Bad AS results to great A2/A-levels results - success stories?

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I got the exact same grades this year for AS, BBCC, what were you able to get our teachers to predict you? I'm really worried I'll get low predictions even though I know that I just messed up with AS. I really want to go to a top university, mu unexpected AS results have got me very worried now...

I was targeted AAB, AS got me really stressed out so I knew I hadn't done as well as I should. I took resits alongside A2 and revised early. My teacher fell ill in December for IT, but I taught myself the AS again as well as the A2 and came out with A*. My advice is to keep stress levels down and revise early!

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Reply 261

username1256235

i got ACCD in my As i'm dropping the D so can i get ACC to AAB. the course i wish to study is not very competitive

Reply 262

ItsJustMe17

Original post by willwill123

i got ACCD in my As i'm dropping the D so can i get ACC to AAB. the course i wish to study is not very competitive

What course is it? :smile:

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Reply 263

username1256235

Original post by ItsJustMe17

What course is it? :smile:

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chemical physics A was in maths and Cs in chem and physics

Reply 264

Mar-Love-it

Original post by krishkmistry

i've just looked at my 'provisional' timetable and compared it to yours.Mine needs redesigning - yours is brilliant!

Haha I hope it helps. It's important that you're also flexible about what you want to do. I had shorter days on a Friday so I could go out and do something non academic but then make up for it during the week for example. You should also modify it if you need to. I found that I worked much better early in the mornings and subsequently sometimes started at 7 in the morning and either then finished 2 hours earlier or tried to do an extra hour or so to stay on top. The choice is yours. Either way I hope it helps. :smile:

Reply 265

falling

Original post by MerveA

That's an amazing success story i believe. I too have got a D for maths AS, do you know if your friend retook all maths modules? I've got all 3 exams a D in maths.. if she can do it, this news will really motivate me, and i really want to know if she retook all 3 along with A2 exams.. ?

Sorry for the late reply.
I'm not 100% sure if she took all 3- if she did, one them was a B/C so she was just pulling it up. She did 2 (or 1) in Jan and 1 in June, alongside her A2 modules. It's definitely doable if you're committed to working/not slacking off with revision and homework. And pay good attention to where you go wrong/if you're making careless mistakes. Best of luck!

Reply 266

unclekevo

January of AS our school entered us to do the AS English Literature exam, I really enjoyed English and worked hard at Christmas for the exam, the lowest I had got in practice essays was a high B so I felt I would be okay. My friend kept telling me he hadn't done enough work and was sure he'd fail. When the results came out in March, my friend got an A which I was over the moon about but I got a U. I don't want to sound big-headed but it just knocked me for six, a U is a grade you associate with literally doing no work whatsoever and flunking the exam, I had done a lot of work. A lot of people in my class did badly and were repeating but my confidence just fell to the floor, not even just in English, I just became really introverted for a good month after the results. I was nearly for dropping the subject and not even repeating but my friend (the one who got an A) wouldn't let me, he told me I was good at English and would be making a massive mistake. I repeated it in June of AS and got a high C, brought up to a B by coursework. I decided to keep it on for A Level but not to repeat again and try and bring it up with my A2 English Lit. Then in January of A2, I did my ICT paper and got a very high A, I had already finished my coursework by the time the results came out so I was free whenever ICT was in my timetable and I discussed with my English teachers and agreed to repeat for a second time. I won't lie, I think I probably did less work in the last week or so before the exam than the first two times but I changed my revision technique and did detailed poetry grids and essay plans as I was going along. I underwent a bit of a change personally between AS and A2 and was a lot more confident and outgoing so I didn't really worry about the exam that much. The exam went alright, it was actually harder than the A2 papers I had felt. Results came out a fortnight ago and not only did I get an A in English Lit overall, I actually managed to get 111/120 in my AS repeat. I'm not sure why it happened the first time around but that U made me work twice as hard for English Lit this year and thank god I have good friends because I would have dropped English Lit if it hadn't been for my friend being such a good mate and basically telling me he would kill me if I dropped it! Haha

To any AS students: Seriously, if you received a bad grade in your results don't worry, you CAN bring it up. Even if you feel that you did a lot of work for the exam, perhaps it wasn't how hard you worked but how you worked? I know that changing my exam technique that little bit clearly did all the difference, the level of work I did for my AS repeat in A2 year was probably less than the first two attempts but what I did do was a more beneficial way to revise or so I found anyway!

Reply 267

samuni

If only we had January resits :frown:

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Reply 268

Procrastinator13

I got really bad grades and decided to retake some exams including my English but I'm unsure which ones, I need at least a B in English language and lit so far I have achieved a C. In my LL1 as exam I got 71= D (1 mark of a c) and in in my A2 exam I got a C and was 13 marks of a B. If I retake LL4 and get a B or higher would my overall A-level grade be a B? Or would I be better of retaking both exams? Thanks in advance!

Reply 269

username1258931

Original post by PythianLegume

I've never heard of anyone going from a C to an A*, but I'm sure it's happened and C to A must be fairly common, especially with retakes.

I would have thought C to A would be less common as you can only get it from retakes really as to pull a C up to an A you need over the 90% ums at A2 needed to get an A* overall

Reply 270

Carnationlilyrose

Original post by Nicole14510

I would have thought C to A would be less common as you can only get it from retakes really as to pull a C up to an A you need over the 90% ums at A2 needed to get an A* overall

A student of mine went from D at AS to A* at A2, but this was in the days of January resits and he sticks in my mind because it was so unusual.

Reply 271

username878045

Original post by Nicole14510

I would have thought C to A would be less common as you can only get it from retakes really as to pull a C up to an A you need over the 90% ums at A2 needed to get an A* overall

Most people trying to go from C to A would be re-taking, though. And I'm assuming that most of them wouldn't be capable of A* grades.

Reply 272

tgwktm

do you think it is possible to get from ABC at As to AAB at A2?

Reply 273

ItsJustMe17

Original post by tgwktm

do you think it is possible to get from ABC at As to AAB at A2?

That's exactly what I got! What subjects did you get them in though and what do you wanna do at uni?

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Reply 274

tgwktm

Original post by ItsJustMe17

That's exactly what I got! What subjects did you get them in though and what do you wanna do at uni?

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psychology I got an A geography was a A ( didn't mean to say B I meant A) and English was an C I want to do geography at uni, my teacher said I am capable of an A*. the geography grade was a low A though.

Reply 275

IBMum

Original post by Tha Realest

In Wales : after January 2014, there will be no further January assessment opportunities.

Rung WJEC today. Welsh students doing WJEC Board are able to do retakes of their AS exams in January 2014.

Reply 276

Tha Realest

Original post by IBMum

Rung WJEC today. Welsh students doing WJEC Board are able to do retakes of their AS exams in January 2014.

Ok cool - they're lucky :colone:

Reply 277

Procrastinator13

Original post by Procrastinator13

Please can anyone answer this

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Reply 278

livealittle

Original post by nukethemaly

For any science students (especially Biology and chemistry) and Maths, it's very very easy to be hard-working and knowing your stuff, but still ending up on a C, what AS students don't realise is how big a jump A-levels are from GCSEs (especially in terms of marking). A-levels don't just require knowledge, they require tactics, you need to understand WHAT the question in your exam paper is asking and HOW you should answer it. So it's not about what you know, it's about WHERE you put it and HOW you present it! Exam technique is really important as well as knowing your specification inside out!

This is what I did to go from DDDE to A*A*AA:

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Keep yourself organised, don't set yourself the amount of hours you'd revise in an evening, instead set yourself targets (say to yourself "okay I'm going to finish making notes for this chapter today") and stick to them!

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Make notes according to your exam board's specification. Honestly literally know your specification inside out. This is especially important for anyone doing OCR chemistry and Edexcel Biology.

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For maths: I used examsolutions and I did textbook chapters a lot before starting on past papers to make me confident. After I did past papers I tallied which topics I kept losing marks on then I looked up questions in past papers specific to that topic and did them all!

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For Edexcel Biology, the examiner reports are a BIG life-saver. They not only show you the answers previous candidates have written but also how many marks they achieved for it (these can be found on the official Edexcel website). Biology mark schemes are usually very basic, so examiner reports help you in perfecting your exam technique

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For OCR chemistry: I did OCR (B) so this is what I used: http://www.rswebsites.co.uk/science/Documents/A%20Level%20Chemistry/Chemistry%20Past%20Papers/Index.htm, I literally did every past paper ever. With OCR chemistry you'll slowly start to understand that their papers are really repetitive but their mark schemes are REALLY specific. So it's a good idea to memorise the big 6 markers for which the mark scheme never changes. Also, if you can find yourself something similar to what that link has to offer then that would be helpful!

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Obviously, give yourself a break every now and again, but don't keep delaying targets. You don't want work piling up.

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Get your teachers to mark your past papers as much as possible.

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Watch YouTube videos for anything you don't quite understand in Biology or chemistry (you'd be surprised at the amount of education crap on YouTube)

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I cannot stress enough how important it is for you to make your own notes. I mean, it's good to find online notes, but reading through them didn't really help me a big deal.

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Try CGP revision guide for Edexcel Biology, they really did help me, but NEVER rely on revision guides to cover everything (especially for OCR Chemistry). Make sure you look through the specification and tick off stuff that you know!

That's all I can think of right now, sorry it's a lot of reading but I hope it helps someone.

Thankyou so much got this .I got bbbd (AS) in bio ,chem ,psychology and maths.i don't know how on earth I got C (C1) & D (C2) &E (S1) .I saw that E coming .
I think the mistake I made was not looking at the maths specification.i didn't even know ocr had one -.- :colondollar:

.I love c1 &c2 hopefully I will turn the D into B or above.My revision and exam techniques are just .....(no comment)
Thankyou &well done on the A*A*AA :biggrin:

.Can I Pm you? :smile:

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Reply 279

nukethemaly

Original post by livealittle

.I love c1 &c2 hopefully I will turn the D into B or above.My revision and exam techniques are just .....(no comment)
Thankyou &well done on the A*A*AA :biggrin:

.Can I Pm you? :smile:

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