I was one of those lucky sods good with exams. Had 20% attendance for the first 3 years of secondary school and about 80% for the last two years and still wound up with 14 a*-b GCSES 100% in chemistry was a pure fluke
Did an entire History GCSE in a year. Had about 5 extra lessons for the course work. Never revised for a single one of the exams and walked away with an A*. Tried the same thing with Core 1 and 2 maths and got a U
I did not bother trying hard as it was not going to get me any qualifications anyway. I already had an A at GCSE and had no intention of doing any more of the A-Level course then what I was forced to. The whole class wanted to do stats like the rest of the year group but we were not allowed to >;(