Great idea for us all to support each other.
I’m a resit student so I knew I was doing autumn exams a while ago.
My current grades: ABC (A - maths, B - chem , C - biology)
Resit subjects: Chem (EDX) and Bio (AQA)
Aiming for: AA
Offers; ARU (med), King’s (biochem)
Bit of background on my story if you’re interested...
I was very adamant on getting into med, however i’m a bit paranoid and was focused on everything else but my exams to help get me into med. Also, I put things off till last minute bc i want to do everything right and orderly, however last year was anything but that...
I ended up with B, 8 marks off an A in chem knowing full well I hadn’t covered everything. I could honestly count the marks I missed that would have gotten me an A which were all simply based on memorising the content.
I had several peeves about our bio exam board (eduqas) so I switched to AQA and I don’t regret it one bit. My mark for bio was 1 mark off a B, so I’m certain I can get an A feeling more confident in myself after all I had to go through to get an offer (applying with grades way off the requirements, constantly being knocked down by some unis with minimum ABB at first sitting and their refusing of my C even if it was only a mark off a B, being made to feel i’m not good enough for medicine bc i didn’t it right first time, doing the ucat, doing the personal statement and interviews...) It was a big risk for me to take this gap year, and a huge leap of faith in myself. A leap coming from someone who is so calculated about everything. I was so scared to apply to med in the fear I wouldn’t do everything perfectly by 15th october, I chickened out and said I would apply with achieved grades. What I realised this year is you need to take risks if you want to win big. I could’ve came out of this gap year with no offers at all, but I wouldn’t have lost anything - maybe my pride, but that had already been gone so I was in a position where I had nothing to lose. I’m so glad my risk paid off, and I am set on getting through this final hurdle.
At the moment I’m focusing on topic questions for bio and calculations for chem and planning on doing past papers from September. For chem I will be making sure facts are imprinted in my brain! As to not lose any crucial marks.
If you have any good tips on how to get A for bio lmk! Is learning the markscheme a good idea...
That’s another thing about learning with eduqas, I was very lost and it was a spec which focused on higher thinking questions and practical skills which our teachers neglected. There are no predictable questions or answers. Understandably they told us not to memorise the markscheme, but looking back what else could we have done? Teachers told us never to use the textbooks, even though they contain crucial detail unique to our spec. It was shambolic to say the least. But I’m wondering with AQA being a bit more straightforward, whether or not learning markschemes would be wise.