Have your results day hit you hard? Here’s some advice on how to recover like a champion – by a student who has gone through it all already.
Yes, I’ve been there. I’ve experienced the sinking feeling. The great big sucker punch to your confidence that is results day gone wrong. The media never changes: the clichéd photos of students poised mid-jump, legs tucked and arms flailing with results papers in the air. Then there’s you, the one they don’t mention, 20 missed calls from mum.
Kidding yourself that the results didn’t really reflect your performance, that you knew all the stuff, or that you couldn’t have worked harder, isn’t going to do any good. You now have a choice to make: repeat your exams and fail again or work hard and fight for the future you want.
Facing the facts
The fact is, some people need a wake-up call – I certainly did. In a kind of Rocky-esque way, I learned something in my defeat and came back stronger, with a real understanding of the challenge I was facing. Cheesy it may be, but it’s a much more effective way to look at your results.
Sometimes, a little extra effort is all that’s needed. But if you’re like me, you might be convinced you’d worked hard and might be left confused about what went wrong. What I eventually came to realise (and this goes against everything your teachers would have you believe) was that hard work isn’t always enough. Sometimes you need to know what went wrong so you can change your approach.
Working out what went wrong
It may be that you haven’t understood a few concepts from the start, or that you have trouble with key terms in your subject; for me it was exam technique. I’d ignored it all the way through, somehow thinking that a good mark in GCSE English was a licence to write essays MY way. Turns out that doing something as simple as changing my writing style could make all the difference.
Being positive
Now that you’ve realised what has gone wrong, the best thing you can do is be positive! You’ve got another chance to prove yourself and work hard. There’s no shame in adding an extra year at school as long as its worth it. You’ll get to uni (or job, apprenticeship, internship etc.) with more experience, knowledge and, faith in yourself.
Talk to people like you
The real challenge was that I was completely alone: nobody told me the answer, and I didn’t change overnight. It took a few life-draining after-school conversations with my teacher and more failed attempts before I got back on track.
No wonder I was so enthusiastic when I heard about MyTutor. See, the tutors on there are like me. We’ve been there, lived and (literally) breathed A Levels and, moreover, know how to get it right. It gives you the chance to sit down and talk to someone who knows how to revise, who can give you all their tips and tricks, who knows what the examiners want and can help you identify where you’re going wrong.
Talk about a life-saver; one of those tutors could have saved from me all those insufferable after school meetings with balding Mr Green. Now cue the Rocky training montage and go get the grades you deserve!
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Written by Leigh S.