Why Some Students Never Reach an A* (Even When They Know the Content AND how to fix it!) | S2 E37

Most teachers focus on content gaps when students miss out on top grades.

But what if the real barrier between an A and an A* is not knowledge… but mindset?

In this episode of Miss Estruch Teach & Tell, I break down the practical mindset strategies I use in my own classroom to help students move beyond fear, perfectionism, and fixed beliefs about intelligence.

We explore:
• Why some high potential students stay stuck at a B or A
• What fixed mindset actually sounds like in an A level classroom
• How to explicitly teach productive struggle
• The Learning Pit and Iceberg Illusion strategies
• Why challenge questions can transform resilience
• How MARCKS analysis reframes failure into actionable improvement
• The language shifts that change how students respond to difficulty

This is not about motivational posters or toxic positivity.
 

It is looking at practical classroom implementation that helps students persist when the work gets difficult, especially in subjects like A level Biology where the jump from GCSE can hit confidence hard.

If you want more students reaching those top grades, mindset cannot be left to chance.

The A* Blueprint: Why Mindset Might Be the Only Thing Standing Between Your Students and an A** TEASER HOOK I want you to think about a student you've taught. Smart kid. Works hard. Knows their content. And yet, come results day, they get a B — maybe a high B — and you're standing there thinking, they should have got an A. They had it in them. So what went wrong? I've been teaching biology since 2009, and I used to think the answer was always more content, more past papers, more revision. And yes, all of that matters. But the more I taught, the more I started to realise that the students who were genuinely transforming their grades — the ones crossing from B to A, from A to A* — they weren't necessarily the ones who knew the most. They were the ones who thought differently about learning. Today I want to talk about mindset. Not in a fluffy, stick-a-motivational-quote-on-the-wall kind of way. In a really practical, this-is-what-I-actually-do-in-my-classroom kind of way. Because I genuinely believe that if you're not explicitly teaching mindset, you are leaving grades on the table. And I don't want that for your students. Let's get into it. MAIN CONTENT Part One: The A* Is Not Just a Knowledge Problem So, I ran a CPD session for teachers recently called The A* Blueprint. And I opened it with a provocation: A is not just about knowing more content.* That might sound obvious. But if you look at how most of us teach — how most departments run revision sessions — everything is content-led. Cover the spec, do the past papers, mark the papers, repeat. And I'm not saying that's wrong. But it only addresses one third of the picture. Because when I look at what actually separates A* students from A students, it comes down to three things: exam skills, revision habits, and mindset. And of those three, mindset is the one that almost never gets taught explicitly. It gets left to PSHE, or form time, or — honestly — it gets left to chance. And that's the gap I want to help you close. Part Two: What Student Mindset Actually Looks Like in Your Classroom Let me paint you a picture of what fixed mindset sounds like in a biology classroom, because I promise you, you've heard all of these. "I'm just not naturally good at maths." "I can't write essays." "It's too late to change how I revise." "I failed that test — I'm never going to get this." "I don't want to ask for help because everyone else seems to get it." These aren't just throwaway comments. These are beliefs that are actively blocking your students from improving. And the thing is, students often don't even realise they're doing it. It's not drama, it's not an excuse — it's a genuine belief system that they've built up, often over years. And here's what makes it so dangerous in A-level biology specifically: the jump from GCSE is significant. A lot of students who sailed through GCSE hit a wall in Year 12, and instead of thinking this is hard, I need to adapt, they think I'm not as clever as I thought I was. And once that belief takes hold, it is really hard to shift — unless we actively work on it. Part Three: The Mindset Moves That Actually Work So what do I actually do? Let me give you some concrete strategies, because I am not here for vague advice. First: teach mindset explicitly, and do it early. Don't wait until students are struggling in Year 13 to have a conversation about growth mindset. Start Year 12 — even the very first lesson — with a session on how the brain learns, what it means to struggle productively, and why difficulty is not a sign that you're failing. It is a sign that you are learning. I love using the Learning Pit for this — the idea that learning isn't a smooth upward curve, it's more like climbing in and then out of a pit. Students go in feeling confident, hit confusion, feel stuck, and then — if they push through — they come out the other side with real understanding. The key message is: being in the pit is not a problem. Refusing to climb out is. Show them that diagram. Talk about it. And then refer back to it throughout the year. When a student says I don't get this, you can say — you're in the pit. That's exactly where you should be right now. Let's work on climbing out. Second: use the Iceberg Illusion. This is something I use with students and it lands every single time. We only ever see the success — the A*, the confident student in the exam, the person who seems to just get it. What we don't see is everything underneath: the failure, the confusion, the hours of practice, the embarrassing wrong answers, the times they nearly gave up. I use celebrity examples for this because teenagers respond to them — people who were rejected, who failed publicly, who were told they weren't good enough, and who became exceptional anyway. But honestly? Your own story works just as well. Be vulnerable with your students. Tell them about a time you struggled with something. It normalises struggle in a way that no poster ever will. Third: change the language you use when students hit hard questions. This one is small but it is so powerful. When you give students a really challenging exam question — AO3, unfamiliar context, the kind that makes them groan — notice the language in the room. Notice your language too. Instead of saying this is a hard one, don't worry if you don't get it, try: this should feel uncomfortable. If it feels easy, you're not in learning territory. Reframe difficulty as evidence of progress. Like going to the gym — if it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you. And I have a little line I love that I use with my students: be a hobnob, not a rich tea biscuit. A rich tea biscuit dunked in tea? It dissolves. Falls apart under pressure. A hobnob? Sturdy. Holds together. That's what we're building in A-level biology — students who don't crumble when the questions get hard. Fourth: use challenge questions as a mindset intervention. In every lesson, I try to have what I call a mindset challenge question — something genuinely difficult, something where there isn't an obvious answer. And I'm really deliberate about how I frame it. I say things like: "You will get confused at some point in this lesson. I expect every single one of you to need my help. That's not a problem — that's the plan." When you say that upfront, something shifts. Suddenly asking for help is not a sign of weakness — it's part of the process. You've given students permission to not know yet. And fifth: normalise failure as part of the timeline. One of the things that holds students back most is the belief that if they don't get it now, they won't ever get it. That a bad test result is a verdict rather than data. So I try to actively teach the idea that failure is part of the timeline of success — not the end of it. After every test, I use what I call a MARCKS analysis — students categorise where they lost marks: was it Maths? Application? Reading the question? Clarity of answer? Knowledge? Or Statements per question — where they had the right idea but didn't write enough points? This turns a mark on a page into actionable information. It shifts the question from why am I bad at this to what specifically do I need to work on next. That's a huge mindset shift, and it comes from giving students a framework. Part Four: The Practical Implementation — Where to Start I know this can feel like a lot, so let me give you one simple place to start. The next time you return a test to your students, before you hand back the papers, spend five minutes on the iceberg. Show them the image — or just describe it. Talk about what success actually looks like underneath the surface. And then, when you hand the papers back, frame it as data. Not as a grade. As information about what to do next. That's it. That's one lesson. And over time, those moments compound. Outro If you took nothing else from today, take this: your students are not just struggling with content. Some of them are struggling with the belief that they can improve. And that belief — more than any mark scheme, more than any practice paper — is what we need to address if we want to see more A*s. You don't need a perfect mindset curriculum. You need consistent, intentional moments in your lessons where you name the struggle, normalise it, and show students a path through it. That's the blueprint. If you found this useful, I'd love to hear what you're going to try in your classroom — come and find me on Instagram at miss.estruch.teach.and.tell, or drop me an email. And if you want the full CPD session — all of the resources I mentioned today, including the MARCKS analysis framework and the spaced retrieval tracker — those are available over at missestruch.co.uk. See you next week. suggest 3 titles and complementaty thumbnails and a description    

Here are three stronger, higher CTR title and thumbnail combinations that fit the tone of the episode and your audience of teachers wanting practical, evidence informed strategies.

1. Title:
   Why Some Students Never Reach an A* (Even When They Know the Content) | S2 E36

Thumbnail text:
They Know It… So Why No A*?

Why it works:
This creates curiosity and tension immediately. It challenges the assumption that content knowledge alone drives top grades.

2. Title:
   The A* Blueprint: The Mindset Shift That Changes Student Grades Forever | S2 E36

Thumbnail text:
Mindset = Higher Grades?

Why it works:
Keeps your branded “A* Blueprint” concept while making the payoff clearer and more transformational.

3. Title:
   The Real Difference Between A and A* Students (It’s NOT More Revision) | S2 E36

Thumbnail text:
A vs A* Psychology

Why it works:
This directly attacks a common teacher assumption and positions the episode as insight-driven rather than generic motivation content.

My strongest recommendation for CTR:
The Real Difference Between A and A* Students (It’s NOT More Revision) | S2 E36

Thumbnail:
A vs A* Psychology

It feels punchy, teacher relevant, curiosity driven, and very clickable in the education space.

Podcast / YouTube Description:

Most teachers focus on content gaps when students miss out on top grades.

But what if the real barrier between an A and an A* is not knowledge… but mindset?

In this episode of Miss Estruch Teach & Tell, I break down the practical mindset strategies I use in my own classroom to help students move beyond fear, perfectionism, and fixed beliefs about intelligence.

We explore:
• Why some high potential students stay stuck at a B or A
• What fixed mindset actually sounds like in an A level classroom
• How to explicitly teach productive struggle
• The Learning Pit and Iceberg Illusion strategies
• Why challenge questions can transform resilience
• How MARCKS analysis reframes failure into actionable improvement
• The language shifts that change how students respond to difficulty

This is not about motivational posters or toxic positivity.
It is about practical classroom implementation that helps students persist when the work gets difficult — especially in subjects like A level Biology where the jump from GCSE can hit confidence hard.

If you want more students reaching those top grades, mindset cannot be left to chance.

Resources mentioned:
• MARCKS Analysis Framework
• Spaced Retrieval Tracker
• Full A* Blueprint CPD Session

Available here:
Miss Estruch CPD Resources