At the end of Year 12 I was pretty average.
Mostly C’s, maybe a B if things went well. Nothing terrible, but nowhere near where I needed to be if I wanted top grades.
What made it more frustrating was that I was putting the time in. I’d sit at my desk for hours:
rewriting notes, highlighting textbooks, watching videos.
It felt like I was working hard. But every time I got a test back, it was the same result.
C.
The moment it clicked
Over the summer I decided to actually look properly at one of my papers instead of just checking the grade and moving on.
I sat there with my answer and the mark scheme side by side.
And it was a bit of a reality check.
I wasn’t actually answering the question in the way the exam wanted.
I knew the content - that wasn’t the issue.
But I wasn’t turning that knowledge into marks.
What I changed (nothing extreme)
I didn’t suddenly become one of those people revising 10 hours a day.
If anything, I just became more focused.
I stopped spending most of my time on notes and started doing exam questions every day.
Even when I didn’t feel ready.
I’d:
- do a couple of questions
- time myself properly
- mark them straight after using the mark scheme
At first it was rough. Still low marks.
But after a couple of weeks, I started noticing patterns:
- the same topics coming up
- the same phrasing in questions
- the same points in mark schemes
It stopped feeling random.
The biggest difference
The main shift was how I thought about answers.
Before, I’d write what I thought sounded like a good answer.
After, I started writing what the examiner is literally looking for.
That made my answers:
- more direct
- better structured
- way less waffle
And that’s where the marks came from.
What happened after
By the time Year 13 mocks came around, things had changed quite a lot.
I went from consistent C’s to mostly A’s and A*s.
Same subjects, same ability - just a completely different approach.
Where I’m at now
I ended up getting an offer from Oxford to study Earth Sciences, which still feels a bit surreal considering where I was a year before.
What’s interesting is that now I actually help out with creating predicted papers for ResourcesToday.com, and it’s made me realise even more how predictable exams can be.
Topics rotate. Question styles repeat. There are patterns.
Once you see that, revision becomes a lot more efficient.
If you’re stuck right now
If you’re in Year 12 or early Year 13 and sitting around C/B grades, it’s probably not because you’re “not smart enough”.
It’s more likely:
- you’re revising passively
- you’re not doing enough exam questions
- you’re not really using mark schemes properly
That was exactly me.
One thing I wish I did earlier
Start exam questions earlier.
Don’t wait until you “know everything” first - you won’t.
That’s actually how you learn what the exam wants.