The Summer After Year 12: How to Make Year 13 Easier
This week’s reflections Year 12 is nearly done, mocks completed and the long stretch of summer is ahead of you. For most students it feels like a finish line, with no more lessons to think about. A complete break is exactly what some of you need first, although there’s a real trap in treating the […]
A Level Biology – You don’t know your grade yet. Stop trying to calculate it.
For biology students, by the time you read this, Paper 2 will be over. One more to go! On my mind this week A surprising thing about expecting everyone to be happy once the exams are over, is that the anxiety doesn’t disappear when the exam finishes. Sometimes it gets worse. Whilst you’re revising, there […]
A Level Biology Revision: Why It’s Time to Move On from Paper 1
This week’s reflections The first Biology paper is done. For some, it felt good. For others, it didn’t. Most students seem to have spent the week somewhere in between… remembering the questions they answered well, whilst becoming increasingly convinced they got everything else wrong. A quick word about the banana question on the AQA paper. […]
A Level Biology Revision: The Final Days Before Paper 1
Biology paper 1 is on Thursday! This week’s reflections For many of you, the countdown has become very real. This time next week, Paper 1 will already be over. The months of lessons, revision plans, flashcards, past papers and late-night worrying will have led to a single morning in a sports hall somewhere. Instead of, […]
A Level Revision: Why Post-Exam Analysis Usually Makes Students Feel Worse
On my mind this week I see this every single exam season. Students walk out of an exam feeling fairly neutral about how it went. Then the post-exam analysis begins. Someone says they got Question 4 wrong. Someone else remembers a detail you forgot. A friend confidently gives a different answer. Suddenly a paper that […]
A Level Revision: The Topic You Secretly Hope Doesn’t Come Up
This week’s reflections I want you to ask yourself one question this week: “If my exam was tomorrow, what topic would I secretly hope does not come up?” Most students know the answer almost immediately. It tends to be the topic that sits in the back of your mind, the one that makes you think, […]
A Level Revision: Study Leave Isn’t Time Off
This week’s reflections Study leave sounds good until it starts. No school. No bells. No teachers telling you what’s next. At first, it feels like freedom. Then for a lot of students, it starts to feel overwhelming. The structure disappears and suddenly every day relies on self-discipline. That’s why some students make huge progress on […]
A Level Revision: Fear of Getting It Wrong
This week’s reflections In my experience, the students most likely to try and cheat on tests are often the most capable. The issue isn’t understanding. It’s fear of getting something wrong. For some, a mistake feels like judgement. So they manage it. They check answers early, avoid uncertainty and stay within what feels safe. That […]
A Level Biology Revision: When Things Don’t Go to Plan
This week’s reflections At this stage, it’s not the plan that matters most. It’s what happens when the plan breaks. Things will get in the way. They always do. A bad day, a missed session, a topic that takes longer than expected. What separates students now is not perfection. It’s how quickly they return to […]
A Level Biology Revision: Why More Work Doesn’t Always Mean Better Results
This week’s reflections There’s a bit more pressure after the Easter break and it has very little to do with how much content is left and far more to do with how students start to experience the time they have. Up until now, there has been space to delay things slightly, to revisit topics later, to […]