The Student Room Group

help year 12 exams in 3 months

hey everyone! my school is starting end of years/mocks from the start of may and i really need good grades to get into a good uni.

i'm currently doing bio,chem and psychology and i want to study neuroscience at a russell group. i need AAA but currently i am on ABC in bio, psych and chem respectively. do you think it's possible to get those grades in 13 weeks??

as for revision i have made studysmarter flashcards for some topics in bio and chem and i do them everyday. i also do 30 mins of chem exam questions everyday. i have a revision tracker on google sheets and everything (im very type a if you couldn't tell haha). but i am still worried especially for chem because i have a horrible teacher and i feel like im in the only one in the class who doesn't get it even though i got a 9 at gcse.

any tips/advice would be massively appreciated!! <3

Reply 1

Original post by li1503
hey everyone! my school is starting end of years/mocks from the start of may and i really need good grades to get into a good uni.
i'm currently doing bio,chem and psychology and i want to study neuroscience at a russell group. i need AAA but currently i am on ABC in bio, psych and chem respectively. do you think it's possible to get those grades in 13 weeks??
as for revision i have made studysmarter flashcards for some topics in bio and chem and i do them everyday. i also do 30 mins of chem exam questions everyday. i have a revision tracker on google sheets and everything (im very type a if you couldn't tell haha). but i am still worried especially for chem because i have a horrible teacher and i feel like im in the only one in the class who doesn't get it even though i got a 9 at gcse.
any tips/advice would be massively appreciated!! <3

Hey. Are those end of years your as level exams? and did you do any set of mocks to determine your ucas predicted grade if it’s holistically. Currently I’m at AA for chem and bio and I don’t learn content for chem just do exam questions. 40% is maths and I think you should go for past papers more as 30 min dosnt look sufficient from a person who got 7-6 at gcse . Tbh there is no correlation between student GCSEs and a level performance as it’s a massive gap so don’t trouble your self!

Reply 2

Original post by Logic1
Hey. Are those end of years your as level exams? and did you do any set of mocks to determine your ucas predicted grade if it’s holistically. Currently I’m at AA for chem and bio and I don’t learn content for chem just do exam questions. 40% is maths and I think you should go for past papers more as 30 min dosnt look sufficient from a person who got 7-6 at gcse . Tbh there is no correlation between student GCSEs and a level performance as it’s a massive gap so don’t trouble your self!

hi! thank you for the response. they are basically the same as AS exams but the only difference is the school is writing the papers and grade boundaries are calculated from our grade and not from the whole country like AS would be. this makes it harder because I go to a very academic school with very smart students so the grade boundaries will be high.

I agree the best way to go about chem is just doing exam questions tbh. so instead of doing 30 mins exam questions, should I just do one past paper a day? I have a google sheet to track all the past papers ive done so I can monitor my progress.

Reply 3

Original post by li1503
hi! thank you for the response. they are basically the same as AS exams but the only difference is the school is writing the papers and grade boundaries are calculated from our grade and not from the whole country like AS would be. this makes it harder because I go to a very academic school with very smart students so the grade boundaries will be high.
I agree the best way to go about chem is just doing exam questions tbh. so instead of doing 30 mins exam questions, should I just do one past paper a day? I have a google sheet to track all the past papers ive done so I can monitor my progress.

Our as level exams are 2025 this year and I believe you can only get an A. Are your ones increase to an A star. Did you have any mocks or does this determine your ucas PG. Our one holistically have an effect to decrease anomalies.

Personally I would do 10 a day full papers if that is not good for you then half that a day. It’s maths heavy like I said 40% but the rest is content like Bio and pysch. I would recommend you do ocr B because it is challenging and all my pupils and teachers recommended to me because it goes above and beyond even if you have a different exam board . Have a look at it!!

Reply 4

Original post by Logic1
Our as level exams are 2025 this year and I believe you can only get an A. Are your ones increase to an A star. Did you have any mocks or does this determine your ucas PG. Our one holistically have an effect to decrease anomalies.
Personally I would do 10 a day full papers if that is not good for you then half that a day. It’s maths heavy like I said 40% but the rest is content like Bio and pysch. I would recommend you do ocr B because it is challenging and all my pupils and teachers recommended to me because it goes above and beyond even if you have a different exam board . Have a look at it!!
yes, these grades are the predicted grades that we send to unis. im not sure if they are increased to A* but all I need is AAA.

apologies but I may be misreading your second paragraph. are you suggesting doing 10 past paper exam questions a day? because surely you cannot mean 10 full papers a day. I am really sorry if I misinterpreted!

Reply 5

Guys, I'm also in year 12 and do maths,chem, and bio.We are not even halfway done in chemistry(we didn't even start organic chemistry yet).I'm not going to grammar school.Is my school going too slow?

Reply 6

Original post by Logic1
Hey. Are those end of years your as level exams? and did you do any set of mocks to determine your ucas predicted grade if it’s holistically. Currently I’m at AA for chem and bio and I don’t learn content for chem just do exam questions. 40% is maths and I think you should go for past papers more as 30 min dosnt look sufficient from a person who got 7-6 at gcse . Tbh there is no correlation between student GCSEs and a level performance as it’s a massive gap so don’t trouble your self!


Hello!! Do you mind if I ask what you mean by you don’t learn the content? I mean for chemistry I listen in lessons and I read over the text book and then try to attempt questions but most of them I have no idea what’s going on How do you do it?? 🥲

Reply 7

Original post by Dain00000
Hello!! Do you mind if I ask what you mean by you don’t learn the content? I mean for chemistry I listen in lessons and I read over the text book and then try to attempt questions but most of them I have no idea what’s going on How do you do it?? 🥲

That’s the thing. For chemistry you learn little bit of content but it’s maths . I always do past papers more than the content it self and since in good at maths chem is my back up but I suggest you keep going over papers even if you get it wrong.

Reply 8

Original post by Logic1
That’s the thing. For chemistry you learn little bit of content but it’s maths . I always do past papers more than the content it self and since in good at maths chem is my back up but I suggest you keep going over papers even if you get it wrong.


What do you do when you’re struggling on a question? I can’t find walkthroughs for some of them

Reply 9

Original post by Sarah21456
Guys, I'm also in year 12 and do maths,chem, and bio.We are not even halfway done in chemistry(we didn't even start organic chemistry yet).I'm not going to grammar school.Is my school going too slow?

Don’t worry we are starting hess cycle now but I heard others are starting organic so it’s fine !!

Reply 10

For me I always send my teacher the qs and my teacher helps me through email or person I suggest you do the same

Reply 11

Original post by Logic1
For me I always send my teacher the qs and my teacher helps me through email or person I suggest you do the same


Damn you are lucky to have good teachers for chemistry mine aren’t the best n probably will tell me to find them in person (which is such a headache cus that just means I can’t do much after school or on weekends other than wait to go into school) and then they moan abt it.

Reply 12

Original post by Logic1
Don’t worry we are starting hess cycle now but I heard others are starting organic so it’s fine !!


You guys almost gave me a heart attack when you said you are doing past papers

Reply 13

Original post by Dain00000
Damn you are lucky to have good teachers for chemistry mine aren’t the best n probably will tell me to find them in person (which is such a headache cus that just means I can’t do much after school or on weekends other than wait to go into school) and then they moan abt it.

Well look honestly go to your teacher even in person you may have break maybe finish when the school closes catch up honestly do what you can do later they won’t be there for you !!

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