jamestg's journey to Durham

Today was a bit slow.

I did a maths mock and I couldn't answer a whole trig question, I feel so ashamed my brain just blanked out and I freaked out. However, according to the mark scheme, I think I've got around 87-90UMS which is good. About to tackle the trig question apparently everyone could do BUT me.

Finished my history presentation for tomorrow, pretty good if you ask me. Just dreading writing the actual coursework piece in a few weeks/months...

Might do some stats and C4 revision, tomorrow will be more productive.

All the best too! And tbh I'm not too bothered about my B because luckily it's irrelevant to Economics, I've dropped the subject and it was one of the best grades in the class!

James, I just wanted to ask, what made you not consider applying to UCL and LSE?

@SeanFM if I (finally) get an offer from Bath, firm it, and then meet the offer do you think I'd be able to change to Maths and Economics?

I am doing AEA Maths as well.

Woah, AEA - good luck!
That's amazing it'll look so good if you get Distinction which I'm sure you will lol with ease.

Hopefully!

I'm loving A2 Maths and I want a challenge where topics and core modules are mixed together (plus it's great for worst scenario prep for A2 exams)

Because I have no life I'm going through the 'Maths for Economists' lecture series on YouTube. Enjoying it quite a lot and have covered matrix algebra. Will continue the 'course' over time and hopefully I'll be able to talk about it in a Cambridge interview (if I actually get one that is lol)

Ooh matrices, FP1 stuff. Enjoy


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I am! It's kinda cool and now I'm looking at row echelon forms of matrices, progress is being made!

I wish I did FM so much though

Yeah, you wish you did xD and then you might've wished you didn't lmao.
It's so hard at A2 :'( apparently, I hate AS anyway. You would've done good probably since you work hard, either way you'd have definitely got A* in normal Maths if u did Further Maths lol .

P.S. I haven't heard of row echelon forms of matrices lol, probably related in econ in a way.

No idea how it's related just yet! But it's basically where say your first number in the matrix is 1 and the second number is 0 (both on the first row), on your second row the number below the 1 will be 0 and the number below the 0 will be one.

The lectures are really good though, I feel as if my mind is being expanded, I r8 8/8

Just noticed your thread since I moved mine to the 2017 GYG.

The three A-Levels you are doing now I will (hopefully (still haven't done the application)) be doing for AS The other subject I'm going to do is Economics (my school makes us choose four for AS). I've been reading through your blog and it's just an inspiration, on top of the workload you will have from today jeez you're good!

I hope you don't mind me being curious and asking questions (since the subjects you are doing are mine too):

How do you cope with two of your subjects being mostly essay-based?
What exam board are you on for History? My exam board at my school does political history, so it compliments well with Politics.
Are subjects like what I've chosen good to do a course at uni like PPE for example?

That's really it lol (hi from MHoC )

Good luck for A2 - hope you get to go to your dream uni keep working hard

Woah I'm surprised your school is making you do four. Even though I did four, the vast majority of schools are said to be cutting down to 3 for the years after the guinea pigs (our year but we're coping... ish).

1) I don't really cope doing two essay subjects, but doing maths makes it so much more bearable because it requires different thinking skills. The best way to approach having a majority of essay subjects is to understand the detail first, particularly for politics you can get so involved in the debate you lose grasp about what the actual theory is. Also, reading is the way to understand a topic. When you do your coursework it is much more like university work than previously. So in my case we had about 4 weeks of lessons to get a grasp of witchcraft and from July until now we've just been researching and reading loads of books. I think I've read about 6 whole books on witchcraft by now and my bibliography is massive.

Not only is reading essential for the coursework, but also the examined units. Textbooks distill information, if you want different interpretations, commentary, examples you need to read extra. The 'Access to History' books are fantastic, because they're concise yet really detailed. I bought a whole load of political autobiographies at the start of the year and I think I only looked at Thatcher's book once for some environment stuff. So I don't recommend that kind of reading for politics, instead the news is best. Getting the distinction between history and politics is really important, politics is a contemporary subject so it is so important to be up to date with the news and not be using examples from the 18th century!!

2) I do Edexcel, studying Nationalism in 20th Cent. Europe (looking at Germany and Italy), Tudor Rebellions and Witchcraft! I'm so jealous you're focusing on political history, I really wanted to do the Parliamentary A2 unit.

3) The subjects I have chosen are fantastic for a course like PPE. I would say if you can, pick Maths, Politics, History and Economics if you continue all four subjects to A2. But if you think you'll drop a subject after Y12, pick Maths, Politics or Econ, History and maybe a science. The simple reason is they really value Maths and History, leaving you to drop either Politics or Economics - but it would look rather weird applying for a degree which is 1/3 politics, yet you have dropped politics!