Is it too late to get an A* for bio and chem (AQA)

Hi all,
Im a y13 student who is currently getting a D in chem and D in bio. Is it too late to get an A* by June, considering now its Jan, will it even be enough for a high A. Any tips on what I should be doing to improve drastically over time,
those of you who are getting A/A*, any useful tips and for those who have been in my situation and has gotten better grades in actual exams.
is anki useful too for bio and chem?
would really really love some help,
thanks.

Hey, I was like this last year, and got my D in biology up to an A! this was in the space of maybe 2 months, so its absolutely doable.
i know everyone always talks about past papers, but they're really not lying - it changes the game completely, especially for biology. But what matters a lot is not just completing the paper, but being aware of how to answer the question, and having good exam technique. not only this, but use the spec!! so so important, it tells you everything you need to know, and is basically a cheat sheet. I would refer back to the spec constantly when revising, to make sure I got everything. good subject knowledge + good exam technique = good grades
What I would do is revise a topic i was struggling on with a textbook, read it through a few times, then write it all out without looking. then I'd teach myself the concept, trying not to look at my notes, and repeat until I could do it without my notes completely. i go through a few summary questions, answering them out loud. then, I'd do some exam questions by topic immediately after, mark them (make sure to be a harsh marker, its hard but a must) and when doing corrections, I'd take a note of the style of question ("describe, suggest, explain, etc") and not just what the right answer was, but how the answer was STRUCTURED. this part I feel really helped me get my grade up, because the structure of the answer for these type of questions stayed relatively similar, so once I had it down, my marks started getting better.
In school, I used some of my free periods to consolidate my knowledge from my lessons, and then pre-reading the next lessons, so that I could maximise help from my teacher. if you already know the content of the lesson, then the lesson basically becomes revision for you, and an opportunity to get help from your teachers on things you don't quite understand.
But most important part of all is to be consistent. You do NOT need to be studying 10 hours a day to get an A/A*. I would do 2-3 hours of revision a day, either before, during, or after school. Making sure you do little and often is how it all sticks in your head, and will lower the stress on you when exams start coming round. It's more about discipline than motivation.
Wishing all the best for you!

Hi all,
Im a y13 student who is currently getting a D in chem and D in bio. Is it too late to get an A* by June, considering now its Jan, will it even be enough for a high A. Any tips on what I should be doing to improve drastically over time,
those of you who are getting A/A*, any useful tips and for those who have been in my situation and has gotten better grades in actual exams.
is anki useful too for bio and chem?
would really really love some help,
thanks.

Hello,
It is definitely possible to get from a D to an A/A* by the summer as although this has never been a scenario I've found myself in, I've heard many others being in this scenario.
To achieve these higher grades you need two things. Firstly, you need the content memorised and to keep going over it. In might be useful having a look at Atkinson and Shiffrin's Multi Store Model of Memory to understand how your memory works.
Secondly, you need to develop your exam technique. The best way to do this is by doing as many past papers and questions as possible under exam conditions, get feedback and learn from this feedback.
If you have any further questions please do let me know.
Charlie
Law LLB Student

Hello
thank you so much for your response, I've studied the multi store of model of memory haha, since i study psychology, however you are right I do need a refresh on the model of memory to understand how memorisation works.
I do have a quesiton though, are anki flashcards useful, is anki itself benefical?
thanks,

thank you so much, I was really looking for a response like this, was it like january and you were on a D or like march and you worked hard within 2 months to get an A? because considering the time frame i have left, it really freaks me out that I have only 5 months left to get it together and come out with A/A*
thank you so much though, life saver!

hey, glad to hear that you found my response helpful!! thought it'd be too waffly, so im really happy to hear that you liked it 😊 I'm also in year 13, so my D in bio was my result from year 12 mocks in June, I had the summer holidays to do stuff but if I'm being honest, I didn't do much in them at all revision wise 😭😭 I locked in literally in the first week of September, once I was back in the flow of school, and in my november mocks, came out with an A! still have a long way to go, since the end exam matters most, but it's definitely possible, don't let others get you down about it xx

Hello,
thats so good tho, yeah ill be so honest, didnt prep well for my nov mocks so i did get a D, in my y12 mocks i did get a C, lmao i dropped a grade, but do you think its possible to get an A* in June😅
cuz tbh all this is scarying me lol
have you used anki before btw for bio, and is it good?
and what other subjects do you do?