Rocky Journey to A* and A's at GCSE for a redeemed student(I hope)

Hi and welcome to my first ever thread!
My name is Tyra and I am currently a student at an all girls school.

I truly have high aspirations but my expectations do not match these aspirations..

My incremental motivator is the fact that I did not waste five years at secondary school to walk out with JUST C's (even though a C is NOT a bad grade) however, I must admit laziness is a flaw of mine.

I have had a extremely rough five years as I hung out with the wrong crowd (typical!) and ended up being deterred off the whole point of school - my education.
I made myself a promise in Year Ten to not get excluded and to get way higher than my predicted grades!

I first began to work on myself and my self esteem (which I think is very important btw- so believe in yourself!) to make sure I believed i could achieve more than a measly pass at GCSE! I am joining Grow Your Grades so I have something to work on whilst revising and working to my top, top grades. I also hope that by making this thread, my writing skills can be top notch, lool! (I promise I am not that annoying or cliche in real life)

Also, I did something quite risky... I applied for EXTREMELY selective sixth forms (e.g. Harris Westminster, Morris Williams, Woodhouse and Marylebourne) Harris Westminster are very picky as they need you to take an entrance examination as well as achieve A* to A's at GCSE.. :/

The subjects that I am doing for GCSE:
GCSE AQA Core Science (retaking, I got a C last year)

B1: got a B (aiming for an A)
C1: got a B (aiming for an A)
P1: got a D (don't laugh-aiming for an A!)

GCSE AQA Additional Science;

B2: got an A* last mock (aiming for an A*)
C2: got an A* last mock (aiming for an A*)
P2: got an A* last mock (aiming for a B, cause I suck at Physics)

GCSE Edexcel Maths;

Was a D- at the beginning of the year, now a C.
Aiming for an A

GCSE English Lit⟪

Working at a B - Aiming for an A*/A

GCSE French;

Working at a B (aiming for an A)

GCSE Drama;

Working at an A (and getting an A )

GCSE Geography;

Working at an A (aiming for an A*)

GCSE Religious Studies;

Working at an A/A* (aiming for A*)

AS Sociology;

Working at a B officially, but I'll be harsh on myself and say I am working on a C
(aiming for an A- since it's an AS)

I have made revision timetables - a handmade one and one that I made on GetRevising.com (wink wink) that I HARDLY FOLLOW.
I mean, my teachers go on about revision timetables, but I find it a waste of paper atm because I hardly use it. I just revise what I feel I am struggling with the most.
HowEVERRR,

Tyra's tips, tips, tips ( sourced from others also so meh)

1) I plan tomorrow, today! Which basically means that before bed, I analyse my productiveness and write down what I plan to do or revise tomorrow - and yes, I include EVERYTHING, such as if I am nipping out to get Subway, and just follow that from there.

2) Thomas Frank - a youtuber from the US of A - and also quite amazing. Yeah, I know, he's American and he did not do GCSE's buuutt, his tips still apply. Go and watch him and also read his free book.

3) Pomodoro Technique - google it.

4) Find out what type of learner you are (kinaesthetic, visual or auditory- do a test online) and use study techniques that best appeal to your type of learning.
I think I am visual and auditory so I make revision cards (for key words and facts), associate images to words and make stories of concepts. I also read out loud to myself in the stupidest voice ever, so in the exam I remember making that stupid noise and get an A!

5) Maybe you saw that I wrote the phrase, 'incremental motivator', and was about to ask me what it meant - I feel that it means finding something that can motivate you everyday. One specific thing, whether it is being able to answer a question on Hooke's law flawlessly, just do it. FIND SOMETHING THAT PROPELS YOU ENOUGH TO DISCIPLINE YOURSELF - something that pushes you to make the right choice.

6) Listen to music (it depends) I;ll talk more about it later

7) Spaced Repetition and PRACTISE, PRACTISE and PRACTISE exam questions

Sorry for the long speech, I'll update my tips for getting good grades as I go along ( still discovering myself lol) and support me on my rocky path to top grades,

P.S. Could anybody help me find a way to find a suitable place to revise (not the library, it's too far away and my house is extremely noisy as I have a sister and 4 younger brothers that have competitions to see who can disturb Tyra the best)

Thanks for reading x

You're right you do have high aspirations and not to be harsh but I don't think you'll achieve them.

I skimmed through it, do you have a TL;DR version?( too long; didn't read)

Anyway, any updates?

why don't you think she will achieve them? i think that she will.

You're right you do have high aspirations and not to be harsh but I don't think you'll achieve them.

I skimmed through it, do you have a TL;DR version?( too long; didn't read)

Anyway, any updates?

Hey there - I've only just come across this but I hope that you've stuck to your goals and that your exams are going well so far!
I have faith that you can get your As and A*s as long as you've put in the effort - any updates to see how you've got on?

Thanks! I've tried really hard to stick to my goals, but I'm finding it hard for maths to stay motivated, especially as it's next week Thursday (the exam)

The rest of my exams are great apart from AS sociology (as our teacher hasn't finished the course and we've had to do the exam regardless)

But I hope to achieve A/A*'s in everything else! How about you?

Aw that's good! And as for motivation, just imagine your results sheet in August and how happy you'd be to see loads of A*s and As, or how sad you'd be to see a load of Cs!

Yeah - I'm aiming for 7+A*s and the rest As, however I know I'm going to get a C in PE, my practical came out as an E and hopefully my theory is an A* (sat the exam today) to bring it up so that I at least pass. Good luck and well done on sitting an AS a year early, how come you were able to do that?

That's a great idea, should have done it sooner 😭😂 if I only got A/A*s I'd die, but alas, it can only be a dream I pursue for now.

Oh and that's great! 7A*s! Wow, well done and hope you did well in your exam, apparently it was quite good according to my friends?

Some people were given the option to do Latin, As film or As Economics in our school and I chose As Economics. However, it was dropped at the last minute and people who chose it were forced to do As sociology