Explore the insights and strategies shared by Nika, our Year 13 student, to attain the highest grade in your exams.

Dedication

On A-levels you cannot get an A by a chance you get it by DEDICATION.

You need discipline, motivation and focus to reach dedication. However, this is easy to write but for many hard to apply. So here are some of my tips that create my dedication to study for A grade.

Focus

  • Learn to say no; if your main goal is to achieve an A you should be 100% focused on that. This means that you should be prepared to cancel an invitation to a party if you know that your exams are in 2 weeks and plan to dedicate yourself to study “chapter 5 mitotic cell cycle”.
  • Of course, I do not want to take away all your “out of study activities” but just want to present to you that being a grade A student requires taking responsibility and self-awareness.
  • Set a timer of 15 min on social media.
  • Identify your weakness; identify the topics that you are not ‘yet’ good at.

Discipline

  • Make a good & detailed plan; I always start making a rough plan one month (or even more) be- fore the examination and continue detailing with time till the examination. In it, I include detailed plans of what I will do each day (including: which topics to consolidate, when to start with solving past papers).
  • If you have a realistic detailed plan in combination with motivation, you will achieve the feeling that you are prepared for the exam and you are confident in your answer.
  • Make to do lists every single day; during school note down all the things that you should do in your study period or at home (this will make you more organised and less stressed as you will know exactly what you should be doing which will increase your focus and further daily productivity)
  • Do not learn it by heart but by real life application; A-levels BIOLOGY and Chemistry have too much content for you to learn everything by heart. Always try to think how you can apply what you have just learned to some interesting real-life personal experience and to the previous chapters
  • Always ask yourself WHY? I learn some mechanisms better if I know the logic behind them. Therefore, I always seek the answer to the question WHY does this happen?
  • Set a 10 min task; every single day set yourself a 10 min task that you would do first thing in the morning when you open your eyes and last thing in the evening before you close your eyes.
  • Make lists: of all your questions for teacher.

Motivation

  • Have an activity a day when you do not do anything for school (walk a dog, bake some- thing, go in gym…).
  • Trick your brain; if you really do not have any motivation and desire to study start from setting a timer for only 20min.
  • Accept that you are only human!
  • Make a visionary board