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Got a CDE at the end of year mock of Year 12, can I get a BBC by next year?

I finished Year 12 and I am approaching Year 13.
So I have this massive procrastination and anxiety inside of me and it's really affecting me ever since I got my mock results back from my first year of A Level. I managed to get a CDE at the end of the year and it really haunt's me ever since and I deeply regret it now that I should've worked harder and I wish my college was more supportive in my learning and teach me how to revise well because I did not have the chance to do it. At the end of the year I simply want to reach BBC to go to UWL for my A2 results but I am not sure where to start. I've been watching tips of revision and changing your mindset as a A* student and different videos as well. I've seen a lot of videos there is so much things that I've learnt on videos to just stay more productive and finding yourself who I really am with a change of mindset. Do you any advise for next year in regards of my current situation and should I start revising Year 1 content throughout my summer break? I want to be successful but I know I HAVE to work very hard for it, please let me if you can.
Reply 1
This is coming from someone who's just finished Year 13, but I definitely think it's possible, it just depends on your drive and motivation. Rather than watching videos on changing your mindset, I think you should utilise this summer to ensure you have solid knowledge on your Year 12 content - if you don't, you will struggle next year. This also heavily depends on what subjects you do. For example, if you take Maths, I would definitely recommend utilising your textbook, online videos and past paper questions to get familiar with the subject. But if you take essay subjects, the way you approach it would be entirely different - I would instead suggest trying to make notes or revision materials on each topic i.e. for a subject like Politics, learn how your papers are split up and how many topics are in each of them (you can do this by referring to the spec) and then create revision materials from there. A-Levels is a game which only looks for the end result, it doesn't really care how you go about achieving it. My best suggestion for the you who is in this situation is to come up with a plan of how you will be tackling your three subjects. Concentrate most of your time into turning your C into a B, and your E into a C. You CAN do this, you just need to work extremely hard for this!

Edit: I will preface that if you're looking for BBC as your predicted grades for UCAS, this will most likely be impossible unless you re-take the year!

I hope this helps, feel free to reach out if you need any help!
(edited 9 months ago)
Reply 2
Original post by cherrydcys
This is coming from someone who's just finished Year 13, but I definitely think it's possible, it just depends on your drive and motivation. Rather than watching videos on changing your mindset, I think you should utilise this summer to ensure you have solid knowledge on your Year 12 content - if you don't, you will struggle next year. This also heavily depends on what subjects you do. For example, if you take Maths, I would definitely recommend utilising your textbook, online videos and past paper questions to get familiar with the subject. But if you take essay subjects, the way you approach it would be entirely different - I would instead suggest trying to make notes or revision materials on each topic i.e. for a subject like Politics, learn how your papers are split up and how many topics are in each of them (you can do this by referring to the spec) and then create revision materials from there. A-Levels is a game which only looks for the end result, it doesn't really care how you go about achieving it. My best suggestion for the you who is in this situation is to come up with a plan of how you will be tackling your three subjects. Concentrate most of your time into turning your C into a B, and your E into a C. You CAN do this, you just need to work extremely hard for this!

I hope this helps, feel free to reach out if you need any help!


Well I am doing A Level Physics, Geography and Graphic Communications. I am not entirely worried with Graphics since I do quite well with coursework based subjects and doesn't require an exam. I remember quite briefly that my Geography and my Physics teacher expects me to get a C/B for next year overall of my A Level exams.

I had a talk with my Geography teacher about my results and she know's I can do better than that but she noticed a lot that I really need to work on exam techniques and writing for my answers. I happen to appeal for the Additional Learning Support and asked them if they could help me with exam techniques and essay structure which should help next year. Do you have any tips on how to know my exam asks me for firstly and how should I effectively improve on how should I structure my responses in essay based subjects?

Also thank you for the response gave me a form a relief, I felt like it would be too late for me to achieve those results and I just hope that I can able to achieve them instead of doing Foundation Year on the degree that I want to do.
Reply 3
Original post by echid
Well I am doing A Level Physics, Geography and Graphic Communications. I am not entirely worried with Graphics since I do quite well with coursework based subjects and doesn't require an exam. I remember quite briefly that my Geography and my Physics teacher expects me to get a C/B for next year overall of my A Level exams.

I had a talk with my Geography teacher about my results and she know's I can do better than that but she noticed a lot that I really need to work on exam techniques and writing for my answers. I happen to appeal for the Additional Learning Support and asked them if they could help me with exam techniques and essay structure which should help next year. Do you have any tips on how to know my exam asks me for firstly and how should I effectively improve on how should I structure my responses in essay based subjects?

Also thank you for the response gave me a form a relief, I felt like it would be too late for me to achieve those results and I just hope that I can able to achieve them instead of doing Foundation Year on the degree that I want to do.

I'm glad my response could offer some relief!

Now regarding how to tackle exam technique especially for an essay subject such as Geography, I would first suggest utilising your specification. For example, if your exam board is AQA, just search up 'AQA A-Level Geography spec' and it should come up. This will detail all the topics that you'll be required to know for your exam. Now to work out what the exam is actually asking of you, I would suggest looking towards past papers, examiner reports, mark schemes and sample answers from these papers. This should provide you with a good idea of what your examiner is looking for. Something that I liked to do initially to work out how to structure my essays was by looking at A* exemplars, breaking it down into a formula that I could utilise and adapt for myself. If your teachers have any exemplars this would be of great help! Another tip is to try and find a structure that works for your essays - you could refer to YouTube videos or just go to your teachers for support.

Another thing to note is that if you want to effectively improve, practice is vital. I would aim to produce at least 1 essay a week and get feedback that you can work from. Whilst it is good to cite others' work to initially note how to go about it, ultimately the only way for you to succeed is to have a go at it yourself and get personalised feedback. I think also before trying to write up any of these essays, make sure your notes and content knowledge is perfect - if it's not, then this activity is futile and you won't see any improvement.

All in all, I truly believe you will be fine for your A-Level exams when they come along. You have a year to improve and as mentioned before, if you keep yourself accountable through pure dedication and motivation, I don't see why you can't achieve the grades that you want!
Reply 4
Original post by echid
I finished Year 12 and I am approaching Year 13.
So I have this massive procrastination and anxiety inside of me and it's really affecting me ever since I got my mock results back from my first year of A Level. I managed to get a CDE at the end of the year and it really haunt's me ever since and I deeply regret it now that I should've worked harder and I wish my college was more supportive in my learning and teach me how to revise well because I did not have the chance to do it. At the end of the year I simply want to reach BBC to go to UWL for my A2 results but I am not sure where to start. I've been watching tips of revision and changing your mindset as a A* student and different videos as well. I've seen a lot of videos there is so much things that I've learnt on videos to just stay more productive and finding yourself who I really am with a change of mindset. Do you any advise for next year in regards of my current situation and should I start revising Year 1 content throughout my summer break? I want to be successful but I know I HAVE to work very hard for it, please let me if you can.


You can do it, I was in a situation similar to yours and I managed to from a D to A*. You see there are many up and downs in college and they can be quite intense. The reason behind this is because u only spend two years (short period compared to other studies). My advice to you would be to put your head down and work hard as you can only accomplish something by trying. And hard work never goes to waste, it always finds a way to repay to you in some way later on. Also as I mentioned before that you spend a short period at college you are bound to feeling low and demotivated so, what I would do is ignore all negativity around you and look at positive stuff, try to participate more in class by answering questions.
Also, make sure to spend minium of 1 hour a day to revise after college, try to go over everything you learnt that day so, you don't get overwhelmed when it comes to revising for a exam.

Good Luck!

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