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im 17 re doing my GCSE maths AGAIN.

Hi im 17 and currently in college and i failed my GCSE maths and twice now.
I really struggle with school especially when it comes to exams especially maths!. When i was younger apparently the doctors wanted to diagnose me with ADD and maybe other things that would effect my capability of learning as i got older but my mum refused and never got me checked or diagnosed, and im just now realising if i went to the doctors about it maybe it would've helped me with my education as ive always struggled with learning throughout school even when i was really young. But its too late now. throughout school i wasn't really taught anything they just ignored me because they thought i was too dumb but in reality i just wasn't getting the support i needed. I remember in year 10 or 11 (one of the most important years) i got my mock grade back and it was the exact same as my best friends ( i think it was 3.8-4) but i got put down to the lowest bottom set.. when my friends were learning tin cos tan,alegebra etc i was given 'what's 5x2 and what's 2x5' and that really pushed me back because i knew i wasn't supposed to be in that class because i was always the first one to finish. And eventually just stopped going into school as it was such a waste of time.
i eventually got put back into my old class but it was too late cuz i was a already so far behind. then GCSE'S came and i got a 3.

Then it came to joining college. i had very limited options as i didnt find any interest doing anything practical. i prefer written work! i chose BTEC business.bad idea litteally got taught nothing they would just go wander off - i understand if theyre busy it just wasnt helpful lol.the teachers just had sm attitude.i failed one of my units that i really tried hard on and i wrote sm essays for it and it was my best work i went for the heighest grade too but i failed because my teachers pc wasnt working... and i even showed him that any other pc can open the document and he didnt care and he marked it as failed. my maths teacher was a really sweet old lady but she didnt teach me anything.so i got another 3.
This year im doing a different course and my maths teacher i really find her teaching helpful and ive learnt more stuff this year than i had in secondary school! but guess what i got a 3! im always like lessthatn 5 maarks off max 10 but i really find it hard to concentrate and revise does anyone have any tips for me? i really just want to pass but its so difficult because i cant remember anything - pls dont be rude just cuz ur blessed with being smart HAHA.sorry its a long msg!
Original post
by destxrose
Hi im 17 and currently in college and i failed my GCSE maths and twice now.
I really struggle with school especially when it comes to exams especially maths!. When i was younger apparently the doctors wanted to diagnose me with ADD and maybe other things that would effect my capability of learning as i got older but my mum refused and never got me checked or diagnosed, and im just now realising if i went to the doctors about it maybe it would've helped me with my education as ive always struggled with learning throughout school even when i was really young. But its too late now. throughout school i wasn't really taught anything they just ignored me because they thought i was too dumb but in reality i just wasn't getting the support i needed. I remember in year 10 or 11 (one of the most important years) i got my mock grade back and it was the exact same as my best friends ( i think it was 3.8-4) but i got put down to the lowest bottom set.. when my friends were learning tin cos tan,alegebra etc i was given 'what's 5x2 and what's 2x5' and that really pushed me back because i knew i wasn't supposed to be in that class because i was always the first one to finish. And eventually just stopped going into school as it was such a waste of time.
i eventually got put back into my old class but it was too late cuz i was a already so far behind. then GCSE'S came and i got a 3.
Then it came to joining college. i had very limited options as i didnt find any interest doing anything practical. i prefer written work! i chose BTEC business.bad idea litteally got taught nothing they would just go wander off - i understand if theyre busy it just wasnt helpful lol.the teachers just had sm attitude.i failed one of my units that i really tried hard on and i wrote sm essays for it and it was my best work i went for the heighest grade too but i failed because my teachers pc wasnt working... and i even showed him that any other pc can open the document and he didnt care and he marked it as failed. my maths teacher was a really sweet old lady but she didnt teach me anything.so i got another 3.
This year im doing a different course and my maths teacher i really find her teaching helpful and ive learnt more stuff this year than i had in secondary school! but guess what i got a 3! im always like lessthatn 5 maarks off max 10 but i really find it hard to concentrate and revise does anyone have any tips for me? i really just want to pass but its so difficult because i cant remember anything - pls dont be rude just cuz ur blessed with being smart HAHA.sorry its a long msg!

Heya! (:

Also had a pretty similar situtation with maths and concentrating in school lol - im scottish so was my N5 (GCSE equivilant) - and we went into lockdown (covid times) and i just did nothing for like 6 months 😭 - kinda my own fault for not doing much, scraped my pass and then went on to study maths further and found pretty tricky as i had a big gap of previous content i was just completly missing from the year before which made it 100000x harder to understand the stuff after!

for me, I found in school going through the course spec for each topic, doing tons and tons of practice questions for each section to be great for this - also having a look at the course spec for the previous year for the same topics just to ensure I wasn't just not understanding because of something i just simply skipped over lol! 😅 - Once i did questions, i would bring these to my teachers, get them to mark these as if it was the exam and then ask them about areas i struggled with. - i found with maths it was more about understanding than memorisation!

Study-wise, at the start of my weeks i write a plan with any classes, my part-time job, plans with friends/family etc - this then just lets me see how much time i have realistically to study! - in this i also try to allow for a day or 2 with very minimal or no study (: - obviously depends on the amount of time you have but really reccomend this just to give your brain a wee break. Once i have this plan i slot in times for my revision & what i want completed by the end of the week!

by doing this i found I was more aware of what i needed to do & a bit less overwhelmed with the amount as i knew how i was going to go about getting it done - also felt quite rewarding ticking stuff off my planner lol (:

Hope this helps a bit, best of luck with your maths!! - this might make you feel a little better but I thought I was totally rubbish at maths in school and then weirdly found my maths elective at uni easier even though it was at a higher level than anything i did at school😅 - just the difference in learning environment and more planned out im guessing 😊

Emily
Year 3, Chemistry
Official University Of Strathclyde Rep

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