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Best 'Cramming' success story you know..

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Original post by KingStannis
I have a week to relearn Italian and German unification, and practice the exams. Also, I need to brush up my Tudor Knowledge.

I need to relearn Micro economics in this same week, and finish Macro by two weeks.

I need to revise Philosophy and ethics.

I need to learn my set/wide texts in English and practice the papers within two weeks.

So quite a lot. Apart from the Economics, I understood all of it when I did it, so the problem is quantity and exam technique at the minute. Still panicking though.

Oh wow, I wish you luck :tongue:

I have faith in you, you can do it :wink:
Original post by Top Queen
That is so amazing! What did you do to revise?

Aww :biggrin: just wrote notes out from my textbook :smile:

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Original post by Top Queen
What is the best result you've heard someone achieve in their A-Level results with a month or under revision.

Personally, mine is my brother. He started his Maths revision 16 days before the exam and got an A* in the A-Level.


I went to school in Canada so no A-Levels, but I've sat the Law Schools Admission Test and the Miller Analogies Test with no preparation at all and received high scores in both (153, above average, for the LSAT; and 450, a whopping 95th percentile, for the MAT).

I have received 94% and similar marks for an essay (to be done in two weeks) that was done during the course of one lunch hour at the pub---but that was only in subjects that I was passionate about, like English, French, Latin, Logic, and Law. Those last two worked together VERY well; Law trained me to look for holes in an argument, and Logic taught me how to find them.

For hard sciences like Bio and Chem, I had to do my homework to get a good mark (essentially, I had to practice turning a real-world situation into something I could work out with a calculator)... but I could still get a good mark.

For soft sciences like Socio and Psycho (ESPECIALLY Socio)... forget it. And since soft sciences are a requirement for getting your Ontario High School Diploma, I blew it. Also, there is an ABSURD 40 hours of community service required. Criminals are supposed to do community service to pay back the people they injured. Do I look like a criminal? And also, PHUK the community.
Reply 62
Philosophy AS. I spent the whole year basically doing nothing whatsoever and did all my studying (teaching myself from scratch that is) the night before for both units. So basically about 7 hours for unit 1(january exam) and about 6 for unit 2 in may. Got A's in both.
Why do people get so hooked up on when you start revising?It may have been a bit like that at GCSE but at A-Level its more like a bit here and there not really got a revision timetable and I'm not sure whether you could say I have started or not.

I revised for about 3 and half hours on the first Monday in this half term holiday,4 hours on the secondary Monday of this half term holiday,1 hour yesterday and have attended a 3 hour revision session for Geography(Compulsory),have done 6 hours of revision sessions for Physics(Optional) and about 2 hours revision sessions for Maths(my Physics lecturer decided that it might be worthwhile doing Maths after a lot of Physics).Out of the time revising on my own I completed 2 past papers for Physics, 1 and a bit for Maths,revised Rivers and Coasts from CGP textbook completing the questions in my head for each section and looking at my notes for topics that don't seem there.

I do Maths,Further Maths,Geography and Physics.The week before I broke up I pretty much spent a lot of Friday night/ most of Saturday revising Mechanics 2 for further maths completing 2 papers.I have often revised for upcoming Geography in class topics looking at my notes and have done most of my revision for Geography across the year, revising just before i got to College, during dinner time etc a lot of the time I used this time to do my homework though.I have already completed all the Physics Unit past papers in my own time coming into College early one day and just doing loads in a row at home.I have done all my homework on time in good detail and have attended all lessons bar a 2 hour maths one, when I had to go to gets an echocardigram.

I probably could have got an A in all 3 of Physics,Maths and Further Maths without revising but I know that I need to revise to maximise marks because Cambridge want good UMS.However, Geography has loads of content and I don't understand how anyone could get an A in that without revising hard.In subjects that require a lot of skill like sciences you generally can get away with less or no revision and will be less likely to do well if you struggle with the subject but try hard and the opposite is true for essay subjects.
so much bs in one thread
Original post by Top Queen
What subjects did you do?

Well done!!!



Original post by Triumph_Turtle
Nicely done,what subjects?

OP,I usually 'peak' my knowledge of a subject when I revise constantly for about a week.I've only really been hardcore revising AS biology for the last two days and things are looking good.The problem is my exams are packed so close together so I don't have time to devote to only one subject.But yeah,I'm expecting four As.Maybe one or two Bs that I can push up at A2.



Economics (OCR), Politics (edexcel) and English Literature (AQA)

If anyone needs any help with how to do well on them feel free to pm me
Original post by mandem2k11
Economics (OCR), Politics (edexcel) and English Literature (AQA)

If anyone needs any help with how to do well on them feel free to pm me


I don't think your setting let people PM you so you might wanna change that :tongue: did you do AQA A or AQA B in English Lit? I don't know where to start and always feel like I'm doing too little for English lol :biggrin:
Original post by Lyla_Mikaeal
I don't think your setting let people PM you so you might wanna change that :tongue: did you do AQA A or AQA B in English Lit? I don't know where to start and always feel like I'm doing too little for English lol :biggrin:


are you sure?, i dont have any non pm settings. Erm well if it helps from GCSE to A Level i didnt read the books. Got two A* at GCSE and if i remember correctly like 5 marks off A* at A2.

I THINK it was AQA A but not sure, could you help me differentiate the two, i remember having to do elements of gothic, one of the other options was pastoralism

try pm'ing me again
Original post by mandem2k11
are you sure?, i dont have any non pm settings. Erm well if it helps from GCSE to A Level i didnt read the books. Got two A* at GCSE and if i remember correctly like 5 marks off A* at A2.

I THINK it was AQA A but not sure, could you help me differentiate the two, i remember having to do elements of gothic, one of the other options was pastoralism

try pm'ing me again


Idk why it's not letting me, all I can see are your 'Stats' :/ Wow that's amazing!!!! :biggrin: I'm doing AQA B and we choose between elements of the gothic and pastoral too! We're doing the gothic, what did you do? And did you do a coursework related to critical anthology?
Original post by Lyla_Mikaeal
Idk why it's not letting me, all I can see are your 'Stats' :/ Wow that's amazing!!!! :biggrin: I'm doing AQA B and we choose between elements of the gothic and pastoral too! We're doing the gothic, what did you do? And did you do a coursework related to critical anthology?


yh all that sounds v faimiliar. I definately did Gothic (Wuthering Heights and some other stuff)

ermm if your willing to leave your email adress here i could email you? Idk how else haha
Original post by mandem2k11
yh all that sounds v faimiliar. I definately did Gothic (Wuthering Heights and some other stuff)

ermm if your willing to leave your email adress here i could email you? Idk how else haha


We're doing Wuthering Heights too, The Bloody Chamber and Doctor Faustus. Ermm lol i don't think that's a good idea on a public forum but you can try PMing me?
Original post by P357
Philosophy AS. I spent the whole year basically doing nothing whatsoever and did all my studying (teaching myself from scratch that is) the night before for both units. So basically about 7 hours for unit 1(january exam) and about 6 for unit 2 in may. Got A's in both.


I revised MY ARSE off and got a D. Teach me the ways. :frown:
Original post by mandem2k11
yh all that sounds v faimiliar. I definately did Gothic (Wuthering Heights and some other stuff)

ermm if your willing to leave your email adress here i could email you? Idk how else haha



I am doing Wuthering heights too! CLUELESS.
Original post by mandem2k11
Economics (OCR), Politics (edexcel) and English Literature (AQA)

If anyone needs any help with how to do well on them feel free to pm me



I need an A in English, help me please?
Reply 74
Original post by Utterly-confused
I revised MY ARSE off and got a D. Teach me the ways. :frown:


Did you by any chance focus on just knowing the content really well?I know one girl in my year who did this-that is to say she practically knew every topic by heart-and came out with a B and C ..

I'd say,be thoroughly argumentative in your essays. Honestly you don't even need to know the entire content that your teacher gives you.
I went into those exams with MASSIVE gaps in my knowledge('cause let's face it,there's only so many pages you can cover within 6/7 hours).
The thing to do is to get acquainted with the general argument for each topic so that you can produce a logical solidly-argued essay.

Basically essay-writing skills trumps knowledge when it comes to achieving the higher grade in the exam itself. So my main advice to anyone actually doing philosophy would probably be to practice writing argumentative-type essays-i.e. focus 30% of your revision on studying the content and the other 70% on reproducing it into actual essays,ones that are argumentative and analytic and not just descriptive(so don't just say what one scholar said and then just juxtapose him to someone else,actually ANALYSE which is stronger etc etc etc )

My A's weren't super high to be perfectly honest because I lost marks in the first section(the 15 markers,where actual content knowledge is assessed),but I got really high scores on the 30 markers with minimal revision purely because i focused on building a solid argument that answered the question.
Original post by Utterly-confused
I need an A in English, help me please?


pm me
I started revising for my Psychology A2 exam two days before it. This was after being taught all the content in a two hour lesson a week before the exam because my teacher wanted us to sit the smaller A2 exam a year early so that we would have less to learn this year. I got an A :smile:

I also started revising for my religious studies A2 exams a week before the exams. I got a B in one and a C in the other which gave me a B overall. Not quite as impressive but I was proud considering I'd only done one essay for homework the entire year!


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I hope I pull this off with Economics(edexcel) Unut 1 and 2, anyone got any tips?
Reply 78
I hope people don't trawl through these cramming success stories and think they can leave it until last minute, because most ordinary human beings don't work well until such time constraints.

Myself personally, I find it a lot easier to cram than to spread out revision over weeks/months. I guess my brain is just weird! And when I say cram, I quite literally mean 36 hours straight revision, with 20 minute naps every 3 hours. Hardcore intensive note writing and cold sweats. It's no good for learning and actually knowing your stuff, but sadly most exams rely on your ability to regurgitate the textbook. In saying this, the majority of my friends have tried cramming before and utterly flopped, so instead study little bits, regularly.

May the odds be ever in your favour:smile:
(edited 9 years ago)
I crammed two gcse philosophy units in 45 minutes before the exams (the exams were together, so 2 hours of phil.) and got an A* in both, was very confused since all I did was BS, literally.

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