A2 Exams/Revision/Motivation.

[Adster]

Luckily in AS exams, I managed to get satisfactory grades. B's in all my topic. Business Studies, ICT, and Media Studies. But this year is totally different in my mind and I have no clue why.

Parred with this year totally focuses on University and UCAS forms. I have applying to Several Uni's. But this is not the prime route I want to go down and that's my choice. I'm looking more at apprenticeships after I finish Sixth Form.

To the point. I'm not motivated at all this year. Which I hate a lot. I'm highly unorganized. My school is extremely bad in terms of lessons being cancelled. At least 6-7 lessons a week. Of course they set you copying work to do when lessons are cancelled, but come on who really wants to copy out of a book? That's primary school crap.

I want to succeed but I just can't find the motivation in myself to do it. When I do try to finally try and revise. Something will distract me, because I'm not motivated. Also my revision techniques are dire. And my school I thought would help me but turned out they didn't. Another reason i'm less motivated.

I'm a gamer, and it's hard taking my attention of games. Especially as this month/few months see's the release of some of the sequels of games I love. (Battlefield 3, Skyrim, MW3 etc) It would be easier if I didn't have a twin brother who shares a room with me. I am prepared to not buy these games and I can do that, but my Brother will just go and buy them anyway ending up with me getting distracted again.

I'm just looking for college students or post-college students what helped them get through the years at A2 or college courses in general. Revision techniques that add a bit more interest to revision, any how I can motivate myself easier.

I go John Cleveland College for if anyone asks.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

[Benji]

Unemployment levels should be motivation enough for any young person at the minute. I'm not trying to be funny or clever and this post probably helps you in no way at all. However, I've just recently been helping my brother who missed out on his uni by 4 marks in September, regret is the last thing you want.

I'm the last person to give advice about techniques though, I crammed to a point of eye twitching and teeth gritting. Not healthy. One thing I will say is, I wouldn't cut the computer games out of your life entirely. During my degree and through law school I'd always have a game of Fifa or watch an episode of Scrubs or Family Guy, anything that requires no real thought and gives you a break. Maybe try using the computer games as a motivation. Tell yourself after each chapter or each 2 hours you can play a game of Fifa... but only one!

Oh one more thing, punch anyone who says to you on the morning of an exam "if you don't know it now you never will". No end of times does something come up that I've re-read the morning.

[ajthefox]

Everyone learns best in different ways, so when revising don't just do what your teacher tells you to. Try and think about what makes something stick for you and just keep doing that.

Being able to remember things is a huge part of A-levels so it's key to find out what suits you.

I personally found that going over things thoroughly once so you understand, and then going over and over them again but quicker helps more than just a few, slow and thorough read-throughs.

As for motivation well it's down to you and your willpower as much as anything. Always try and keep your overall goal in the back of your mind.

When you're playing games just think about what you want to do and how wasting your time on consoles won't achieve that.

As Benji said take breaks as well. Concentration levels won't stay constant so set yourself a fixed time for how long you are going to work, or how how much you're going to do, make yourself do it and then take a break.

Earlier I was making a model, so I got rid of all my internet windows and said to myself finish the model first, then take a break.

I had a set goal, I stuck to it, got my model done in good time then was able to take a break.

[ousefox]

I'm in the same year and also find it difficult to motivate myself which is even worse when i'm still doing 4 subjects!

I did very well in my AS' from quite little effort during most of the year. The most important thing to do IMO is to revise as hard as you can in the month before your exams. I'm so lazy that i couldn't be arsed to right any notes at all for my exams last year during revision. Instead i made sure i learned it properly from reading to make sure i didn't have to write notes

Just make sure you understand everything in your course and if you don't read it again and i reckon that definitely works.

Hoping it'll be successful again for me this year!

[Father Ted]

Im also in the same year as you.

I did well in my AS' and need AAA to do the course that I want to do. Its all about self discipline, ive got rid of Facebook, and spend literally all my frees at school in the library doing homework which means more free time at home and less stress!

Everybody works differently, I will say though to work to your strengths, once you know what your targets are its easy, the hard thing is identifying the targets.

[sdb]

I don't know if this helps or not, but I teach A Level and the majority of students are massively unmotivated. Good people, perfectly able, but very lazy. You're not the only one (not calling you lazy, like).

[Yojoe36]

I was never motivated, and I'm still not, unless money is involved. Don't ask me why

I did my AS levels then dropped out of college to do an apprenticeship. I had had enough of the standard class-room lessons, and coursework crap, which I had been doing since the age of 11 . I understand that gaming also gets in the way, but that's just life, and I coped.

When I revised, I usually put music or a TV show on in the background, which actually helped me.

If you currently have a job, I recommend you quit. Having to do assignments AND to do work can really fvck you up.

Also when you revise, do mnemonics. It helps you keep more stuff in your short-term memory. I did psychology you see

[Charl91]

I have a problem revising. Could get away with it at A level, but at Uni it's not so easy.

How I do it, is each week, I write a list of what I'm going to do each day, revision/work wise. Then I'l get up and do it in the morning. If I complete it, then I'l allow myself the rest of the day off to play fifa or do whatever. If you write yourself a reasonable plan, and stick to it, it shouldnt be a problem.

[Langston]

I'm highly unorganized.

Judging by this snippet, you need to cram like there's no tomorrow, my friend.

*Joking before anyone gets uppity about anything.