Getting the right grades

Once the UCAS stage of applying to universities and receiving the offers has passed, it is a matter of now working to get the grades required to get into the university of your choice.

The most important thing is to see your conditional offer grades as an aim of where you want your grades to get to. The thing a lot of people do wrong is, once they receive the offer, people start to slack off a little. You need to tell yourself that you need to meet these conditions to get into your university choice.

Many people also use the wrong approach when it comes to revision. A Levels are hard, hence make sure you take your time to understand each and every topic there is. When I did A Levels I struggled with a lot of concepts, and the mistake I made is to focus on the topics I preferred instead of the topics I found difficult.

If you find any subjects difficult, make sure that you speak to your friends on the course as well as your subject teachers to make sure that you fully understand everything. If any of your teachers use Powerpoints, try getting hold of those and use those for your revision purposes.

A lot of people struggle with knowing which revision method to use, but it is important to know that always use the methods that work best for you. For example, some people are better at making notes and absorbing the information that way. Others may benefit better by using practical approaches as in using online quizzes, videos and maybe even experiments when it comes to the sciences. As an example, when we learnt about rates of reactions during Chemistry A Level, I found that doing the experiment helped me to gain a better understanding than the practical method that I saw in the textbook.

I believe this is the first year to use the linear approach to testing students, and therefore try to revise both Year 12 and Year 13 content thoroughly. There’s only a few more months left for the exams, therefore use the time you have wisely and to find the motivation, maybe reward yourself once you’re happy or achieved a target that you have set yourself for the day.

If it makes you a little happier, once you’ve finished the exams, you will probably have the longest summer you’ve ever had ahead of you as most university courses start at the end of September or the start of October.

Good luck with revision everyone!