TW: school, grades I usually do really well in my exams like 80%-90%. But this year, I’m currently doing my exams and I keep on making careless mistakes and I know I have not done as well as I usually do. It’s not really that I don’t know the information, it just keeps slipping my mind in the moment. I usually work super hard for my exams which causes me to stress a lot but I said that this year, I’m not going to stress and over work because I don’t want to burn out myself before I have year 11 mocks and GCSEs. It is making me worry a lot because this never usually happens, I have made so much mistakes and I don’t usually do that which means that my results are going to be much lower than usual☹️

Also, I’m not sure if my brain is just tired because I have been getting up at 3:30am, since I’m in a different country, to do the exams at the same time as the rest of the class. But I don’t think that me being tired makes a difference but I’m still getting the same amount of sleep as everyone else

You should definitely make sure you’re getting enough sleep and taking care of yourself cuz that will effect your school performance. You’re probably adjusting to being in a new country but I just re-read the question and information and take my time. I always do the questions I know right away so I don’t waste time then I move onto the other ones

Honestly your mocks don’t matter that much, it’s your GCSEs that matter in the end. Mocks just show you where you are with your knowledge which you still have lots of time to improve on. I was trying super hard in previous years at school and i ended up losing motivation for year 11 (didn’t end up doing gcses so i got a bit lucky lol) but honestly don’t stress too much. You need to take care of yourself and make sure you’re getting enough sleep (even if that means going sleep super early). Don’t over do it because you’ll end up burning out. What i’m doing for my a levels currently is i look at the specification and i cross off everything that i know and then focus on the things i don’t know using revsion guides and i’m just practicing question structures, hopefully that helps you x

@Gobearcats20 yes definitely. This week I haven’t really been taking care of myself, it’s literally been exam, work, sleep and nothing for myself in between. Thank you!

@nikeyxo this makes me feel so much better thank you. And I definitely agree with the burning out part because that’s why I didn’t want to push myself too much now. At least from my mocks now I am learning what I have to do early. Thank you, this helps a lot!!

Yes getting good grades is important but so is a balance in life! Rest and doing fun stuff is important for brain function too so you shouldn’t worry that you’re not doing enough studying, yes you should try to do your best but don’t sacrifice your health for it. I used to stress about my grades so much and only after I realised that they’re really not that deep, as long as you have a good work ethic and build up your life experiences. I completely failed my A Levels and thought my life was over, luckily a ‘low rated’ uni let me in to do my course…and here I am 4 years later with a bachelors degree, a masters and my dream grad job🤷🏻‍♀️ I still don’t think I’d pass the A level exam now even though I have a degree in the subject lol x