Conversation Between Xero Xenith and MoreTeaVicar?

I don't know about crazily clever... I'm pretty good but there's plenty on TSR better than me. I think I'm top in my school though. Give me an example of something you'd ask him and I can try and relate

We should get a hat party organised sometime. For every hat you wear over the average number of hats, someone buys you a drink... for every hat you wear under the average number, you buy someone a drink

It's going OK, but this STEP II paper (2009) is so boring. Every question is just an algebraic slog, so I keep making stupid mistakes... I really hope my one is better than this!

First exam in 2 weeks, but it's D1 so I haven't done anything. I might aim for a zero. Not kidding.

Things still going well for you, ya lucky gap-year so-n-so?

Are you one of those crazily clever people when it comes to Maths? I know someone who is at Robinson College now and you can ask him any kind of mathematical question and he'll know the answer. When you ask him how he knows it he just shrugs and says 'I just do'. It's insane.

I love berets. I have about 5 in different colours. I also have Cossack hats, bobble hats, Indiana Jones hats... you name it! s

How's everything going so far?

Thing with Maths is that there's no (or very little) element of "hitting the markscheme". In a lot of exam / short essay subjects you just have to read the examiner's mind to find exactly what they mean by a certain question... not so in Maths! You just do it. Bam. Done. So much better!

Thanks, I'm hoping... fingers crossed! Why the red beret? I have a hat shelf but no berets. Too French. Pirate hats and Chinese guard hats (fur, Beijing Silk Market, £2) are way better

I'm sure you'll descend into sleep deprivation soon enough! But fine, none of that for you at the moment. Lucky

I might go to Download (Metallica! ...again! Wooooo!), but it's 10 days before my first important exam so it may not be a good idea. Looked up Latitude - I only know Bon Iver, Ben Howard and Tim Minchin. Maybe it's not for me though I have been to Priddy Folk Festival for the country cider!

I love encyclopaedias - I used to read an illustrated one cover-to-cover when I was small and I still have it.

I know what you mean about exam questions being difficult but nice to work on. I find that with a lot of subjects - I enjoy the challenge. Although, at the end of the day, I only enjoy them if it's a challenge I can actually do.
Well, all the very best of luck for STEP - I'm sure you'll ace it. In fact, I know you will. And if you don't then I'll eat my hat. Which happens to be a red beret right now.

Aw, no sorry. Unless there's a parallel of me living in London then I doubt it was me.

Hey, hey - less of the 'let's' - I don't need sleep deprivation anymore; I did my time last year and it was horrific enough then. This year all I have to think about is going on holiday, hill-walking, digging up bones, which books to read next and playing music.

I didn't know Sonisphere had been cancelled. Will you be going to any festivals then? I'm heading to Latitude and the Cambridge Folk Fest.

Prettiness turned out to be a big factor in my other choices, actually Cambridge and Durham, ooh yeah! Warwick is less pretty, my brother lives in Bath, and Nottingham was further down the list than the others. So Cam and Dur it is, apparently!

If you have an interest in History then you might like something like this? I have the Science one and it's godly. I can look up anything in what seems like a GCSE to mid-undergrad level in any science and it's there. Lovely snappy explanations, nothing oversimplified, and if you look you can get the World History one for £2.50 including shipping (I did yesterday!) - it's like a Wikipedia without the blah!

Uhh... like an encyclopaedia

STEP's difficult but I've been preparing for so long that I think I'm ready. I've done three-ish full sets of mocks where I successfully mock-got-into-Cambridge, but I'm still preparing for the worst, so more prep it is! Luckily the exams are really nicely done. The questions can even be a joy to work on in some cases

Ah, I only asked because I used to live next to someone called Clare (your spelling) who played clarinet, is about your age (maybe) and seemed academic enough! Oh well, the world just got slightly larger again

Sleep deprivation all the way! Let's do this!

Whoa, I'm gonna work on STEP all night
And study every day...

(Shame Sonisphere got cancelled, KISS would have been pretty cool to see )

I love the fact you chose on food. If anything, I chose on 'prettiness', either the university itself or the surrounding area.

No, no, I know that Durham isn't a knock-off at all - it is lovely - and both my siblings had a great time there, but to me it felt too similar to Oxbridge.

I know someone studying maths at Bristol; he didn't like the look of the course as much as the one at Oxford initially, but he loves it now.

Okay, STEP sounds horrendously difficult...

I didn't really fancy taking joint honours. Plus I like English more than History - archaeology is my main thing, not History as an academic subject.

Nope, born and bred in ye olde Lincolnshire. Not kidding, I feel like a country bumpkin when I go into a big city. I don't know how I'm going to survive in Bristol. haha

No sleep until after exams! Glucose tablets and caffeine from now on!

Clare

Nah, those reasons make more sense than a lot of my choices! Like whenever I had to pick a college, I picked the one that either had a reputation for good food or whichever mentioned food the most on the page. And Durham's not a knockoff, it's a really nice place, it just copied one thing. And is cold. But with cheap beer!

I'm sure you'll love Bristol, the Anglo-Saxon sounds... unusual for an English course but up your alley I just didn't like their Maths all that much.

Hoping, dreaming of passing STEP. Just gotta keep going. The papers are a bit mental - ~4 extended questions in 3 hours from a choice of 13. I just beat my record for quickest completion of all 13 questions - 4 days! The problems are... hmm... you don't do Maths so it's a little hard to describe. Often in a single question they introduce you to a nice mathematical idea by asking you to prove something, then in the next part, make you adapt that idea in creative ways to get what you want. It's either A-level on mega-steroids, or university maths turned back down to 10. I've been preparing for nearly a year now

Why didn't you apply for English and History, out of interest? Unless that doesn't really exist, in which case... why didn't you ask them to make you an English and History?

You do play clarinet? Interesting... OK, I don't suppose you ever lived in South East London?

(Summer? Me very want summer now. Tired make me ungood write and do. Nothing to do sound very nice for sleep. Very sleep much! Very! )

Nothing too extravagant!

I chose Bristol for a silly reason. I wanted to go to Cambridge so badly, as you know, and Durham seemed like a 'knock-off version' of it, which to me seemed like a poor substitute and made me want to go to Cambridge even more. So, when I heard back from Cambridge I thought I'd go to somewhere completely different. Plus I like the course there, as it has a lot of emphasis on Anglo-Saxon. Like I said, completely stupid reasoning but I guess I am where I am now and there's not a lot I can do about it.

I'm sure you won't even need an insurance choice - you'll ace your exams.

I am an Englisher! I love archaeology and if I had done Biology at A-Level I would have applied for Archaeology and Anthropology. Digging in the mud on Hadrian's Wall is just my way of getting my history fix before I go to uni.

Oh goodness. I know how you feel. Summer feels like a million years away during A-Levels, doesn't it? And then when it comes you'll feel like you've got nothing to do. It's a funny sensation!
What kind of work do you have to do for STEP? Is it problem based or more theoretical?

That's not a bizarre question. And yes I do play clarinet, amongst various other things! Pourquoi?

Clare

Hmm... you offered, so I'll think of something

Why'd you pick Bristol over Durham, out of interest? I visited both, but only applied to Durham (which I think I'm about to insure).

Published? Go on..! And I thought you were an Englisher - archaeology being a hobby?

I'm good, STEP is slowly deteriorating my brain and life and other unimportant things but it's good to have something interesting to work on, and I'll have plenty of time to relax over the summer. Ahh, summer. That's a word and a half.

Summer. Mmmhmm. Summer.

(Bizarre question - do you play the clarinet?)

-Chris

I'm sure you could be eligible to win something, although I'm not sure what!

Things are going well thank you. I got offers from Durham, Warwick, Bristol and Royal Holloway; firmed Bristol. And my gap year's not going too bad either - I've got some work published and I'm going to join the archaeological excavation team at Vindolanda in June.

How're you? Good I hope.

Clare