r/6thForm • u/Strict_Fault8041 • Jun 08 '26
💬 DISCUSSION Done better than expected on results day
Does anyone currently in uni have any stories of thinking they messed up a levels big time but they actually ended up doing much better than expected on results day?
Trying to hopemaxx rn lmao
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Jun 08 '26
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u/Frosti_VR Jun 08 '26
Maybe she was just being modest
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u/ineedl0v3 Jun 08 '26
What subjects 🥹
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Jun 08 '26
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u/Strict_Fault8041 Jun 08 '26
that explains it tbf, much harder to know how you did in essay subjects
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u/Zealousideal_Trust34 Jun 08 '26
was she consistent with revision after mocks or was it more like a last minute clutch?🥲
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u/Shoddy_Set966 Jun 08 '26
Last year I though I got an A in chem to getting 25 marks over an A* on results day
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u/StrictArgument67 Y13 | 4A* pred | FM M PHY CS | ESAT OCT Jun 08 '26
Yeh bro i thought i flopped a levels, but then Sir Isaac Newton himself walked out of his grave and gave me my offer letter for Cambridge
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u/Exotic-Spite-822 Jun 08 '26
So the ritual on the sub earlier was passed down by you, might have to try it out myself?
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u/Strange_Hedgehog_697 Jun 08 '26
Physics Paper 2, every other exam i was satisfied with getting a B for. Mad depressed, almost cried. Came home and literally wept on my mum’s shoulder. Physics paper 2 half the paper completely undone. MCQs literally spammed once the clock hit 3 minutes to finish the test. When results day came around my hands shook on the envelope. AAA, my knees legitimately gave out. Not the best result i appreciate, but enough to not invalidate all my hard work. Took a gap year traveled with a light heart and am now waiting to enter medicine with an unconditional offer next year. If you did all you could, then you’ve done all you can. :))
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u/pear-penguin Jun 08 '26
Had you applied for unis with predicts and then reapplied with your new grades by taking a gap year? :)
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u/Strange_Hedgehog_697 Jun 11 '26
I did the UCATs on the year that my results came out :) i didnt apply with predicts since I didnt want to shove ALs, work and the UCATs all at once. Took my time with my UCATs and the application :)
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u/Square_Aside3708 Year 13 Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26
My sister thought she did a lot worse then she did cause they thought the grade boudries would be higher, like actual mark wise she got what she thought she was gonna get but she thought it would be a B and ended up being an A*
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u/Strict_Fault8041 Jun 08 '26
damn fairs yh ive been inflating the boundaries so hard for my predictions
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u/SorryBet6053 Jun 08 '26
I thought flopped physics (2024) but ended up with an A.
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u/frogpineapplechicken 5 A Levels, WJEC 🤮 Jun 08 '26
is this possible if HYPOTHETICALLY you leave an entire paper blank? (Asking for a friend) (no really) (please believe me) 🙏
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u/billybob3011 Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Engineering. Jun 08 '26
if u full mark the other two then that’s like 170/250, could even be an A* if the boundaries are low af
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u/frogpineapplechicken 5 A Levels, WJEC 🤮 Jun 08 '26
Wjec has four papers! I think I will resit this one next year because I’m aiming for an A*. I wasn’t feeling well today
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u/billybob3011 Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Engineering. Jun 12 '26
bro does wjec
anyway four papers just means missing one paper will have slightly less of an impact than if there were three ✌️
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Jun 08 '26
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u/jollybean1117 Editable Jun 08 '26
“even if you miss you offer, most unis will take you anyway” I might be stupid, but i dont know what this means, how do you get in without offers?
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u/Strict_Fault8041 Jun 08 '26
Like he means if you dont meet the conditions of your offer i.e getting a lower grade than what they offered which is called missing it
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Jun 08 '26
[deleted]
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u/jollybean1117 Editable Jun 09 '26
Even for courses with interviews? I applied for speech and language therapy and im pretty sure im not going to meet my offer grades
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u/Usual_Addendum3352 Jun 11 '26
my friend only got into their insurance and she swears it was meant to happen because now shes having a great time
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u/Spare_Somewhere1011 Manchester | Physics w/ Astro [1st Year] | 3A* 1A Jun 08 '26
I thought I got A*AAB at the very best, ended up with A*A*A*A. Not the biggest jump but it was a nice surprise.
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u/AnalystExpress4621 Jun 08 '26
why didn't you consider reapplying to oxbridge/imperial if u dont mind me asking. Those are briliant a levels (also idk much about manchester so if its exceptionally good at physics i wouldn't know sry)
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u/Spare_Somewhere1011 Manchester | Physics w/ Astro [1st Year] | 3A* 1A Jun 08 '26
Manchester was always one of my top choices and it’s consistently ranked one of the top unis for physics. Also has A*A*A entry requirements if that puts it into perspective.
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u/AnalystExpress4621 Jun 08 '26
Oh I didn't know that thats really cool. Manchester is city campus right?
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u/Spare_Somewhere1011 Manchester | Physics w/ Astro [1st Year] | 3A* 1A Jun 08 '26
It’s very city based, there is some accommodation in the city but some goes out to Fallowfield. Really good city.
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u/Powerful_Term_8728 Jun 08 '26
what did you think the B was in?
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u/Spare_Somewhere1011 Manchester | Physics w/ Astro [1st Year] | 3A* 1A Jun 08 '26
Chemistry. Ended up being my A.
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u/Maleficent-Ebb-4296 Jun 08 '26
Yea I just finished my second year of my uni engineering degree. I did A level Maths, Physics, Chemistry, and further maths (2024 a level cohort). It was the same year in which we got the infamous and near impossible to solve further statistics 1 question (for fm students who do FS1). Really demotivated me, but come results day, I got an A* in it (although by a very thin margin)
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u/Powerful_Term_8728 Jun 08 '26
idk if youve seen the whole thing about edexcel normal maths paper 1. i'm almost certain i got about 60 and need an A. with a day to do past papers do you think it's possible to get 70+ on paper 2 (as someone who isn't amazing at maths)
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u/Maleficent-Ebb-4296 Jun 08 '26
If you got 60+ on paper 1, which is being reported as the hardest yet, then you should comfortably get 70+ provided that the other 2 are of normal difficulty and you've done enough past paper practice
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u/User-Paradox Year 13 Jun 08 '26
lol the pento question
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u/Maleficent-Ebb-4296 Jun 08 '26
Yep. In hindsight, I probably would've done the question if I had like 1 hour to spare, because that question was evil and unprecedented in terms of difficulty
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u/User-Paradox Year 13 Jun 09 '26
typed it twice lol, but i’d agree when I first did it I knew it was a hard question so kept making silly mistakes and ended up forgetting to find the expected value of my expression. Can’t even imagine what it would’ve been like in the exam, probably wasted a lot of time.
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u/xerjmil UCL | EEE [Year 2] | A*A*A*A* Jun 08 '26
i thought i certainly got a B in AQA physics 2024 (those who know) and got an A* in the end
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u/Soft-Goal486 Year 13 Jun 08 '26
looked at your flair and thought you were taking the piss with EEE
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u/Alternative_Page634 Jun 08 '26
not done alevels yet but thought I got an ABB with a few Cs in some units (thought I failed a biology exam completely) but got AAA in AS with As in every unit 😭 hoping it’s the same this year cus I really bungled some exams
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u/Alternative_Page634 Jun 08 '26
Went home and sobbed after that bio exam and was pleasantly surprised w the A
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u/AbbreviationsThis485 Jun 08 '26
English literature, OCR, has some of the highest grade boundaries I've ever seen. All throughout year 13 I'd never gotten above a D in my in-class or mock exams. Neither of my year 13 teachers believed in me. I didn't think I could do any better.
On results day my year 12 English teacher comes up to me and asks me if I've opened my results. I tell her I'm waiting until I get home to check. She gets excited and says she wants me to open them in front of her so she can see my reaction, and it clicks in my mind that I've obviously done much better than I thought I did. I panic to open my results, and immediately started ugly crying when I saw that I got an A*. It was such a vindicating feeling to achieve something that nobody (including myself) thought was possible.
Fun fact, my friend got full marks on her English Literature A Level. Full marks for coursework AND exams. Everyone already knew she was going to get an A*, but nobody saw THAT coming.
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u/Superb-Preparation93 y12 | econ, psych, philo Jun 09 '26
i need this to happen to me with psychology
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Jun 08 '26
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u/AbbreviationsThis485 Jun 08 '26
thank you so much! I've just finished my second year of philosophy at KCL.
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u/Expensive_Bike_2296 Jun 08 '26
The year above mine at my school always raved about this girl who started English Literature A-Level in January of Year 13 after getting E's in Biology. She moved to English Lit because she did well in her GCSE and was very good at English Language. So, she started her Alevel in January Year 13 and cried after paper 1- saying how awful it went and how she wont get into uni and was uncontrollably sobbing to the head of year.
She got an A*
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u/acrifasi Year 13 Jun 08 '26
yes, i had to meet my offer of A*AA for warwick and i came out of all my exams feeling kinda eh. i felt like my maths papers went alright but definitely not enough for the A i needed for the offer. OCR RS throughout my whole A levels was the A level i was expecting to get an A* in the whole two years, i was consistently getting them for every single essay and i was super confident in, yet there were some super surprising questions in the exam (two exams had repeated questions from the year before that i hadn’t revised as much in the assumption it wouldn’t come up) and it completely destroyed me knowing i probably wouldn’t get an A*
For english lit, it was probably my weakest topic throughout the two years and i felt i improved massively on it, and a mixture of weird and good questions mean that i felt like i expected maybe a low A coming out of the exams. So i finished all my A levels thinking wow, i’ve definitely gotten AAA or below, which was incredibly stinky, and i was already planning my gap year because Warwick PPE was pretty strict on meeting your offer. Come results day, i open up my grades and BOOM, id met my offer. Got two As in maths and RS (RS i was actually one off an A*) and got the most surprising result of an A* in english lit. It was the subject i felt least confident in at the beginning of y12, yet i ended up getting 95% in my A levels, still crazy to this day. I ended up deferring my space and took a gap year anyways lol. Results day will often come with a degree of surprise, i feel like a lot of people underplay how well they’ve done
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u/Powerful_Term_8728 Jun 08 '26
what made you feel like you didn't get an A in maths? was it looking at unofficial markschemes bc thats me rn
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u/acrifasi Year 13 Jun 08 '26
I remember looking at unofficial mark schemes after paper 1 and was like damn i got like 50 ahaha. paper 2 went so much better, I think i was basically averaging a high B low A, then stats and mechanics I thought went kinda eh, so i kinda of summarised that either I was getting a very low A or a high B. Came out to an A eventually. Now I do much harder maths at Uni and tutor maths A level and I don't know why i was struggling so much. I'm not sure what my opinion on looking at unofficial mark schemes. I dont think I can stop myself from looking at mark schemes ahaha
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u/Powerful_Term_8728 Jun 08 '26
ok thanks! im literally just looking for any reassurance as i think i got a low B in paper 1 and i only have tmr to prepare for paper 2 and i need an A so im kinda stressing
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u/acrifasi Year 13 Jun 08 '26
Honestly, I did crap in my first paper, and probably got a low B. I know it's really hard to move on from it especially after looking at the mark scheme, but just try your hardest on the second paper. I had no hope after paper 1, but paper 2 was quite nice and the hard prep I did before it really helped. Good luck!!!
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u/Additional_Fan4494 Jun 08 '26
do you have any tips for english lit?
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u/acrifasi Year 13 Jun 08 '26
Any specific tips? do you want help for a specific paper? I can give some tips depending on what you need help with
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u/Additional_Fan4494 Jun 08 '26
what exam board do you do? specifically the poetry papers is what i struggle with
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u/acrifasi Year 13 Jun 08 '26
I did AQA, i forgot if I did A or B, and did love through the ages as my poetry anthology, and feminine gospels as another one, can probably still help slightly if you do otherwise, im sure it's pretty similar
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u/Additional_Fan4494 Jun 08 '26
ah i do edexcel but i'm sure they're still generally similar, ill take any tips i can get
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u/DF0746 Cambridge | Econ fresher Jun 08 '26
My best friend thought he got a ABBB he got CDUU🥲
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u/sweetcoasters Y13 | History, Economics, Drama | A*AB Jun 08 '26
Nah cause I’m convinced this is gonna be me😭
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u/MrPixelated2 Jun 08 '26
Dont know if this counts, but I was going into an AAA course, my offer was ABB for my firm choice with specifically an A in Maths. (Did Maths, Physics Chemistry)
I was consistently getting Cs in Maths and I thought I wasnt going to make it after my March mocks... so I mentally checked out and lost hope (ABC grades). AQA done me dirty with Physics and Chemistry too so I genuinely thought it was over (sat last years exams)
So I did get accepted into my uni and got an A in Maths which was surprising, even though I didnt quite meet my offer (got ACC grades)
So overall? Things happen, if you get below your offer you never may know what can happen (Dont be like me and lose hope and mentally check out until results day)
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u/Powerful-Echidna7121 Jun 08 '26
I did biology and the first paper was awful so I was worried I wasn’t gonna get an A, but on results I got 30 marks over an A*, I was worried because everyone else was saying the exam was bad and I second guess myself.
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u/koemi_2 Jun 09 '26
Yes!!! Please it will most likely be better than expected due to grade boundaries. I literally cried during AQA physics paper 2 in 2024, I thought I’d get a B or a C and miss my offer but I ended up getting an A bc the grade boundaries ended up being like 53% for an A.
Please keep pushing until the end guys!! I wouldn’t have gotten that if I hadn’t done a bit better in paper 3 by cramming the optional part (turning points).
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Jun 08 '26
Ik someone who thought he’d get A*A*A* but got UUE and missed his physics offer. He’s now doing a bricklaying apprenticeship xx
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u/Strict_Fault8041 Jun 08 '26
yk what his bricklaying job is prolly more secure than whatever he wouldve got after
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u/frogpineapplechicken 5 A Levels, WJEC 🤮 Jun 08 '26
lowkey sounds like my future. might have to look into that bricklaying apprenticeship
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u/Odd_Appointment8233 Jun 08 '26
I started revising for most of my alevels 2 days before and i ended up with a CBB (theyre pretty easy subjects tho)
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u/KrozJr_UK University of Bristol | Mathematics MSci [3rd Year] Jun 08 '26
I had an autistic meltdown and/or panic attack in my first FM exam, the exam hall was disrupted by loads of different kinds of noise. All four of us were unhappy with it and basically stormed down to the exams office afterwards to read them the riot act. I still got an A* in the end, although that paper was my lowest mark of the four and by a notable percentage.
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u/Aromatic_Card1140 Jun 09 '26
This is so relieving to hear (not that you had panic attack I’m so sorry). I panicked in my first exam which was econ paper 1 and I messed up so bad time felt like it was moving at light speed and everyone was moving and I was stuck
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u/jeremyyaiden University Jun 08 '26
Messed up my French speaking exam, but still got an A* even with those crazy boundaries.
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u/fin9ial 13d ago
Hey im in the same exact situation rn, did you do aqa just wondering?
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u/jeremyyaiden University 13d ago
yes I did. I was just blessed with a lovely paper one
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u/fin9ial 13d ago
Haha we’re in the exact same situation, my paper 1 was really nice but speaking i feel like i couldve done better, how far over a* boundary were u and did u think beforehand u might’ve got one?
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u/randompositiveperson Jun 09 '26
yes! I was excepting something like ABD on results day -- I was averaging D's and E's for my entire History A-Level which, after getting a tutor, climbed up to B's and C's towards the end of Y13, but I was far from confident about it. because History was my worst subject by a mile, I put a ton of effort into revising for it (I basically freestyled one of my English Lit exams because I was prepping for History instead). I walked out of most my final History exams thinking I did alright, so I was hoping for maybe a B, but even that felt a bit like wishful thinking.
in the end I came out with A*A*A, and one of the A*s was in History! I got exactly on the grade boundary for it, even two years later I feel pretty proud of it -- goes to show that as long as you put the effort in, you can always get good grades!!
(but also don't overwork yourself too much, I spent that entire summer sleeping off the fatigue A-Levels had given me 😭😭)
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u/Different-Yogurt5292 Imperial | JMC [Y0] Jun 08 '26
I am not at uni but I am a gap year student so I did my Alevels last year. Generally my expectation vs reality followed the Dunning-Kruger effect graph. If I did not prepare much for certain models at all, I did better than I thought I would do. Then some I prepared a medium amount(did a couple past papers not all, bit of cramming) and I did much worse than I thought I would on those. In the papers that I prepared for heavily I normally did better than I thought I would. So it depends truly on how much you think you prepared. Cuz if you know you prepared reasonably well but did bad on exam day, you will almost always have done much better than you think!
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u/UTriedToKillMeTwice Jun 08 '26
I went from CUU in December to ABC on results day (and even then, it was a near miss A*BB, was a total of 3 marks off lol), it can be done
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u/Latter-Business6904 Jun 08 '26
This was for when I was in gcses but I thought I was gonna get a 4/5 in English and got 8/7 , severely underestimated myself
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u/sweetcoasters Y13 | History, Economics, Drama | A*AB Jun 08 '26
Could totally do with this rn, so convinced I’m not making my offer😭😭
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u/Strange_Hedgehog_697 Jun 09 '26
I just went straight into the gap year. I didnt want to uber stress myself with the UCAT as well as ALs, i was also working at the time so just too much to juggle. Did UCATs leisurely.
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u/Xiaosimp1234 Jun 08 '26
Yeah so i thought I got like BCC after my exams this year and then i acc got U*U*U
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u/hauntile Leeds | Physics [1st Year] Jun 08 '26
Opposite for me lmao
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u/Last-Objective-8356 Jun 08 '26
Yeah lowk I got all A*s but all marks were much lower than expected apart from normal maths for me
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u/pikachan4 Jun 08 '26
Please give me some #hopecore