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Currently on all D’s, how can I get to A’s?

Hey everyone, I’m currently on all D’s after my first set of yr 12 mocks. I do alevel aqa psychology, edexcel economics and edexcel politics. Anyone got any tips or websites/resources which are helpful to use to get to at least all B’s by my next set of mocks at the end of the year (in June).
Thanks for reading.

Reply 1

Original post
by jadkn
Hey everyone, I’m currently on all D’s after my first set of yr 12 mocks. I do alevel aqa psychology, edexcel economics and edexcel politics. Anyone got any tips or websites/resources which are helpful to use to get to at least all B’s by my next set of mocks at the end of the year (in June).
Thanks for reading.

Make sure you get your mock papers back from your school so you can read over them and see where you want wrong- don't just skim read, look for common errors, writing mistakes, weak analysis etc. It might be worth re-doing the same mock papers and asking your teachers to remark them. I would also recommend personally asking each subject teacher if they can spare you some time to talk over what they think you need to do to improve and what they think you are already strong at it.

I dont know how you're doing your revision so far, but make sure you're doing past papers. Personally, I would recommend not diving in blind to a full paper immediately. At first, it could be a good idea to read through the questions first, revise what you know will be in it, and then take your time going through each one. Then later on in the year when you're hopefully more confident you could do past papers in timed conditions not reading them first. Most importantly - make sure your teachers mark all your answers !! If they've only given a score and not written any feedback, you absolutely need to ask them yourself to give you feedback - it's like 90% of the reason doing past papers are helpful. Also, if there's a specific type of question or specific topic you struggle with, there's lots of revision websites that will just have collections of one question/topic to use.

Then obviously there's things like mindmaps, flashcards etc, but they're very dependent on each person's learning style, and some people might not find any of them useful, you just have to figure out what works for you. Personally, me and my friends found it useful to ask each other short-answer knowledge check questions from the textbook (etc for psychology - give me one strength of X study). I also found explaining a topic outloud to my parents helpful for consolidating my understanding and helping me remember the information.

Best of luck and I hope you find what works for you ! :smile:

Reply 2

Original post
by iizzyxx
Make sure you get your mock papers back from your school so you can read over them and see where you want wrong- don't just skim read, look for common errors, writing mistakes, weak analysis etc. It might be worth re-doing the same mock papers and asking your teachers to remark them. I would also recommend personally asking each subject teacher if they can spare you some time to talk over what they think you need to do to improve and what they think you are already strong at it.
I dont know how you're doing your revision so far, but make sure you're doing past papers. Personally, I would recommend not diving in blind to a full paper immediately. At first, it could be a good idea to read through the questions first, revise what you know will be in it, and then take your time going through each one. Then later on in the year when you're hopefully more confident you could do past papers in timed conditions not reading them first. Most importantly - make sure your teachers mark all your answers !! If they've only given a score and not written any feedback, you absolutely need to ask them yourself to give you feedback - it's like 90% of the reason doing past papers are helpful. Also, if there's a specific type of question or specific topic you struggle with, there's lots of revision websites that will just have collections of one question/topic to use.
Then obviously there's things like mindmaps, flashcards etc, but they're very dependent on each person's learning style, and some people might not find any of them useful, you just have to figure out what works for you. Personally, me and my friends found it useful to ask each other short-answer knowledge check questions from the textbook (etc for psychology - give me one strength of X study). I also found explaining a topic outloud to my parents helpful for consolidating my understanding and helping me remember the information.
Best of luck and I hope you find what works for you ! :smile:


Yeah I get what you mean, thank you so much for the help! Ur a lifesaver!

Reply 3

Original post
by jadkn
Hey everyone, I’m currently on all D’s after my first set of yr 12 mocks. I do alevel aqa psychology, edexcel economics and edexcel politics. Anyone got any tips or websites/resources which are helpful to use to get to at least all B’s by my next set of mocks at the end of the year (in June).
Thanks for reading.

Hey, inbox I can help you improve on the grades. Thanks

Reply 4

Original post
by francisawi
Hey, inbox I can help you improve on the grades. Thanks


Hey I checked my inbox and nothing was there. Unless u meant something else? I’m just new to the app.

Reply 5

Original post
by ktspsych
If you can afford it https://www.politicsexplained.co.uk/tutoring have the best notes for politics edexcel and I got an A* using the notes in both Year 12 and Year 13 mocks. If it's not something you want/can spend the money on, the Politics Explained Yt channel do videos on all of UK gov/politics, and the 3 core ideologies which uses the same notes they sell on their website for free. I used the free videos before I invested the money and also found these helped me achieve A*, and I don't use any other resources for revision. I cannot recommend the notes and YT channel enough, they have EVERYTHING you could possibly need in terms of content and case studies that are up to date and specific, which is what you'll need to be hitting higher grades.

Also worth noting that the biggest thing to hit B and up grades in Politics is having the right essay structure. Once you find a structure that works then writing essays becomes so much easier, as long as you understand the content you need to write about.
In my college we're taught to do PEACE, which I find works well (point, evidence, analysis, counter, evaluate/link). For a typical 30 mark question I would do Intro, x3 PEACE and then conclusion.
If you have anymore questions on how to write essays let me know :smile:

Reply 6

Original post
by jadkn
Hey everyone, I’m currently on all D’s after my first set of yr 12 mocks. I do alevel aqa psychology, edexcel economics and edexcel politics. Anyone got any tips or websites/resources which are helpful to use to get to at least all B’s by my next set of mocks at the end of the year (in June).
Thanks for reading.


Hello I got an A* in my a level economics exam last year and I’m giving away some of my flashcards. I have a tiktok “APstudy” where I preview some of the cards give me a dm on tiktok if you would like access

Reply 7

Original post
by jadkn
Hey everyone, I’m currently on all D’s after my first set of yr 12 mocks. I do alevel aqa psychology, edexcel economics and edexcel politics. Anyone got any tips or websites/resources which are helpful to use to get to at least all B’s by my next set of mocks at the end of the year (in June).
Thanks for reading.


Hey, I have a bunch of affordable revision materials available - you can drop me a message for a preview if you’d like to purchase any essay plans / detailed notes which got me an A, few marks off a A*.

Reply 8

Original post
by francisawi
Hey, inbox I can help you improve on the grades. Thanks


Hey sorry do you mind telling me how I can improve my grades aswell, l also do edexcel politics and economics

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