Recovery from AS to A2

Thank you guys for visiting my thread! Here I'm gonna be posting my progress throughout the year to pick up my grades to where I want them to be.

So I currently study maths, economics and computer science along with an EPQ. Last year I got CCCC in the three subjects as well as German. I've applied to do economics at Uni but I'm still not entirely sure where I want to go. My predicted grades are BBB but personally I am aiming for at least one A.

Looking back now there are so many things which I would’ve done differently that could have made my results that little bit nicer to look at. For maths in particular, I have seen how important it is to practice exam style questions. Before each of the exams I had gone over past papers but no way near as much as I know I should have. My main focus had been decision as I enjoyed those topics the most and calculus was not my cup of tea. I also know that I should have made more use of the revision and study help sessions available for each of my subjects throughout the year. I should have asked my teachers more questions on the topics I didn’t quite understand instead of assuming I’ll just be able to understand it when I go over it in my revision. Repetitiveness is the key to being able to do well in the exams and was something I lacked in the weeks building up to them. I worked both days of the weekend, doing a total of 17 hours and made me so exhausted that I lacked the motivation to study on top of that.

I’ve learnt a lot in the first few weeks of being back in college. My AS results do have an impact and I should have put more work into getting them right but at the same time they can, and hopefully will, change. Only one of my subjects is still modular which just happens to be maths – one which I am able to retake. I am currently intending on retaking both core one and core two. Unfortunately, that brings the total number of exams that I’ll have to take in the summer to 10; 3 in economics, 2 in computer science and 5 in maths.

There are already changes for this year that I have made that I intend to follow through with in order to be able to improve my overall A Level results. I have adapted my college timetable to dedicate time to revision and working on my coursework and EPQ. I stocked up on a load of stationary supplies, books and revision materials to be prepared to start revising early, allowing me plenty of time to go over things I don’t necessarily understand.

Reply 1

dididid

Hi , Hope you get the results your aiming for . Remeber not to think of revision as something you have to do sort of like a chore but try to enjoy doing it aswell :smile:

. Im in a similar position going from ABC to A*A*A + 1,1 in maths , F maths Business studies and step 1,2 but had some extenuating circumstances last year.
Will follow your thread this year and hope the hard work pays of on results day for both of us :smile:

. Also where you applying or are you taking a gap year?

Reply 2

earthtoellie

Original post by dididid

Hi , Hope you get the results your aiming for . Remeber not to think of revision as something you have to do sort of like a chore but try to enjoy doing it aswell :smile:

. Also where you applying or are you taking a gap year?

Thank you! That's some good advice, I hadn't look at revision that way. Good luck to you too hopefully this year will go well for us both. I've applied to do economics at Sussex, Kent, Southampton, Exeter and Warwick (not got a chance at this one but fancied taking a risk!) and I'm not planning to take a gap year. What are your plans? :smile:

Reply 3

earthtoellie

Weekly update - 16/11/16
Tomorrow is the deadline for the design section of my computer science NEA which I've spent a lot of time on during the week. It's probably the toughest section I've done so far and I've struggled to fill it with content. We have exemplars to look at to get ideas from but I've found that a lot of what others have one isn't really relevant to my project which is frustrating.

In maths we've moved onto trigonometry which is what let me down last year so I'm not too optimistic moving forwards but I intend to spend a lot of time on this topic as it can account for a large amount of marks. So far we've had one homework set on trig and it took me a lot longer than I was hoping it would to complete but I feel like for once spending a lot of time on it has enabled me to understand it further (or just get even more confused making up rules that don't actually exist!). The time spent paid off as I got 78% which is above average for most of my maths homework.

On Friday I went to an economics help session at lunchtime to go over an extra 25 mark essay I'd done on Thursday. I'd spent a long time on it and was quite pleased with how it had turned out. My teacher went over it and found that I'd misunderstood the question so my points weren't valid although they were well written and evaluated. He gave me a worksheet to do on supply-side policies which we didn’t have time to go over in class and that made a lot more sense as to what I should've written.

Usually Saturday would be my main studying day however I went into London to celebrate my birthday. Unfortunately, I ended up in hospital on Saturday evening which spoiled it slightly but nonetheless all is good. I was able to catch up on that time before my lessons on Monday morning. On a Monday I have a slightly later start so was reluctant to give up my lie in but it was worth it to get more out of my lessons.

This week I've also had my one-to-one discussion with my teachers before my report comes out next week. All were very positive and I'm on track for what I'm aiming for. I have parent's evening coming up soon so I'll have a chance to go into some things in a bit more detail then.

My EPQ is also going well and I met the 2000 word deadline I had on Friday. I still need to try and find out a bit more about the RFU women's rugby contracts and their value but if I can't find out I will have to try and find another way to identify the gender pay gap in rugby that is up to date. I've also got into the habit of going to the gym which has surprisingly helped my concentration in class although there are so many other places I would rather be!

My studyspo pic of the week:

I love having momentum open when I open a new tab and it's calming to have as the background to my work.

Reply 4

dididid

Original post by earthtoellie

you're welcome and good luck with your application. Im applying for maths at Warwick, Bristol, Manchester and 2 others I'm not sure about yet. although if i get A*A*A and step grades ill probably take a gap year pick up 2 more A levels and apply to oxbridge for maths.