How to get A's at A-Level?! Tips and Tricks?! What do I need to do?!

I am not naturally smart! It really annoyed at me at GCSE when people could get straight A's and A*'s without even putting that much effort. With me, I have to work 10 times harder than some of my friends to achieve good grades. I am not the smartest but not the dumbest... I would say I am pretty average but I do try very hard! I got pretty decent grades at GCSE. A's and B's with a few C's! I am finding AS already pretty challenging and already feel as if I am going to FAIL. I really really want to do well this year ( A's and B's) so I can get the predictions I need to get into an amazing UNI!

Any tips and tricks for my AS year?! When should I start revising?!

Thanks.

By the way,

I study English Lit, Psychology, Media Studies and French.
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Reply 1

loperdoper

15

I only did Media Studies of that list, and my advice is to do the absolute best that you can in the coursework, because your exam is likely to let you down.
Make sure your teacher marks your work quickly (mine took ten weeks to get back to me), pester them on how to improve, and just work solidly at it for as long as you can bear it. If you still like your work at the end of it, you haven't worked on it enough.

Reply 2

xoflower

14

I feel the same way as you. Some people barely did sht in year 11 and still did well! They might be telling lies to seem cool

I'm starting revision now because I know that if I don't, I will fail

I'm gonna recap topics every 2 weeks.

Reply 3

coffeeandcats

7

I am doing Psychology and English Lit at A2. For Psychology, revise as you go along, otherwise the studies won't get into your head enough. Make sure you re-read your notes and colour code them (I seperate mine into important information, psychologists' names and dates with highlighters). Before my exams I just filled A3 sheets of paper with all the information from the textbook and my notes for each topic, and got an A. With English, do your coursework properly early so you have time to tweak it and ask your teachers for spoken advice about drafts, as they're supposedly only meant to give written feedback on one. Reread the books you're set and learn specific quotes and criticisms. :smile:

Reply 4

Alexsixthformer

OP

Original post by coffeeandcats

I am doing Psychology and English Lit at A2. For Psychology, revise as you go along, otherwise the studies won't get into your head enough. Make sure you re-read your notes and colour code them (I seperate mine into important information, psychologists' names and dates with highlighters). Before my exams I just filled A3 sheets of paper with all the information from the textbook and my notes for each topic, and got an A. With English, do your coursework properly early so you have time to tweak it and ask your teachers for spoken advice about drafts, as they're supposedly only meant to give written feedback on one. Reread the books you're set and learn specific quotes and criticisms. :smile:

Thank you so much. This was very useful. Should I go over topics after I have learnt them? How did you deal with the revision period of AS? Also, emotionally how did you find AS?

Reply 5

aaron133

2

Original post by xoflower

I feel the same way as you. Some people barely did sht in year 11 and still did well! They might be telling lies to seem cool

I'm starting revision now because I know that if I don't, I will fail

I'm gonna recap topics every 2 weeks.

If you're starting to do revision now, then try not to do too much or you will 'burn yourself out'. I made that mistake last year! I did so much work between September - January I had no motivation to revise for exams. I would revise like a day or too before, I still got decent grades (AABB) but I could have done better if I had done more work before the exams.

Reply 6

blondelocks

12

Original post by aaron133

If you're starting to do revision now, then try not to do too much or you will 'burn yourself out'. I made that mistake last year! I did so much work between September - January I had no motivation to revise for exams. I would revise like a day or too before, I still got decent grades (AABB) but I could have done better if I had done more work before the exams.