Can I achieve 3A*s at A-Level in 4 months?

Hi guys,
Bit of background knowledge. Last year I bummed off in my 1st year of A-Levels (if want for a better term). I hated college, struggled massively with motivation (to the point of considering dropping out) and my attendance was lying at around the 40% mark.
I have been playing a massive unfun, *****y game of catch-up for the last year as result. Procrastinate, work ridiculously hard, burn-out, hate college, don't attend.

Anywhoo, I am ridiculously motivated/scared now.
I want A*'s across all subjects come June...
Is it feasible?

I don't know if GCSE's are really indicative of anything with regards to A-Levels but I did well: 10A*s and an A
My current subjects are Chemistry, History and English Literature
And my current (respective) grades are: U, D/C and A*
English Lit isn't really a problem. I've gotten A*s consistently since starting the course; its just finding time to read supplementary texts that's the issue at the moment.
With regards to history and chemistry- although the grades shown don't instil great faith, I'm not entirely hopeless with chemistry. The results are mostly from a lack of revision and exam practise; but when working through papers I've found online with topic specific questions in an exam format, I'm understanding them completely. Just moreso a lack of application.

History is more to do with my lack of attendance: I have hardly any notes on the first section of the course (South Africa), raw knowledge of the USA section and a very scarce covering of the Tudor section.

With 4 months of persistent effort... do you realistically think that I would be able to achieve 3A*s?

And if so, do you have any tips that could help me with learning more efficiently?

Thanks :-)
Meg

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

EnglishNoobC

If you want me to lie an say "Yes, it's possible": Yes, it's possible.

If you want an honest answer: No.

But don't get your hopes down now. 3 A*s are very tough to achieve which is why uni's don't have an offer requiring A*A*A*. You have to be more realistic with your grades, and considering the level your grades are at and how much little time you have (Let's be honest you won't revise 4 months straight 12 hours a day... It's impossible), I'd say the highest you would be able to achieve is max 3 As.

Prove me wrong 😄

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 2

cero70

Its do able
Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, prove this geyser who commented before that it is , there is no substitute for hard work , work like crazy for these 4 months and 3A*s are achievable, that is more then enough time to revise , I know people who startEd 2 months before and got A*A*A and they were smart but you seem like it too , your gcse's show that , make a plan , wake up at 6am every mourning do 2 hours revision before school/college , find a efficient way to revise , get your notes done fast then focus on learning them , I am going to try to get 3A*s myself this year , I won't let anything stop me , stand in my way , people think you need to be a genius to get these grades? , being smart and hardwork will do it , making good service of your time and being motivated , don't give up , when things get hard , push yourself , never let anything put you off your goal , I'm stop sure you will and rendering can do it with hard work , bare in mind you stopurehould Ryan to spend most of your free time revising , I'll do 8 hours on Weekdays and 10-12 weekends , nothing is more powerful than motivation. You can do anything, achieve anything , if you worknow hard , find your motivation and smash these exams, be confident when it comes to exams you will do better this way
Best of luck and work hard and it is achievable! :smile:

Reply 3

sububzi

Jordan Belfort — 'The only thing standing between you and your goal is the ******** story you keep telling yourself as to why you can't achieve it.'

Reply 4

Stoke123

I'm a Gapee/Private candidate at the moment, and I can say this is possible to some extent.

Between GCSE's and A levels is a massive step up, so your school wasn't joking when they said 'pick subjects you like, to perform better'.
Thought I could do Chemistry, but maximum I could achieve was a C (AS). I then took Geography in the space of only 3 months, and achieved an A (AS) - because I was naturally good at it.

Now I've finished geograhy A level early: A*, and am intending to complete the rest of Psychology and Maths in June.

Conclusion: If your naturally good at Chemistry and History + work hard = Yes, straight A*'s is possible.

Reply 5

Michiyo

Of course you can. Four months is actually a pretty decent amount of time, if you ask me. You just need to memorise your notes/books (not everything, just what you need), practise your essay-writing, and understand the material and the marking scheme.

At AS, I got AAAB (in which two of the As were enough to predict me A* at A2) with at most 48 hours of studying per subject. Of course, A2 is harder than AS, but overall, I am 100% sure you have enough time.

You just need to manage your time properly. Try to study a certain amount of hours per subject each week (I chose 6 hours per subject weekly and only kept it up for three weeks, but that was enough).

Do your best and good luck! :h:

(edited 7 years ago)

You just have to do as much work as you can! You definitely have time to improve your grades a lot, so regardless of the grades themselves you should start working your hardest :smile:

Reply 8

NeverLucky

Original post by Krystian1604

Any reason why not? I learnt most of the content of my A-levels in the 2 weeks before exams so it's entirely possible to get 3A*s in four months.

Reply 9

JaredzzC

Original post by NeverLucky

Any reason why not? I learnt most of the content of my A-levels in the 2 weeks before exams so it's entirely possible to get 3A*s in four months.

I guess you could learn it in that time, but it doesn't mean that you necessarily understand it, or that you'd be able to effectively apply it.

Reply 10

asiangcse

I can only speak from experience, and if you've currently working at a U in Chemistry and you have 4 months to go, it's impossible to get an A* in that subject without it drastically pulling down the grades of your other 2 subjects. I didn't do English lit or History, but for chemistry you need to have complete confidence that you know everything in the specification in your course and rinse out the past papers. Chemistry isn't a subject you can just memorise patterns and trends, sure it's a part of it but it requires real understanding, so start now! :smile:

May I ask why you want 3A*s? Realistically speaking A*AA/AAA should be your goals if your current grades are accurate

Reply 11

NeverLucky

Original post by JaredzzC

I guess you could learn it in that time, but it doesn't mean that you necessarily understand it, or that you'd be able to effectively apply it.

I can't speak for History but there's almost no application in A-level chemistry. It's the same predictable questions which you can literally memorise the mark scheme. If all you want is to get an A* but you don't care if you understand it or not, then it's a valid option.

Reply 12

sunshine774

Original post by NeverLucky

This is very true- I am currently doing AS chemistry and I have realised that some of the questions are very similar! (Especially relating to periodicity and reactivity trends.) :smile:

Reply 13

NeverLucky

Original post by sunshine774

This is very true- I am currently doing AS chemistry and I have realised that some of the questions are very similar! (Especially relating to periodicity and reactivity trends.) :smile:

Yep, it's the same later on when you're learning things like mechanisms and thermodynamics. Inorganic chemistry is basically a memory test. Sure, it's easier if you understand how it works but learning the mark scheme is sufficient for A-level.

Reply 14

sunshine774

Original post by NeverLucky

Yeah I do understand what I learn, but the mark scheme is certainly helpful! :smile:

Everyone saying no :laugh:

Yes it's definitely possible

Reply 17

Michiyo

Original post by A-LJLB

Everyone saying no :laugh:

Yes it's definitely possible

IKR? Like, have they never studied less than six months prior to an exam and still did well? I know I procrastinated so much I had no choice but to learn everything in an unbelievably short amount of time and I still did well. If people have done it, so can OP. Four months is more than enough :yep:

Reply 18

ETbuymilkandeggs

If you're asking in terms of the amount of material one can feasibly understand in the space of time: yes, with much difficulty. 3 A-level's worth of material understood to the point of 90+ UMS consistency is achievable across 4 months (provided discipline, efficiency etc..)

Reply 19

sparklerz_911

Completely possible, although it's more likely the result will be in the region of A*AA to A*A*A if you work hard starting right now.

Working hard means being completely motivated, not just learning the basic requirements of a course specification and past papers, but actually understanding everything and doing extra questions out of textbooks. You need to be proactive with your learning style, especially with Chemistry - draw all the chemical reactions and tests out and their relationships. For History, you'll need to look at the past papers and look at the style of questions/dates they relate to and memorise every event for the main topics in chronological order to be able to justify each point you make in an essay.

You'll need to be strict with yourself, which means a timetable from getting home/what to do each day in your frees/ targets for each week for each subject. After each topic, a good way of testing your knowledge is to close your book and recite from memory what you just learnt.

This is what I did for two months straight during study leave. I did the sciences (Maths, Biology, History, Chemistry) which I daresay involves more work then your current subjects, and our biology module had no textbook so I wrote my own using other textbooks, detailed diagrams for every process, supplemented by questions asked in papers and the mark schemes to get the 'key words' they always look for. I studied math until I could do every single question in the textbook without getting stuck, and then moved onto past papers - which I couldn't do at first. In the end I got an A*A*A*A and in my first year, I was like you with my AS results.

It is hard work, but you just need to grit your teeth and do it, for these few months if you make it your only priority, it will definitely be worth it. Make sure you are harsh with yourself when marking and testing, getting an A* is more about knowing every single small detail and WHY, than simply just knowing your course. I would suggest you make your notes that you'll revise from (they need to be at the level where you don't need to refer to any other source) for the next two months - and especially re: chemistry, you should also make sure you re-learn your AS content as well. After this, you should do all the past papers, and add to your notes with exam questions. And then repeat, learning your notes again. 4 months is an incredibly long time, and there is absolutely no reason for you not to be able to get a minimum of AAA if you actually use all the time productively.

Think of it this way - it's just 4 months of your life to swap for those 3 letters on that paper, which will stay with you for the rest of your life. Are you really going to let your procrastination over useless things close doors for your future?

Best of luck.