The Student Room Group

failing a levels

i have 1-2 months left until the start of my a level exams but i'm feeling really really unmotivated. what i'm especially worried about is maths, i'm afraid i'll fail and resitting is looked down upon in some universities, so there'll be less chance of me getting in the unis i want.

i usually cannot focus in class no matter how much i try and get nothing done. and when i get back home, i get so tired and burnt out from school that i cannot get myself to do anything else. as a result, lots of time gets wasted there. i barely have any energy to do anything beside the bare minimum (this also includes things outside academics, for instance i tend to skip meals frequently because i don’t feel like getting up to make food). i also make sure to not engage in any new activity (like reading a book, watching tv, drawing, playing games…) because i’m afraid i’ll get too absorbed into it and lose focus in studying (and that did happen before).

i may also have undiagnosed autism and adhd but nhs waiting times are painfully long so i doubt i'd get any help from that anytime soon.

i've talked about being distracted during lesson time with my teachers but they just dismissed it by saying that 'there are no distractions in class'. they also asked me what they can do to remove distractions but... i literally have no idea myself, so what am i supposed to say? i'm incredibly worried and stressed that i will fail maths and feel really shameful and embarrassed about my incompetence. i know i have lots of potential but i’m wasting it all because i don’t know how to manage this and it’s probably too late to fix anything. my teachers have probably given up on me anyways. no one else in my class feels like this, they can all focus just fine and even enjoy the lesson and teaching structure so i’m the only one who is struggling.

sorry for writing all that, i just needed to vent. have a good day.
Reply 1
I also have A-levels coming up and maybe have some advice. I was in the same predicament for my GCSE's back in year 11, and I remember just hitting a switch and beginning to work very hard, even though I was destined by quite a lot of teachers to get really average or poor grades in my predicted. I used something called 'Anki' which is like an online digital flashcard tool, and I remember quickly going over the specification for many subjects in that short time period and uploading hundreds of flashcards. The day before the exams I would go over all the flashcards as a way of active recall and would obivously do practice questions and practice papers.

Now, for maths it is a bit peak for me as well, even now at A-levels because I've had about three teachers leave over the whole A-level course so far, but it is what it is.

I do maths, com science and physics so I can give more subject specific reccomendation but I'm not too sure if what you do is similar. Lmk tho!
Reply 2
Original post by bbde22
i have 1-2 months left until the start of my a level exams but i'm feeling really really unmotivated. what i'm especially worried about is maths, i'm afraid i'll fail and resitting is looked down upon in some universities, so there'll be less chance of me getting in the unis i want.
i usually cannot focus in class no matter how much i try and get nothing done. and when i get back home, i get so tired and burnt out from school that i cannot get myself to do anything else. as a result, lots of time gets wasted there. i barely have any energy to do anything beside the bare minimum (this also includes things outside academics, for instance i tend to skip meals frequently because i don’t feel like getting up to make food). i also make sure to not engage in any new activity (like reading a book, watching tv, drawing, playing games…) because i’m afraid i’ll get too absorbed into it and lose focus in studying (and that did happen before).
i may also have undiagnosed autism and adhd but nhs waiting times are painfully long so i doubt i'd get any help from that anytime soon.
i've talked about being distracted during lesson time with my teachers but they just dismissed it by saying that 'there are no distractions in class'. they also asked me what they can do to remove distractions but... i literally have no idea myself, so what am i supposed to say? i'm incredibly worried and stressed that i will fail maths and feel really shameful and embarrassed about my incompetence. i know i have lots of potential but i’m wasting it all because i don’t know how to manage this and it’s probably too late to fix anything. my teachers have probably given up on me anyways. no one else in my class feels like this, they can all focus just fine and even enjoy the lesson and teaching structure so i’m the only one who is struggling.
sorry for writing all that, i just needed to vent. have a good day.

I understand how you feel. I have my GCSE's soon and it's super hard to stay motivated. I am super scared I am going to fail and not live up to my full potential- seeing everyone else doing so well and getting predicted 8s and 9s in all subjects can really get to you. Also for me, its super hard to focus on things I am not good at as it just drains me. Something I did which is probably a bit weird is during school when I was super exhausted I started coming home, eating and then going straight to bad. I'd nap till until 9-ish, eat dinner then and get some neccessary study hours in till like 3am. After napping I just had a lot more energy and I'm not sure but it might work for you. If your worried about motivation I recommend just starting. If you start now I am sure you won't fail. Even now, I was working on my physics question pack they gave us over the holidays and I feel so demotivated to do it. But I am watching videos about it and trying to do it. At the end of the day everything the teachers give us do help us and I realize that now. In terms of motivation, I think if you just think about the importance of A-levels and maybe limit your distractions. If you have nothing else to do then you kind of get bored and studying seems like a good option- I gave away my phone to my parents because I realized watching tiktoks was just not a good way I wanted to spend my time. Just think of it as like the final stretch then you can at least leave the exams with no regrets. Sorry this is long and I hope it helps 😅
Reply 3
Original post by bbde22
i have 1-2 months left until the start of my a level exams but i'm feeling really really unmotivated. what i'm especially worried about is maths, i'm afraid i'll fail and resitting is looked down upon in some universities, so there'll be less chance of me getting in the unis i want.
i usually cannot focus in class no matter how much i try and get nothing done. and when i get back home, i get so tired and burnt out from school that i cannot get myself to do anything else. as a result, lots of time gets wasted there. i barely have any energy to do anything beside the bare minimum (this also includes things outside academics, for instance i tend to skip meals frequently because i don’t feel like getting up to make food). i also make sure to not engage in any new activity (like reading a book, watching tv, drawing, playing games…) because i’m afraid i’ll get too absorbed into it and lose focus in studying (and that did happen before).
i may also have undiagnosed autism and adhd but nhs waiting times are painfully long so i doubt i'd get any help from that anytime soon.
i've talked about being distracted during lesson time with my teachers but they just dismissed it by saying that 'there are no distractions in class'. they also asked me what they can do to remove distractions but... i literally have no idea myself, so what am i supposed to say? i'm incredibly worried and stressed that i will fail maths and feel really shameful and embarrassed about my incompetence. i know i have lots of potential but i’m wasting it all because i don’t know how to manage this and it’s probably too late to fix anything. my teachers have probably given up on me anyways. no one else in my class feels like this, they can all focus just fine and even enjoy the lesson and teaching structure so i’m the only one who is struggling.
sorry for writing all that, i just needed to vent. have a good day.

hi, I once was like you, and still kinda am, I was not focusing in class all day, just hanged out with my friends and have fun. It might sound ridiculous but being at school gave me no motivation to study and I did nothing at home as well after school.

So what I did was just leaving myself to have fun all day at school, and I studied on my own during the holidays a month before the exam. I am in my easter holidays rn, and I just feel so focused and motivated all day as I have no distractions. If you think you cant do that, running outside and taking a bath gave me sm energy so try that! I used to think its stupid to go on a walk or smth when you have no time before the exams, but it actually worked for me so I always do that now! I used to get all Bs and Cs in my gcse but I have got all As in my Alevels back in january doing this. Good luck!

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