BTEC to First class degree AMA

hey guys,
just received my results today, and im truly chuffed...
I study electronic & electrical engineering at a top 5 russel group university and just completed my first year with a 74% overall grade for the year.
I also did a BTEC level 3 extended diploma in Electrical Engineering in which i left with a D*DD and also had a 2 year gap year before starting uni.

I know a lot of people go into uni having done BTEC prior having a defeated outlook as to not being smart enough of having not been through the rigor to be at uni, but it is doable if you put your all into your studies

AMA about my experience and i will be more than happy to answer your questions

Can you describe how hard you worked and what kind of things it involved, e.g. 10 hour sessions in the library...

What did you get in first year, and what did you learn from the experience? E.g I learnt about EE that to do well in projects/exams you must...

sorry if ive not come across right, but ive only JUST finished my first year and my overall grade for it is 74%

I went into uni not knowing how to differentiate or integrate and not having done any physics since gcse.
firstly, first semester was a massive uphill battle, every night i did at least 3-4 hours of maths, ie, basic arithmetic, trig, partial fractions, differentiating, integrating, complex numbers, on top of another maybe 3 hours going through all my lecture notes, and then there was maybe a 1 or 2 more hours tackling some assignments for the week.. thats how much i was doing on most days.
It was very hard, and there a lot of times where i felt i was not smart enough to even be on the course.

I also learnt you need to be diligent with exams, dont slack on anything or leave things to change, during exam periods i was doing at least 8/9 hours of studying per day, the engineering projects are very fulfulling and at first you may feel a bit out of your depth but it all pieces together and you actually feel like youve accomplished something when youve done..

damn, then the btec you did was probably a walk in the park for you if you've done all that in only the first year.

Sorry, I'm an idiot! I saw the title and got that impression but it was clearly stated in your post.

That's great advice and I'm glad the many hours of hard work paid off

sorry if ive not come across right, but ive only JUST finished my first year and my overall grade for it is 74%

I went into uni not knowing how to differentiate or integrate and not having done any physics since gcse.
firstly, first semester was a massive uphill battle, every night i did at least 3-4 hours of maths, ie, basic arithmetic, trig, partial fractions, differentiating, integrating, complex numbers, on top of another maybe 3 hours going through all my lecture notes, and then there was maybe a 1 or 2 more hours tackling some assignments for the week.. thats how much i was doing on most days.
It was very hard, and there a lot of times where i felt i was not smart enough to even be on the course.

I also learnt you need to be diligent with exams, dont slack on anything or leave things to chance, during exam periods i was doing at least 8/9 hours of studying per day, and thankfully it paid off.
The engineering projects are very fulfulling and at first you may feel a bit out of your depth but it all pieces together and you actually feel like youve accomplished something when youve done, you definitely learn A LOT from the projects ie team work, deadlines, communication etc

did you ever lose motivation? how did you bounce back if so?

How did you get into a top 5 RG with your academic record?

How did you revise to achieve a first?

How well prepared for the degree did you find yourself compared to your peers who had done A-levels?

We are looking forward to knowing what university you attend.

for privacy reasons im not saying, if someone knew my university and my current username, they would easily be able to identify who i am