How I went from failing to achieving an A in A-Level Maths

School has always been important to me because education can open many opportunities for you. However, when Covid-19 hit, and we all had to go into lockdown, I was affected by the sudden change of environment.

I lacked motivation and couldn’t focus on zoom lessons. The assignments felt optional, and I just skimmed through the chapters without actually understanding the content. I was getting behind, but I hadn’t even realised how bad I was yet.

Then we got back to regular lessons in September 2021. The first thing we did during our first week was our mock exams, and those grades were supposed to determine whether we could get an offer from universities. I have never done a mock exam so badly, and I was ashamed. And sitting next to me was a guy who usually got lower grades than me, and he got one of the highest grades in our Maths class. He used his time during the lockdown, and now his efforts are showing. I congratulated him while feeling miserable about my grades.

I also started to panic. What are my teacher’s A-Level predictions? Would I have to repeat a year and retake the exams? Thankfully our teacher was generous and said he would take into account our GCSE and previous test grades.

Although I received four offers, I was still getting bad grades in all 3 of my subjects. We were told that we had to go back into lockdown during November. I knew I couldn’t let history repeat itself, so this time I deleted all my distractions and apps, only keeping Snapchat so my friends and I could help each other out. My story was full of screenshots of exam questions and asking my friends to explain things to me. And instead of studying in my bedroom, I studied in the living room so I could spread the whole table with my textbooks and papers.

We went back to college on the 14th of March, and in our lessons, I finally understood the exam content. Fast forward to results day, I let my friend see my grades, and I was really satisfied with my grades. Occasionally I would still have those ‘if I studied these during the first lockdown. I could’ve gotten better grades, but now I think my experience of being a disappointment was more of a reminder not to let this happen during university.

Last week I just got my Accounting test results back, and I found out I got full marks. I’ve heard gossip of people trying to guess my marks and saying I had an unfair advantage because I’ve learnt some of the topics in college. There is no unfair advantage here, I’ve failed as many times as they have, and in the end, everything just comes down to effort.

So what are my tips for getting an A in Maths? Delete your distractions, change your study environment when you get bored and surround yourself with people you want to become. There is no secret to success, you just need to prioritise your time and get down to practising questions. The more you do, the better you will get. And always try to challenge yourself with even harder questions so you can expect what the worst can come up in the test. This way, you will be mentally prepared and not be as nervous because you've already faced the hardest questions during your revision time.

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