I have wasted 2 years of my life and need help.
For past 2 years I’ve been studying maths, physics and computer science. Physics I never have done good in, in a levels not improved at all, always getting E grades. Maths I’ve got D-B grades. And computer science which I want to go into I have been getting Bs (9/12 markers loosing me a lot of marks).
I try to do a lot of revision for physics but due to zero progress I have started to give up and loose hope.
Computer science I spent a lot of time on my course work but it is really poor and messy. Teacher has said it would be an E grade
. I have added everything he has told me to but the quality is lacking. Even when I do add stuff to it he repeats that it needs to be added. There was pretty much zero help and guidance. A friends teacher has been more lenient with their grading, then missing out two vital parts of the coursework but still getting higher, which is fair as their quality is probably better than mine. Also with the coursework I have spent a very long time on it. Started it may/June last year and “finished” it in march. But it’s only worth 20% of the grade which doesn’t itself seem right, as you can get an A on both papers, get an E/U on coursework and still pretty much get a B final grade.
I really want to go into computer science in some area. Cyber security, software development or some other field there. I have gotten a conditional offer of CCC for Birmingham City University but I’m very doubtful probably BDE/BCU/CDU I really don’t know what I’m going to get but it’s not going to help me. I didn’t apply anywhere else due to them all being higher or the same requirements. I don’t know what to do for an apprenticeship there’s so many options and don’t know even if I’ll get accepted for one of those because of competition.
I want to revise but, with no progress in actual exams it’s worrying me. I can do questions at home or non exams fine, even when doing them in the exam conditions.
EDIT: Coursework is stressing me out as teacher makes it seem like it’s all or nothing. And when I say revising, I don’t even know if I was doing it properly, never had to revise in GCSE, did fine without needing to + we didn’t do real exams. Never thought I would get this stressed and emotional about exams.
Can someone give me advice please i don’t know what to do at all.
I try to do a lot of revision for physics but due to zero progress I have started to give up and loose hope.
Computer science I spent a lot of time on my course work but it is really poor and messy. Teacher has said it would be an E grade
. I have added everything he has told me to but the quality is lacking. Even when I do add stuff to it he repeats that it needs to be added. There was pretty much zero help and guidance. A friends teacher has been more lenient with their grading, then missing out two vital parts of the coursework but still getting higher, which is fair as their quality is probably better than mine. Also with the coursework I have spent a very long time on it. Started it may/June last year and “finished” it in march. But it’s only worth 20% of the grade which doesn’t itself seem right, as you can get an A on both papers, get an E/U on coursework and still pretty much get a B final grade. I really want to go into computer science in some area. Cyber security, software development or some other field there. I have gotten a conditional offer of CCC for Birmingham City University but I’m very doubtful probably BDE/BCU/CDU I really don’t know what I’m going to get but it’s not going to help me. I didn’t apply anywhere else due to them all being higher or the same requirements. I don’t know what to do for an apprenticeship there’s so many options and don’t know even if I’ll get accepted for one of those because of competition.
I want to revise but, with no progress in actual exams it’s worrying me. I can do questions at home or non exams fine, even when doing them in the exam conditions.
EDIT: Coursework is stressing me out as teacher makes it seem like it’s all or nothing. And when I say revising, I don’t even know if I was doing it properly, never had to revise in GCSE, did fine without needing to + we didn’t do real exams. Never thought I would get this stressed and emotional about exams.
Can someone give me advice please i don’t know what to do at all.
(edited 1 year ago)
I can't speak for your other subjects but I do a-level maths too so I might be able to offer some advice. Your revision methods are super important. If they don't work and give you progress you need to change it- similarly to if you don't like a portion of food then change it.
You always have the choice to take another year of a-levels and do a course in one year if that's something you might consider if you don't get the grades you hoped for and there's also the choice of clearing universities after results day. However these are final considerations if nothing else works!
In terms of maths revision, nothing is better than just to do exam questions, Obviously you wont be able to do them if you never understood it in the first place so youtube is a great place to start. I'm assuming you do edexcel but this would still apply to other exam boards. TL maths, Khan academy and the examples in the pearson notebook is a great place to start. The crucial thing is to consider why they are doing what they do in every line of the working and understanding why they have used the certain method. If you just try a question nd watch a video and just copy without understanding it, then your efforts will probably go to waste. The thing about Maths is that there are patterns. SO many topics and chapters are asked in a very similar way and unless there's a new spec, those types of questions wont change. Thats why top students will only use exam questions and past papers as their only form of revision because this gets them used to the questions and how to answer them. Many times, questions are similar but the context is different. Different exam boards ask questions differently and that's actually the beauty of it since if you get your head around it, it will give you that ahh o get it moment.
Ultimately start dedicating at least 50% of your day to studying and revising.
As for your CS teacher, I would say all they're doing is pinning your confidence down. I never had and never will take advice from a teacher on how to study as this is different from everyone. For example, I love taking notes since its organises everything in my head but every teacher will say just taking notes is pointless yet I have been their top student since I started their class! So definitely don't always take advice from them as they don't know you. The only good piece of information they will provide you is the feedback on your work. They will probably tell you what you need to improve on and try to tell you what to do too. I advise the only thing you take away is the points that outline what you need to improve on and figure the best way of studying this. Summary sheets (kind of like mindmaps but more organised) are really useful for essays like your 9 and 12 markers as they are knowledge based. You can try it out but it depends on your ability to remember things- try visual learning too (ie with colours and pictures), you might not see much change as you wont realise it works/wont works unless your tested on it. Remember, you don't need to just be tested by teachers, you can ask friends and family too! (you can ask your teacher for more exam practice if the pressure and stress is the thing causing you to not do so well on actual exams, I know many people who do well in classes and outside but just the pressure, stress and environment of exams can knock them down pretty quickly)
Ultimately the most vital thing is time management. Since you have coursework on your hands, it will be really useful to get a schedule up. It can be as simple as 7 boxes representing one week and 2 or 3 words for something you will want to do for that day. What I like to do is give 1 day leeway incase I overestimate myself, essentially creating my own deadline. Just giving yourself an overview of what your week is going to be like can get you back on track super quickly- but you'll have to persevere.
I cant speak much for physics but I imagine it will be similar for maths as it apparently is a lot of the mechanics side.
But, I hope you are successful and good luck
You always have the choice to take another year of a-levels and do a course in one year if that's something you might consider if you don't get the grades you hoped for and there's also the choice of clearing universities after results day. However these are final considerations if nothing else works!
In terms of maths revision, nothing is better than just to do exam questions, Obviously you wont be able to do them if you never understood it in the first place so youtube is a great place to start. I'm assuming you do edexcel but this would still apply to other exam boards. TL maths, Khan academy and the examples in the pearson notebook is a great place to start. The crucial thing is to consider why they are doing what they do in every line of the working and understanding why they have used the certain method. If you just try a question nd watch a video and just copy without understanding it, then your efforts will probably go to waste. The thing about Maths is that there are patterns. SO many topics and chapters are asked in a very similar way and unless there's a new spec, those types of questions wont change. Thats why top students will only use exam questions and past papers as their only form of revision because this gets them used to the questions and how to answer them. Many times, questions are similar but the context is different. Different exam boards ask questions differently and that's actually the beauty of it since if you get your head around it, it will give you that ahh o get it moment.
Ultimately start dedicating at least 50% of your day to studying and revising.
As for your CS teacher, I would say all they're doing is pinning your confidence down. I never had and never will take advice from a teacher on how to study as this is different from everyone. For example, I love taking notes since its organises everything in my head but every teacher will say just taking notes is pointless yet I have been their top student since I started their class! So definitely don't always take advice from them as they don't know you. The only good piece of information they will provide you is the feedback on your work. They will probably tell you what you need to improve on and try to tell you what to do too. I advise the only thing you take away is the points that outline what you need to improve on and figure the best way of studying this. Summary sheets (kind of like mindmaps but more organised) are really useful for essays like your 9 and 12 markers as they are knowledge based. You can try it out but it depends on your ability to remember things- try visual learning too (ie with colours and pictures), you might not see much change as you wont realise it works/wont works unless your tested on it. Remember, you don't need to just be tested by teachers, you can ask friends and family too! (you can ask your teacher for more exam practice if the pressure and stress is the thing causing you to not do so well on actual exams, I know many people who do well in classes and outside but just the pressure, stress and environment of exams can knock them down pretty quickly)
Ultimately the most vital thing is time management. Since you have coursework on your hands, it will be really useful to get a schedule up. It can be as simple as 7 boxes representing one week and 2 or 3 words for something you will want to do for that day. What I like to do is give 1 day leeway incase I overestimate myself, essentially creating my own deadline. Just giving yourself an overview of what your week is going to be like can get you back on track super quickly- but you'll have to persevere.
I cant speak much for physics but I imagine it will be similar for maths as it apparently is a lot of the mechanics side.
But, I hope you are successful and good luck
(edited 1 year ago)
Original post by CiscoRouter
For past 2 years I’ve been studying maths, physics and computer science. Physics I never have done good in, in a levels not improved at all, always getting E grades. Maths I’ve got D-B grades. And computer science which I want to go into I have been getting Bs (9/12 markers loosing me a lot of marks).
I try to do a lot of revision for physics but due to zero progress I have started to give up and loose hope.
Computer science I spent a lot of time on my course work but it is really poor and messy. Teacher has said it would be an E grade. I have added everything he has told me to but the quality is lacking. Even when I do add stuff to it he repeats that it needs to be added. There was pretty much zero help and guidance. A friends teacher has been more lenient with their grading, then missing out two vital parts of the coursework but still getting higher, which is fair as their quality is probably better than mine. Also with the coursework I have spent a very long time on it. Started it may/June last year and “finished” it in march. But it’s only worth 20% of the grade which doesn’t itself seem right, as you can get an A on both papers, get an E/U on coursework and still pretty much get a B final grade.
I really want to go into computer science in some area. Cyber security, software development or some other field there. I have gotten a conditional offer of CCC for Birmingham City University but I’m very doubtful probably BDE/BCU/CDU I really don’t know what I’m going to get but it’s not going to help me. I didn’t apply anywhere else due to them all being higher or the same requirements. I don’t know what to do for an apprenticeship there’s so many options and don’t know even if I’ll get accepted for one of those because of competition.
I want to revise but, with no progress in actual exams it’s worrying me. I can do questions at home or non exams fine, even when doing them in the exam conditions.
EDIT: Coursework is stressing me out as teacher makes it seem like it’s all or nothing. And when I say revising, I don’t even know if I was doing it properly, never had to revise in GCSE, did fine without needing to + we didn’t do real exams. Never thought I would get this stressed and emotional about exams.
Can someone give me advice please i don’t know what to do at all.
I try to do a lot of revision for physics but due to zero progress I have started to give up and loose hope.
Computer science I spent a lot of time on my course work but it is really poor and messy. Teacher has said it would be an E grade
. I have added everything he has told me to but the quality is lacking. Even when I do add stuff to it he repeats that it needs to be added. There was pretty much zero help and guidance. A friends teacher has been more lenient with their grading, then missing out two vital parts of the coursework but still getting higher, which is fair as their quality is probably better than mine. Also with the coursework I have spent a very long time on it. Started it may/June last year and “finished” it in march. But it’s only worth 20% of the grade which doesn’t itself seem right, as you can get an A on both papers, get an E/U on coursework and still pretty much get a B final grade. I really want to go into computer science in some area. Cyber security, software development or some other field there. I have gotten a conditional offer of CCC for Birmingham City University but I’m very doubtful probably BDE/BCU/CDU I really don’t know what I’m going to get but it’s not going to help me. I didn’t apply anywhere else due to them all being higher or the same requirements. I don’t know what to do for an apprenticeship there’s so many options and don’t know even if I’ll get accepted for one of those because of competition.
I want to revise but, with no progress in actual exams it’s worrying me. I can do questions at home or non exams fine, even when doing them in the exam conditions.
EDIT: Coursework is stressing me out as teacher makes it seem like it’s all or nothing. And when I say revising, I don’t even know if I was doing it properly, never had to revise in GCSE, did fine without needing to + we didn’t do real exams. Never thought I would get this stressed and emotional about exams.
Can someone give me advice please i don’t know what to do at all.
Hi @CiscoRouter
Congratulations on receiving an offer from BCU. I just want to say that I understand how stressful this can be, whilst I was apply to University I found myself in a very similar situation due to unforeseen circumstances that halted my coursework. What I would recommend doing is going to speak with your teacher and explain that you want achieve this a CCC and how can they help you. This will show the teacher you have a plan for your future and need that guidance to get there. For revision tips I would recommend sitting down and open your coursework brief and make a list of the key topics and areas you need to focus on if you are unsure I would recommend asking a friend or a teacher. This will then give you a list to revise from. I would suggest writing notes on the topic and asking a friend or family member to as a few questions on the notes made, this will help with retaining the information. Finally I want you to breath and try not to stress the more you stress the more you panic and hardly any information you are revising will be remembered. Being a A-Level student who hasn't really experienced an exam environment can be hard but take a break for your own mental health and just try to stay calm. Good Luck with your exams and I hope everything goes well
Hope this helps!
Gurpej (Student Rep)
(edited 11 months ago)
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