Speaking as a student who has just survived or rather who is almost done with her AS (I just have Physics P1), I figured now would be a good time as any to let the world know how I survived this torture ahem I mean exam.
1) Copious amounts of food.
Most people my age really care about how they look and as a direct result, they tend to watch what they eat. During exam seasons however, you'll now be cramming, revising, attempting past years, crying and pleading. Watching what you eat? You ain't got no time for that. Seriously, food is your crutch to deal with all this information you're cramming in and even if you have prepared months in advance, you will still be stressed out and you don't need to add what you eat to the list of things to worry about. So go ahead, eat that bowl of ice cream or gorge on a packet of crisps. You earned it.
2) Sleep
Most of you, especially with exams looming closer believe and take to heart the motto of "sleep is for the weak". Unfortunately, I have news for you and that is 'you are weak'. I hear the denial that is ready to come out of that mouth of yours but it's true. You need sleep. Pulling and all-nighter before an exam is not efficient or helpful, it's downright stupid.
It's one o'clock in the morning, your brain is tired, you are tired and you're surviving on red bull or coffee. You mug information praying it all goes in and as the seconds tick by, your frustration increases. You ignored the lure of your bed, telling yourself that you need to study but what you really need is sleep. You think you're gonna remember all this? Nah brah. You're just going to be really tired the next day and you're not going to remember anything and you'll do worse than if you had just gone to bed. Believe me, I know this from experience. Sleep is important and make sure you have at least 7 hours (Depending on the person)
3) Do them past years
Getting sick of hearing your teacher constantly asking you how many past years you've done or telling you to do them? That's because, doing them is not only good practise but, you familiarise yourself with the questions and if you're lucky, similar questions do come out. Now, there are 12 years worth of past years (till 2014) and two sessions per year excluding variants and that's 24 papers already. Now, you see why you should have started early?
It's fine, I've never done all the past years before and I doubt I'll ever do them all, but what you need to do is be smart about it. Usually the Oct/Nov papers are harder so I'll recommend you them instead of the May/June ones. However, some of the summer papers can be hard so make sure you do the summer ones as well. As for the variants, I usually do the hardest variant. For Maths, although I was sitting for the third variant I did the second variants cause those questions were harder. Do papers from the variant you are sitting for as well so you'll know how they phrase the questions and how you're expected to answer. Make sure you at least attempt all the years or if you're really pressed for time, ask one of those kids who has done all the past years which ones were the hardest and do them. Attempt the latest past year the last as well.
Now, if you're one of those people who has done all the past years, make sure you've done them under exam conditions and you're marking them. Redo all the papers you did badly. Depending on what you're aiming to get (some people just aim to pass and there's no judgement here) look at the threshold and see where you stand and if you're getting the grade you want then there's no need to repeat them. If you're really amazing and getting really good marks for all of them, (teach me your ways) redo the hard past years and make sure you score close to a 100%. This is your second time doing it, you should know how to do all the questions and you're allowed leeway for careless mistakes but if you're still getting a question wrong, look at that chapter.
Important note, when doing past years, do them under exam conditions. No point scoring really well when you practise but not having enough time during the exam because you've never timed yourself now is there?
4) Topical past years
These are a amazing if you're really weak at a subject and you need to work at each chapter individually. These are also perfect for working especially on the chapter you are weak at. For me it was normal distribution for my stats paper and thank God I sat down and worked on them cause a majority of the questions that came out where the ones similar to the ones I had done. Here they sell past years arranged topically, but if you don't have them on hand, ask a teacher if they have any. I have Maths P1 & 3 that I can share with ya'll if you want so just let me know and I'll send it to ya.
5) Ask questions
If you're anything like me then you're ashamed of looking stupid and asking for help but here's the thing. Wouldn't it suck if you could not answer a question because you did not ask for help when you needed it? Yeah, so suck it up and go ask for help. Ask a friend if you're afraid of the teacher or ask another teacher. Teachers are suppose to help you and trust me, most of them will gladly help you. You just have to grow a thicker skin and accept that it's okay to need help.
6) Find out what/where works best for you
Weirdly enough, I can only study in my schools library or just school in general. Maybe it's the atmosphere, or the sight of people studying that motivates me but that's the only place that works. As soon as I head home, I'm a goner and no work is done. My friend on the other hand, she can't study in school so the key is to find out where you study best and go there and study. If a group study works for you then go ahead and grab a few friends and hit the books and past years together, if not study alone. What my friends and I do is we all sit in areas close to one another but we do our own thing. It's like a group study but at your own pace doing what you want. It's better this way as you can brainstorm tricky questions together, get help immediately and you can motivate each other to study but you're not all doing to same work or question and you're free to do exactly what you want.
7) Do not panic.
Lemme say that again. Do. Not. Panic. If you've done nothing and it's the night before and you're feeling screwed, there's really no point in freaking out. Revise what you already know and don't try to cram new information in. It's not going to stay in. There's no point in worrying and stressing yourself out cause it only makes things work. Calm down, take a deep breath and focus. If you're like me and you panic when you see the paper, take a moment to calm down, breathe and just gather your thoughts. Pretend it's a fun test. If you see a question that looks scary don't freak out, read it, think about it and try to answer. If you start panicking, take a breath move on and come back.
8) Take breaks
You need a break. You can't just sit for hours on end studying and ignoring the rest of the world. You need to stretch, drink some water have a snack and then get back at it. I know sometimes you really get into studying and doing past years (we had lunch at 2 because we were so into our past years) but you need breaks too. You'll burn out if you keep pushing yourself.
9) Read
Okay, this was originally intended for writing papers but I'll get to that in a moment.
For whatever paper you are taking, make sure you read the question properly and make sure you know what they want. Do you know how many marks I've lost just because I've read the question wrong? Do you? I do and it's not pretty so make sure you read the darn question, underline the keywords or mark out points that help with the question and just be sure that you're answering the right thing.
For writing papers like Econs (Since I take it and that's the only writing paper I take), make sure you read about current events and you knows what's going on in the economy. This can help with your essays and data response. Also, for subjects like English reading in general will help improve your vocab and you have examples of sentence phrasing you can adopt. For Lit, I assume you already know the story you had to read but rereading it one more time to make sure it's all in could not hurt or cliffnotes is good too. (I've never done Lit so I don't really know how to advice you here. Sorry)
10) Don't be afraid
My Physics teacher actually said this to us when we were asking him about our practical paper "don't let your fear of getting the answer wrong hold you back." If you're unsure in an exam and you have nothing better to write, you write what you think is right. Just do it. Trying could not hurt and you never know, you might get it right.
11) Give it all you've got and have fun
You're looking at this and you're wondering if I have gone insane. Yes, but I'm still standing by my sound advice. At the end of the day, it's an exam. Yes, one that determines your future and which college you get to but it's just a piece of paper than will not matter in a few years time. A-Levels, it's hard, tedious and few survive. You're so close already. Give it your best shot and just have fun answering the questions. If you chose to do A-Levels and the subjects you've chosen then you must like it? Try to remember that when you're studying or siting for the paper. You chose this subject and you love it. You do. The positive reinforcement will go a long way and you'll find yourself enjoying it a bit more. If you were thrown into this programme then, just remind yourself that the person who put you in here has faith in you. So why don't you believe in yourself? Enjoy the ride and have fun with the papers. It's your time to shine and show the examiners what you know.
Also,
12) Invest my life in fictional characters aka watch shows
This is not recommended but it's what I did to survive. I binged watched Greys Anatomy during my trials, and Law & Order SVU and Castle during my sem 1 exam. Yeah, I'd much rather deal with Cristinas relationship with Burke and then Owen or Castle and Beckett and their many, many issues. It's my form of a break and it can get addicting so this is not recommended. AS is long and there are breaks in between so an episode of something here and there is not too bad I guess. Just don't go over invest yourself in the shows and not study.
All the best guys. Imagine the pride you'll fell when you get thru all this. It'll be worth it in the end.
May your paper be easy and your grade boundaries low.
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