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My journey to Cambridge-worthy AS grades!

I'm currently doing AS Levels in Chinese, English Language, Philsophy and Ethics and Maths, and I want to apply for Japanese at Cambridge in October. To do this, I'm aiming for AAAA with a UMS average of at least 93 over my top 3 subjects. Quite the target :o:

My mock week is just after half term (beginning the 22nd of February) and I want to get as close as I can to those grades.

Let the challenge begin! :bl:

Reply 1

Black Rose

Original post by Steliata

My mock week is just after half term (beginning the 22nd of February) and I want to get as close as I can to those grades.

Let the challenge begin! :bl:

I remember you from the year 10 thread a couple years ago, good luck with your blog and your goals! Good luck on the mock exams too. :smile:

Reply 2

Steliata

This weekend hasn't really been the most productive, but I still did a fair bit.

Saturday - I did a C1 practice paper to identify what I need to work on before the mock. Sequences was by far the worst part, as I couldn't remember anything, so I did some topic questions on physicsandmathstutor. The first few I did with the help of the book, the rest I did by myself. I can now do sequences questions for C1, although it will need some maintenance revision from now until the mock. C2 sequences presumably need some work too, so that's a challenge for this week. :holmes:

I also revised some Mandarin vocab using a Memrise set I found which has all the vocab from my textbook. Very helpful, I might try and find a way to get the list from it so I can put it into my Anki flashcards as I prefer that interface to Memrise's. But I digress. For now, Memrise is my best friend! :ahee:

Aside from that, I attempted some Linguistics Olympiad questions as they are apparently what the Cambridge admissions test may resemble. They were extremely difficult but interesting all the same, as they're relevant to both my degree subject (Japanese) and my English Language A Level. I did an OLAT (Oxford Oriental Language Aptitude Test) as well and found it pretty easy compared to the questions I'd been attempting, which is good.

Sunday - I didn't have as much time today because I had rowing and I watched War and Peace with my family. (btw, it's really sad!) When I wasn't doing that, I finished an English Language essay due for Wednesday, as I doubt I'll have much time between now and then to finish it due to extra curricular stuff. You'll have to wait and see what kind of stuff that is though!

I then continued to work on an essay I'm doing for the Corpus Christi essay competition. The question is 'Discuss modernity in any text of your choosing' and I have chosen 'I am a Cat' by Natsume Soseki. I'm cutting it a bit fine because it's due in by Friday, but I'm only 400 words away from finishing it so I'm confident I can do it if I'm diligent with it. It's a tough one, though, because I don't actually study English Lit so I don't really know how to write a literary essay, and I'm also attempting to relate it to Japanese Studies by choosing a Japanese novel and talking about how it reflects Meiji Japan, which I also don't (yet) know much about. It's slow work, but I enjoy it because I learn so much from it. Hopefully it'll pay off, but even if I don't win or anything it'll still be valuable to put on my personal statement. :smile:

That's all I've done this weekend, which looking back is more than I thought but I felt unproductive because I spent a long time doing stuff that shouldn't take that long. At least I finished all my homework! :awesome:

Reply 3

Steliata

Today has been a quiet day because I was making dumplings with my Chinese class after school, but I've been preparing for various things and finishing off little bits of homework here and there. I've done a significant chunk of the Corpus essay, which is good - it's developing itself nicely into a conclusion and it looks like it'll be done soon.

I did attend an online workshop this evening about revision strategies though, which was very useful. Essentially I realised that in my hardest subject (Philosophy and Ethics) I'm spending too much time on content and putting off practice until I know the content, meaning I don't practice enough. They suggested doing both at once in a 'power hour' format, where you spend some going over content, then doing an exam question, then marking it. I think that'd be really helpful so I've adjusted my revision schedule for half term accordingly.

In other news, I have discovered the place in Cambridge that I always think of when I try and remember what it was like that one time I visited it when I was younger - it's the willow tree by King's College Bridge. I've been trying to work out where that memory is from for ages! :ahee: