Grow Your Grades 2016: Gribby2's Study Diary

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Thank you! Good luck with your school work!
I sometimes buy books off EBay or a Amazon but then I have to pay for postage so I usually just go to the library. :smile:

Thanks! Yes, it can definitely be cheaper, which is always a plus. :smile:

Reply 61

Gribby2

24.2.16
I am so, so sorry that I haven't written in 4 weeks! I've had two weeks of mocks, and before that I was learning my French writing exam script. So again, I'm sorry.

In my Chemistry mock, I got 38/40, which was an A*, and apparently was full UMS, so I was happy. I only got a B in Physics, but some people in my class got Ds and Es, so it wasn't too bad. I don't know what I got for Biology yet.

In English, I got a 7 (A), which wasn't awful, considering how bad my teacher is, I'm going to do some independent English work in the holidays, because she is honestly the worst English teacher I've ever had.

I got 77/80 and an A* in RE, and two Cs in Maths, which wasn't that good. Our set is so naughty, and it's disrupting everybody's learning. I'm in Set 2/10, but the highest mark on the non-calculator test was 54%(B), whereas Set 1, who we're expected to be working at only a very slightly lower level than, had someone who got 81%. There are some boys in our class who are so annoying and it's really not fair on people who actually want to learn. It's gotten to the point where when I threatened to kill one of them (I obviously wouldn't actually have murdered them), and he reported it, the teacher said 'good.'

I don't know what I got in Geography or History yet.

In French, I got full marks on my mocks (only foundation, because we were supposed to be focussing on learning our writing rather than having to revise for mocks, but I'll probably do higher next year), and found out I got 30/30 in my GCSE Writing, so with the 30/30 I got in my Speaking Test, I've got 30% of the GCSE already, which is good, because I'm pretty shoddy at Listening.

There were some strange visitors at school today. They came into my Geography, and one of them had a look at my book and asked me a lot of questions about coursework, which was rather tedious.

I had supply in Biology (hence why I didn't find out my mock result), and he played a lot of Nickleback songs.

Everyone was talking about the referendum. While, peronally I'm glad (but surprised) the country voted to leave, I have to say I was worried by the Magic Star scare. :smile:

It was the Year 11s' last day, so they see all dressed rather ridiculuosly, and were drawing all over each other. My old year manager (who abondoned us to teach Health and Social), who was talking to some of them, gave us a mug and a parcel to look after, which rather scuppered our lunch. She forgot to collect them/broke her shoe, and so we had to work out what to do when we still had them once the bell had rung for lessons. We stuck them in her room in the end.

On the subject of abandonment, our Geography teacher is retiring and leaving us to become a property developer and doing the odd extra bit of part-time work. We're meant to get the teacher I had for most of Year 9 (who replaced my old form tutor as a Geography teacher, but is not my form tutor [thankfully]), and he's awful. I would refuse to go to his lessons.

I hope you are all well, and again I apologise profusely for my absence.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 62

Gribby2

7.6.16
Hya. I do appreciate I've been updating less and less frequently, and I'm super sorry about that, but I've had tonnes of coursework and homework to do. I've had three pieces of English homework to do this week already!

Yesterday, I got my report. I'm afraid, it's been stolen by my parents to look at, and I don't know where it is, so I'll have to give you the specifics another time, but it was pretty decent.

I also got my Biology mock back yesterday, and I got an A*, which I was pleased with, though it wasn't a particularly high A*, so I could do with improving to try and maximise my chances of getting an A* in the actual exams. I got most of the marks that barely anyone else picked up, but then dropped some easier ones, so I need to fix that.

Today was quite fun. I had R.E first. The tables have moved, so there isn't a seating plan. I sat with my best friend. We mainly talked, although we did do the work.

Then it was Maths, which wasn't that exciting, but I do sit next to my best friend, so we chat quite a lot while we work and help each other.

At break I did Chemistry in preparation for third lesson, during which we carried out an experiment for our coursework.

At lunch, I helped my best friend print off some photos for Art. Then I did some History course work. I think I would have gotten it finished on time anyway, but I just wanted to be sure. I just have my conclusion to go now, and I have just under an hour to do it (once we've put our bags at the front, etc.), so that should be fine (fingers crossed). When I was putting my coursework back in my classroom (the coursework session was in a different room, and wasn't run by my teacher), a boy in my History class randomly started waving a fencing foil at me (not in a malicious way, but you've got to be careful with those things), which was... interesting. I don't even know why he had it to be honest. I guess he does fencing, but quite why he brought it to schoolis beyond me? I don't think there's a fencing club at school. We never get to do anything that exciting in (CORE) P.E (Talking of P.E, some of the teachers were on strike yesterday (though not enough to warrant closing the school :frown:

), including my P.E teacher, so we just sat in the gym (also the assembley hall), and talked, while Glastonbury played in the background).

After lunch I had Geography. Our teacher had told us we were in the computer room, but when we arrived, he didn't show up. We waited for ages, before being told by a teacher/technician/person that he'd mistakenly booked it for Period 5 (as opposed to Period 4), so we went outside and started walking to our classroom, but then we found out we had a supply teacher who met us on our way and took us back up to the computer room, as it said on her notes we were there. Then she realised the room was in use, so we had to go to the classroom. Most of the work required the computers, so we couldn't do it. The supply teacher had to send somebody to ask an actual Geography teacher what we should do, and we ended up doing field sketches of rivers, before packing up seven minutes early. Apparently, when the supply teacher went on the same field trip as us eight years ago, they were filming 'Heartbeat', and she got to meet the cast, which was interesting. I like 'Heartbeat' (and 'The Royal'- it's the closest thing to a soap I'll actually watch.

English was last, and we had a surprise assessment, eventhough we had to write response to an essay-style question for homework due today. The assessment was about how and why Sheila changed in 'An Inspector Calls'. I hope I did okay, but I don't know. I got a 7 (A) in my English mock (no thanks to my abysmal teacher), but I don't think I did very well on this test. I mentioned some stuff about how the Inspector uses anaphora in his final speech and then Sheila uses this later on, showing that she had changed to be more like the Inspector and has now become the new vehicle for Priestley's socialist views, but I don't know if this is even right.

Form was last and we had someone in our form who is going to be an R.E teacher next year. Our form tutor told her about all of us. Then another R.E teacher, who has kind of adopted us, searched our old form tutor (we had a Geography teacher for form in Years 7 and 8) on Facebook, and we all laughed. I miss our old form tutor, but my current one's great too.

How are you? I hope you are all well.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 63

Gribby2

11.8.16
Hey. I'm sorry I haven't posted in ages, but I got really stressed out by something that happened on the last day of school and haven't felt ready to talk about it until now.

On a positive note, I got tonnes of sweets on the last day :smile:

(it was my Geography teacher's last ever lesson :frown:

, so we got sweets from him, and I also got a packet of Celebrations for somehow winning the year manager's award, despite the fact I never speak to my year manager- I think she must feel guilty for making me cry once). Also, I found out I got 96% (which was joint-highest in the class) and an A* in my Geography mock.

The problem arose when I was walking home from school. I was quietly minding my own business when a group of Year 7s started throwing drumsticks (the sweets, not the wooden things) at me. It was mildly irritating, but I walked on, paying little attention to it, as whilst they were throwing them somewhat violently, they weren't particularly hard, so it didn't hurt too much. Then things became worse. The Year 7s in question caught up to me and refused to leave me alone. They were calling me 'babe' and then one of them punched me in the back. I'll admit it was quite painful, but as they were only Year 7s I didn't hit them back. Instead, I swung my P.E bag round, in what I hoped was a vaguely menacing manner, in an attempt to ward them off. A short while later, a boy who was in the year below me at primary school joined in. He has always been a violent bully, something which I fail to understand, given his older sister was always perfectly lovely, suggesting it's not a parenting issue. He liked to be unpleasant to everybody, but he hated me in particular, and still does, because, although not always the bravest, I will stand up for my self and my friends if bullied. Everyone else just submitted to his regime, and he was not used to people disagreeing and was most affronted. He obviously still holds a grudge against me. He called me fat, which I found mildly ironic, given that I'm a size 8, and he probably weighs at least three times as much as me, despite being a similar height, and encouraged the Year 7s to bully me. One of them grabbed me from behind and I kicked them out of self defence (though I didn't put much force into it, so as not to injure them too severely). I did end up yelling at them quite a bit and very loudly (so it'll probably be the talk of the school when I get back after summer- for some reason I'm famous at school. I don't get why. I'm not especially popular (everyone thinks I'm mad), but for some reason pretty much everyone seems to know who I am, even if I don't know them). I started swinging my P.E bag around some more at the Year 7s. One of them was running away and when I couldn't actually be bothered to chase them he said something along the lines of "You can't keep up because your fat," copying the boy in the year below me. I just said it was because I really couldn't be asked wasting my time over him. The boy from my primary school started behaving very threateningly, so I hit him lightly to get him away from me (I didn't want to hurt anybody, but I needed to get him away from me). He whacked me really violently, so I kicked him, he kicked me, and I hit him. Then I walked deliberately slowly (I'm usually a very fast walker), so that I could fall behind him and walk back withou more trouble. Sadly, my plan was foiled when he and his girlfriend (well she was acting like his girlfriend anyway, encouraging him and joining in), who also used to go to my primary, walked so slowly that I ended up catching up to them (I can only walk so slowly). He was telling her to "stay away from the witch in case she gives you something" or something similar, and she said deliberately loudly that I look like a horse (she knows I love horses- for some reason I've been bullied a lot for that). I turned round and told her that I'd take it as a compliment, as I love horses and think they're really cute :horse:

. She definitely did not mean that as a compliment.

I'm getting my AS Creative Writing results on the 18th and might be collecting the new uniform (my school is changing uniforms and for some reason they're forcing our year to get it even though we'll only be at school for nine months, which is annoying, especially as it's quite expensive :angry:

). No-one at my school has ever got an A in AS Creative Writing, so I'd be happy with a B, but I would be a little upset if I got anything lower. I'm not really sure how it went. I know I corrected a few things which were right to begin with, because I had so much time left at the end and I panicked :frown:

.

I've still tonnes of homework to do, including loads of Art, and I'm so stressed about it. I wish teachers didn't give us so much homework. We have holidays for a reason!

I hope you are all well and sorry for rambling on, but I'm super annoyed. They deliberately did it on the last day of term so I couldn't report it. Also, we're getting an awful Geography teacher next year and I'm cross about that too. I had an argument with my sister today, so basically I'm just really annoyed at the minute. I hope you are in a better mood than me.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 64

Gribby2

18.8.16
Hi guys. I just got my AS Creative Writing results. I got got a C, which I was a tad disappointed about, but I am really confused because according to the marks, I got 91.3% overall, and I don't see how that was a C given last year's grade boundaries, which were pretty low. I know these things change, but I fail to see how they could have changed so much that last year you only needed 122/150 for an A, and this year 137/150 (what I got) was a C. I've e-mailed my teacher to see if he knows anything about this year's grade boundaries, because it seems odd to me. Either way, it isn't crucial, but I would like to know, as it will affect whether I continue the subject at A2 or not. I'm just a tad confused. :s-smilie: