Struggling with exams and general work

I’ve done my mocks now and they went poorly, my art one was fine I got a B but English lit and law one were really bad. We didn’t have to do a 15 marker in the law one so it was only out of 85 not 100 and we still had two hours like the normal exam, but I didn’t finish at all and I missed half a 30 marker and one of the five markers completely. I didn’t finish my English one at all and I spent an entire hour on a 15 mark. Even the answers I did put were poor and really unstructured and vague.
It just sucks cuz it’s not even the content that’s the issue, before the exam I can remember it all but then I do it and I’m so stressed and so overwhelmed I spend most of the time panicking and then I start running out of time and just have to start writing whatever.
This happened in my gsces, I revised the biology content so intensely I could probably re write the whole textbook before the exam, but then I got in there and couldn’t remember anything and had a mental breakdown.
I feel like I have no support and I don’t want to go to college because I’m nervous the teachers will mad at my poor grades and think I haven’t even tried even though I have so hard. It just takes me ages to even comprehend the question. My English teacher says there are no excuses and we should all be performing at grade B+ level, I just feel so embarrassed and stupid.
Even though my mock went well, I’m still nervous about art. I can do the drawings and paintings fine, but when we learn new techniques like darkroom /lino etc, i struggles so hard to understand the instructions and it seems like everyone picks up it so fast as I am still confused.
I just really need advice for what to do, I want to go to uni next year, but right now I feel so out of place and behind everyone else to the point where I don’t want to come in anymore.

Reply 1

sab444

Original post by sevenlolol

Hi there, it seems like we both had similar experiences since I got very stressed out and panicked before my exams aswell even though I knew so much information which I forgot due to stress, the main thing is confidence honestly. For my first alevel I took last week I was very stressed out and had a panic attack prior, this made me forgot knowledge I had before. But on my second exam, I tried to think positively and control my nerves, deep breaths in and out and using techniques to control stress. If you are calm and settled, your mind will be able to recall the information easier than when you are panicking because everything will get muddled up and unclear. Believe in yourself you can do it, also don’t overthink certain questions, if you don’t know something don’t spend over the time u should be spending, just write what u think it could be even if ur not sure because you can gain marks, and then move in to next questions. Don’t overthink an answer and trust your instinct, also try make a little plan for any long question or essay, this will help you save time. I also struggle with timekeeping in exams because before you know it 2 hours are up, so try go over past papers and use flashcards to make a brief structure for certain questions e.g 12 markers/ 20 markers etc. I know how it feels to lose motivation, but trust me you have enough time to get where you want to be and to boost your grades. Your hard work and efforts will be all worth it don’t worry, if you are taking your alevel exams next year just start revising during this December it will help a lot more, this is something I regret not doing because I had to then cram my revision in a month. Try regularly review information after each lesson, make flashcards or the active recall technique that best suits you and test your self to maintain information in separate spaced out parts not all at once. I had a predicted grade of D last year and I was getting bad grades like E in my mocks, but this year I scored A, B, C in my second round of mocks because I made an academic comeback in the summer LOL and im hoping to get C and above for my actual alevels. Btw Don’t give attention to people who make you think you are incapable, most of the time it may be just our self consciousness making us think we ourselves are not capable, which is why a positive mindset is important and confidence is key. Don’t compare yourself to others positions right now, you are exactly where you are meant to be and you are doing great, I know you can do this, have faith in yourself im sure you will do amazing and it will all be worth it :smile: