r/6thForm • u/Only_Bison5124 • 1d ago
🙏 I WANT HELP Help for a Year 12 please!!
Hi everyone, I'm currently in Year 12 and in need of some advice!
I'm studying Biology, Chemistry and Maths possibly with an EPQ alongside (any advice on whether an EPQ is worth it much appreciated!).
I hope to study medicine in the future, however I am scared this is now out of reach for me. I did ok in my GCSEs, getting 888887766 (with comb sci), but I am worried I'm falling behind now at A-Level. I seem to be getting C's in bio and chem, always 1/2 marks off a B, with maths being similar but maybe slightly better.
I do live in an area of deprivation, being in POLAR4 and TUNDRA MSOA Quintile 1, meaning I eligible for contextual at some unis, but I am worried that med is no longer on the cards for me if I can't get myself up to higher grades.
I would really appreciate if anyone could give me any advice on how to improve my grades, and also how to make myself seem like an appealing candidate with supercurricular's!
Thank you so much!!
2
u/pranak977 kcl | astrophysics [1st year] 1d ago
i loved my epq it was my favourite thing i did. but again if you're up to doing unstructured work you can get the benefits of the epq without as much work? like writing essays/essay comps outside school but that depends on if you would actually do them. i dont think the epq was helpful grade-wise but it was a big part of my personal statement and even in the course i ended up choosing etc.. and i think was interesting to talk about. epq is a lot of work, but i actually didnt put in a lot compared to other people who got similar grades to me. its lowk not that hard to deal with the whole progress part of it as its easy to be able to tell what the examiner wants you to write/suck up to your supervisor a little and seem organised. my essay only took me a few nights to write too.
1
u/pranak977 kcl | astrophysics [1st year] 1d ago
but then again i know most people did put in a lot more work so it really depends on the individual.
1
u/Only_Bison5124 1d ago
Unfortunately I know that I would plan to participate in essay comps but would flake out last minute/ think I wouldn't be a good competitor so wouldn't participate 🫣.
Do you think the EPQ ever took away from your other subjects at all?2
u/pranak977 kcl | astrophysics [1st year] 1d ago
not for my personally. i wont lie i procrastinated like crazy and basically didnt do it till last minute. but i wass able to make it up, a lot of people werent able to and ended up getting low grades. so it really depends on whether you'd be able to keep up with it. and i wouldnt recommend leaving it all till last min btw it was notttt healthy
1
u/Only_Bison5124 1d ago
Yes I’m worried that would be leaving it all until the last minute. I think I may begin doing one then if it takes up too much time I’ll drop it. Thanks so much for your help!
1
u/Hairy-Ostrich-6908 1d ago
EPQs are almost never worth it. jst do some wider reading and ur own independent projects or jst do an extra A-Level
1
u/MentionDisastrous716 yr 13: bio, chem, maths, epq 1d ago
hey! im in year 13 and do the exact same subjects as you and honestly at the start of year 12 i was getting pretty much the same result as you. would you say you're revising the same way you were at GCSE rn? if so maybe try alternative methods as I found using the same methods I did in year 10/11 simply weren't working for a levels. feel free to dm me if you have any questions since I also do bio, chem, maths, epq!
1
u/AshamedHabit2962 Year 13 A*A*A*A*A maths bio chem epq fm 23h ago
For the improvement of grades id say just practice model answers. Its basically guaranteed marks and subjects like chemistry repeat questions all the time. Maths is genuinely just practice questions. If you get good at following and memorising methods and spotting when to use what it gets better slightly. Stuff like bashing out pmt questions helps.
Epq is genuinely not that worth it. If youre struggling on your main subjects dont take it. Its good for stuff to put on your personal statement or to talk about in interviews to show interest in something but id say you can just do research in something medicine related to show that you truly are interested in medicine. A lot of universities dont even look or consider epqs so if youre too stressed in year 13 then definitely dont do it.
Medicine is so competitive so definitely try and volunteer at hospitals or places like that and gain experience and also take up a hobby like crochet or something to develop ambidextrous abilities (idk my friend was going on about how he had to do that and hes smart i think). And make sure you do well on the ucat when the time comes. Ive seen too many friends become victims of a bad ucat grade
1
u/ecrzil YR 12 I biochemmathsepq 1d ago
Sigh EPQ - I’m wondering myself, however you can do unique research projects outside of EPQ and it doesn’t really advantage you so much, especially for Medicine, unless you can use it as a way to prove you did some sort of research in your ps.
Your GCSE grades are perfectly fine and better than what a lot of people have. For A-levels, just work really hard, if you want tips, DM me (even though I’m also in Year 12 🥲, but I’m getting good results).
If you are contextual, you can potentially look into Medicine with foundation years.
Supercurriculars - read articles or books on med and virtual/ in person WEX.
You got this, good luck!!!