Afraid To Fail Higher Maths

I'm currently in fifth year doing 5 SQA highers. For 4 of my highers; English, computing science, history, and PE, I'm on track to get an A. Maths is a different story. I got 66% in the first prelim, then 36% in the second and I've recently been really worried about my chances of passing. Its keeping me up at night and it's making it hard to just relax at all because I'm constantly thinking about how I could fail. During school holidays I tend to see my mental health take a dip due to a lack of routine and that has made it difficult to go to any easter school sessions, but now the regret is hitting me because those were essential to just getting to pass. My main thoughts are will universities still look at me as a potential student next year if I've only got 4 highers (I want to study English, so it's not really maths related) and are my chances of getting into university still decently high even if I fail?

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 1

thepunmaster.e

17

Before you start worrying about unis and all of that, what is the reason for your drop in grades between prelims? A 30% drop is pretty significant, was it topics you struggle with more? How did you find Nat 5 - did you struggle or find it easy? I think you need to talk to your maths teacher and ask for help, they'll want you to pass so can give you advice. If you haven't already seen it ask them to go through your 2nd prelim paper with you, perhaps you lost marks due to silly mistakes which can easily be fixed or if it is a deeper problem you know what topics you need to work on

Reply 2

JammyWammy

OP

5

Original post by thepunmaster.e

Before you start worrying about unis and all of that, what is the reason for your drop in grades between prelims? A 30% drop is pretty significant, was it topics you struggle with more? How did you find Nat 5 - did you struggle or find it easy? I think you need to talk to your maths teacher and ask for help, they'll want you to pass so can give you advice. If you haven't already seen it ask them to go through your 2nd prelim paper with you, perhaps you lost marks due to silly mistakes which can easily be fixed or if it is a deeper problem you know what topics you need to work on

Part of it was due to the new topic of integration which I'm struggling to wrap my head around, specifically with area questions. I was also sick before the prelim and missed the actual date, the day I was back I had no warning and was taken out to do it so I hadn't really revised for it. I struggled with Nat 5 but I ended up getting a band 1 A in the end which might be why my teacher has confidence in me this year despite me not performing as greatly as I've wanted to. I didn't have a chance to go through the paper properly so I might ask for that once the Easter holiday is over, thank you for the advice!

Reply 3

hussienmanaf6

9

Original post by JammyWammy

Part of it was due to the new topic of integration which I'm struggling to wrap my head around, specifically with area questions. I was also sick before the prelim and missed the actual date, the day I was back I had no warning and was taken out to do it so I hadn't really revised for it. I struggled with Nat 5 but I ended up getting a band 1 A in the end which might be why my teacher has confidence in me this year despite me not performing as greatly as I've wanted to. I didn't have a chance to go through the paper properly so I might ask for that once the Easter holiday is over, thank you for the advice!

How did you do? 🙂

Afraid To Fail Higher Maths

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