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failing my yr 12 a levels

here's a quick summary of my academic life so far: my gcses are great, got 6s and 7s and 8s. im currently in year 12, and i hate everything about school. i've been failing all my subjects so far, and im very lazy and prone to procrastination. my AS exams start on the last week of June, so i have 11 weeks to prepare. however, it means i have 25 topics (for all of my subjects combined) to study before then, and since my results are already rubbish, i already know my predicted grade will be low if i dont get atleast As in my AS exams.

leading up to this though, i have been taking alot of detailed notes for each of my subjects, and it makes me very annoyed, since my notes are always perfect yet my test scores are always rubbish. it doesnt make sense to me. however, i believe it is too late to make new notes on absolutely everything, as it will take too much time for me to do.

my question is: how can i revise correctly to make sure my AS exam results are atleast As? can i even get all As at this rate since im already failing terribly? is there still hope? how do i manage work-life balance??
most importantly, what will happen if i fail my AS exams? will i not be able to do yr 13? im too scared to ask my teachers, since i dont want them thinking im stupid. im not stupid, im just very lazy.

please help me :frown:

Reply 1

alevelstudent090

what subjects do you study?

Reply 2

Carrotsroom

Hi, I'm a year 13 student so I might be able to offer some advice.
From what I've heard, you cant really fail Year 12, your teachers would just expect you to improve in Y13 when things get more serious. That said, Y12 content is the foundation for Y13 so it may be useful that you spend most of your summer to really strengthen this foundation otherwise you might struggle even more. I have a friend who got terrible grades in Y12, yet she was still able to continue onto Y13. Unless youre in Wales where they makes you retake the year if you fail, this is usually the case for england.
This might be obvious but if you have been taking notes and they've obviously not been working, then youre using the wrong technique to revise. You didnt mention what subjects you studied but for STEM subjects, just making notes is useless. Practicing exam questions regularly would be a much more effective technique as it is testing whether you actually understand the notes you have taken. Practicing exam questions will also help you get used to how they ask you the questions and what they expect as an answer- just making notes wont make you realise this.
However, I'm also a notes person, I love taking notes purely because it just organises all my knowledge into one place. Unlike yours, I wouldnt call my notes detailed, not my final ones anyways. I have a system where I write more detailed notes in a notebook and this will be the source of my summary notes- something I recommend making over the summer. Summary notes, in my case, is fitting around 2-3 small topics or 1-2 topics into one side of A4, the main point here is your writing your notes to the absolute minimum. What you wrote for one page of an A4 notebook should take the maximum of 1/4 or less of the A4 blank paper. This is more effective as A-levels arent just testing your knowledge like GCSEs did, they are testing how well you can link topics (for essay subjects) and analyse them which you wont get from detailed notes.
11 weeks in plenty of time to get back on track. You need to prioritise the subject youre doing worst in first, I would recommend making a brief schedule to revise every topic across your subjects dedicating a certain time to them eachday so that youre not neglecting the other subjects too. If you're struggling with motivation, thats unfortunately not something I can help with as thats down to your own work attitude- do you really want those As or are you wasting time by procrastinating where you couldve been studying a topic that is very likely to turn up in your exams? If youre distracted by your phone, I recommend apps like YPT and Flora.
Managing your work life balance is equivalent to managing your time. Making the schedule I mentioned should help with this as well as motivate you since you'll know what to cover each day. It can be as simple as 7 boxes to represent one week and within the boxes you could write (I'll use economics, maths, chemistry as examples to have a mix) Economics- Types of markets (45mins), Maths- exam questions on trigonometry (1hr), Chemistry- blurt knowledge on alcohols. (25 mins). A plan like this just makes your life a whole lot easier, and you have an overview of how long you've studied too. Since you mentioned 25 topics, your schedule shouldnt be too hard to make, just remember to split the bigger topics into smaller bits so you dont overwhelm yourself.
Ultimately, its down to your mindset. If you dont want others to perceive you as stupid, then prove it- theres no point just saying it if you cant show it to be blatantly honest. Good luck :smile: