Hello everyone!
Welcome to the weekly blog of
The Epic and Outlandish Journey to Attain A*A*B My name is Ghaz and I welcome you all to today's blog.
Well, where can I start from? Just a couple of months ago, I had just come back, fresh from the trip from Pakistan, to come and collect my A Level grades, the final grades, after sitting my A2 (and AS resit) exams, last Summer. Little did I know, that it was not going to pan out to how I wanted it to be. I received my A Level grade result slip, and I had fallen into a dramatic yet heartbreaking trance. My place to Uni was declined, my Insurance was willing to take me on but turned them down in the end and now, starting off from a new slate. It was horrifying how, my A2 papers (especially for Biology and Psychology written papers) had gone, way below standards, over this summer.
Now, from September till now, February of 2016, plans have been made to avert this crisis and land myself a dream place of studying Biotechnology at one of the best Universities in the country and in the world, namely Manchester and Nottingham. It is in place and is working so far.
As of now, here is my current progress in all three of my subjects to date, and what further plans are in place, to push my progress further and stretch myself further, to keep myself on track and on side for top honours, come Summer 2016. These are in order (Biology, Chemistry and Psychology).
Biology -> as far as I am now, I am currently half way through Unit 4 of the AQA specification, completing Populations and Ecosystems (almost done), Photosynthesis (completed), Respiration (completed), ATP (completed). I have also been doing some A Level specific questions to test my question interpretation and improve my way of thinking. After doing Populations and Ecosystems, next weeks objectives before Friday's blog post, I will have covered Ecological Succession, Energy Transfers and Ecological Pyramids, and starting Nutrient Cycles. The study method for this subject, is writing concise notes, using the specification for further help and as a guidance and doing question practice with my tutor, to keep myself on pace. As for Unit 5, will start to do some light work on Stimulus, Co-ordination and Skeletal Muscles before next week's blog.
Chemistry -> this one, is more systematic. I am doing it in terms of, Organic and Inorganic and Physical Chemistry of Units 1,2,4,5. I have completed the entire Unit of Unit 1, as it is pure Organic Chemistry at the beginning but now, I will be starting and will complete the entire Unit of Unit 2 Organic and Inorganic and Physical Chemistry before next week's blog post. As for the Unit 4 and 5, I am doing some side reading and some papers as it is mostly fresh from last year but, will go over the content throughly after Chem 2 is brushed up and completed. The study method for this subject, is past papers, as Chemistry is about pure practice of the theory and concepts and using the spec and writing notes on what the Spec needs and understand and practice theory questions too.
Psychology -> this one is more memory based. I have completed the entire content of Unit 3 and writing up the essays for the Unit 3. For the Unit 4, there are 20 essays to learn and understand. I have written, out of 3 booklets and the leaflets for the controversies of this Unit, 1 booklet, with the second booklet in progress for completion before next week's blog post, with 1 of 5 controversies to write up before the blog post. The method for this subject, is purely just typing the essays on the laptop using Microsoft Word and understanding the essay plans, of what I am expected to learn for this essay, if it is to come for the exam in the Summer.
In next week's blog, I will go through one study method with you all, and also explain a little more on Psychology, as it is quite a literature-yet-analytical based subject, which requires full dedication and willpower to do and ace perfectly.
As for now, it has been quite a detailed blog post, but next week's blog post will surely be positive, more fun to be included, and a little bit of banter too.
That is it for now, signing off for now and hopefully, next week, will be more of a feedback review and more of a progress report of what is yet, to come of me, my goals and to meet my ambitions.
With love and happiness,
Ghaz