Failing A-Level mocks, and still can't revise.

So I'm mid-week in some random Mocks for my A-Levels, and I'm struggling with them, mainly due to my lack of revision, and homework completed.

Physics (Hard), Biology (Mediocre - Hard), Maths (Hard), Computing (Easy)

Every time I sit myself down and think;
"Ok this is it, I'm going to do tons of revision..."
I don't actually know what to do, I've never really needed to revise before, and GCSE's felt a bit of a cruise.. My mind is a complete blank, I'm not sure what topics to learn, whether to print my past papers... I'm just lost every time and end up getting distracted. (I'm a heavy procrastinator.)

Whenever I look online for help, majority of the guides assume "So you've got 3 weeks till the exams" and / or you have the questions etc lined up, and you know which subjects / topics to study, I'm never in that position, I'm always at the "Oh crap got half a week, or few day to revise" and yet I still have no idea what topics to prioritise or what questions to ask.

Like even now, I'm procrastinating, by asking for revision help which should've been done weeks ago. I'm so lost on what to do, and I'm probably gonna get C's again. Worse probably in Maths...

I try look in the text books and do those provided questions, but they're never anything close to whats in the paper. Always the papers are combinations, or just seemingly pointless questions that suit real life in no way. Its just insanely hard, and even with cramming, I struggle because I just can't seem to get all the information I need remembered to complete the paper..

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 1

OldMan17

10

Original post by Grumbling

So I'm mid-week in some random Mocks for my A-Levels, and I'm struggling with them, mainly due to my lack of revision, and homework completed.

Physics (Hard), Biology (Mediocre - Hard), Maths (Hard), Computing (Easy)

Every time I sit myself down and think;
"Ok this is it, I'm going to do tons of revision..."
I don't actually know what to do, I've never really needed to revise before, and GCSE's felt a bit of a cruise.. My mind is a complete blank, I'm not sure what topics to learn, whether to print my past papers... I'm just lost every time and end up getting distracted. (I'm a heavy procrastinator.)

Whenever I look online for help, majority of the guides assume "So you've got 3 weeks till the exams" and / or you have the questions etc lined up, and you know which subjects / topics to study, I'm never in that position, I'm always at the "Oh crap got half a week, or few day to revise" and yet I still have no idea what topics to prioritise".

Like even now, I'm procrastinating, by asking for revision help which should've been done weeks ago. I'm so lost on what to do, and I'm probably gonna get C's again. Worse probably in Maths... I'm so lost on what to do.

Where to start? It's a good question. I may not be the best person to advise but maybe start with identifying where you're weakest. Google it and watch videos that explain the subject. Watching youtube doesn't sound like revision so might be easier. Everytime you get an insight, stop the video and make a note of what you learned.

Do this for 2 hours and see how far you get? I'm here if you need to chat again.

Reply 2

Grumbling

OP

8

Original post by OldMan17

Where to start? It's a good question. I may not be the best person to advise but maybe start with identifying where you're weakest. Google it and watch videos that explain the subject. Watching youtube doesn't sound like revision so might be easier. Everytime you get an insight, stop the video and make a note of what you learned.

Do this for 2 hours and see how far you get? I'm here if you need to chat again.

I'll try that, but its not so much whole topics are just unknown to me, the things I struggle with are the assumed bits of knowledge that were meant to be learnt before, or small rules that link 2 and 2. I find those especially hard to learn and identify, because their kinda spread out between topics. I'll try that youtube strat tonight, just got to get through my Physics exam today..

Reply 3

OldMan17

10

Original post by Grumbling

I'll try that, but its not so much whole topics are just unknown to me, the things I struggle with are the assumed bits of knowledge that were meant to be learnt before, or small rules that link 2 and 2. I find those especially hard to learn and identify, because their kinda spread out between topics. I'll try that youtube strat tonight, just got to get through my Physics exam today..

Ataboy! Yes, don't try and go for whole topics, the more focused your search is the better. Let me know how you get on!

Reply 4

Oaklasaurus

14

Original post by Grumbling

So I'm mid-week in some random Mocks for my A-Levels, and I'm struggling with them, mainly due to my lack of revision, and homework completed.

Physics (Hard), Biology (Mediocre - Hard), Maths (Hard), Computing (Easy)

Every time I sit myself down and think;
"Ok this is it, I'm going to do tons of revision..."
I don't actually know what to do, I've never really needed to revise before, and GCSE's felt a bit of a cruise.. My mind is a complete blank, I'm not sure what topics to learn, whether to print my past papers... I'm just lost every time and end up getting distracted. (I'm a heavy procrastinator.)

Whenever I look online for help, majority of the guides assume "So you've got 3 weeks till the exams" and / or you have the questions etc lined up, and you know which subjects / topics to study, I'm never in that position, I'm always at the "Oh crap got half a week, or few day to revise" and yet I still have no idea what topics to prioritise or what questions to ask.

Like even now, I'm procrastinating, by asking for revision help which should've been done weeks ago. I'm so lost on what to do, and I'm probably gonna get C's again. Worse probably in Maths...

I try look in the text books and do those provided questions, but they're never anything close to whats in the paper. Always the papers are combinations, or just seemingly pointless questions that suit real life in no way. Its just insanely hard, and even with cramming, I struggle because I just can't seem to get all the information I need remembered to complete the paper..

Hey! I replied to a similar thread a little while back, here's what I put:

Here's my little method to this, start this after your mocks - don't worry about them now, you still have a lot of time and the fact you're worrying so much about this now shows how much you really do care! :

•

Go through your mock - which parts went well? which didn't? Make a list of the parts that didn't go so well for you. (15-30 minutes)

•

Start with the things you hate the most, and the ones you're worst at - you get them out of the way first... and hey, who knows, you might actually understand it and love it after you get the questions right! (this has actually happened to me with mechanics, aha)

•

Make short notes - read over your class notes, read over your textbook, and find youtube videos on things you really don't understand. Collect all of this information into a document either on paper or on a computer. Highlight titles and important information, summarise definitions. (about an hour)

•

Come up with stupid little mnemonics to remember things - I have a tonne of them. My most famed is "The Gran Makes Killer Cakes, my my, no pickled frogs" and it actually helps because it is so stupid you just have to remember it. (it's for remembering prefixes by the way - start with K as kilo and remember C is x10-2 and it makes a pattern :P)

•

Start doing practice questions from the textbooks - sometimes heading into exam questions straight away can be a little bit daunting. Try doing some of the "summary" questions that come at the end of pages and see how you're doing with them. Use your notes you made earlier to refer back to for the answers.

•

Start doing exam questions - practice the actual style of what you're meant to write in an exam. Learn what points the mark schemes want you to know - for example, if it says "only accept (x answer)", learn that phrase. If there are words bolded, then make sure you include those in your answers in future questions.

•

Print an exam paper and do it open book - refer back to notes, questions you've done before, textbooks etc. Just get through the paper. Again, highlight things you are very stuck on and things you can't do. (optional, kind of time consuming. But it definitely does help!)

•

Print an exam paper, and do it under "exam conditions" by yourself - this will be like doing it in the mocks again and you will a) know stuff again! and b) also know what you're not so good at still. Then it's just a case of rinse and repeat.

I'm not so sure about biology, but this website does some really good material if you're trying to revise physics and maths:
http://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/
Physics - lots of compiled questions, as well as summary sheets.
Maths - worked solutions to papers.

This page is a savior. I've been using this page for ages since i'm a visual/auditory learner. It goes through tutorials for how to complete questions, then you can practice some exam questions and see exactly where each part of the answer comes from and learn from any mistakes you made. It's saved my grades, honestly!
https://www.examsolutions.net/

Lastly, I can imagine this would help for biology and physics, or maybe just your general studying! I was given a set of study printables a while ago that include fill-in formula sheets, definitions sheets, timetables, etc.

Here's the link here you should be able to use (if not just let me know and I'll see if I can fix it): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B_aWCCjSUciCY1ZETV9iQURIVms?usp=sharing

Good luck xx

Reply 5

Grumbling

OP

8

Original post by Oaklasaurus

Hey! I replied to a similar thread a little while back, here's what I put:

Here's my little method to this, start this after your mocks - don't worry about them now, you still have a lot of time and the fact you're worrying so much about this now shows how much you really do care! :

•

Go through your mock - which parts went well? which didn't? Make a list of the parts that didn't go so well for you. (15-30 minutes)

•

Start with the things you hate the most, and the ones you're worst at - you get them out of the way first... and hey, who knows, you might actually understand it and love it after you get the questions right! (this has actually happened to me with mechanics, aha)

•

Make short notes - read over your class notes, read over your textbook, and find youtube videos on things you really don't understand. Collect all of this information into a document either on paper or on a computer. Highlight titles and important information, summarise definitions. (about an hour)

•

Come up with stupid little mnemonics to remember things - I have a tonne of them. My most famed is "The Gran Makes Killer Cakes, my my, no pickled frogs" and it actually helps because it is so stupid you just have to remember it. (it's for remembering prefixes by the way - start with K as kilo and remember C is x10-2 and it makes a pattern :P)

•

Start doing practice questions from the textbooks - sometimes heading into exam questions straight away can be a little bit daunting. Try doing some of the "summary" questions that come at the end of pages and see how you're doing with them. Use your notes you made earlier to refer back to for the answers.

•

Start doing exam questions - practice the actual style of what you're meant to write in an exam. Learn what points the mark schemes want you to know - for example, if it says "only accept (x answer)", learn that phrase. If there are words bolded, then make sure you include those in your answers in future questions.

•

Print an exam paper and do it open book - refer back to notes, questions you've done before, textbooks etc. Just get through the paper. Again, highlight things you are very stuck on and things you can't do. (optional, kind of time consuming. But it definitely does help!)

•

Print an exam paper, and do it under "exam conditions" by yourself - this will be like doing it in the mocks again and you will a) know stuff again! and b) also know what you're not so good at still. Then it's just a case of rinse and repeat.

I'm not so sure about biology, but this website does some really good material if you're trying to revise physics and maths:
http://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/
Physics - lots of compiled questions, as well as summary sheets.
Maths - worked solutions to papers.

This page is a savior. I've been using this page for ages since i'm a visual/auditory learner. It goes through tutorials for how to complete questions, then you can practice some exam questions and see exactly where each part of the answer comes from and learn from any mistakes you made. It's saved my grades, honestly!
https://www.examsolutions.net/

Lastly, I can imagine this would help for biology and physics, or maybe just your general studying! I was given a set of study printables a while ago that include fill-in formula sheets, definitions sheets, timetables, etc.

Here's the link here you should be able to use (if not just let me know and I'll see if I can fix it): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B_aWCCjSUciCY1ZETV9iQURIVms?usp=sharing

Good luck xx

Thanks so much for the links and information, they work perfectly. I'll be sure to do these steps when I finish my mocks. I also find myself being a bit of a visual learner, probably why I struggle, because I spot things and get easily distracted, especially because I just by default procrastinate till the end.. I'll start trying to combat my bad habits and follow these steps, Thanks a bunch for the advice!

Reply 6

Oaklasaurus

14

Original post by Grumbling

Thanks so much for the links and information, they work perfectly. I'll be sure to do these steps when I finish my mocks. I also find myself being a bit of a visual learner, probably why I struggle, because I spot things and get easily distracted, especially because I just by default procrastinate till the end.. I'll start trying to combat my bad habits and follow these steps, Thanks a bunch for the advice!