The Student Room Group

Help! Is it possible to jump from an E to a C in three months?

I’m currently working at an E grade for A-level Geography, English language and Sociology. I understand that time isn’t on my side since exams start in may, but does anyone know how I could try go up two grades in all three subjects?
Reply 1
Original post by Username748
I’m currently working at an E grade for A-level Geography, English language and Sociology. I understand that time isn’t on my side since exams start in may, but does anyone know how I could try go up two grades in all three subjects?

yes 3 months is a lot of time for A-levels but cant help you with the how as I do STEM subjects
Reply 2
Oh man ;-;

For A level geography, I'm not sure what exam board and what topics you're doing, but look at the spec and create core topics/ themes. The most useful form of revision I've found is learning all the case studies - not only will you have solid facts and figures that are necessary for the exam, you will be learning content as well (just contextualised). Timed practice and essay questions (+ creating essay plans) are also very important.

I'm not very knowledgeable on English Language as everyone I know takes Lit :frown:. For sociology though, a similar approach should be taken to geography. Take all the key theories and remember all the sociologists that are associated with them. For each topic, create a mind map and links as to how they may oppose/ support each other. Timed practice is also a must.

GRIND MY FRIEND ;-;
Reply 3
Original post by Nomawoj
Oh man ;-;

For A level geography, I'm not sure what exam board and what topics you're doing, but look at the spec and create core topics/ themes. The most useful form of revision I've found is learning all the case studies - not only will you have solid facts and figures that are necessary for the exam, you will be learning content as well (just contextualised). Timed practice and essay questions (+ creating essay plans) are also very important.

I'm not very knowledgeable on English Language as everyone I know takes Lit :frown:. For sociology though, a similar approach should be taken to geography. Take all the key theories and remember all the sociologists that are associated with them. For each topic, create a mind map and links as to how they may oppose/ support each other. Timed practice is also a must.

GRIND MY FRIEND ;-;

Thanks for the advice, I’ve only just seen your reply because my notifications were off and didn’t think anyone responded. I still haven’t started yet and I feel like I’m losing hope :frown:
(edited 2 months ago)
Original post by Username748
I’m currently working at an E grade for A-level Geography, English language and Sociology. I understand that time isn’t on my side since exams start in may, but does anyone know how I could try go up two grades in all three subjects?

I absolutely think it's possible! If you're willing to put in the work, it's definitely achievable 🙂 I don't do Geography or Sociology so I can't really give much advice for those, but I do English Language!

What really helps me for Lan is making flashcards for grammar, terminology and theorists, and practicing those for as little as 10 minutes every day. I use StudySmarter for my flashcards, very similar to Quizlet - And I think it's very useful to have flashcards online as that way it can automatically schedule revision for you depending on how well you do with recalling that information. That's what's definitely saving my grades, haha

Learning the actual content is arguably the difficult part, and once you've got some of that knowledge under your belt then it's so much easier to analyse a text and pick things out. The better you know the content, the easier it'll be to see relevant parts of a text, and therefore the better your essay will be!

With essays, I find it's very helpful to print off random extracts and have a go finding absolutely anything I can by highlighting and annotating. I usually spend about 10 minutes annotating and planning before even attempting to write the essay itself 🙂 Although it's helpful to actually have a go at writing the full thing, it's a lot less daunting at first to just have a go planning and finding topics relating to the question to talk about. I'd definitely recommend trying to write essays as well, though. It doesn't have to be in the time limit to begin with, although it's a good habit to get into to try and write as close to the time limit as you can - Make the most of your teachers being there, and ask them to mark any essays you do write outside of class.

In short - Learn as much terminology, grammar, and theorists as you can, as this will make your essay writing not only a lot easier, but a lot more knowledgeable, too! Which exam board do you do? I'd love to help more if you have any more questions about Lan, you can absolutely do this!!
Original post by Username748
I’m currently working at an E grade for A-level Geography, English language and Sociology. I understand that time isn’t on my side since exams start in may, but does anyone know how I could try go up two grades in all three subjects?

I’m in the same situation, I need to get BBC for university and achieved CEE in my mocks, I so hope It’s doable.
Reply 6
Hiya, I went from an E to a B in Biology and jumped 2 grades in my other 2 subjects in a few months, and what I did was do SO MANY past paper questions. Geography past papers will be on Physicsandmathstutor.com so do as many of those as you can, and then do them again. I can't much help with the other two subjects since I didn't do them, but I presume the same applies. For the essay subjects, get your teachers to mark the answers for you and get feedback. Even if you don't know the answers, have a go, and study the MARK SCHEMES. Learn what the examiners are asking of you; the language you need to use, which points count most for the different types of questions. It seems obvious, but that's what really helped me. Good luck and I hope you smash it!

Quick Reply

Latest