KateRebecca's GCSE Journey!
Hello! I'm Kate and this here is my "Grow Your Grades" blog.Firstly, a little about me!I'm 16 years old and currently in Year 11 of high school. This year I will be sitting my GCSE's (dun dun duunnn). My goal is to study Veterinary Medicine and Surgery at University. I really enjoy science, and have taken part in many related opportunities such as STEM club and various competitions. I spent a week at a local zoo as part of my Year 10 work experience which was one of the most eye opening experiences in my life. I go horse riding, and have done since July of last year after a 5 year hiatus. I used to play a lot of sports including Netball, volleyball and basketball but with this year being so hectic I've had to stop playing.
I have already sat two GCSE exams:I sat my first GCSE in June of 2015. This was a Media Studies exam in which we started the course in Year 9. I didn't try particularly hard, however I did enjoy the coursework aspect of it, getting a high B. The exam however was awful and I ended up with a C in that. Luckily, as it was 60% coursework, 40% exam I came out with a B overall.
The second exam I sat was in November of 2015: English Language! I adored year 10 English as all we did was coursework, which allowed my creative juices to flow. I ended up with an high A in my coursework and speaking and listening. The exam however was everything I didn't want in an exam... But still I managed an A. So, I received my results on the 19th of January and found I had an A... Three marks from an A*! In fact with my Raw Marks I could have gotten it but the adjusted marks pushed it down by said three
So anyways; here are my subjects for this year with my teachers target grades and my own respectively!:
-Business Studies: A- A*
- English Literature: A= A*
- French: B= A
- History: A- A*
- Maths: A= A
- Triple Science (Biology, Chemistry, Physics): A= A*
We recently just got a new business teacher. I feel like we'll get more work done with him this year, but I still have to finish my controlled assessment which is worrying me slightly. We wrote up a draft but my format messed up so my old teacher could only give me a C as he couldn't read half of it, and now he's swanned off to Australia so I don't have a clear idea of what grade it's at. English Literature... We have two teachers this year; one of which has been off ill since September and we have had a supply since then. The supply is a good teacher, it's just our class. No one will just be quiet and do the work, so we barely get anything done. My other teacher is a complete hopeless case. We're behind on everything! English used to be my favourite subject but now I hate it. French is chill. I've finished all my speaking controlled assessments and have got a writing one coming up. Im hoping to get an A overall but it might be a push as all the mock exams I've done have all been quite inconsistent. History is my favourite subject. I've loved everything we learned about. I feel really confident on the American West segment but I really need to revise over Protest (which we'll be doing in lessons also). Our controlled assessment segment on Vietnam was quite stressful and probably the least enjoyable but I'm just glad it's over now! Now we have started Crime and Punishment which I'm sure will be interesting, especially as it is over a such a long span of time! Maths... What to say?! Our teacher is the most terrifying woman in the world. I always feel like I'm struggling in this lesson, yet my teacher seems to think different to my surprise. I find it so difficult to revise for this lesson, so I'm hoping this website will help me! We have also started a bit of further maths: calculus including differentiation and such. I've actually enjoyed it thus far, and depending on how matrices go, I may try and do the further maths GCSE paper in the summer. But I want to get that A in maths, so I'm worried that doing further maths might challenge my chance at getting that A at GCSE. The sciences are also my favourite subjects. It's just the usual problem of my class and how loud they are. We're behind in chemistry and are rushing through further additional in order to catch up and have time for revision. It also means that we have to do all the ISA's in biology and physics. We've practically almost finished all the course in Bio and Phys. It's just quite stressful knowing that it's a bit of a rush at the moment, and our Unit 1 exams are in 4 months.
So there you have it! I'll be posting updates regularly, with some of my next blogs to include:
-future aspirations (university+career)
- a levels
- mock exam results!
- weekly updates
- parents evening
I'm super excited to share my progression and see everyone else's unfold! It's going to be quite the fun experience, and will definitely lighten the year up a bit! ☺️- Kate x
I have already sat two GCSE exams:I sat my first GCSE in June of 2015. This was a Media Studies exam in which we started the course in Year 9. I didn't try particularly hard, however I did enjoy the coursework aspect of it, getting a high B. The exam however was awful and I ended up with a C in that. Luckily, as it was 60% coursework, 40% exam I came out with a B overall.
The second exam I sat was in November of 2015: English Language! I adored year 10 English as all we did was coursework, which allowed my creative juices to flow. I ended up with an high A in my coursework and speaking and listening. The exam however was everything I didn't want in an exam... But still I managed an A. So, I received my results on the 19th of January and found I had an A... Three marks from an A*! In fact with my Raw Marks I could have gotten it but the adjusted marks pushed it down by said three
So anyways; here are my subjects for this year with my teachers target grades and my own respectively!:
-Business Studies: A- A*
- English Literature: A= A*
- French: B= A
- History: A- A*
- Maths: A= A
- Triple Science (Biology, Chemistry, Physics): A= A*
We recently just got a new business teacher. I feel like we'll get more work done with him this year, but I still have to finish my controlled assessment which is worrying me slightly. We wrote up a draft but my format messed up so my old teacher could only give me a C as he couldn't read half of it, and now he's swanned off to Australia so I don't have a clear idea of what grade it's at. English Literature... We have two teachers this year; one of which has been off ill since September and we have had a supply since then. The supply is a good teacher, it's just our class. No one will just be quiet and do the work, so we barely get anything done. My other teacher is a complete hopeless case. We're behind on everything! English used to be my favourite subject but now I hate it. French is chill. I've finished all my speaking controlled assessments and have got a writing one coming up. Im hoping to get an A overall but it might be a push as all the mock exams I've done have all been quite inconsistent. History is my favourite subject. I've loved everything we learned about. I feel really confident on the American West segment but I really need to revise over Protest (which we'll be doing in lessons also). Our controlled assessment segment on Vietnam was quite stressful and probably the least enjoyable but I'm just glad it's over now! Now we have started Crime and Punishment which I'm sure will be interesting, especially as it is over a such a long span of time! Maths... What to say?! Our teacher is the most terrifying woman in the world. I always feel like I'm struggling in this lesson, yet my teacher seems to think different to my surprise. I find it so difficult to revise for this lesson, so I'm hoping this website will help me! We have also started a bit of further maths: calculus including differentiation and such. I've actually enjoyed it thus far, and depending on how matrices go, I may try and do the further maths GCSE paper in the summer. But I want to get that A in maths, so I'm worried that doing further maths might challenge my chance at getting that A at GCSE. The sciences are also my favourite subjects. It's just the usual problem of my class and how loud they are. We're behind in chemistry and are rushing through further additional in order to catch up and have time for revision. It also means that we have to do all the ISA's in biology and physics. We've practically almost finished all the course in Bio and Phys. It's just quite stressful knowing that it's a bit of a rush at the moment, and our Unit 1 exams are in 4 months.
So there you have it! I'll be posting updates regularly, with some of my next blogs to include:
-future aspirations (university+career)
- a levels
- mock exam results!
- weekly updates
- parents evening
I'm super excited to share my progression and see everyone else's unfold! It's going to be quite the fun experience, and will definitely lighten the year up a bit! ☺️- Kate x
I see that you are aiming above and beyond what your teachers are predicting - good on you! 
Parents evening
those are always fun.
Best of luck!
Parents evening
those are always fun.Best of luck!
Original post by SeanFM
I see that you are aiming above and beyond what your teachers are predicting - good on you!
Parents evening those are always fun.
Best of luck!
Parents evening
those are always fun.Best of luck!
Well my teachers target grades were given to us at the start of the year, and after my mock results some may change! 😂
Thank you so much!
Daily Blog 1:
Monday 25th January 2016:
Our first lesson at school today was english. We read through two more poems from the Anthology: Casehistory: Alison (head injury) and On a Portrait of a Dead Man. Both poems were incredibly jolly and made my Monday morning feel wonderful. Anyways, we only have one more poem left of the anthology. We annotated the poems using the layout our supply teacher has given us: SMILE (Structure, Meaning, Imagery, Language and Effect). It's made writing up essays that little bit easier, however once we've finished reading through all the poems we'll be spending more time learning how to write exam answers. Oh, and if you were wondering, our exam board is AQA!
Second lesson was Maths. We are revising (even though I'm sure we've never learnt about this before) over direct and inverse proportions. Although, I'm sure, it's meant to be an easy concept, I know it will take me a while to fully get my head around. The exam board for this subject is Edexcel.
Third lesson was Chemistry. It was the usual rush through the unit. We summarised what we had learnt from last lesson about transition metals. We then moved onto Water and the three types that make it up: Soft water, temporary hard water and permanently hard water. We also learnt that us lot up north have the advantage when it comes to cleanliness of our water 😏. We then did an experiment using the three types of water and chemical soap, and report our observations on the reaction in order to understand the compounds in the water and the production of limescale.
Last lesson was French. Here, we had a taster lesson on A level french. It was on "A la télé" which we have already learnt a lot of vocab for GCSE. We're also in the middle of preparing for our write up for our writing controlled assessment. We have now finished our third paragraph with another two to go. We read over our teachers markings of our work, and luckily mine was good, just some grammatical errors.
Tonight I did my History homework: a 6 mark question asking to describe punishment using key detail from either the Roman period or Anglo Saxon. I chose Roman. I'm feeling super tired, as you would on a Monday. Luckily tomorrow we finish a lesson early! Woohoo!
Monday 25th January 2016:
Our first lesson at school today was english. We read through two more poems from the Anthology: Casehistory: Alison (head injury) and On a Portrait of a Dead Man. Both poems were incredibly jolly and made my Monday morning feel wonderful. Anyways, we only have one more poem left of the anthology. We annotated the poems using the layout our supply teacher has given us: SMILE (Structure, Meaning, Imagery, Language and Effect). It's made writing up essays that little bit easier, however once we've finished reading through all the poems we'll be spending more time learning how to write exam answers. Oh, and if you were wondering, our exam board is AQA!
Second lesson was Maths. We are revising (even though I'm sure we've never learnt about this before) over direct and inverse proportions. Although, I'm sure, it's meant to be an easy concept, I know it will take me a while to fully get my head around. The exam board for this subject is Edexcel.
Third lesson was Chemistry. It was the usual rush through the unit. We summarised what we had learnt from last lesson about transition metals. We then moved onto Water and the three types that make it up: Soft water, temporary hard water and permanently hard water. We also learnt that us lot up north have the advantage when it comes to cleanliness of our water 😏. We then did an experiment using the three types of water and chemical soap, and report our observations on the reaction in order to understand the compounds in the water and the production of limescale.
Last lesson was French. Here, we had a taster lesson on A level french. It was on "A la télé" which we have already learnt a lot of vocab for GCSE. We're also in the middle of preparing for our write up for our writing controlled assessment. We have now finished our third paragraph with another two to go. We read over our teachers markings of our work, and luckily mine was good, just some grammatical errors.
Tonight I did my History homework: a 6 mark question asking to describe punishment using key detail from either the Roman period or Anglo Saxon. I chose Roman. I'm feeling super tired, as you would on a Monday. Luckily tomorrow we finish a lesson early! Woohoo!
Original post by ...imrah
Best of luck! I hope you achieve your aspiring grades and do well!
Thank you so much! ✨😁
Daily Blog 2:
Tuesday 26th January 2016
I'm sick to death of english. Most of the time it feels like we have it everyday. Most of the time we do. This lesson, we finished the annotating the final poem in our anthology - The Hunchback in the Park. However I think I will bring my anthology home to do some research of my own and add to the poems. I then made a mind map of all the poems and made links between them of the different themes such as Love, Relationships, Anger, Grief and so on. I really need to look more in depth at the links though.
Second lesson was Physics. Our second ISA is coming up soon, so we did a practice paper 1. But I definitely didn't use it to my advantage. This week I've been feeling like I just can't be bothered. I did a few questions but ended up just talking to my friends about going on a group holiday in Sixth Form and dreaming of independence. Sigh. Anyways, I brought my practise paper home so I will try and do it before next lesson.
Final lesson was my favourite, History. Definitely a happier end to the day. I had missed last lesson as I was on a trip to our local University to get a tour of the Medical School and get involved with a cool experiment in which we removed DNA from strawberries, blueberries and bananas. I might do a separate post on this just because it was such a cool day out, seeing their half a million pounds microscope and incredible technologies. Back to history, I missed some important details from last lesson. So the first thing I had to do was produce a mind map using the text book on Norman crime and punishment based around Impact, Continuity and their Punishments and Laws. I didn't quite finish it as we had other tasks to do also. We got given an A3 table to summarise the three time periods we have looked at. I barely got any of that done. Luckily we have double history tomorrow. Normally we would have History and then PSD but that lesson has been removed to make space for extra history lessons as we're behind.
Coming home I've just flopped out. I did get two books yesterday though and have started reading them. I saw "The 5th Wave" at the weekend and then decided to get the book as well as the second in the series "the Infinite Sea". So far it's been good! I used to read so much when I was younger but now I barely read anything. I think all I've read in the past 5 years is The Hunger Games trilogy and All the Bright Places.
Well that's it for today! Hopefully a restful nights sleep and a work filled day tomorrow! I hope you all had a wonderful day and are closer to achieving your goals! - Kate x
Tuesday 26th January 2016
I'm sick to death of english. Most of the time it feels like we have it everyday. Most of the time we do. This lesson, we finished the annotating the final poem in our anthology - The Hunchback in the Park. However I think I will bring my anthology home to do some research of my own and add to the poems. I then made a mind map of all the poems and made links between them of the different themes such as Love, Relationships, Anger, Grief and so on. I really need to look more in depth at the links though.
Second lesson was Physics. Our second ISA is coming up soon, so we did a practice paper 1. But I definitely didn't use it to my advantage. This week I've been feeling like I just can't be bothered. I did a few questions but ended up just talking to my friends about going on a group holiday in Sixth Form and dreaming of independence. Sigh. Anyways, I brought my practise paper home so I will try and do it before next lesson.
Final lesson was my favourite, History. Definitely a happier end to the day. I had missed last lesson as I was on a trip to our local University to get a tour of the Medical School and get involved with a cool experiment in which we removed DNA from strawberries, blueberries and bananas. I might do a separate post on this just because it was such a cool day out, seeing their half a million pounds microscope and incredible technologies. Back to history, I missed some important details from last lesson. So the first thing I had to do was produce a mind map using the text book on Norman crime and punishment based around Impact, Continuity and their Punishments and Laws. I didn't quite finish it as we had other tasks to do also. We got given an A3 table to summarise the three time periods we have looked at. I barely got any of that done. Luckily we have double history tomorrow. Normally we would have History and then PSD but that lesson has been removed to make space for extra history lessons as we're behind.
Coming home I've just flopped out. I did get two books yesterday though and have started reading them. I saw "The 5th Wave" at the weekend and then decided to get the book as well as the second in the series "the Infinite Sea". So far it's been good! I used to read so much when I was younger but now I barely read anything. I think all I've read in the past 5 years is The Hunger Games trilogy and All the Bright Places.
Well that's it for today! Hopefully a restful nights sleep and a work filled day tomorrow! I hope you all had a wonderful day and are closer to achieving your goals! - Kate x
Daily blog 3:
Wednesday 27th January
Good day everyone! I hope you've all had a wonderful day today! ☺️ First lesson today was French. We learned more phrases about our city and did some listening exercises. We then revised over the use of 'depuis' as a time phrase. ((Depuis means "for" or "since". For example "J'habite dans ma maison depuis trois ans" which means "I have lived in my house for three years." We then got given homework for next week to go on vocab express and learn some more vocabulary.
Second lesson was history. In fact it was third lesson too, as it's now been decided we have double history. In the first part we learnt about Vagabonds in the Norman period. We created timelines and investigated how beggars were treat in the eyes of the law (which in those times was awfully). Second lesson we revised an overview of the American West. We were given a question "What was the main reason the Plains Indians lost control?" We had 13 different reasons and firstly we had to choose our top ten and arrange them from most important to least. Then we stuck them onto an A3 sheet and made some links between them. Finally we wrote a short paragraph on what we thought was the most important reason. I said the Destruction of the Buffalo; as it was the heart and soul of the Indian survival and culture. The destruction then led to the arrival of cattle ranchers, railroads and thus the movement of Indians into reservations which was really the final point that the Indians really had lost control of their land all together.
Finally we had Business. I really have to finish my research and planning; all I have to do now really is my recommendations. However as we're in the computer room it just means it the perfect opportunity to do nothing and chat with friends - which is precisely what I did. We don't start our controlled report piece till after half term however so I'll try and stay back and finish it so that I can be given feedback.
Usually on a Wednesday we have Chemistry revision classes which I always go to, however my mam suggested taking me out for a meal for a well needed mother/daughter bonding session. I think we both needed a change of atmosphere and scenery and some actual, delicious food. It really cheered my day up. Tonight I go to bed exhausted but content!
See you again tomorrow! - Kate x
Wednesday 27th January
Good day everyone! I hope you've all had a wonderful day today! ☺️ First lesson today was French. We learned more phrases about our city and did some listening exercises. We then revised over the use of 'depuis' as a time phrase. ((Depuis means "for" or "since". For example "J'habite dans ma maison depuis trois ans" which means "I have lived in my house for three years." We then got given homework for next week to go on vocab express and learn some more vocabulary.
Second lesson was history. In fact it was third lesson too, as it's now been decided we have double history. In the first part we learnt about Vagabonds in the Norman period. We created timelines and investigated how beggars were treat in the eyes of the law (which in those times was awfully). Second lesson we revised an overview of the American West. We were given a question "What was the main reason the Plains Indians lost control?" We had 13 different reasons and firstly we had to choose our top ten and arrange them from most important to least. Then we stuck them onto an A3 sheet and made some links between them. Finally we wrote a short paragraph on what we thought was the most important reason. I said the Destruction of the Buffalo; as it was the heart and soul of the Indian survival and culture. The destruction then led to the arrival of cattle ranchers, railroads and thus the movement of Indians into reservations which was really the final point that the Indians really had lost control of their land all together.
Finally we had Business. I really have to finish my research and planning; all I have to do now really is my recommendations. However as we're in the computer room it just means it the perfect opportunity to do nothing and chat with friends - which is precisely what I did. We don't start our controlled report piece till after half term however so I'll try and stay back and finish it so that I can be given feedback.
Usually on a Wednesday we have Chemistry revision classes which I always go to, however my mam suggested taking me out for a meal for a well needed mother/daughter bonding session. I think we both needed a change of atmosphere and scenery and some actual, delicious food. It really cheered my day up. Tonight I go to bed exhausted but content!
See you again tomorrow! - Kate x
Hi, I'm currently in year 10 & wanting to achieve A-A* grades in GCSE. Can you please provide me help on how I will achieve these grades?
Posted from TSR Mobile
Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by SamWilliams1
Hi, I'm currently in year 10 & wanting to achieve A-A* grades in GCSE. Can you please provide me help on how I will achieve these grades?
Posted from TSR Mobile
Posted from TSR Mobile
Of course I can! What would you like to know about?
Daily blog 4:
Thursday 28th January:
Good day!First lesson was Biology. We learnt about Homeostasis (the bodily control of internal conditions and keeping everything balanced). Part of this was also learning about waste products (carbon dioxide and urea) and the role homeostasis plays in controlling this. We actually got a lot of work done: usually our class talks too much for our teacher to get a word out.
Second lesson was English. This lesson was with the other of our two teachers - the one I dislike the most. We finally managed to finish reading Of Mice and Men, which seems to have taken an eternity. I must admit I teared up a little internally. Now we just have to do some in depth analysis and exam question work. Fun. It's just a relief knowing that story is over.
Third lesson was Maths. Here we carried on learning about direct and inverse proportions. It still confuses me a little, I need a lot more practice at doing these without help from my book and all from memory but I'll get there. I feel like recently I've been a lot more confident in maths, and I feel like I'm understanding everything much quicker. I'm almost going the same speed as the top few in my class which is making me feel good! I just wish this mentality began before mocks.
Final lesson was business where we learnt more finance things like balance sheets. We learnt new terms like assets and liabilities and new formulas. We were then given homework to do with balance sheets for next week. Honestly I don't know how I'm going to remember all this!
On a Thursday after school there is Biology revision sessions. I've never been able to do it as on a Thursday I have horse riding lessons so I've had to sacrifice and cut lessons down to once every two weeks. I had my riding lesson tonight (which went extremely well!) and so next week I will stay for biology.
Tomorrow is Friday! Yay, finally! The weekend could not come any quicker. This weekend I'm going to plan my revision as our teachers are drumming it into us that we should start now. I always said I'd wait till the February half term holiday but I might have to start a bit closer than that at this rate!
Have a great day/night and I hope you're all working hard and doing your best! - Kate x
Thursday 28th January:
Good day!First lesson was Biology. We learnt about Homeostasis (the bodily control of internal conditions and keeping everything balanced). Part of this was also learning about waste products (carbon dioxide and urea) and the role homeostasis plays in controlling this. We actually got a lot of work done: usually our class talks too much for our teacher to get a word out.
Second lesson was English. This lesson was with the other of our two teachers - the one I dislike the most. We finally managed to finish reading Of Mice and Men, which seems to have taken an eternity. I must admit I teared up a little internally. Now we just have to do some in depth analysis and exam question work. Fun. It's just a relief knowing that story is over.
Third lesson was Maths. Here we carried on learning about direct and inverse proportions. It still confuses me a little, I need a lot more practice at doing these without help from my book and all from memory but I'll get there. I feel like recently I've been a lot more confident in maths, and I feel like I'm understanding everything much quicker. I'm almost going the same speed as the top few in my class which is making me feel good! I just wish this mentality began before mocks.
Final lesson was business where we learnt more finance things like balance sheets. We learnt new terms like assets and liabilities and new formulas. We were then given homework to do with balance sheets for next week. Honestly I don't know how I'm going to remember all this!
On a Thursday after school there is Biology revision sessions. I've never been able to do it as on a Thursday I have horse riding lessons so I've had to sacrifice and cut lessons down to once every two weeks. I had my riding lesson tonight (which went extremely well!) and so next week I will stay for biology.
Tomorrow is Friday! Yay, finally! The weekend could not come any quicker. This weekend I'm going to plan my revision as our teachers are drumming it into us that we should start now. I always said I'd wait till the February half term holiday but I might have to start a bit closer than that at this rate!
Have a great day/night and I hope you're all working hard and doing your best! - Kate x
Can you explain why there are no transition elements between magnesium and aliminum?
Thanks
Thanks
Wow, so much for those weekly updates, HUH?
I've been so tired these past few months and went through a phase where I barely used this site. But now, my crave is back and I'm utilizing it to start updating again!
I've only just started hardcore revision, which is causing me to panic slightly (understatement). Anyways I shall keep this short and sweet with an update of what I did today. I was out for a meal with family today so it's not as much as I have been doing.
- Half a maths non calc paper.
- Finished character notes on An Inspector Calls.
- Did some notes on themes in An Inspector Calls.
- History American West revision on Law and Order as it is a weaker area.
- Had a quick read over cash flow in my business revision guide.
I've been so tired these past few months and went through a phase where I barely used this site. But now, my crave is back and I'm utilizing it to start updating again!
I've only just started hardcore revision, which is causing me to panic slightly (understatement). Anyways I shall keep this short and sweet with an update of what I did today. I was out for a meal with family today so it's not as much as I have been doing.
- Half a maths non calc paper.
- Finished character notes on An Inspector Calls.
- Did some notes on themes in An Inspector Calls.
- History American West revision on Law and Order as it is a weaker area.
- Had a quick read over cash flow in my business revision guide.
WOW! Good luck and btw, im called Kate too haha 
If you could check out my blog that would be great thx
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4615142&p=70587684#post70587684
If you could check out my blog that would be great thx
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4615142&p=70587684#post70587684
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