retake A2 can you still use the same Personal Statement you used the previous year or will they count that as plagiarism?

Reply 74

matt242o1552

I went from ACDE to A*AB :smile:

dropped the subject I got an E in, resat a couple of modules and did well in my A2 modules, chuffed! :biggrin:

(I study maths/further maths/physics)

Reply 75

nukethemaly

Original post by SyedaK

I've just got my results yesterday and got BBDD (AS) i'm planning to retake the DD's but all my exams are in june obv. Would I be able to manage that.

Those are good results, and yeah of course. I essentially did my AS and A2 in a year. So of course you can do it. And AS helps with A2 a lot, so it's good if you're retaking that means you're gonna be in practice. Most A2 units are synoptic, so that's an advantage too!

Reply 76

nukethemaly

For any science students (especially Biology and chemistry) and Maths, it's very very easy to be hard-working and knowing your stuff, but still ending up on a C, what AS students don't realise is how big a jump A-levels are from GCSEs (especially in terms of marking). A-levels don't just require knowledge, they require tactics, you need to understand WHAT the question in your exam paper is asking and HOW you should answer it. So it's not about what you know, it's about WHERE you put it and HOW you present it! Exam technique is really important as well as knowing your specification inside out!

This is what I did to go from DDDE to A*A*AA:

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Keep yourself organised, don't set yourself the amount of hours you'd revise in an evening, instead set yourself targets (say to yourself "okay I'm going to finish making notes for this chapter today") and stick to them!

•

Make notes according to your exam board's specification. Honestly literally know your specification inside out. This is especially important for anyone doing OCR chemistry and Edexcel Biology.

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For maths: I used examsolutions and I did textbook chapters a lot before starting on past papers to make me confident. After I did past papers I tallied which topics I kept losing marks on then I looked up questions in past papers specific to that topic and did them all!

•

For Edexcel Biology, the examiner reports are a BIG life-saver. They not only show you the answers previous candidates have written but also how many marks they achieved for it (these can be found on the official Edexcel website). Biology mark schemes are usually very basic, so examiner reports help you in perfecting your exam technique

•

For OCR chemistry: I did OCR (B) so this is what I used: http://www.rswebsites.co.uk/science/Documents/A%20Level%20Chemistry/Chemistry%20Past%20Papers/Index.htm, I literally did every past paper ever. With OCR chemistry you'll slowly start to understand that their papers are really repetitive but their mark schemes are REALLY specific. So it's a good idea to memorise the big 6 markers for which the mark scheme never changes. Also, if you can find yourself something similar to what that link has to offer then that would be helpful!

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Obviously, give yourself a break every now and again, but don't keep delaying targets. You don't want work piling up.

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Get your teachers to mark your past papers as much as possible.

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Watch YouTube videos for anything you don't quite understand in Biology or chemistry (you'd be surprised at the amount of education crap on YouTube)

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I cannot stress enough how important it is for you to make your own notes. I mean, it's good to find online notes, but reading through them didn't really help me a big deal.

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Try CGP revision guide for Edexcel Biology, they really did help me, but NEVER rely on revision guides to cover everything (especially for OCR Chemistry). Make sure you look through the specification and tick off stuff that you know!

That's all I can think of right now, sorry it's a lot of reading but I hope it helps someone.

Reply 77

SyedaK

Original post by nukethemaly

Thanks so much. I'm seriously gonna start revising today!

Reply 78

username857429

I achieved BCC at AS, and brought it up to A*A*A in my A2.

With a lot of hard work, large improvements are possible! :biggrin:

Have to say the January modules helped to motivate me from the offset though.

Reply 79

Rahman96

Original post by Use Err Name

Did zero work at AS ---> BCC
Worked to probably 70% of my capability ---> ABB (C in AS History became an A at A2)

I'm sure I would've managed AAA had I worked better during both years, but I'm happy that I proved my teachers wrong (who discouraged me from aiming too high with my uni choices) and managed to get into a good uni for Law.