hello,
so i'm at the end of yr12 and my current grade is a B (most accurately maybe a C+ or B-) but I realistically need an A if I even want a chance at getting into my course at university. When i started my German course, i knew noone at my college and the other 3 people in my class were 2 native germans and someone who is just insanely cracked at German above a normal level (also his dad is german) which kind of left me naturally at the bottom of the class, so i struggled. Unfortunately, instead of dealing with this challenge by working hard to keep up with my fellow peers, I felt so out of my depth that I just did nothing for German for a couple of months (sept-march) as a way of avoiding my problem. By the beginning of Easter break I realised that I needed to do better than a D (which was my previous grade in my jan mock - i was going through something so i did no revision at all, i litr cried in the exam), so I locked in, I practiced grammar mostly and near the end of the holiday i memorised vocab, I did some questions but not a lot - i probably should have done at a past paper but i was terrified of getting a bad grade and i coudlnt risk demoralising myself because i know i needed to have hope. I was in nz for the entire easter break so i didnt do as mcuh revsion as i wanted for all of my subjects and i returned from this holiday the day before my german exam, so i was incredibly tired, stressed, with little to zero experience of what a real German paper is like and how long i should be spending on each question. I was more prepared than January, but still i struggled. I spent way too long on the listening and didnt even finish the exam - i left out literary extract and the last 3 questions on a reading q. When I got my exam back i was about 4% off a B and i remember being very happy about it, I wasnt bothered that my grade was not a B i was just very happy that I showed improvement because this showed that I can do better and my work payed off. Also, i knew that my grade would've been a B if i just managed my time right, so I was happy to know that I basically went from a D-->B. A couple weeks after this, i realised i wanted to be a dentist so then i realised i need an A in German, when previously the highest i was aiming for was a B. School went on as normal and i told myself I'd work on german outside of school but as per usual I get swamped underneath by 2 science a levels and get stuck back into the trap of "german isnt that hard i'll be fine". It's now the beginning of summer and I have until October to get my grade to an A, considering that getting an A at AS level is much easier than A level i realise i only really have the summer to bump my grade up so i'm in a good position for yr13. Also, I've looked at marks I need on the exams in order to get an A, and the fact its 70+ makes me feel horrible, as i'm barely scraping 50% on my exams. I have literally every resource you can think of, skills based homework book, past papers, 2 grammar books, an end of topic test i'm yet to do, quizlet, grammar websites etc but I procrastinate using them so much because I struggle so much that any shortcoming is insanely demoralising. Since tuesday, it's thursday night rn, I have done german translation questions every day and i've started to revise for the test i need to complete.
The thing about my class, and why i'm writing here, is that everyone else is on such a compltely different level to me that I dont feel like i have anyone to relate to or to support me at all (other than my very lovely teacher), and i wanted to find a forum that i can find people who are maybe at my grade, or were on my grade or anyone who also wants to get there grade up. Other than that I suppose im also here for encouragement, hence the title, can i do it?