Did you let small things in high school stop from achieving your dreams such as not getting a specific grade in a

Question: Did you let small things in high school stop from achieving your dreams such as not getting a specific grade in a subject
- Keywords:
  dream,
  dream job,
  grade,
  school,
  subject
Asked by anon-357918 on 13 Mar 2023.
- Graeme Dykes answered on 13 Mar 2023:
  
  I was lucky that I was able to get the grades which I needed to get my place at my chosen University.
  At school, my maths skills were very average but when I did advanced maths at University, it was no problem.
  
  I guess that you might find that you do better in a different learning environment
- Martin McCoustra answered on 13 Mar 2023:
  
  To be honest, I don’t think I ever let anything get in my way at high school. I remember sometime before my o grade maths, my maths teacher said I wouldn’t get my o grade (mainly because I never put a lot of effort into the class). I did and went on to win school prize for maths in my fifth year.
- Grace Roper answered on 13 Mar 2023:
  
  I am currently loving being a scientist, so I guess small things didn’t stop me from achieving my dreams :). All you can do is try your best. My teachers were really helpful if I needed a boost in particular subject, so it is likely to be worth chatting with your teachers about any concerns.
- Christy Sadler answered on 13 Mar 2023:
  
  I don’t think I let anything get in the way of doing my dream degree! My teachers were very supportive and I was able to go to my top choice university!
- Nathalie Oguntona answered on 14 Mar 2023:
  
  In high school I enjoyed some subjects more than others and whilst I didn’t get the best grades in all of them, I didn’t dwell on this too much. I tried to focus more on what could come next
- Arno Kraft answered on 14 Mar 2023: last edited 14 Mar 2023 7:08 pm
  
  School is not always a good indicator of what you can achieve later in your career. I went through a different school system. We had to do about a dozen subjects and all counted towards the final school leaving certificate, albeit with varying weighting factors. I was only good at 2 or 3 subjects (Chemistry, Maths, to some extent Physics) but fortunate enough that they were considered core STEM and had a high weighting. Funnily enough, foreign languages (esp. English) were among my weaker subjects, but this didn’t stop me to later decide to work in the UK, first 3 years in England, then over 20 years in Scotland. I found living in a different country makes it much easier to learn another language than doing so by learning vocabulary and grammar at school. And Maths: I didn’t get the hang of it for the first 6 years at school. When we started calculus, it suddenly all made sense. Writing essays was a big problem for me at school. Still takes me much longer than it should – but getting better slowly over the years.
- Claire Sycamore-Howe answered on 14 Mar 2023:
  
  I got the grades I needed to go to my first choice uni, however when I was choosing my universities my insurance was a quite a few grades lower than my first choice. It’s good to have something to aim towards and to push yourself to achieve, however it’s also important to have an insurance choice that you would be equally happy to go to, and one that can act as a safety net rather than push you into clearing to make rushed decisions.
  
  Make sure you discuss with your teachers about what grades they are predicting you, and what you think you can achieve.
  
  It was a while ago, but I think my first choice was AAB, and my second choice was something like BBB or BBC, so if I did have a truly terrible set of exams I still had a good option. My second choice uni was still a great choice and I think I would have been equally happy there.
  
  There’s also vocational routes in chemistry and the sciences such as apprenticeships, or T-levels. Which if you like the practical side could also be a good option, some subjects and companies will even sponsor you to do a degree apprenticeship, where you study and work at the same time.
- Graeme Barker answered on 14 Mar 2023:
  
  Not really – I had some pretty average grades in maths for example. I’m not convinced that high school grades are the best indicator of how you will do at university, as the style of teaching and learning is very different and can suit some people much better than high school! Once you have a degree, nobody really cares about your high school grades any more, so they don’t matter too much at that point!
- Clara Zehe answered on 14 Mar 2023:
  
  No. It was not always easy, but I stayed going because I knew I was passionate about science. If you are genuinely interested and curious, there is always a way. The grades you have in school do not always reflect how well you may do in a specific career. Some people just do better in a different learning environment.
- Jo Ellis answered on 15 Mar 2023:
  
  No and my grades were just good enough, not all people are good at exams but I got into university and never looked back

Question: Did you let small things in high school stop from achieving your dreams such as not getting a specific grade in a subject

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