Pathways into trading

3

I’m going into year 13
In maths so far Ive got - C,U,U in I know I need to get this to at least a B to stand any chance of going to a good uni and then getting an internship at an investment bank
Economics Ive got A* predicteds so not a problem
Biology Ive got B predicteds
I’m struggling to get my grade up in maths and wonder if anyone has any tips I’m just in a rough patch atm working hard every day this summer to try prove to my teachers I’m not stupid

Reply 1

bobjeffandam

14

Original post

by Crisprs

I’m going into year 13
In maths so far Ive got - C,U,U in I know I need to get this to at least a B to stand any chance of going to a good uni and then getting an internship at an investment bank
Economics Ive got A* predicteds so not a problem
Biology Ive got B predicteds
I’m struggling to get my grade up in maths and wonder if anyone has any tips I’m just in a rough patch atm working hard every day this summer to try prove to my teachers I’m not stupid

You will be completely fine! Dw you’ve got this :smile:

Funnily enough I was in the same position as you. I had all A*s apart from maths- it was always a struggle up until 2 months ago, and I had no idea what I was doing wrong. I was at a C in maths and jumped up to an A*, in a few months during school time- I’m in year 12 too, and I believe you could do it 10x faster over the summer.

With maths, I hate to say it, but it’s all down to practise! But I did this before and still ended up with a C. I then changed my methods and my grade jumped to a high A* and here’s exactly what I did (hope it helps!):

•

First, put a list of all of your topics from year 12 onto a sheets/ doc etc. or use a revision list your teachers have given for your end of years. If you do not have a revision list from your end of years, just make a list on docs of all the topics you have covered using any resource your school uses etc. Make it into a table so you can colour code once you have revised them. You could use the spec, I just get too confused with it.

•

Then you will highlight the topics you are good at. I didn’t highlight any, because I was doing poorly on everything ahahha

•

Then you will begin on the simpler topics, that you may find less scary/ overwhelming (because these are normally the foundation of the other content/ upcoming topics). Then just watch a video or two - even if you think you understand! Because sometimes there are facts and things that you may not be exposed to in practise questions, or different ways of thinking that really help your understanding, and so, your performance. I highly recommend TL maths- there are quite a few other good A-level maths YouTubers out there too.

•

do PMT questions on these topics, if you have a textbook do those. Do many questions. Many and many. With maths, it is like training a muscle. More you train = better you will be. I feel like someone who does more practise questions blindly will still perform better than someone who knows all the theory but does not practise (although I do not recommend blindly doing practise qs ahaha!) Then just work your way through the topics on your list

•

As you do these, highlight the topics you struggled with on your list- colour code! Green= you understand it all/enough, orange= weaker area, red = very confused.

•

Work on oranges first, and drill questions on these, then do red.

•

The more questions you do= more exposure= you will gain better understanding. It gets boring for me, so I like to personally put on some headphones + Spotify to keep me going.

THIS IS NOT ALL! this will get you a solid foundation of all the content. Maybe you will get a A* with this or a A, but for me this wasn’t enough. This got me from a C to a B/A. What got me from that to an A/A* was doing past papers after all of this. Because you need to be able to remember all the topics at once, and mix theory together. You need to be able to quickly switch your brain to focus on one topic to another, so doing past papers / AS papers for your course, will force you to switch gears with new topics, and hence improve your maths. You will also realise that you have forgotten some (or a lot of) the content you learned over this time. So you will be forced to remember it.

Note, this is just what I did, and it helped me. I’m sure you can easily bang out the best grades, you have nothing to worry about! I believe in u! Lmk if u have any other Q’s!! 🙂 good luck!!

Reply 2

bobjeffandam

14

Original post

by Crisprs

I’m going into year 13
In maths so far Ive got - C,U,U in I know I need to get this to at least a B to stand any chance of going to a good uni and then getting an internship at an investment bank
Economics Ive got A* predicteds so not a problem
Biology Ive got B predicteds
I’m struggling to get my grade up in maths and wonder if anyone has any tips I’m just in a rough patch atm working hard every day this summer to try prove to my teachers I’m not stupid

Also side note- no need to prove your teachers you are not stupid! I thought the same thing hahaha, when I was trying to work up my grade. Turns out they never thought I was stupid- they were proud of the hard work I was putting in throughout, because I kept asking them about tips on my method etc whilst trying to boost up my grade. And they were happier than me by the end of it.

I really think asking your teacher for tips etc is great too, because then they will know you are genuinely serious, as not many students reach out to them. Or even emailing them with the odd question over the summer! They will be over the moon that a student has decided to spend their summer doing maths ahahaha.

ALSO I FORGOT TO SAY! please do not burn out! It is summer time! You can chill andddd booost your maths grade simultaneously. when I worked to push my grade up, I was still in school and also went out with friends and family a lot of the time, only did like an hour or two of maths a day for a few weeks. You can always wake up early, or do the maths whilst winding down at night/ in bed - and just spend the rest of the day chillaxing. Please enjoy your summer! You can have both!! and I believe in you- good luck with your revision and upcoming A level studies!

Reply 3

Crisprs

OP

3

Original post

by bobjeffandam

You will be completely fine! Dw you’ve got this :smile:

Funnily enough I was in the same position as you. I had all A*s apart from maths- it was always a struggle up until 2 months ago, and I had no idea what I was doing wrong. I was at a C in maths and jumped up to an A*, in a few months during school time- I’m in year 12 too, and I believe you could do it 10x faster over the summer.
With maths, I hate to say it, but it’s all down to practise! But I did this before and still ended up with a C. I then changed my methods and my grade jumped to a high A* and here’s exactly what I did (hope it helps!):

•

First, put a list of all of your topics from year 12 onto a sheets/ doc etc. or use a revision list your teachers have given for your end of years. If you do not have a revision list from your end of years, just make a list on docs of all the topics you have covered using any resource your school uses etc. Make it into a table so you can colour code once you have revised them. You could use the spec, I just get too confused with it.

•

Then you will highlight the topics you are good at. I didn’t highlight any, because I was doing poorly on everything ahahha

•

Then you will begin on the simpler topics, that you may find less scary/ overwhelming (because these are normally the foundation of the other content/ upcoming topics). Then just watch a video or two - even if you think you understand! Because sometimes there are facts and things that you may not be exposed to in practise questions, or different ways of thinking that really help your understanding, and so, your performance. I highly recommend TL maths- there are quite a few other good A-level maths YouTubers out there too.

•

do PMT questions on these topics, if you have a textbook do those. Do many questions. Many and many. With maths, it is like training a muscle. More you train = better you will be. I feel like someone who does more practise questions blindly will still perform better than someone who knows all the theory but does not practise (although I do not recommend blindly doing practise qs ahaha!) Then just work your way through the topics on your list

•

As you do these, highlight the topics you struggled with on your list- colour code! Green= you understand it all/enough, orange= weaker area, red = very confused.

•

Work on oranges first, and drill questions on these, then do red.

•

The more questions you do= more exposure= you will gain better understanding. It gets boring for me, so I like to personally put on some headphones + Spotify to keep me going.

THIS IS NOT ALL! this will get you a solid foundation of all the content. Maybe you will get a A* with this or a A, but for me this wasn’t enough. This got me from a C to a B/A. What got me from that to an A/A* was doing past papers after all of this. Because you need to be able to remember all the topics at once, and mix theory together. You need to be able to quickly switch your brain to focus on one topic to another, so doing past papers / AS papers for your course, will force you to switch gears with new topics, and hence improve your maths. You will also realise that you have forgotten some (or a lot of) the content you learned over this time. So you will be forced to remember it.
Note, this is just what I did, and it helped me. I’m sure you can easily bang out the best grades, you have nothing to worry about! I believe in u! Lmk if u have any other Q’s!! 🙂 good luck!!

Wow thank you so much I’m going to do this over the summer really helpful. Thank you!

Reply 4

Crisprs

OP

3

Original post

by bobjeffandam

Also side note- no need to prove your teachers you are not stupid! I thought the same thing hahaha, when I was trying to work up my grade. Turns out they never thought I was stupid- they were proud of the hard work I was putting in throughout, because I kept asking them about tips on my method etc whilst trying to boost up my grade. And they were happier than me by the end of it.
I really think asking your teacher for tips etc is great too, because then they will know you are genuinely serious, as not many students reach out to them. Or even emailing them with the odd question over the summer! They will be over the moon that a student has decided to spend their summer doing maths ahahaha.
ALSO I FORGOT TO SAY! please do not burn out! It is summer time! You can chill andddd booost your maths grade simultaneously. when I worked to push my grade up, I was still in school and also went out with friends and family a lot of the time, only did like an hour or two of maths a day for a few weeks. You can always wake up early, or do the maths whilst winding down at night/ in bed - and just spend the rest of the day chillaxing. Please enjoy your summer! You can have both!! and I believe in you- good luck with your revision and upcoming A level studies!

Thank you I hope my teachers do. I will keep burnout in mind especially with what people say about year 13 being intense

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