a level advice

i just got my GCSEs and unlike everyone here who is getting good results, that wasn’t the case for me, especially having worked so hard and going through so much in secondary school. im going to sixth form and im gonna do a level English lit (aqa), sociology (aqa) and politics (edexcel). i just want to better improve myself and aim to get at least 3 As or AAB at the end of year 12. i also am quite overly ambitious and want to go to a Russell group uni (not those rlly competitive ones like oxbridge or ucl or LSE) as I didn’t get the right GCSEs for them and I would like to study either a social science like sociology or politics and something related to it. i really just want to do much more better than i did in my GCSEs so anyone who got really bad GCSEs but managed to do well in their a levels and got into a good uni please help and anyone doing the same a levels please leave some revision tips and advice !! much appreciated

Hi, having grades that didn't go so well in GCSE's are completely fine. College if you do the work shouldn't be too hard. I don't know how you learn however for me when a teacher is reading off powerpoint - don't just copy the notes. listen to what the teacher is summarizing and explaining and write what they say, unless its bad and waffle. I highly recommend a book or flashcards for terminology in English (personally, I didn't struggle with forgetting them but I know a lot of people did) alongside this I suggest you do mind maps. with english I did it by topic - so one character and all of their quotes sometimes I dissected it, sometimes I didn't. the next week id do the same character to see what id forgotten so id learn more. I also did it on big sheets of paper I think a3? I would also say the it gets close to mocks or a levels do not stress yourself out with revision, having time yourself is important too. just be proactive, do exam questions after the whole topic or term is done so you know what you need to work on. ask your teacher important stuff and if you don't understand ask them to explain in a simple way. no one will penalize you for getting things wrong or asking questions.