2015 AS/A2 Results Day (Thursday 13th August) | Official Thread | 3 days to go

Original post by thatitootoo

35 days to go ✌️

Actually 34 days left after tomorrow lol

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Reply 781

Original post by PQ

Just a quick point to people talking about preparing for uni. Please PLEASE don't spend a fortune on text books.

Some universities will provide basic texts (either as ebooks ir hard copy). Others the important books will be available in abundance in the library. In many cases the "key texts" aren't key at all - the staff have been asked to provide some books for the library and bookshop to stock but actually when you need to read is 2/3 journal papers or just the module worksheets.

If you want to prepare use TSR connect to find people who started that course last year and PM/VM them to ask what was useful.

Search you uni websites for student handbooks and module details.

Look at the personal websites of the staff who will be teaching you.

Do a MOOC. https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/upcoming

Do this MOOC on preparing for university https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/preparing-for-uni

Go on your uni library website and find the subject resources pages.

For first year you will have to buy textbooks to prepare for university before you get there, you can't rent out books from university before you've started can you?During the year you shouldn't spend that much money on books as you should be able to rent them from the library(however books may be popular)-do universities let you keep books all years(Outside terms)? and do they let you borrow between years so you can start preparing for the 2nd,3rd and potentially 4th years?

Reply 782

Original post by lashelicia

How are you feeling about results day?
Verrrrrrrrrrrrrry nervous, I keep thinking I've made loads of silly mistakes and that my handwriting was illegible so the examiners just won't mark it

Which subjects do you study?
History, Psychology and ICT

What grades are you hoping to get?
I'm hoping for A*AA with the A* in Psychology, but I was hoping for A*'s in the other subjects too until I realised that I kind of messed them up a bit :colondollar:

Are you in year 12 or 13?
Year 13

To which uni are you hoping to go?
University of Birmingham

To study which subject?
Psychology

How did your exams go?

I thought they went well, the time really did get to me a bit though and some questions in the ICT exam had me like :colonhash:

, but overall I thought they went good despite my poor handwriting

I'm worried about handwriting too, my college decided that I should do AS Geography on a laptop it is that bad but for Maths and Physics it would be too hard to go from paper to laptop for calculations and typing so I decided it was best to write the exams and my handwriting was very bad-I found it hard to read, with letters missing and I had to bold over some of the letters this is of course for exams I had time to do that sort of thing.

Reply 783

Original post by Dalek1099

For first year you will have to buy textbooks to prepare for university before you get there, you can't rent out books from university before you've started can you?During the year you shouldn't spend that much money on books as you should be able to rent them from the library(however books may be popular)-do universities let you keep books all years(Outside terms)? and do they let you borrow between years so you can start preparing for the 2nd,3rd and potentially 4th years?

No, you don't need to by books. There are websites that might even have the most recent academic books available for download, this saved me a lot of money. Here is one of them, and it's my favourite one:

Www.bookzz.org (use it wisely)

You can also check the recently added books section on the website to see the most recently uploaded books by different people around the world. If you see a useful book on that section then you must download it quickly as the books might be taken down by the owner of the website if the authors of the books complain.

I will (hopefully) have access to oxford and cambridge electronic books and academic journals next year so you could PM to see if i have the electronic files of the books available. :smile:

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Reply 784

Original post by Dalek1099

I'm worried about handwriting too, my college decided that I should do AS Geography on a laptop it is that bad but for Maths and Physics it would be too hard to go from paper to laptop for calculations and typing so I decided it was best to write the exams and my handwriting was very bad-I found it hard to read, with letters missing and I had to bold over some of the letters this is of course for exams I had time to do that sort of thing.

The same here. I couldn't even read the answers i wrote my self lol

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Reply 785

Original post by LumosNox

I'm a little confused why it would be a good thing if your firm isn't in clearing already?

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Yes I would think a course being in clearing would be good because it means that there are places available so they are likely to be much more lenient if you miss the offer.

Reply 786

Original post by Gladiatorsword

Anyone self taught s2 or s3??

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Yes I have self taught S2 and S3 both modules weren't really too bad to self teach, make sure you go through the whole book to fully grasp the concepts-missing out the derivation of key results would have cost marks on this years S3, as you needed to use these derivation techniques in an unfamiliar problem.Statistics isn't really that hard(S4 is a lot harder than S2 and S3) a lot of it requires a lot of memory, loads of calculations(S2 manages to not have too much of this) and hypothesis testing, which is something you won't be familiar with if you have only done S1 it requires you to use probability to work out whether something is likely to be true or false.

Reply 787

Velocity_

18

Original post by Dalek1099

Yes I have got lots of reading to do I am under big pressure to get a First as both my brother and sister got Firsts I can't afford no to get one-TSR seems slack on degrees accepting 2:1s as good grades even though they are average anything less than a 1st is unacceptable unless from Oxbridge.

I hope to god your joking right? Theres so much i can say about that: Allison Pearson, columnist and author (2:2 at Nottingham); Nigel Farage (no doubt your familiar) clearly successful even if he's an idiot; Jane Garvey, broadcaster (2:2 Birmingham) and there are so many more but i cba doing research. You need to seriously get your head out your ass and look in the real world! A 2:1 is fantastic, especially if its a science subject which makes me curious, what would you say about the prestigious ranking of Geology (how would you personally rate it)? As a degree and a job?

Reply 788

Original post by Smug Life

nope. i don't see the point in worrying about things that can't be changed.

Worrying about results makes you prepared for what results you get, people who worry are probably far more likely to do better in Clearing as they will have looked it all up in advance as they were so worried about failing and getting in Clearing- those who don't worry leave themselves open to being unprepared for results day.

Reply 789

Smug Life

12

Original post by Dalek1099

Worrying about results makes you prepared for what results you get, people who worry are probably far more likely to do better in Clearing as they will have looked it all up in advance as they were so worried about failing and getting in Clearing- those who don't worry leave themselves open to being unprepared for results day.

i already know that i won't be in clearing as i didn't **** up my exams THAT badly.

Reply 790

Original post by Mehrdad jafari

no worries! im glad you think you did well.
to be honest im not really sure about my future studies but at the moment im not considering going to university. im not taking a gap year but i think a gap year is a good idea to be well equipt before embarking on a degree programme. what are you thinking of doing at university?

I don't think a gap year is a good idea as it will mean you won't have done your degree subject for a year so you could lose a lot of knowledge and ability, for subjects like Maths and Languages this could be really bad as knowledge quickly goes as most people cram for exams and forget afterwards.

If you spend your gap year wisely you can make it worthwhile doing an internship/apprenticeship/work experience in the relevant area/subject so that you don't simply forget it all but I wouldn't really describe any of these so called gap years that universities aren't too bothered about/like as gap years.

Reply 791

Original post by Mehrdad jafari

that's true, but the AS students of this year will not be smart enough to check the last years's A2 thread to get the papers :smile:

(now some of them may do)

Usually you check up online for the answers after doing the mocks but a decent amount of the time you don't actually do the mock in college, especially this year as there were no April/May mocks for some reason for any of my subjects.I can usually find whatever papers I want to find but when we did mocks we didn't always do the 2014 ones anyway and for Maths there are a couple of 2014 papers(R,IAL etc).

Reply 792

EYPHKA

4

As a rule of thumb you should only aim to buy a book after you've read a few chapters of it elsewhere and are fairly sure you will be using it extensively. Though for most books you will only need some select chapters for reference and so borrowing them probably works.

Reply 793

Original post by EYPHKA

As a rule of thumb you should only aim to buy a book after you've read a few chapters of it elsewhere and are fairly sure you will be using it extensively. Though for most books you will only need some select chapters for reference and so borrowing them probably works.

I am only planning on buying one book and I have read quite a bit of it beforehand, as you really need to make sure the book you get is student friendly enough(maths not words), especially as I get very bored with lots of words(I really struggle to get through more than a chapter of books often)-thank goodness I am doing Maths at University.I liked books that only had small amounts of writing on each page and a nice picture but they don't seem to do them for adults, it requires a lot of effort to get through a book with loads of writing all over I probably have a word phobia or something.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 794

Original post by Smug Life

i already know that i won't be in clearing as i didn't **** up my exams THAT badly.

I don't know because I get really nervous and anxious for results day and my worst but unlikely scenarios would mean I would need Clearing.You might not feel the same way closer to results day.Did you pick an Insurance with a low offer?, I picked an insurance with a higher offer(A*AA) so the pressure is on.

Reply 795

Original post by Dalek1099

I don't think a gap year is a good idea as it will mean you won't have done your degree subject for a year so you could lose a lot of knowledge and ability, for subjects like Maths and Languages this could be really bad as knowledge quickly goes as most people cram for exams and forget afterwards.

If you spend your gap year wisely you can make it worthwhile doing an internship/apprenticeship/work experience in the relevant area/subject so that you don't simply forget it all but I wouldn't really describe any of these so called gap years that universities aren't too bothered about/like as gap years.

Knowledge is not about how much you know, but what you know. Also those who forget stuff didn't understand them in the beginning as you will never forget something you really understand, that's one of the reasons im not considering going to university and i don't think its a right place to say it here. if i want to understand something i take time, more than a day, week, month or a year. so education is not for me. so gap year can provide such a time which is still not enough

Reply 796

Smug Life

12

Original post by Dalek1099

I don't know because I get really nervous and anxious for results day and my worst but unlikely scenarios would mean I would need Clearing.You might not feel the same way closer to results day.Did you pick an Insurance with a low offer?, I picked an insurance with a higher offer(A*AA) so the pressure is on.

sort of, my firm is AAA and insurance is AAB. i'd be surprised if i got less than AAA. i would be more nervous if my offers were for higher grades tbh.

Reply 797

Original post by Velocity_

I hope to god your joking right? Theres so much i can say about that: Allison Pearson, columnist and author (2:2 at Nottingham); Nigel Farage (no doubt your familiar) clearly successful even if he's an idiot; Jane Garvey, broadcaster (2:2 Birmingham) and there are so many more but i cba doing research. You need to seriously get your head out your ass and look in the real world! A 2:1 is fantastic, especially if its a science subject which makes me curious, what would you say about the prestigious ranking of Geology (how would you personally rate it)? As a degree and a job?

I wouldn't really rate Geology well it certainly picks up marks for being a STEM subject but its probably a mickey mouse STEM subject, which isn't too bad its mickey mouse compared to the normal STEM subjects but it is not a mickey mouse subject.

If I didn't get a 1st then I would be dummer than my siblings and I would have to live my life around superior people, which would be really difficult and I might have to move out permanently(perhaps not even see my siblings again as it would be too embarrassing)-my siblings would remind me how bad I did we often compete over who has done the best and they would really wind me up if I had got firsts and I didn't especially considering the prestige a 1st brings, they made it clear I would be under a lot of pressure to get a 1st and they are completely right my reputation is at stake.

If I did get a 2:1 I might not be able to move out anyway as I may not be independent enough, moving away for university(which I will for the first year if I get into Durham will be a tough task but much easier than actually moving out as the university sorts the complicated stuff).I might need to move out to pursue work opportunities anyway, it looks like you have to pretty much move to Exeter or Aberdeen to become a meteorologist which is my dream job at the moment.

Reply 798

Original post by Dalek1099

Usually you check up online for the answers after doing the mocks but a decent amount of the time you don't actually do the mock in college, especially this year as there were no April/May mocks for some reason for any of my subjects.I can usually find whatever papers I want to find but when we did mocks we didn't always do the 2014 ones anyway and for Maths there are a couple of 2014 papers(R,IAL etc).

that's true, but mocks in sciences are usually the June papers of the previous year. what you are saying is true for the edexcel maths as this guy arsey always uploads the solutions to the papers of each year that's why the teachers already know that

Reply 799