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Should I drop out or is there time to improve?

My report card was just sent to me for my first Yr 12 mock exams, and I failed all of my subjects

Maths - Pure: B, Mech: E, OVERALL: C
Further Maths - Core Pure: D, Applied: E, OVERALL: U
Geography - C
Economics - U

Economics is my main subject, and I bombed it. Apparently, I received most of the marks on the first section (multiple-choice, 2, 3 & 4 markers), and I lost all marks on the writing section (8, 10, 12, and 15 markers), which is worth more marks than the first section. Since it's only the first exam, all the topics should've been easy to cover, so I think, if I'm unable to pass an exam which has very little content, I won't be able to pass my next round of mocks (in May) - which are my predicted grades that will go to my university applications - and my final Yr 13 exams. I wanted to do Econ at university, but now that I'm flunking all of these subjects, I don't really have any hope, and I'm considering dropping out of Sixth Form to get a job or something. Is there any way to save my grade, or should I just give up? [Please be honest!!]

Reply 1

Original post
by # ライト??i’MKIRA🗣
My report card was just sent to me for my first Yr 12 mock exams, and I failed all of my subjects
Maths - Pure: B, Mech: E, OVERALL: C
Further Maths - Core Pure: D, Applied: E, OVERALL: U
Geography - C
Economics - U
Economics is my main subject, and I bombed it. Apparently, I received most of the marks on the first section (multiple-choice, 2, 3 & 4 markers), and I lost all marks on the writing section (8, 10, 12, and 15 markers), which is worth more marks than the first section. Since it's only the first exam, all the topics should've been easy to cover, so I think, if I'm unable to pass an exam which has very little content, I won't be able to pass my next round of mocks (in May) - which are my predicted grades that will go to my university applications - and my final Yr 13 exams. I wanted to do Econ at university, but now that I'm flunking all of these subjects, I don't really have any hope, and I'm considering dropping out of Sixth Form to get a job or something. Is there any way to save my grade, or should I just give up? [Please be honest!!]

Hii, I think that given you’re in Yr12 you still have a year and a bit to bounce back!! I don’t really have much advice for Economic or Geography, but for Maths and FM the main thing is practice! between now and your mocks in May, try going over the main topics you really struggled w (whether you need a refresher or if your genuinely feeling lost). ALso try to pay attention to how you’re feeling about the content you’ll continue to cover in class. Are you feeling lost through the whole lesson? Or only at certain points? Try and make mental notes of things your not grasping within lessons and either ask your teachers (or friends that are good in these subjects in case your more comfortable talking to them abt it )to explain more after lessons/school. Also get into the habit of doing practice questions, both for the topics you’re currently covering, but also the topics that you haven’t covered in a while to build your confidence and speed. For math in particular I’d recommend topic specific papers (u can find them on PMT - look at the international papers for now so you can use the main papers in Yr13).

TLDR: Your not cooked, you still have time. between now and May is 4-5months to really build up your skills and do better by then. You’ve got this! :smile:

Reply 2

Original post
by staristrying
Hii, I think that given you’re in Yr12 you still have a year and a bit to bounce back!! I don’t really have much advice for Economic or Geography, but for Maths and FM the main thing is practice! between now and your mocks in May, try going over the main topics you really struggled w (whether you need a refresher or if your genuinely feeling lost). ALso try to pay attention to how you’re feeling about the content you’ll continue to cover in class. Are you feeling lost through the whole lesson? Or only at certain points? Try and make mental notes of things your not grasping within lessons and either ask your teachers (or friends that are good in these subjects in case your more comfortable talking to them abt it )to explain more after lessons/school. Also get into the habit of doing practice questions, both for the topics you’re currently covering, but also the topics that you haven’t covered in a while to build your confidence and speed. For math in particular I’d recommend topic specific papers (u can find them on PMT - look at the international papers for now so you can use the main papers in Yr13).
TLDR: Your not cooked, you still have time. between now and May is 4-5months to really build up your skills and do better by then. You’ve got this! :smile:

Hiii tysm for the advice, I'm thinking on dropping Further Maths so I can focus more on Econ and Maths. I think the main thing in Maths that I don't get is Mechanics (tbh my Mech teacher doesn't show us how to do the questions, she just solves them for us and tells us to do the homework without explaining anything), I know all the equations and how to use them, I just don't know how to find out where to use them in longer questions that have multiple parts. I think I'll take your advice and start doing practice questions more often!

Reply 3

Original post
by # ライト??i’MKIRA🗣
Hiii tysm for the advice, I'm thinking on dropping Further Maths so I can focus more on Econ and Maths. I think the main thing in Maths that I don't get is Mechanics (tbh my Mech teacher doesn't show us how to do the questions, she just solves them for us and tells us to do the homework without explaining anything), I know all the equations and how to use them, I just don't know how to find out where to use them in longer questions that have multiple parts. I think I'll take your advice and start doing practice questions more often!

No problem at all!! I'm glad I was able to help a little, good luck :smile:)

Reply 4

Original post
by # ライト??i’MKIRA🗣
My report card was just sent to me for my first Yr 12 mock exams, and I failed all of my subjects
Maths - Pure: B, Mech: E, OVERALL: C
Further Maths - Core Pure: D, Applied: E, OVERALL: U
Geography - C
Economics - U
Economics is my main subject, and I bombed it. Apparently, I received most of the marks on the first section (multiple-choice, 2, 3 & 4 markers), and I lost all marks on the writing section (8, 10, 12, and 15 markers), which is worth more marks than the first section. Since it's only the first exam, all the topics should've been easy to cover, so I think, if I'm unable to pass an exam which has very little content, I won't be able to pass my next round of mocks (in May) - which are my predicted grades that will go to my university applications - and my final Yr 13 exams. I wanted to do Econ at university, but now that I'm flunking all of these subjects, I don't really have any hope, and I'm considering dropping out of Sixth Form to get a job or something. Is there any way to save my grade, or should I just give up? [Please be honest!!]

I reckon you should drop FM because even though its a great subject to have if you wanna do econ at uni CCUU with further maths is always gonna look worse than if you dropped FM and used the time to get up to maybe BBC over the next year. Mocks this soon in the year is quite unusual so i wouldnt give up on sixth form as a whole yet, just drop further maths and focus on the rest of your subjects for now- if you can get a handle on those 3 then you could always ask about doing as level further maths next year if this is something your school offers 🙂

Reply 5

Original post
by DerDracologe
I reckon you should drop FM because even though its a great subject to have if you wanna do econ at uni CCUU with further maths is always gonna look worse than if you dropped FM and used the time to get up to maybe BBC over the next year. Mocks this soon in the year is quite unusual so i wouldnt give up on sixth form as a whole yet, just drop further maths and focus on the rest of your subjects for now- if you can get a handle on those 3 then you could always ask about doing as level further maths next year if this is something your school offers 🙂

Yeah, I dropped Further Maths today, and now I have a lot more spare time on my hands for studying. It makes the workload waay easier. Thanks for the advice!

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