Bad AS performance - PLEASE HELP! :(

If its any consolation, you will probably get more marks than you think because if you look at mark schemes you get a lot of method marks. You may only lose one or two for a question if your final answer is wrong.
Concerning your wanting an A*, I find it a little hard to believe that you would need such a high grade in maths for ALL universities. Surely there are many Russell group unis that would ask for, perhaps, an A in maths? And usually if you do further maths and apply for A*AA requirement, they often say an A in further maths overall is enough. ( i applied for engineering and they want A*AA the A* being in physics or maths, but if you do further you only need AAA).

If its any consolation, you will probably get more marks than you think because if you look at mark schemes you get a lot of method marks. You may only lose one or two for a question if your final answer is wrong.
Concerning your wanting an A*, I find it a little hard to believe that you would need such a high grade in maths for ALL universities. Surely there are many Russell group unis that would ask for, perhaps, an A in maths? And usually if you do further maths and apply for A*AA requirement, they often say an A in further maths overall is enough. ( i applied for engineering and they want A*AA the A* being in physics or maths, but if you do further you only need AAA).

Thank you so much - that has given me hope

What are you planning on studying at university? Did you still apply to Cambridge this year? And also, did you get an A in AS Maths or A2?

If you practiced so many past papers, shouldn't you have identified this problem and dealt with it? Now all you can do is improve. Identify ALL of your problems. Do you make careless mistakes? Manage your time during the exam to allow for revision. This will help eliminate careless mistakes. Do you get stresses? Google a solution :P . Just solve all of your problems and don't let this bitter experience happen without milking it of its lessons. By that I mean that you didn't do all of these mistakes for nothing. Learn how to avoid these mistakes.Stop crying and cheer up! What's cool about life is that it ain't over if something like this happens! There are many other options! Cheer up! Smile right now! Did you do it? You better ..... Set a plan for this summer. Enjoy it, but at the same time, improve yourself so that you can nail the retake! And I reiterate : Identify all of your problems and find a solution. Only like this can you obtain the results you want

I'm not sure if you've correctly read my first post - I am taking AS and A2 Maths this year, meaning that I needed an A* this year :/

Thank you very much - I will try to treat this as a learning curve. However, it's hard to figure out what I don't know, if the question hasn't come up in the last 17 past papers... I never realised that I didn't know how to integrate 3^x as it has never come up before, so it just didn't ever cross my mind

Hi,

I was originally very set on taking Economics at university (at Cambridge or LSE etc) but after my exams, I don't think I'll stand a chance.

My Economics exam and my Biology exam both didn't go that well - I was expecting to do better.

However, the main issue is my Maths exams. As I am taking further maths, I am taking C1-C4 S1 M1 this year, which is all the modules including the A2 ones. I really need an A* in Maths to do Economics at any university.

However, after doing 17 past paper for C3 and C4 EACH, both exams went terribly. I just had my C4 exam, hoping that I would get a high enough mark to average my C3 mark to 90UMS, but the exam went awfully - I couldn't stop crying for hours. It's not even that I didn't work hard - I did almost all the textbook questions, I did 15-20 past papers for each Maths module, however THIS happens. I usually get over 90UMS in past papers however I just don't understand how the actual exam has gone so badly. I've checked with the model answers, and I know that I've gotten questions wrong.

Please help me, I feel like I can't even go to school tomorrow because I'm so upset - I haven't got good enough grades to go to university, even after so much hard work. I really just don't know what to do. I can't stop crying in bed because all my dreams and hard work have been crushed to pieces.

Thank you for reading my very long post...

I'm glad

Engineering (mechanical/general).

I didn't apply for Cambridge this year as I got AABB with B's in further maths and physics. I was SO disheartened and annoyed at myself and when I got my exam scripts back they were full of stupid mistakes! I thought I didn't have a chance getting into Cambridge this year and I knew applying would just make matters worse. But I got 3 offers from top unis who ask for A*AA - Bath, Nottingham and Loughborough (which is promising for you) and the rest I applied for AAA as backup. Still got 5/5 offers on very competitive courses!

Only reapplying this year to Cambridge if I get A*A*A or 3 A*s, otherwise I will just stick with my deferred entry to Bath so win win really!

(It was an A in AS maths)

Hi,

I was originally very set on taking Economics at university (at Cambridge or LSE etc) but after my exams, I don't think I'll stand a chance.

My Economics exam and my Biology exam both didn't go that well - I was expecting to do better.

However, the main issue is my Maths exams. As I am taking further maths, I am taking C1-C4 S1 M1 this year, which is all the modules including the A2 ones. I really need an A* in Maths to do Economics at any university.

However, after doing 17 past paper for C3 and C4 EACH, both exams went terribly. I just had my C4 exam, hoping that I would get a high enough mark to average my C3 mark to 90UMS, but the exam went awfully - I couldn't stop crying for hours. It's not even that I didn't work hard - I did almost all the textbook questions, I did 15-20 past papers for each Maths module, however THIS happens. I usually get over 90UMS in past papers however I just don't understand how the actual exam has gone so badly. I've checked with the model answers, and I know that I've gotten questions wrong.

Please help me, I feel like I can't even go to school tomorrow because I'm so upset - I haven't got good enough grades to go to university, even after so much hard work. I really just don't know what to do. I can't stop crying in bed because all my dreams and hard work have been crushed to pieces.

Thank you for reading my very long post...

You've probably done better than you think you have - a load of people in my year thought they had done really badly in maths and came out with much better grades than they thought, partly due to grade boundaries being lowered when everyone did badly. And if you have done as bad as you think you have, you can always resit next year.

Secondly, there are a lot of great universities that you don't need an A* to do economics. Lancaster University is one example. It's not Russell group if that affects your decision, but it is consistently in the top 10/sometimes just outside the top 10 universities in the country, and it's only asking AAB for economics. The only requirements as far as I can tell are Bs in GCSE maths and English language. Plus, most courses at Lancaster accept general studies. It's a really nice university too, and has amazing accommodation.

I apologise for this basically turning into a promotion post for Lancaster uni but it's just one example of the great universities out there that you don't need an A* in maths to get. Good luck with everything!

Congrats on your offers - that seems like a great position to be in!!

Do you think it would matter I got an A or a B in A Level Maths this year? You only did the AS last year, so you could still get an A*, whereas I have already taken the full A Level Maths this year - would universities mind if I took resits?

Thank you for your reply.

I know that there are some universities that don't require an A* in Maths, however those universities (such as Lancaster) don't have as great future job prospects as UCL for example so I don't know if I would be able to get a job afterwards. It's also not a Russell group uni so...

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