uh oh year 13 : |

OP

update: Sunday 10th 2022

Officially one week down and oml I am so tired - I don't think I've ever felt this tired this soon into the school year.
Feeling a bit weird about the fact this is my last school year. I'll (hopefully) be going to uni next year of course, but I've been told its not the same...
It's just an odd feeling. I don't really remember life before school, and after this year that'll all be over. But ah well, i'm trying not to think about it too much lol.

This week I managed to write about half my personal statement draft (I've been really putting it off lmao) so i'm pretty happy about that, although definitely going to be going over the line limit (ugh - it would be fine if it was just 4000 characters, but they had to put in a line limit too? :frown:

). that's about it unfortunately - not the most exciting of weeks, I'll admit.
Although one cool thing that happen, that I'm not going to stop bragging about ever, is I found the prom dress I really wanted. For £20. yuh. Literally my greatest life achievement.

Anyways, thank you for reading, I hope everyone has a good week : )

Reply 3

OP

update: october 1st 2022

wow ok people weren't joking when they said year 13 is fast. and intense.
Im getting a bit nervous, especially about biology as last year my teacher fell pretty far behind the other class, and we ended up having to teach ourselves the biodiversity topic right before AS exams, when the other class had already finished the AS topics, 2 A2 topics and had a couple weeks of pure exam practise, and I have a feeling the same thing is going to happen this year as we have only just finished learning those topics the other class learnt in year 12. I want to try get a head and start teaching myself what the other class are doing but I just don't have time for it :,(

On a more exciting note, I've auditioned for my schools musical this year (will let you know if I get a good part hehe). Originally I wasn't going to audition because I was a bit scared it would be too much for me however I figured this was my last school show and I'd like my year 13 to be a little more than just revision :smile:

I think ill leave it there for now (there is thermodynamics hw that needs to be done :<) but thank you for reading! and happy spooky season!!!! Made sure the first song I listened too this month was Oh Klahoma by jack Stauber - it always reminds me of October 2020 and carving pumpkins and dressing up as ghosts

Reply 4

Original post by rhu

I'll start by saying I have absolutely no idea what Im doing and will probably forget about this in a week lmao
But i'm feeling pretty nervous for year 13 and figured starting a little blog might help : D
Im Currently studying Biology, Chemistry and Fine art, and managed to scape A*AA in progression exams.
(right now) hoping to study pharmacology at bath, kcl, ucl, Swansea or Portsmouth. Ive tried to start my personal statement but its a bit of a complete mess...

A bit more about me though
I love music, and grew up playing the violin although I prefer to just listen to it now (currently going through a big indie phase) - I do wanna teach myself more songs on the ukulele this year though
I love musical theatre and acting in general, and was actually taking drama as a 4th alevel but I suck at time management and 4 alevel courses was just too much for me lol
and of course my favourite thing in the world is drawing, my wall is covered in paintings and I really want to sell prints one day : D

anyways, that's all I can think of right now - have a good day! : )

Hi! I just decided on applying to Pharmacy, it has been a last-minute decision tbh as I wanted to do dentistry but I don't have the grades nor a good UCAT to apply either :/ I know pharmacology and pharmacy are different, but what are you doing to prepare for interviews? I also have no idea what to write about in my PS! I haven't read any books, magazines or articles as I don't know which ones to read or where to start... btw my predicted grades are awful they are currently BBC so I honestly don't think I should even be trying for pharmacy but oh well. How are you revising for bio and chem? I got an E in my AS exam for chem so I am astronomically bad at it haha , I need some support tbh

Reply 5

OP

Original post by $of1a

Hi! I just decided on applying to Pharmacy, it has been a last-minute decision tbh as I wanted to do dentistry but I don't have the grades nor a good UCAT to apply either :/ I know pharmacology and pharmacy are different, but what are you doing to prepare for interviews? I also have no idea what to write about in my PS! I haven't read any books, magazines or articles as I don't know which ones to read or where to start... btw my predicted grades are awful they are currently BBC so I honestly don't think I should even be trying for pharmacy but oh well. How are you revising for bio and chem? I got an E in my AS exam for chem so I am astronomically bad at it haha , I need some support tbh

Hello!
I'll start by saying well done - UCAT is so so so hard and it amazing you even tried!! I dropped any ideas I had about doing medicine as soon as I found out about it lol
Pharmacology and Pharmacy are very different, one being that pharmacology doesn't really do interviews (or they don't where im applying, except in the rare cases they feel they need to - which im hoping doesn't happen in my case) so I don't have much advice for interviews myself. Definitely go talk to people at school tho, like your form tutor or heads of years - my school has a specific teacher in charge of ucas applications, and if yours does too you could talk to them - as they'll have helped students with interviews before. You could also ask them about any teachers that completed pharmacy degrees, or you could ask your science teachers if they know any one that did pharmacy degrees, as they might be able to give you more specific help. Additionally I expect there's loads online about pharmacy interviews! : )

and hmmm personal statements are tricky, and im still writing mine, but I know that completing a MOOC really helped me. It gives you an extra thing to talk about in your personal statement, as well as introduces you to topics in pharmacy which can help when finding articles to talk about. For example I completed an intro to pharmacology MOOC, which helped me realise I'm quite interested in neuropharmacology, which I went on to read articles about etc.
Finding material to read was something I found quite tricky - my towns library doesn't have many books on pharmacology. Plus reading a whole book was quite difficult for me. So I definitely recommend sticking to articles.
I found articles on a website called the British Pharmacological Society - i'm not sure if there's a British Pharmacy Society?

BBC predicted is not the end of the world. I promise. Again your school may be different but I know I have more mocks at the end of November, and if you are able to do well in your next mocks, you could talk to your teachers about raising your predicted grades!
Hmmm ok my revision advice (bare in mind this is just what works for me)
for chem - heavily focus on practise questions. I only make chem flash cards on definitions and other information that I just need to memorise (like the alkanes topic). For calculations like back titrations, mass spectrometry etc, I may make notes if there were certain steps that I wasn't remembering, but other than that I just did loads and loads and loads of practise questions. physics and maths tutor is my favourite website for practise questions.
My school held 'intervention lessons' for people who weren't doing well which really helped me, especially with mechanisms as we went over them loads. If you haven't already I'd talk to your chem teachers about 1 to 1 sessions to help iron out topics your struggling with.
for biology - I make sure I make flashcards on quizlet after every lesson. Obviously there are days that I have no motivation and can't bring myself to make any flashcards, but I make sure that the following day I catch up. Biology is so content heavy that I think making flashcards is just essential to me - I can get away with not making flashcards on some chem topics but not with bio.
I like blurting with biology, my exam board is OCR A and at the end of each module in the textbook they have mind map linking all the topics together, which I like to use as headings when im blurting (I hope that makes sense lol). Finally I try to focus purely on exam question at least 2 weeks before the exams - bio mark schemes are awful so doing loads of exam questions means you get more used to the mark schemes. try get to the point where you can I think the key to doing well are exam questions and past papers - especially for chem. I went from an E in march to 2 marks off an A* in may : )

Finally I just wanted to say, if your set on dentistry its still an option. Someone in my year, who wants to do medicine, is in a similar situation, so she's decided to take a gap year. she's focusing on getting the required grades this school year, then doing the UCAT and applying next year.

Sorry I rambled a bit there, I hope this is helpful and (kind of) makes sense lmao

Reply 6

OP

update nov 13th 2022

I know I keep saying this but damnnn year 13 is going by so fast!
Ive finally managed to (almost) finish my personal statement - im really struggling with my final line, and I only really have 100 characters to work with but if I manage to figure that out today Im hopefully going to be applying on Wednesday :smile:

Although everyone told me that the easiest way is writing loads and cutting down - I would like to disagree, cutting down 8000 characters to 4000 was not fun :'(
Also went to see UCL yesterday and I really liked it. Not looking forward to the anxiety of opening that offer/rejection email from them because I feel like its the perfect uni for me, but that's something for future me to deal with lol

I also just got my mock timetable for the end of November and am very much panicking - especially about biology. We have 2 biology classes and for some reason they've been teaching us different chapters in module 5 (homeostasis) but because the head of biology teaches the other class all the content they've learnt (and therefore some of the content we haven't) is gunna be in the mock.
I'm really hoping that either I'm wrong, or somehow my teachers manage to teach us all the content we need to know in 7 lessons because I do not have the time to teach myself right now!
And because they're giving us a paper 1 there is also a bunch of year 12 stuff I need to revise which I don't appreciate rn :<
My besties in the chemistry department are only testing us on the year 13 content we've learnt luckily, which does take a bt of pressure off.

Other than that not much else has happened in the past month, I've just felt kinda rough and lost some of the revision/self care habits I've been trying to build up but I'm going to get back ontop of that

Thank you for reading, I hope everyones had a good weekend!

Reply 7

OP

Quick little update to say I've officially applied!! I honestly feel more anxious than relieved, but I appreciate the fact this means I can focus more on studying for my mocks
Speaking of which, luckily the biology department has changed what will be assessed and I only have to teach myself 1 small chapter. I felt so much better, and less stressed, until straight after my art teacher told us we have to make a mind map, concertina, research a new artist, develop 4 pages of new ideas surrounding the theme of 'contrast' and complete a 10 hour final piece exam BY 7TH OF DECEMBER!! (not too happy with the art department rn - although they did give me cake yesterday)

Reply 8

Original post by rhu

Hello!
I'll start by saying well done - UCAT is so so so hard and it amazing you even tried!! I dropped any ideas I had about doing medicine as soon as I found out about it lol
Pharmacology and Pharmacy are very different, one being that pharmacology doesn't really do interviews (or they don't where im applying, except in the rare cases they feel they need to - which im hoping doesn't happen in my case) so I don't have much advice for interviews myself. Definitely go talk to people at school tho, like your form tutor or heads of years - my school has a specific teacher in charge of ucas applications, and if yours does too you could talk to them - as they'll have helped students with interviews before. You could also ask them about any teachers that completed pharmacy degrees, or you could ask your science teachers if they know any one that did pharmacy degrees, as they might be able to give you more specific help. Additionally I expect there's loads online about pharmacy interviews! : )

and hmmm personal statements are tricky, and im still writing mine, but I know that completing a MOOC really helped me. It gives you an extra thing to talk about in your personal statement, as well as introduces you to topics in pharmacy which can help when finding articles to talk about. For example I completed an intro to pharmacology MOOC, which helped me realise I'm quite interested in neuropharmacology, which I went on to read articles about etc.
Finding material to read was something I found quite tricky - my towns library doesn't have many books on pharmacology. Plus reading a whole book was quite difficult for me. So I definitely recommend sticking to articles.
I found articles on a website called the British Pharmacological Society - i'm not sure if there's a British Pharmacy Society?

BBC predicted is not the end of the world. I promise. Again your school may be different but I know I have more mocks at the end of November, and if you are able to do well in your next mocks, you could talk to your teachers about raising your predicted grades!
Hmmm ok my revision advice (bare in mind this is just what works for me)
for chem - heavily focus on practise questions. I only make chem flash cards on definitions and other information that I just need to memorise (like the alkanes topic). For calculations like back titrations, mass spectrometry etc, I may make notes if there were certain steps that I wasn't remembering, but other than that I just did loads and loads and loads of practise questions. physics and maths tutor is my favourite website for practise questions.
My school held 'intervention lessons' for people who weren't doing well which really helped me, especially with mechanisms as we went over them loads. If you haven't already I'd talk to your chem teachers about 1 to 1 sessions to help iron out topics your struggling with.
for biology - I make sure I make flashcards on quizlet after every lesson. Obviously there are days that I have no motivation and can't bring myself to make any flashcards, but I make sure that the following day I catch up. Biology is so content heavy that I think making flashcards is just essential to me - I can get away with not making flashcards on some chem topics but not with bio.
I like blurting with biology, my exam board is OCR A and at the end of each module in the textbook they have mind map linking all the topics together, which I like to use as headings when im blurting (I hope that makes sense lol). Finally I try to focus purely on exam question at least 2 weeks before the exams - bio mark schemes are awful so doing loads of exam questions means you get more used to the mark schemes. try get to the point where you can I think the key to doing well are exam questions and past papers - especially for chem. I went from an E in march to 2 marks off an A* in may : )

Finally I just wanted to say, if your set on dentistry its still an option. Someone in my year, who wants to do medicine, is in a similar situation, so she's decided to take a gap year. she's focusing on getting the required grades this school year, then doing the UCAT and applying next year.

Sorry I rambled a bit there, I hope this is helpful and (kind of) makes sense lmao

HI! Apologies for the late reply I kind of forgot about the student room! It is so kind of you to help me, I just signed up for a MOOC, they're so cool, how did I not know about them??? I really just wanna forget about uni applications and focus on getting my grades up this year but my parents aren't allowing me to take a gap year cause we're brown and it's frowned upon. so effing jarring. I ended up getting BCD cause my teachers lowered my predicted... I'm writing my PS now I kind of have a feeling I'm gonna get all rejections cause I just couldn't care less about it right now, I NEED to be revising for Jan mocks and end-of-topic tests. I think I'm just gonna do one draft and call it a day, I can't even get my first draft finished!! I have no idea how to write in everything I have done like books, online courses, and work experience without it sounding generic and like any other pharm statement?? I hope everything is going alright for you, I am sure it is u seem to be on the right track :smile:

Reply 9

OP

Original post by $of1a

HI! Apologies for the late reply I kind of forgot about the student room! It is so kind of you to help me, I just signed up for a MOOC, they're so cool, how did I not know about them??? I really just wanna forget about uni applications and focus on getting my grades up this year but my parents aren't allowing me to take a gap year cause we're brown and it's frowned upon. so effing jarring. I ended up getting BCD cause my teachers lowered my predicted... I'm writing my PS now I kind of have a feeling I'm gonna get all rejections cause I just couldn't care less about it right now, I NEED to be revising for Jan mocks and end-of-topic tests. I think I'm just gonna do one draft and call it a day, I can't even get my first draft finished!! I have no idea how to write in everything I have done like books, online courses, and work experience without it sounding generic and like any other pharm statement?? I hope everything is going alright for you, I am sure it is u seem to be on the right track :smile:

Haha im glad I atleast seem like i'm on the right track (i feel very out of my depth rn lmao). I'm so sorry to hear your parents wont let you take a gap year! but i think your totally right to be focusing on your grades right now, if you get all rejections than thats basically a forced gap year for you to focus on things to make you PS stand out :biggrin:

I really get you with trying to not sound generic, but picking a topic within pharmacology and focuing a large section of my PS on that helped mine (hopefully) stand out a bit. Other than that i think my PSs uniqueness came from a f**k tonne of redrafts and adding in the fancy words I learnt on work experience and MOOCs.
Goodluck with everything tho! You sound like a very hard working person and i'm sure it will all pay off and you'll get the grades you want at the end of the year :smile:

Reply 10

username5759248

1

Original post by rhu

Quick little update to say I've officially applied!! I honestly feel more anxious than relieved, but I appreciate the fact this means I can focus more on studying for my mocks
Speaking of which, luckily the biology department has changed what will be assessed and I only have to teach myself 1 small chapter. I felt so much better, and less stressed, until straight after my art teacher told us we have to make a mind map, concertina, research a new artist, develop 4 pages of new ideas surrounding the theme of 'contrast' and complete a 10 hour final piece exam BY 7TH OF DECEMBER!! (not too happy with the art department rn - although they did give me cake yesterday)

wow! well done on applying! Where have you applied to? I applied to 3/5 choices today (Nottingham Trent, UEA, Nottingham) but am struggling on the last 2. I'm thinking of possibly Leeds and somewhere else. (pharmacology btw). Goodluck on your mocks, I hope they're going well!

Original post by MD2605

wow! well done on applying! Where have you applied to? I applied to 3/5 choices today (Nottingham Trent, UEA, Nottingham) but am struggling on the last 2. I'm thinking of possibly Leeds and somewhere else. (pharmacology btw). Goodluck on your mocks, I hope they're going well!

Hey @MD2605!

That's so exciting that you've applied for UEA! Best of luck with your A-Levels and Uni applications :h:

Isabella (MSc Brand Leadership)

Reply 12

OP

Original post by username5759248

wow! well done on applying! Where have you applied to? I applied to 3/5 choices today (Nottingham Trent, UEA, Nottingham) but am struggling on the last 2. I'm thinking of possibly Leeds and somewhere else. (pharmacology btw). Goodluck on your mocks, I hope they're going well!

awh thank you! Ive applied to Portsmouth, Southampton, bath, ucl and kings :smile:

ooo nice choices! I really really liked Nottingham, and have heard good things about Leeds and UEA but they are all just a bit too far away from home for me. good luck on finding deciding your last options tho (I know the struggle lol)
really cool you're a pharmacology applicant as well! I feel like we're quite few and far between so let me know how it goes! :biggrin:

Reply 13

penguin0902

7

Original post by rhu

I'll start by saying I have absolutely no idea what Im doing and will probably forget about this in a week lmao
But i'm feeling pretty nervous for year 13 and figured starting a little blog might help : D
Im Currently studying Biology, Chemistry and Fine art, and managed to scape A*AA in progression exams.
(right now) hoping to study pharmacology at bath, kcl, ucl, Swansea or Portsmouth. Ive tried to start my personal statement but its a bit of a complete mess...

A bit more about me though
I love music, and grew up playing the violin although I prefer to just listen to it now (currently going through a big indie phase) - I do wanna teach myself more songs on the ukulele this year though
I love musical theatre and acting in general, and was actually taking drama as a 4th alevel but I suck at time management and 4 alevel courses was just too much for me lol
and of course my favourite thing in the world is drawing, my wall is covered in paintings and I really want to sell prints one day : D

anyways, that's all I can think of right now - have a good day! : )

Hey,

I have also applied to both Bath and UCL for pharmacology and I am wondering if you have heard back from any of them.

Thank you. :smile:

Reply 14

OP

Original post by penguin0902

Hey,

I have also applied to both Bath and UCL for pharmacology and I am wondering if you have heard back from any of them.

Thank you. :smile:

Hiya - I heard back from bath on Tuesday evening actually! (I wasn't expecting to hear back from them until around January)
Still haven't heard anything from UCL, and from looking at spreadsheets I don't think its likely I'll hear back until after the UCAS deadline :biggrin:

good luck though I hope you hear back soon! where else have you applied?

Reply 15

penguin0902

7

Original post by rhu

Hiya - I heard back from bath on Tuesday evening actually! (I wasn't expecting to hear back from them until around January)
Still haven't heard anything from UCL, and from looking at spreadsheets I don't think its likely I'll hear back until after the UCAS deadline :biggrin:

good luck though I hope you hear back soon! where else have you applied?

I have applied to Queen mary, Ucl, bath, Nottingham and university of Hertfordshire
I applied to study pharmacology at all of them except for university of Nottingham as I applied for pharmaceutical sciences.
I heard back from all of them except for UCL

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 16

Original post by penguin0902

I have applied to Queen mary, Ucl, bath, Nottingham and university of Hertfordshire
I applied to study pharmacology at all of them except for university of Nottingham as I applied for pharmaceutical sciences.
I heard back from all of them except for UCL

omg congrats on hearing back from them all! do you mind me asking what your predicted grades were?

Reply 17

Original post by rhu

Haha im glad I atleast seem like i'm on the right track (i feel very out of my depth rn lmao). I'm so sorry to hear your parents wont let you take a gap year! but i think your totally right to be focusing on your grades right now, if you get all rejections than thats basically a forced gap year for you to focus on things to make you PS stand out :biggrin:

I really get you with trying to not sound generic, but picking a topic within pharmacology and focuing a large section of my PS on that helped mine (hopefully) stand out a bit. Other than that i think my PSs uniqueness came from a f**k tonne of redrafts and adding in the fancy words I learnt on work experience and MOOCs.
Goodluck with everything tho! You sound like a very hard working person and i'm sure it will all pay off and you'll get the grades you want at the end of the year

hey tysm! I ended up drafting a ps but I didn't have enough space to write about moocs or books so i hope its ok still! Do you know where we can find the spreadsheets that people r talking about I cant seem to find one for pharmacy !

Reply 18

EmilyClarke24

11

Original post by username5759248

wow! well done on applying! Where have you applied to? I applied to 3/5 choices today (Nottingham Trent, UEA, Nottingham) but am struggling on the last 2. I'm thinking of possibly Leeds and somewhere else. (pharmacology btw). Goodluck on your mocks, I hope they're going well!

Hey,

I am a current 4th year at the uni of Nottingham.

If you have any questions about the uni, accommodation, city, etc then just let me know and I'll get back to you ASAP,
Emily :smile:

Reply 19

OP