Revision advise

[bramblebramble]

DS will be taking his A Levels in 4 weeks in Maths, Further maths, Chemistry and Physics.

He was predicted Astar,AAA and has an offer from his first choice university on condition he meets these grades. Insurance asks for AAA.

Does anyone have any revision tips for the next 4 weeks? There were mocks a few weeks ago for which he received ABBB in spite of working diligently. This has shaken him a bit and increased anxiety. He says he knows the stuff but just got it wrong for physics and chemistry in particular. Not very helpful.

Any tips? Any advise regarding nerves and improving self-confidence?

Past papers. Working through examples, particularly in the subject areas he fell down in last time. Look on line for papers and marking instructions so he can check his answers.

Bitesize though, not stressing over a whole paper, select the questions on a topic, work through that topic, until all available questions done. Then move to next topic.

Intersperse study periods of perhaps 2 hours , with breaks for exercise, a snack, a game, let him decompress.

If you have skills in any of these areas, work through the papers with him.

For the actual exam, tell him to read the paper first, pick out the questions that are easier for him, do those first, then work through the others. Looking for easy wins to settle him.

I am in Scotland, and do some tutoring. We have a lot of online resource freely available from the SQA. Hopefully same exists for his exam board .

You've had good advice about what to do already, but does he have access to those areas of Physics & Chem that he got wrong? So he can go over his answers and see in practical terms what he missed?

I'm also a great believer in writing a detailed plan of action for revision. It doesn't have to be set in stone, it can be flexible, especially when more gets done than might be expected, but a plan can take some of the edge of anxiety because it becomes a manageable task, if that makes sense?

Ds is sitting the same subjects.

He has written revision cards in the topics that the finds more difficult on the specification for physics and maths. He's started past papers which are long and tiring so is mostly saving these for the weekends but might do a half paper after school sometimes. We mark it together (although I don't really understand any of it! More for moral support). The mark schemes are good to look at in conjunction as it tells you what the exam board are looking for, working out marks etc. For example, I've discovered by doing this that ds makes lots of silly mistakes. Misses a digit into the calculator etc so he needs to slow down and really concentrate on what he is doing.

Ds doesn't need a good further maths grade (predicted an A) as none of his offers include FM do he's doing a bit less on that and concentrating on the other three that he does need certain grades for.

Get him to look at those B grade papers alongside the mark scheme if he hasn't already done so and work out why he didn't get more marks. Work out why is he missing specific terminology? It is a calculation error? If it was worth 6 marks did he write 6 marks worth of answer? Did he understand the question? Is is a knowledge issue? See if there is a pattern to it. He needs to work out why he didn't get full marks, that is the key to getting more marks and therefore a higher grade.

Any other past papers he has sat earlier in the year - if he sat them now would he get full marks? They should always go over them in class to make sure everyone understands the concepts. Usually for Ds the teacher will have a note of what most students got wrong so will address those first.

Thanks everyone. So if he gets something like AstarBBB will he lose both the firm and insurance offers? Does DS then have to go through clearing?

Insurance is at Bristol and I can't imagine they will accept AAB or ABB or AstarBB

It depends what he is applying for. For example, Chemistry generally doesn't get as many applicants as maths for example so they might be a bit more lenient with one missed grade. However dc would need to ask his firm and insurance what their policy is. My dc firm offer said they'd only consider contextual applicants who miss their grades.

There are always places in clearing for Chemistry, Physics and Maths and allied degrees.

@Lightsabre ah. so get in touch with the universities before firming the offers? won't backfire would it (for examples the admissions people think its a weak applicant who worries in advance).

Yes, definitely contact them. It's a very common question at open days and offer days.