79 days left...
first of all, did i just make a new account just to start venting on the internet on a student forum? yes i did.
now i'll like for you guys to imagine you're me- a (recently turned!) 16 year old who goes to a grammar school with high expectations looming over you from parents to teacher, as well as being the first child- what a dream right? haha, no. going to a grammar school and being the worst in most of your classes is an interesting experience to say the least, saying you got a 6/7 in the classroom will make you look dumb, but saying you aren't happy with a 6/7 out of school makes you look 'ungrateful'. but i'm not here to trauma dump but instead ask for help!
a few days ago (and a day before my birthday-what luck), we were lead in a line and marched to the school hall (figuratively), where we prepared and embarked on the painful journey that was yet to come (literally). we got an envelope, in which contained our grades as well as our predictions. having, at that point, seen most of my scores from test papers, i was feeling confident about myself- maybe i had reached all my predictions! maybe i had surpassed them! maybe i got all 7/8/9s.... that was far from the true reality. there lying on the neon orange sheet of paper lay a row of one 8, one 7, five 6s, two 5s, one 4, and i hate to say this but one 3. immediately tears developed in my eyes but i held them in and looked up warily and got my bag and got in the car. my mum asked me how was it and i immediately opened my mouth but nothing came out, except the held in tears. now why would i cry over these results if i'm used to getting all 6's. well the funny thing is i'm not. in my september assessments i had gotten one 9, four 7s,two 6s, two 5s and one 4 (no further maths test this time). after getting the september results i was optimistic and told myself that i could aim high and next to my report i jotted down the next grades i had wanted to get in my next report- i have not gotten one of them. now i know what you're thinking, 'boo-hoo, so what you didn't put the work in did you', but i did! at least thats what i was telling myself as i was weeping whilst cutting out my textiles images (cannot be behind on coursework- learnt that the hard way) except now i'm not in that state of mind, and quite frankly i want to bloody improve myself and get ready for my gcse's and quite frankly i know there's other people like me who cannot follow the tips of an all 9s student on youtube- and that's okay! i want to create this thread to help people like me and you, as well as share resources and help us smash this!! gcse's better watch out...
well since i made this thread, i'll like to start with myself and share my grades from year 10 end of year exams (oh dear) my september mocks and january mocks as well as predictions from both of those time periods- i know not all schools have this so just say you mock results if you can! (for context of predictions: A- definitely and could work to the next grade, B- fairly sure, C-you could, but if you don't put the work in then maybe you'l get lower) this is a non-judge zone so honestly blurt away with concerns, or achievements or even when it's your dog's birthday! so here i go...
year 10: quite frankly a crazy year in my opinion, yet one which i cannot remember a singe thing from right now. i think this applied to me back then as well considering my results...
english language: (I WILL LIKE TO DEFEND LITTLE ME DESPITE THE FACT THAT I NEVER REVISED OR DID WORK FOR ENGLISH, BUT THE DEPARTMENT NEVER TOLD US WHAT PAPER/QUESTIONS COULD COME UP SO HONESTLY WHAT DID THEY EXPECT) in the end it was p1 q5 and i got a 5 - predicted a 6A
english literature: (I WILL LIKE TO DEFEND LITTLE ME DESPITE THE FACT THAT I NEVER REVISED OR DID WORK FOR ENGLISH, BUT THE DEPARTMENT NEVER TOLD US WHAT PAPER/QUESTIONS COULD COME UP SO HONESTLY WHAT DID THEY EXPECT) it was romeo and juliet, and might i like to add the first time we've done a timed essay!, oh how i have grown to despise these lovers (at that time at least) a 4. it was what it was i guess - predicted a 6A
maths: i always found maths weird- i was good at it when i was fully thinking and unfortunately i end up not fully thinking during these exams... got a 6 in the end - predicted a 7A
biology: now i love biology, i find it the easiest science (in terms of content) got a 5
- predicted a 6C
chemistry: for the record my teacher was an absolute gem but you know the thing about how gems are always hidden? well that's what he was to my class because i don't think there was one lesson where we properly did work (perks of being in bottom set i guess) got a 5 - predicted a 6C
physics: is it odd that i don't entirely hate it? i hate the content sure but the equations are okay, and that was the only thing saving me for sure (not helpful now knowing that we have the full formula sheet...) i got a 5- predicted a 6C
art textiles: MY FAVOURITE SUBJECT (well back then anyways) in year 9/10 i had always been the creative one in my small class, as well as being quite 'talented' to quote my old teacher, as well as having even won a national textiles competition (please don't try to stalk me thanks x) got a 9- predicted a 9A (hell yeah)
business: okay i mean i like business and my year 10 teacher was a darling- she really helped me improve (despite the fact that i was on the verge of sleep in her lessons) got a 6 (very close to a 7 tho!)- predicted a 7B
computer science: now i feel like 3 types of people take computer science, one which emotionally blackmailed into doing so by their wonderful parents, one which actually are passionate about it and one which have no clue what they signed up to. guess which one i was
okay but in all fairness i must have been proud because in the end i got a 8 and was predicted an 8B!
german: deutsch. how do i even begin to talk about german. german. german. german. the 6 letter word i despise more that the language itself (no offense to germans- ich liebe dich!) in lockdown i remember clicking hand in on all the assignments and quits frankly i know why i'm so bad at german but surprisingly i got a 4 (wow) but predicted a 6C? i love my teacher x
so that's my year 10 grades huh. i went on a journey, i have no clue about you guys. considering i had gone on holiday before these exams, and quite frankly just watched a cognito video for revision and called it a day, i was quite honestly happy with that! however i could not help but lament seeing my english grades- i mean sure i hadn't revised but come on i can't be getting a 4 in a language i speak in - that's reserved for german only! in the summer i got interested into reading (again) and quite honestly i want to go back to that time where i could curl up in a heap and read sigh.
september mocks:
okay so you're me on the first day of the school: what do you do- A- say hi to your friends, B- see how ridiculous the 'popular' girls tan is, or C- prepare to embark on your last year of school. the answer is- none of them!
instead i went into the exam hall and sat exams how lovely!
english language: (they did learn their lesson and tell us the paper this time x) A 7. HOW DID I GET A 7 IN A PAPER 2 THAT I HADN'T EVEN DONE BEFORE. this is proof that reading works wonders for your mind! (and also watching mr salles/mr everything english) predicted a.. wait for it.. 8C. AN 8C HOLY SH-
english lit: (must have been christmas considering they told us what this was on as well) A 7 AS WELL. WHAT WAS I ON DURING THESE EXAMS. okay in all fairness tho i did enjoy Lord of the Flies book, so this exam was a bliss for me. predicted a 8C as well! see my excitement when i saw how much i improved omg!
maths: okay fine. those 2 papers were quite frankly horrible. i got a 5 and predicted a 7C (understandable)
biology: a 7! i was so happy seeing that predicted 7B
chemistry: honestly could have gone worse (surprisingly got close to a 7 tho) a 6 and predicted a 6B
physics: was a bit disappointing as i did revise a lot for physics i got a 6 and predicted a 6B
textiles: didn't sit an exam so my result stayed the same i got a 9 and predicted a 9A
business: got a 7 thank god! predicted a 7B
computer science: this is where it went downhill. in all fairness i find that i'm stronger at programming and this was a theory paper i got a 5 and predicted a 7C
german: okay in the summer i actually did do some german, going over how to say hi! or how to say what i ate (ich esse ein kekse, lecker!) i got a 4 but was predicted a 5C - was a bit sad for predicted but hey ho.
year 11 has honestly been one of maybe the worse years of my life but also the best. now i know that most people say 'oh my teachers are bad'- but when i tell you my biology teacher does not give a damn about us (proof from today's lesson in fact- was on her phone instead of teaching us about ecology- a brand new topic which she zoomed us through the last topic just to get us along to what the other classes are on), so what made it worse was the fact that i had 2 new business teachers (even tho our school promised not to give us 2- we've had traumatic experiences in year 9), a new textiles teacher and a new chemistry teacher (probably for the best tho).
off track but i would like to tell you something about textiles! now going to a grammar school which loves to boast about how many 7-9s were achieved (i think 60% of the year got a 9, not too sure tho), it's quite obvious straight away that no one gives a care about the arts faculty, let alone textiles. this was so obvious due to sketchbooks. having a new teacher, she obviously wanted us to do one 'normal' project with her and so obvious we need sketchbooks to do so right? so our school decided to order these 'heavily discounted sketchbooks' in the ripe time of september. now even being a toddler at this point, we know how awful delivery times are, and having ordered these books from the pig branded ones, which are handmade, of course they would have come after a while! and so they came in the ripe time of november! a month before our mock! because we could obviously finish a whole project by then, as well as juggle 9/10 other subjects! whilst we were doing work, no doubt, i had never started mounting my work, or creating enough pieces, as i had no sketchbook! thats like asking a painter to paint a picture without the canvas? and so i decided to put more focus into other subjects instead and do textiles when my sketchbook came. now if you're in year 10 and are doing any subject with coursework, i say this from the bottom of my heart, FINISH YOUR COURSEWORK RIGHRT NOW. I'M BEING SERIOUS, STOP READING AND WORK BECAUSE COURSEWORK IS HELL. i always eye-rolled when the pesky art student would say coursework was hell, so i guess it was karma ha. another thing about art/ textiles is that its a subjective subject- all teachers have different expectations, and no two people have the same criteria of work to include in the sketchbook, as well as personal preferences. now i will say that i do not mind this teacher, shes honestly a gem- but oh god she must hate me. whenever i showed her my work she would tell me 'it's good!' but never told me what specifically she was looking for in a sketchbook, or any amendments i should make (despite the fact that she was basically doing some of the other girls projects for them essentially). i do think shes sweet, but i honestly miss my old textiles teacher too much, as i do think that she understood my work more and just in general. when it comes to the new business teachers, i think its safe to say that i've not learnt anything this year- which is especially concerning considering we're doing finance and marketing which is worth 50% of our gcse! but who's counting? instead we're making powerpoint quizzes about our own product which don't get me wrong is fun, but not so fun knowing that we could be finishing and actually learning content quicker but whatever. chemistry is a meh, a good thing about this teacher? no one talks during lesson anymore! a bad thing about this teacher? i have no clue what we're doing. in all fairness i do not get chemistry at all, and organic chem isn't my best friend considering i don't really know anything in chemistry at all.
so the horrible results you've been waiting for? here it goes:
english lang: first full mock! paper 2 i got a 6. how did i downgrade from my september mocks even tho it was the same paper type? (looking at the grade boundries tho i was a mark off a 7 so not too bad i suppose, but still disappointing) am predicted a 7A now
english lit: now before someone calls me ungrateful, please do note this was my highest grade- i'll do whatever i want. this was a full paper 1, with romeo and juliet and pride and prejudice- in which i got a 8! now i know- i literally doubled my grade in half a year i should be happy- and yes i am! i cannot believe that i got 80% like what oh my god. the only thing is tho i can't help but wishing i had done more (doesn't everyone tho) since my feedback was to do with the lack of quotes (the points which i made had referred to them but not used them and i said 'disobedient wrench' instead of 'wretch' sigh) but predicted an 8C now!
WARNING: GOES DOWN HILL FROM HERE now being in a grammar school, it's no surprise that people want to do the best they can- but there can be a bit too much. our biology paper was a split of the actual gcse paper in 2023 so how people got access to the markscheme i have no clue, but because of that a lot of our papers grade boundries became inflated, so whilst i had got a certain grade for a certain subject i am being a bit lenient with myself as in nearly all cases i was a few marks off..
biology: i got a 6. of course its not a bad grade but honestly disappointed but was close to the next grade boundary, hence why being predicted a 7C
chemistry: i got a 5. now i'm no good at chemistry and honestly this was the most justifiable for me, so i'm definitely not in shock from that and does tell me that i need to put way more attention into chemistry predicted a 6C
physics: i got a 6. i know someone who got 6 marks above me and got a 7 but i don't know the grade boundries, but i'm guessing i was close to it? not sure. predicted a 6A
gulp.
art textiles: a 4. yes you saw that right. f-o-u-r, four. i think this was the breaking point for me see the page, 5s i'm used to but a 4? how did my grade divide into 2? sure i haven't been putting too much focus into textiles but a goddamn 4. honestly i'm quite ashamed of myself. i mean i can defend myself, that only included the component we were working on from this year (or in my case november) predicted a 6A (i mean its a 9 upside down i guess?)
business: in all fairness, some of the questions on this paper, we had done in an old mock so i should have gotten better haha i got a 6 and predicted a 7C
computer science: so for computer science we did 2 papers, and i thought i would have done better in programming than theory but there wasn't much of a difference- wish i had improved a bit more overall i got a 7 and predicted a 7C
german: i got a 5 and was 2 marks off a 6 (0.83% omg) so predicted a 6C quite happy now predicted a 6C
further maths: in all fairness i'm not even good at maths, so why did i sacrifice my after schools with doing harder maths? when opening that paper, i'm sure i witnessed a pathway to hell- that paper was horrible. i got a 3. sigh first 3 i've gotten (okay i cannot be too harsh on myself i was 3% off a 4) predicted a 4C - not too sure if i should continue tho i already have other subjects which are more of a priority to me especially textiles so there it is i guess.
before you start thinking 'oh your grades haven't changed that much, it's nothing to be sad about', that's the issue. i wanted to have improved myself to achieve the max of the max and quite frankly i know i can do better and am just disappointed in myself for having not put 1000% into revision.
and that's the last time i'm saying that. for non-stop days, i've been chanting that in my head like a daily mantra and honestly it's eating more hours into my life than my procrastination- and isn't something that i need to be lamenting over for any longer. so what am i going to do? am i going to be ignoring these grades? no, it's stuck above my computer so whenever i go out of the room i can see those grades and wonder- 'do i really want this in my actual exams?'. no. will i be talking about these grades to my friends/family/teachers? well that's quite simply my friends don't share their results with me and honestly my parent's have been the most loving and nicest to me in a while (i think they've seen how upset i had become- they finally recongnised that i am serious about doing good). as for my teachers? i have no option i have a sixth from meeting coming up and parents evening- what luck. instead of crying and thinking about these results way more often then i should be doing, i'm going to be working my butt off and in a few years time when i reflect on these times i won't be upset at younger me for not putting enough effort, but rather instead applauding that girl who finally woke up and worked her butt off. of course i can't be saying this all without a target and so here i am, about to welcome your eyes to perhaps what you may consider unrealistic grades that i want to work towards for each subject but quite frankly the last thing i need to be thinking of is low grades so here we go:
english language - 9/8
english literature - 9
maths (edexcel) - 9
biology - 9
chemistry - 9/8/7
physics - 9/8
art textiles - I AM GETTING MY 9 BACK.
business - 9
computer science - 9
german - 7/6
further maths(?) - not sure if i will be doing but if so - 8/7
so here we have my long list of results i want- fine they all may consist of 7/8/9 which i haven't really been getting but that doesn't stop me and that doesn't stop you either! if you've been reading this out of enjoyment (a bit sadistic i must admit laughing over me getting a 3), or because of procrastination- i want you guys to introduce yourself, along with the grades you want. not the grades that the schools wants you to have., not what your parents want you to have. but you. you are going to be sitting these tests- not your mum(unfortunately), you're going to be the one whose going to use these for A-Level/BTEC/T-Levels applications, you're the ones who will be getting the benefits and the drawbacks. don't limit yourself- you can always do it! if i could go from a 19/34 to 26/34 then you could honestly do so much more than you could even think of! sorry if this sounded really rant-y at certain points but i need to get this off my mind and focus on more important things like my grades, my family and friends.
please feel free to offer advice or post your own story on here! did i cry writing this? yes. will i be doing this ever again? of course not, who do you think i am? 
- lots of love x
now i'll like for you guys to imagine you're me- a (recently turned!) 16 year old who goes to a grammar school with high expectations looming over you from parents to teacher, as well as being the first child- what a dream right? haha, no. going to a grammar school and being the worst in most of your classes is an interesting experience to say the least, saying you got a 6/7 in the classroom will make you look dumb, but saying you aren't happy with a 6/7 out of school makes you look 'ungrateful'. but i'm not here to trauma dump but instead ask for help!
a few days ago (and a day before my birthday-what luck), we were lead in a line and marched to the school hall (figuratively), where we prepared and embarked on the painful journey that was yet to come (literally). we got an envelope, in which contained our grades as well as our predictions. having, at that point, seen most of my scores from test papers, i was feeling confident about myself- maybe i had reached all my predictions! maybe i had surpassed them! maybe i got all 7/8/9s.... that was far from the true reality. there lying on the neon orange sheet of paper lay a row of one 8, one 7, five 6s, two 5s, one 4, and i hate to say this but one 3. immediately tears developed in my eyes but i held them in and looked up warily and got my bag and got in the car. my mum asked me how was it and i immediately opened my mouth but nothing came out, except the held in tears. now why would i cry over these results if i'm used to getting all 6's. well the funny thing is i'm not. in my september assessments i had gotten one 9, four 7s,two 6s, two 5s and one 4 (no further maths test this time). after getting the september results i was optimistic and told myself that i could aim high and next to my report i jotted down the next grades i had wanted to get in my next report- i have not gotten one of them. now i know what you're thinking, 'boo-hoo, so what you didn't put the work in did you', but i did! at least thats what i was telling myself as i was weeping whilst cutting out my textiles images (cannot be behind on coursework- learnt that the hard way) except now i'm not in that state of mind, and quite frankly i want to bloody improve myself and get ready for my gcse's and quite frankly i know there's other people like me who cannot follow the tips of an all 9s student on youtube- and that's okay! i want to create this thread to help people like me and you, as well as share resources and help us smash this!! gcse's better watch out...
well since i made this thread, i'll like to start with myself and share my grades from year 10 end of year exams (oh dear) my september mocks and january mocks as well as predictions from both of those time periods- i know not all schools have this so just say you mock results if you can! (for context of predictions: A- definitely and could work to the next grade, B- fairly sure, C-you could, but if you don't put the work in then maybe you'l get lower) this is a non-judge zone so honestly blurt away with concerns, or achievements or even when it's your dog's birthday! so here i go...
year 10: quite frankly a crazy year in my opinion, yet one which i cannot remember a singe thing from right now. i think this applied to me back then as well considering my results...
english language: (I WILL LIKE TO DEFEND LITTLE ME DESPITE THE FACT THAT I NEVER REVISED OR DID WORK FOR ENGLISH, BUT THE DEPARTMENT NEVER TOLD US WHAT PAPER/QUESTIONS COULD COME UP SO HONESTLY WHAT DID THEY EXPECT) in the end it was p1 q5 and i got a 5 - predicted a 6A
english literature: (I WILL LIKE TO DEFEND LITTLE ME DESPITE THE FACT THAT I NEVER REVISED OR DID WORK FOR ENGLISH, BUT THE DEPARTMENT NEVER TOLD US WHAT PAPER/QUESTIONS COULD COME UP SO HONESTLY WHAT DID THEY EXPECT) it was romeo and juliet, and might i like to add the first time we've done a timed essay!, oh how i have grown to despise these lovers (at that time at least) a 4. it was what it was i guess - predicted a 6A
maths: i always found maths weird- i was good at it when i was fully thinking and unfortunately i end up not fully thinking during these exams... got a 6 in the end - predicted a 7A
biology: now i love biology, i find it the easiest science (in terms of content) got a 5
- predicted a 6C chemistry: for the record my teacher was an absolute gem but you know the thing about how gems are always hidden? well that's what he was to my class because i don't think there was one lesson where we properly did work (perks of being in bottom set i guess) got a 5 - predicted a 6C
physics: is it odd that i don't entirely hate it? i hate the content sure but the equations are okay, and that was the only thing saving me for sure (not helpful now knowing that we have the full formula sheet...) i got a 5- predicted a 6C
art textiles: MY FAVOURITE SUBJECT (well back then anyways) in year 9/10 i had always been the creative one in my small class, as well as being quite 'talented' to quote my old teacher, as well as having even won a national textiles competition (please don't try to stalk me thanks x) got a 9- predicted a 9A (hell yeah)
business: okay i mean i like business and my year 10 teacher was a darling- she really helped me improve (despite the fact that i was on the verge of sleep in her lessons) got a 6 (very close to a 7 tho!)- predicted a 7B
computer science: now i feel like 3 types of people take computer science, one which emotionally blackmailed into doing so by their wonderful parents, one which actually are passionate about it and one which have no clue what they signed up to. guess which one i was
okay but in all fairness i must have been proud because in the end i got a 8 and was predicted an 8B! german: deutsch. how do i even begin to talk about german. german. german. german. the 6 letter word i despise more that the language itself (no offense to germans- ich liebe dich!) in lockdown i remember clicking hand in on all the assignments and quits frankly i know why i'm so bad at german but surprisingly i got a 4 (wow) but predicted a 6C? i love my teacher x
so that's my year 10 grades huh. i went on a journey, i have no clue about you guys. considering i had gone on holiday before these exams, and quite frankly just watched a cognito video for revision and called it a day, i was quite honestly happy with that! however i could not help but lament seeing my english grades- i mean sure i hadn't revised but come on i can't be getting a 4 in a language i speak in - that's reserved for german only! in the summer i got interested into reading (again) and quite honestly i want to go back to that time where i could curl up in a heap and read sigh.
september mocks:
okay so you're me on the first day of the school: what do you do- A- say hi to your friends, B- see how ridiculous the 'popular' girls tan is, or C- prepare to embark on your last year of school. the answer is- none of them!
instead i went into the exam hall and sat exams how lovely!
english language: (they did learn their lesson and tell us the paper this time x) A 7. HOW DID I GET A 7 IN A PAPER 2 THAT I HADN'T EVEN DONE BEFORE. this is proof that reading works wonders for your mind! (and also watching mr salles/mr everything english) predicted a.. wait for it.. 8C. AN 8C HOLY SH-
english lit: (must have been christmas considering they told us what this was on as well) A 7 AS WELL. WHAT WAS I ON DURING THESE EXAMS. okay in all fairness tho i did enjoy Lord of the Flies book, so this exam was a bliss for me. predicted a 8C as well! see my excitement when i saw how much i improved omg!
maths: okay fine. those 2 papers were quite frankly horrible. i got a 5 and predicted a 7C (understandable)
biology: a 7! i was so happy seeing that predicted 7B
chemistry: honestly could have gone worse (surprisingly got close to a 7 tho) a 6 and predicted a 6B
physics: was a bit disappointing as i did revise a lot for physics
i got a 6 and predicted a 6B textiles: didn't sit an exam so my result stayed the same
i got a 9 and predicted a 9A business: got a 7 thank god! predicted a 7B
computer science: this is where it went downhill. in all fairness i find that i'm stronger at programming and this was a theory paper i got a 5 and predicted a 7C
german: okay in the summer i actually did do some german, going over how to say hi! or how to say what i ate (ich esse ein kekse, lecker!) i got a 4 but was predicted a 5C - was a bit sad for predicted but hey ho.
year 11 has honestly been one of maybe the worse years of my life but also the best. now i know that most people say 'oh my teachers are bad'- but when i tell you my biology teacher does not give a damn about us (proof from today's lesson in fact- was on her phone instead of teaching us about ecology- a brand new topic which she zoomed us through the last topic just to get us along to what the other classes are on), so what made it worse was the fact that i had 2 new business teachers (even tho our school promised not to give us 2- we've had traumatic experiences in year 9), a new textiles teacher and a new chemistry teacher (probably for the best tho).
off track but i would like to tell you something about textiles! now going to a grammar school which loves to boast about how many 7-9s were achieved (i think 60% of the year got a 9, not too sure tho), it's quite obvious straight away that no one gives a care about the arts faculty, let alone textiles. this was so obvious due to sketchbooks. having a new teacher, she obviously wanted us to do one 'normal' project with her and so obvious we need sketchbooks to do so right? so our school decided to order these 'heavily discounted sketchbooks' in the ripe time of september. now even being a toddler at this point, we know how awful delivery times are, and having ordered these books from the pig branded ones, which are handmade, of course they would have come after a while! and so they came in the ripe time of november! a month before our mock! because we could obviously finish a whole project by then, as well as juggle 9/10 other subjects! whilst we were doing work, no doubt, i had never started mounting my work, or creating enough pieces, as i had no sketchbook! thats like asking a painter to paint a picture without the canvas? and so i decided to put more focus into other subjects instead and do textiles when my sketchbook came. now if you're in year 10 and are doing any subject with coursework, i say this from the bottom of my heart, FINISH YOUR COURSEWORK RIGHRT NOW. I'M BEING SERIOUS, STOP READING AND WORK BECAUSE COURSEWORK IS HELL. i always eye-rolled when the pesky art student would say coursework was hell, so i guess it was karma ha. another thing about art/ textiles is that its a subjective subject- all teachers have different expectations, and no two people have the same criteria of work to include in the sketchbook, as well as personal preferences. now i will say that i do not mind this teacher, shes honestly a gem- but oh god she must hate me. whenever i showed her my work she would tell me 'it's good!' but never told me what specifically she was looking for in a sketchbook, or any amendments i should make (despite the fact that she was basically doing some of the other girls projects for them essentially). i do think shes sweet, but i honestly miss my old textiles teacher too much, as i do think that she understood my work more and just in general. when it comes to the new business teachers, i think its safe to say that i've not learnt anything this year- which is especially concerning considering we're doing finance and marketing which is worth 50% of our gcse! but who's counting? instead we're making powerpoint quizzes about our own product which don't get me wrong is fun, but not so fun knowing that we could be finishing and actually learning content quicker but whatever. chemistry is a meh, a good thing about this teacher? no one talks during lesson anymore! a bad thing about this teacher? i have no clue what we're doing. in all fairness i do not get chemistry at all, and organic chem isn't my best friend considering i don't really know anything in chemistry at all.
so the horrible results you've been waiting for? here it goes:
english lang: first full mock! paper 2 i got a 6. how did i downgrade from my september mocks even tho it was the same paper type? (looking at the grade boundries tho i was a mark off a 7 so not too bad i suppose, but still disappointing) am predicted a 7A now
english lit: now before someone calls me ungrateful, please do note this was my highest grade- i'll do whatever i want. this was a full paper 1, with romeo and juliet and pride and prejudice- in which i got a 8! now i know- i literally doubled my grade in half a year i should be happy- and yes i am! i cannot believe that i got 80% like what oh my god. the only thing is tho i can't help but wishing i had done more (doesn't everyone tho) since my feedback was to do with the lack of quotes (the points which i made had referred to them but not used them and i said 'disobedient wrench' instead of 'wretch' sigh) but predicted an 8C now!
WARNING: GOES DOWN HILL FROM HERE now being in a grammar school, it's no surprise that people want to do the best they can- but there can be a bit too much. our biology paper was a split of the actual gcse paper in 2023 so how people got access to the markscheme i have no clue, but because of that a lot of our papers grade boundries became inflated, so whilst i had got a certain grade for a certain subject i am being a bit lenient with myself as in nearly all cases i was a few marks off..
biology: i got a 6. of course its not a bad grade but honestly disappointed but was close to the next grade boundary, hence why being predicted a 7C
chemistry: i got a 5. now i'm no good at chemistry and honestly this was the most justifiable for me, so i'm definitely not in shock from that and does tell me that i need to put way more attention into chemistry
predicted a 6C physics: i got a 6. i know someone who got 6 marks above me and got a 7 but i don't know the grade boundries, but i'm guessing i was close to it? not sure. predicted a 6A
gulp.
art textiles: a 4. yes you saw that right. f-o-u-r, four. i think this was the breaking point for me see the page, 5s i'm used to but a 4? how did my grade divide into 2? sure i haven't been putting too much focus into textiles but a goddamn 4. honestly i'm quite ashamed of myself. i mean i can defend myself, that only included the component we were working on from this year (or in my case november) predicted a 6A (i mean its a 9 upside down i guess?)
business: in all fairness, some of the questions on this paper, we had done in an old mock so i should have gotten better haha i got a 6 and predicted a 7C
computer science: so for computer science we did 2 papers, and i thought i would have done better in programming than theory but there wasn't much of a difference- wish i had improved a bit more overall i got a 7 and predicted a 7C
german: i got a 5 and was 2 marks off a 6 (0.83% omg) so predicted a 6C quite happy now
predicted a 6C further maths: in all fairness i'm not even good at maths, so why did i sacrifice my after schools with doing harder maths? when opening that paper, i'm sure i witnessed a pathway to hell- that paper was horrible. i got a 3. sigh first 3 i've gotten (okay i cannot be too harsh on myself i was 3% off a 4) predicted a 4C - not too sure if i should continue tho i already have other subjects which are more of a priority to me especially textiles so there it is i guess.
before you start thinking 'oh your grades haven't changed that much, it's nothing to be sad about', that's the issue. i wanted to have improved myself to achieve the max of the max and quite frankly i know i can do better and am just disappointed in myself for having not put 1000% into revision.
and that's the last time i'm saying that. for non-stop days, i've been chanting that in my head like a daily mantra and honestly it's eating more hours into my life than my procrastination- and isn't something that i need to be lamenting over for any longer. so what am i going to do? am i going to be ignoring these grades? no, it's stuck above my computer so whenever i go out of the room i can see those grades and wonder- 'do i really want this in my actual exams?'. no. will i be talking about these grades to my friends/family/teachers? well that's quite simply my friends don't share their results with me and honestly my parent's have been the most loving and nicest to me in a while (i think they've seen how upset i had become- they finally recongnised that i am serious about doing good). as for my teachers? i have no option i have a sixth from meeting coming up and parents evening- what luck. instead of crying and thinking about these results way more often then i should be doing, i'm going to be working my butt off and in a few years time when i reflect on these times i won't be upset at younger me for not putting enough effort, but rather instead applauding that girl who finally woke up and worked her butt off. of course i can't be saying this all without a target and so here i am, about to welcome your eyes to perhaps what you may consider unrealistic grades that i want to work towards for each subject but quite frankly the last thing i need to be thinking of is low grades so here we go:
english language - 9/8
english literature - 9
maths (edexcel) - 9
biology - 9
chemistry - 9/8/7
physics - 9/8
art textiles - I AM GETTING MY 9 BACK.
business - 9
computer science - 9
german - 7/6
further maths(?) - not sure if i will be doing but if so - 8/7
so here we have my long list of results i want- fine they all may consist of 7/8/9 which i haven't really been getting but that doesn't stop me and that doesn't stop you either! if you've been reading this out of enjoyment (a bit sadistic i must admit laughing over me getting a 3), or because of procrastination- i want you guys to introduce yourself, along with the grades you want. not the grades that the schools wants you to have., not what your parents want you to have. but you. you are going to be sitting these tests- not your mum(unfortunately), you're going to be the one whose going to use these for A-Level/BTEC/T-Levels applications, you're the ones who will be getting the benefits and the drawbacks. don't limit yourself- you can always do it! if i could go from a 19/34 to 26/34 then you could honestly do so much more than you could even think of! sorry if this sounded really rant-y at certain points but i need to get this off my mind and focus on more important things like my grades, my family and friends.
please feel free to offer advice or post your own story on here!
did i cry writing this? yes. will i be doing this ever again? of course not, who do you think i am? - lots of love x
Original post by lizzyboo
first of all, did i just make a new account just to start venting on the internet on a student forum? yes i did.
now i'll like for you guys to imagine you're me- a (recently turned!) 16 year old who goes to a grammar school with high expectations looming over you from parents to teacher, as well as being the first child- what a dream right? haha, no. going to a grammar school and being the worst in most of your classes is an interesting experience to say the least, saying you got a 6/7 in the classroom will make you look dumb, but saying you aren't happy with a 6/7 out of school makes you look 'ungrateful'. but i'm not here to trauma dump but instead ask for help!
a few days ago (and a day before my birthday-what luck), we were lead in a line and marched to the school hall (figuratively), where we prepared and embarked on the painful journey that was yet to come (literally). we got an envelope, in which contained our grades as well as our predictions. having, at that point, seen most of my scores from test papers, i was feeling confident about myself- maybe i had reached all my predictions! maybe i had surpassed them! maybe i got all 7/8/9s.... that was far from the true reality. there lying on the neon orange sheet of paper lay a row of one 8, one 7, five 6s, two 5s, one 4, and i hate to say this but one 3. immediately tears developed in my eyes but i held them in and looked up warily and got my bag and got in the car. my mum asked me how was it and i immediately opened my mouth but nothing came out, except the held in tears. now why would i cry over these results if i'm used to getting all 6's. well the funny thing is i'm not. in my september assessments i had gotten one 9, four 7s,two 6s, two 5s and one 4 (no further maths test this time). after getting the september results i was optimistic and told myself that i could aim high and next to my report i jotted down the next grades i had wanted to get in my next report- i have not gotten one of them. now i know what you're thinking, 'boo-hoo, so what you didn't put the work in did you', but i did! at least thats what i was telling myself as i was weeping whilst cutting out my textiles images (cannot be behind on coursework- learnt that the hard way) except now i'm not in that state of mind, and quite frankly i want to bloody improve myself and get ready for my gcse's and quite frankly i know there's other people like me who cannot follow the tips of an all 9s student on youtube- and that's okay! i want to create this thread to help people like me and you, as well as share resources and help us smash this!! gcse's better watch out...
well since i made this thread, i'll like to start with myself and share my grades from year 10 end of year exams (oh dear) my september mocks and january mocks as well as predictions from both of those time periods- i know not all schools have this so just say you mock results if you can! (for context of predictions: A- definitely and could work to the next grade, B- fairly sure, C-you could, but if you don't put the work in then maybe you'l get lower) this is a non-judge zone so honestly blurt away with concerns, or achievements or even when it's your dog's birthday! so here i go...
year 10: quite frankly a crazy year in my opinion, yet one which i cannot remember a singe thing from right now. i think this applied to me back then as well considering my results...
english language: (I WILL LIKE TO DEFEND LITTLE ME DESPITE THE FACT THAT I NEVER REVISED OR DID WORK FOR ENGLISH, BUT THE DEPARTMENT NEVER TOLD US WHAT PAPER/QUESTIONS COULD COME UP SO HONESTLY WHAT DID THEY EXPECT) in the end it was p1 q5 and i got a 5 - predicted a 6A
english literature: (I WILL LIKE TO DEFEND LITTLE ME DESPITE THE FACT THAT I NEVER REVISED OR DID WORK FOR ENGLISH, BUT THE DEPARTMENT NEVER TOLD US WHAT PAPER/QUESTIONS COULD COME UP SO HONESTLY WHAT DID THEY EXPECT) it was romeo and juliet, and might i like to add the first time we've done a timed essay!, oh how i have grown to despise these lovers (at that time at least) a 4. it was what it was i guess - predicted a 6A
maths: i always found maths weird- i was good at it when i was fully thinking and unfortunately i end up not fully thinking during these exams... got a 6 in the end - predicted a 7A
biology: now i love biology, i find it the easiest science (in terms of content) got a 5 - predicted a 6C
chemistry: for the record my teacher was an absolute gem but you know the thing about how gems are always hidden? well that's what he was to my class because i don't think there was one lesson where we properly did work (perks of being in bottom set i guess) got a 5 - predicted a 6C
physics: is it odd that i don't entirely hate it? i hate the content sure but the equations are okay, and that was the only thing saving me for sure (not helpful now knowing that we have the full formula sheet...) i got a 5- predicted a 6C
art textiles: MY FAVOURITE SUBJECT (well back then anyways) in year 9/10 i had always been the creative one in my small class, as well as being quite 'talented' to quote my old teacher, as well as having even won a national textiles competition (please don't try to stalk me thanks x) got a 9- predicted a 9A (hell yeah)
business: okay i mean i like business and my year 10 teacher was a darling- she really helped me improve (despite the fact that i was on the verge of sleep in her lessons) got a 6 (very close to a 7 tho!)- predicted a 7B
computer science: now i feel like 3 types of people take computer science, one which emotionally blackmailed into doing so by their wonderful parents, one which actually are passionate about it and one which have no clue what they signed up to. guess which one i was okay but in all fairness i must have been proud because in the end i got a 8 and was predicted an 8B!
german: deutsch. how do i even begin to talk about german. german. german. german. the 6 letter word i despise more that the language itself (no offense to germans- ich liebe dich!) in lockdown i remember clicking hand in on all the assignments and quits frankly i know why i'm so bad at german but surprisingly i got a 4 (wow) but predicted a 6C? i love my teacher x
so that's my year 10 grades huh. i went on a journey, i have no clue about you guys. considering i had gone on holiday before these exams, and quite frankly just watched a cognito video for revision and called it a day, i was quite honestly happy with that! however i could not help but lament seeing my english grades- i mean sure i hadn't revised but come on i can't be getting a 4 in a language i speak in - that's reserved for german only! in the summer i got interested into reading (again) and quite honestly i want to go back to that time where i could curl up in a heap and read sigh.
september mocks:
okay so you're me on the first day of the school: what do you do- A- say hi to your friends, B- see how ridiculous the 'popular' girls tan is, or C- prepare to embark on your last year of school. the answer is- none of them!
instead i went into the exam hall and sat exams how lovely!
english language: (they did learn their lesson and tell us the paper this time x) A 7. HOW DID I GET A 7 IN A PAPER 2 THAT I HADN'T EVEN DONE BEFORE. this is proof that reading works wonders for your mind! (and also watching mr salles/mr everything english) predicted a.. wait for it.. 8C. AN 8C HOLY SH-
english lit: (must have been christmas considering they told us what this was on as well) A 7 AS WELL. WHAT WAS I ON DURING THESE EXAMS. okay in all fairness tho i did enjoy Lord of the Flies book, so this exam was a bliss for me. predicted a 8C as well! see my excitement when i saw how much i improved omg!
maths: okay fine. those 2 papers were quite frankly horrible. i got a 5 and predicted a 7C (understandable)
biology: a 7! i was so happy seeing that predicted 7B
chemistry: honestly could have gone worse (surprisingly got close to a 7 tho) a 6 and predicted a 6B
physics: was a bit disappointing as i did revise a lot for physics i got a 6 and predicted a 6B
textiles: didn't sit an exam so my result stayed the same i got a 9 and predicted a 9A
business: got a 7 thank god! predicted a 7B
computer science: this is where it went downhill. in all fairness i find that i'm stronger at programming and this was a theory paper i got a 5 and predicted a 7C
german: okay in the summer i actually did do some german, going over how to say hi! or how to say what i ate (ich esse ein kekse, lecker!) i got a 4 but was predicted a 5C - was a bit sad for predicted but hey ho.
year 11 has honestly been one of maybe the worse years of my life but also the best. now i know that most people say 'oh my teachers are bad'- but when i tell you my biology teacher does not give a damn about us (proof from today's lesson in fact- was on her phone instead of teaching us about ecology- a brand new topic which she zoomed us through the last topic just to get us along to what the other classes are on), so what made it worse was the fact that i had 2 new business teachers (even tho our school promised not to give us 2- we've had traumatic experiences in year 9), a new textiles teacher and a new chemistry teacher (probably for the best tho).
off track but i would like to tell you something about textiles! now going to a grammar school which loves to boast about how many 7-9s were achieved (i think 60% of the year got a 9, not too sure tho), it's quite obvious straight away that no one gives a care about the arts faculty, let alone textiles. this was so obvious due to sketchbooks. having a new teacher, she obviously wanted us to do one 'normal' project with her and so obvious we need sketchbooks to do so right? so our school decided to order these 'heavily discounted sketchbooks' in the ripe time of september. now even being a toddler at this point, we know how awful delivery times are, and having ordered these books from the pig branded ones, which are handmade, of course they would have come after a while! and so they came in the ripe time of november! a month before our mock! because we could obviously finish a whole project by then, as well as juggle 9/10 other subjects! whilst we were doing work, no doubt, i had never started mounting my work, or creating enough pieces, as i had no sketchbook! thats like asking a painter to paint a picture without the canvas? and so i decided to put more focus into other subjects instead and do textiles when my sketchbook came. now if you're in year 10 and are doing any subject with coursework, i say this from the bottom of my heart, FINISH YOUR COURSEWORK RIGHRT NOW. I'M BEING SERIOUS, STOP READING AND WORK BECAUSE COURSEWORK IS HELL. i always eye-rolled when the pesky art student would say coursework was hell, so i guess it was karma ha. another thing about art/ textiles is that its a subjective subject- all teachers have different expectations, and no two people have the same criteria of work to include in the sketchbook, as well as personal preferences. now i will say that i do not mind this teacher, shes honestly a gem- but oh god she must hate me. whenever i showed her my work she would tell me 'it's good!' but never told me what specifically she was looking for in a sketchbook, or any amendments i should make (despite the fact that she was basically doing some of the other girls projects for them essentially). i do think shes sweet, but i honestly miss my old textiles teacher too much, as i do think that she understood my work more and just in general. when it comes to the new business teachers, i think its safe to say that i've not learnt anything this year- which is especially concerning considering we're doing finance and marketing which is worth 50% of our gcse! but who's counting? instead we're making powerpoint quizzes about our own product which don't get me wrong is fun, but not so fun knowing that we could be finishing and actually learning content quicker but whatever. chemistry is a meh, a good thing about this teacher? no one talks during lesson anymore! a bad thing about this teacher? i have no clue what we're doing. in all fairness i do not get chemistry at all, and organic chem isn't my best friend considering i don't really know anything in chemistry at all.
so the horrible results you've been waiting for? here it goes:
english lang: first full mock! paper 2 i got a 6. how did i downgrade from my september mocks even tho it was the same paper type? (looking at the grade boundries tho i was a mark off a 7 so not too bad i suppose, but still disappointing) am predicted a 7A now
english lit: now before someone calls me ungrateful, please do note this was my highest grade- i'll do whatever i want. this was a full paper 1, with romeo and juliet and pride and prejudice- in which i got a 8! now i know- i literally doubled my grade in half a year i should be happy- and yes i am! i cannot believe that i got 80% like what oh my god. the only thing is tho i can't help but wishing i had done more (doesn't everyone tho) since my feedback was to do with the lack of quotes (the points which i made had referred to them but not used them and i said 'disobedient wrench' instead of 'wretch' sigh) but predicted an 8C now!
WARNING: GOES DOWN HILL FROM HERE now being in a grammar school, it's no surprise that people want to do the best they can- but there can be a bit too much. our biology paper was a split of the actual gcse paper in 2023 so how people got access to the markscheme i have no clue, but because of that a lot of our papers grade boundries became inflated, so whilst i had got a certain grade for a certain subject i am being a bit lenient with myself as in nearly all cases i was a few marks off..
biology: i got a 6. of course its not a bad grade but honestly disappointed but was close to the next grade boundary, hence why being predicted a 7C
chemistry: i got a 5. now i'm no good at chemistry and honestly this was the most justifiable for me, so i'm definitely not in shock from that and does tell me that i need to put way more attention into chemistry predicted a 6C
physics: i got a 6. i know someone who got 6 marks above me and got a 7 but i don't know the grade boundries, but i'm guessing i was close to it? not sure. predicted a 6A
gulp.
art textiles: a 4. yes you saw that right. f-o-u-r, four. i think this was the breaking point for me see the page, 5s i'm used to but a 4? how did my grade divide into 2? sure i haven't been putting too much focus into textiles but a goddamn 4. honestly i'm quite ashamed of myself. i mean i can defend myself, that only included the component we were working on from this year (or in my case november) predicted a 6A (i mean its a 9 upside down i guess?)
business: in all fairness, some of the questions on this paper, we had done in an old mock so i should have gotten better haha i got a 6 and predicted a 7C
computer science: so for computer science we did 2 papers, and i thought i would have done better in programming than theory but there wasn't much of a difference- wish i had improved a bit more overall i got a 7 and predicted a 7C
german: i got a 5 and was 2 marks off a 6 (0.83% omg) so predicted a 6C quite happy now predicted a 6C
further maths: in all fairness i'm not even good at maths, so why did i sacrifice my after schools with doing harder maths? when opening that paper, i'm sure i witnessed a pathway to hell- that paper was horrible. i got a 3. sigh first 3 i've gotten (okay i cannot be too harsh on myself i was 3% off a 4) predicted a 4C - not too sure if i should continue tho i already have other subjects which are more of a priority to me especially textiles so there it is i guess.
before you start thinking 'oh your grades haven't changed that much, it's nothing to be sad about', that's the issue. i wanted to have improved myself to achieve the max of the max and quite frankly i know i can do better and am just disappointed in myself for having not put 1000% into revision.
and that's the last time i'm saying that. for non-stop days, i've been chanting that in my head like a daily mantra and honestly it's eating more hours into my life than my procrastination- and isn't something that i need to be lamenting over for any longer. so what am i going to do? am i going to be ignoring these grades? no, it's stuck above my computer so whenever i go out of the room i can see those grades and wonder- 'do i really want this in my actual exams?'. no. will i be talking about these grades to my friends/family/teachers? well that's quite simply my friends don't share their results with me and honestly my parent's have been the most loving and nicest to me in a while (i think they've seen how upset i had become- they finally recongnised that i am serious about doing good). as for my teachers? i have no option i have a sixth from meeting coming up and parents evening- what luck. instead of crying and thinking about these results way more often then i should be doing, i'm going to be working my butt off and in a few years time when i reflect on these times i won't be upset at younger me for not putting enough effort, but rather instead applauding that girl who finally woke up and worked her butt off. of course i can't be saying this all without a target and so here i am, about to welcome your eyes to perhaps what you may consider unrealistic grades that i want to work towards for each subject but quite frankly the last thing i need to be thinking of is low grades so here we go:
english language - 9/8
english literature - 9
maths (edexcel) - 9
biology - 9
chemistry - 9/8/7
physics - 9/8
art textiles - I AM GETTING MY 9 BACK.
business - 9
computer science - 9
german - 7/6
further maths(?) - not sure if i will be doing but if so - 8/7
so here we have my long list of results i want- fine they all may consist of 7/8/9 which i haven't really been getting but that doesn't stop me and that doesn't stop you either! if you've been reading this out of enjoyment (a bit sadistic i must admit laughing over me getting a 3), or because of procrastination- i want you guys to introduce yourself, along with the grades you want. not the grades that the schools wants you to have., not what your parents want you to have. but you. you are going to be sitting these tests- not your mum(unfortunately), you're going to be the one whose going to use these for A-Level/BTEC/T-Levels applications, you're the ones who will be getting the benefits and the drawbacks. don't limit yourself- you can always do it! if i could go from a 19/34 to 26/34 then you could honestly do so much more than you could even think of! sorry if this sounded really rant-y at certain points but i need to get this off my mind and focus on more important things like my grades, my family and friends.
please feel free to offer advice or post your own story on here! did i cry writing this? yes. will i be doing this ever again? of course not, who do you think i am?
- lots of love x
now i'll like for you guys to imagine you're me- a (recently turned!) 16 year old who goes to a grammar school with high expectations looming over you from parents to teacher, as well as being the first child- what a dream right? haha, no. going to a grammar school and being the worst in most of your classes is an interesting experience to say the least, saying you got a 6/7 in the classroom will make you look dumb, but saying you aren't happy with a 6/7 out of school makes you look 'ungrateful'. but i'm not here to trauma dump but instead ask for help!
a few days ago (and a day before my birthday-what luck), we were lead in a line and marched to the school hall (figuratively), where we prepared and embarked on the painful journey that was yet to come (literally). we got an envelope, in which contained our grades as well as our predictions. having, at that point, seen most of my scores from test papers, i was feeling confident about myself- maybe i had reached all my predictions! maybe i had surpassed them! maybe i got all 7/8/9s.... that was far from the true reality. there lying on the neon orange sheet of paper lay a row of one 8, one 7, five 6s, two 5s, one 4, and i hate to say this but one 3. immediately tears developed in my eyes but i held them in and looked up warily and got my bag and got in the car. my mum asked me how was it and i immediately opened my mouth but nothing came out, except the held in tears. now why would i cry over these results if i'm used to getting all 6's. well the funny thing is i'm not. in my september assessments i had gotten one 9, four 7s,two 6s, two 5s and one 4 (no further maths test this time). after getting the september results i was optimistic and told myself that i could aim high and next to my report i jotted down the next grades i had wanted to get in my next report- i have not gotten one of them. now i know what you're thinking, 'boo-hoo, so what you didn't put the work in did you', but i did! at least thats what i was telling myself as i was weeping whilst cutting out my textiles images (cannot be behind on coursework- learnt that the hard way) except now i'm not in that state of mind, and quite frankly i want to bloody improve myself and get ready for my gcse's and quite frankly i know there's other people like me who cannot follow the tips of an all 9s student on youtube- and that's okay! i want to create this thread to help people like me and you, as well as share resources and help us smash this!! gcse's better watch out...
well since i made this thread, i'll like to start with myself and share my grades from year 10 end of year exams (oh dear) my september mocks and january mocks as well as predictions from both of those time periods- i know not all schools have this so just say you mock results if you can! (for context of predictions: A- definitely and could work to the next grade, B- fairly sure, C-you could, but if you don't put the work in then maybe you'l get lower) this is a non-judge zone so honestly blurt away with concerns, or achievements or even when it's your dog's birthday! so here i go...
year 10: quite frankly a crazy year in my opinion, yet one which i cannot remember a singe thing from right now. i think this applied to me back then as well considering my results...
english language: (I WILL LIKE TO DEFEND LITTLE ME DESPITE THE FACT THAT I NEVER REVISED OR DID WORK FOR ENGLISH, BUT THE DEPARTMENT NEVER TOLD US WHAT PAPER/QUESTIONS COULD COME UP SO HONESTLY WHAT DID THEY EXPECT) in the end it was p1 q5 and i got a 5 - predicted a 6A
english literature: (I WILL LIKE TO DEFEND LITTLE ME DESPITE THE FACT THAT I NEVER REVISED OR DID WORK FOR ENGLISH, BUT THE DEPARTMENT NEVER TOLD US WHAT PAPER/QUESTIONS COULD COME UP SO HONESTLY WHAT DID THEY EXPECT) it was romeo and juliet, and might i like to add the first time we've done a timed essay!, oh how i have grown to despise these lovers (at that time at least) a 4. it was what it was i guess - predicted a 6A
maths: i always found maths weird- i was good at it when i was fully thinking and unfortunately i end up not fully thinking during these exams... got a 6 in the end - predicted a 7A
biology: now i love biology, i find it the easiest science (in terms of content) got a 5
- predicted a 6C chemistry: for the record my teacher was an absolute gem but you know the thing about how gems are always hidden? well that's what he was to my class because i don't think there was one lesson where we properly did work (perks of being in bottom set i guess) got a 5 - predicted a 6C
physics: is it odd that i don't entirely hate it? i hate the content sure but the equations are okay, and that was the only thing saving me for sure (not helpful now knowing that we have the full formula sheet...) i got a 5- predicted a 6C
art textiles: MY FAVOURITE SUBJECT (well back then anyways) in year 9/10 i had always been the creative one in my small class, as well as being quite 'talented' to quote my old teacher, as well as having even won a national textiles competition (please don't try to stalk me thanks x) got a 9- predicted a 9A (hell yeah)
business: okay i mean i like business and my year 10 teacher was a darling- she really helped me improve (despite the fact that i was on the verge of sleep in her lessons) got a 6 (very close to a 7 tho!)- predicted a 7B
computer science: now i feel like 3 types of people take computer science, one which emotionally blackmailed into doing so by their wonderful parents, one which actually are passionate about it and one which have no clue what they signed up to. guess which one i was
okay but in all fairness i must have been proud because in the end i got a 8 and was predicted an 8B! german: deutsch. how do i even begin to talk about german. german. german. german. the 6 letter word i despise more that the language itself (no offense to germans- ich liebe dich!) in lockdown i remember clicking hand in on all the assignments and quits frankly i know why i'm so bad at german but surprisingly i got a 4 (wow) but predicted a 6C? i love my teacher x
so that's my year 10 grades huh. i went on a journey, i have no clue about you guys. considering i had gone on holiday before these exams, and quite frankly just watched a cognito video for revision and called it a day, i was quite honestly happy with that! however i could not help but lament seeing my english grades- i mean sure i hadn't revised but come on i can't be getting a 4 in a language i speak in - that's reserved for german only! in the summer i got interested into reading (again) and quite honestly i want to go back to that time where i could curl up in a heap and read sigh.
september mocks:
okay so you're me on the first day of the school: what do you do- A- say hi to your friends, B- see how ridiculous the 'popular' girls tan is, or C- prepare to embark on your last year of school. the answer is- none of them!
instead i went into the exam hall and sat exams how lovely!
english language: (they did learn their lesson and tell us the paper this time x) A 7. HOW DID I GET A 7 IN A PAPER 2 THAT I HADN'T EVEN DONE BEFORE. this is proof that reading works wonders for your mind! (and also watching mr salles/mr everything english) predicted a.. wait for it.. 8C. AN 8C HOLY SH-
english lit: (must have been christmas considering they told us what this was on as well) A 7 AS WELL. WHAT WAS I ON DURING THESE EXAMS. okay in all fairness tho i did enjoy Lord of the Flies book, so this exam was a bliss for me. predicted a 8C as well! see my excitement when i saw how much i improved omg!
maths: okay fine. those 2 papers were quite frankly horrible. i got a 5 and predicted a 7C (understandable)
biology: a 7! i was so happy seeing that predicted 7B
chemistry: honestly could have gone worse (surprisingly got close to a 7 tho) a 6 and predicted a 6B
physics: was a bit disappointing as i did revise a lot for physics
i got a 6 and predicted a 6B textiles: didn't sit an exam so my result stayed the same
i got a 9 and predicted a 9A business: got a 7 thank god! predicted a 7B
computer science: this is where it went downhill. in all fairness i find that i'm stronger at programming and this was a theory paper i got a 5 and predicted a 7C
german: okay in the summer i actually did do some german, going over how to say hi! or how to say what i ate (ich esse ein kekse, lecker!) i got a 4 but was predicted a 5C - was a bit sad for predicted but hey ho.
year 11 has honestly been one of maybe the worse years of my life but also the best. now i know that most people say 'oh my teachers are bad'- but when i tell you my biology teacher does not give a damn about us (proof from today's lesson in fact- was on her phone instead of teaching us about ecology- a brand new topic which she zoomed us through the last topic just to get us along to what the other classes are on), so what made it worse was the fact that i had 2 new business teachers (even tho our school promised not to give us 2- we've had traumatic experiences in year 9), a new textiles teacher and a new chemistry teacher (probably for the best tho).
off track but i would like to tell you something about textiles! now going to a grammar school which loves to boast about how many 7-9s were achieved (i think 60% of the year got a 9, not too sure tho), it's quite obvious straight away that no one gives a care about the arts faculty, let alone textiles. this was so obvious due to sketchbooks. having a new teacher, she obviously wanted us to do one 'normal' project with her and so obvious we need sketchbooks to do so right? so our school decided to order these 'heavily discounted sketchbooks' in the ripe time of september. now even being a toddler at this point, we know how awful delivery times are, and having ordered these books from the pig branded ones, which are handmade, of course they would have come after a while! and so they came in the ripe time of november! a month before our mock! because we could obviously finish a whole project by then, as well as juggle 9/10 other subjects! whilst we were doing work, no doubt, i had never started mounting my work, or creating enough pieces, as i had no sketchbook! thats like asking a painter to paint a picture without the canvas? and so i decided to put more focus into other subjects instead and do textiles when my sketchbook came. now if you're in year 10 and are doing any subject with coursework, i say this from the bottom of my heart, FINISH YOUR COURSEWORK RIGHRT NOW. I'M BEING SERIOUS, STOP READING AND WORK BECAUSE COURSEWORK IS HELL. i always eye-rolled when the pesky art student would say coursework was hell, so i guess it was karma ha. another thing about art/ textiles is that its a subjective subject- all teachers have different expectations, and no two people have the same criteria of work to include in the sketchbook, as well as personal preferences. now i will say that i do not mind this teacher, shes honestly a gem- but oh god she must hate me. whenever i showed her my work she would tell me 'it's good!' but never told me what specifically she was looking for in a sketchbook, or any amendments i should make (despite the fact that she was basically doing some of the other girls projects for them essentially). i do think shes sweet, but i honestly miss my old textiles teacher too much, as i do think that she understood my work more and just in general. when it comes to the new business teachers, i think its safe to say that i've not learnt anything this year- which is especially concerning considering we're doing finance and marketing which is worth 50% of our gcse! but who's counting? instead we're making powerpoint quizzes about our own product which don't get me wrong is fun, but not so fun knowing that we could be finishing and actually learning content quicker but whatever. chemistry is a meh, a good thing about this teacher? no one talks during lesson anymore! a bad thing about this teacher? i have no clue what we're doing. in all fairness i do not get chemistry at all, and organic chem isn't my best friend considering i don't really know anything in chemistry at all.
so the horrible results you've been waiting for? here it goes:
english lang: first full mock! paper 2 i got a 6. how did i downgrade from my september mocks even tho it was the same paper type? (looking at the grade boundries tho i was a mark off a 7 so not too bad i suppose, but still disappointing) am predicted a 7A now
english lit: now before someone calls me ungrateful, please do note this was my highest grade- i'll do whatever i want. this was a full paper 1, with romeo and juliet and pride and prejudice- in which i got a 8! now i know- i literally doubled my grade in half a year i should be happy- and yes i am! i cannot believe that i got 80% like what oh my god. the only thing is tho i can't help but wishing i had done more (doesn't everyone tho) since my feedback was to do with the lack of quotes (the points which i made had referred to them but not used them and i said 'disobedient wrench' instead of 'wretch' sigh) but predicted an 8C now!
WARNING: GOES DOWN HILL FROM HERE now being in a grammar school, it's no surprise that people want to do the best they can- but there can be a bit too much. our biology paper was a split of the actual gcse paper in 2023 so how people got access to the markscheme i have no clue, but because of that a lot of our papers grade boundries became inflated, so whilst i had got a certain grade for a certain subject i am being a bit lenient with myself as in nearly all cases i was a few marks off..
biology: i got a 6. of course its not a bad grade but honestly disappointed but was close to the next grade boundary, hence why being predicted a 7C
chemistry: i got a 5. now i'm no good at chemistry and honestly this was the most justifiable for me, so i'm definitely not in shock from that and does tell me that i need to put way more attention into chemistry
predicted a 6C physics: i got a 6. i know someone who got 6 marks above me and got a 7 but i don't know the grade boundries, but i'm guessing i was close to it? not sure. predicted a 6A
gulp.
art textiles: a 4. yes you saw that right. f-o-u-r, four. i think this was the breaking point for me see the page, 5s i'm used to but a 4? how did my grade divide into 2? sure i haven't been putting too much focus into textiles but a goddamn 4. honestly i'm quite ashamed of myself. i mean i can defend myself, that only included the component we were working on from this year (or in my case november) predicted a 6A (i mean its a 9 upside down i guess?)
business: in all fairness, some of the questions on this paper, we had done in an old mock so i should have gotten better haha i got a 6 and predicted a 7C
computer science: so for computer science we did 2 papers, and i thought i would have done better in programming than theory but there wasn't much of a difference- wish i had improved a bit more overall i got a 7 and predicted a 7C
german: i got a 5 and was 2 marks off a 6 (0.83% omg) so predicted a 6C quite happy now
predicted a 6C further maths: in all fairness i'm not even good at maths, so why did i sacrifice my after schools with doing harder maths? when opening that paper, i'm sure i witnessed a pathway to hell- that paper was horrible. i got a 3. sigh first 3 i've gotten (okay i cannot be too harsh on myself i was 3% off a 4) predicted a 4C - not too sure if i should continue tho i already have other subjects which are more of a priority to me especially textiles so there it is i guess.
before you start thinking 'oh your grades haven't changed that much, it's nothing to be sad about', that's the issue. i wanted to have improved myself to achieve the max of the max and quite frankly i know i can do better and am just disappointed in myself for having not put 1000% into revision.
and that's the last time i'm saying that. for non-stop days, i've been chanting that in my head like a daily mantra and honestly it's eating more hours into my life than my procrastination- and isn't something that i need to be lamenting over for any longer. so what am i going to do? am i going to be ignoring these grades? no, it's stuck above my computer so whenever i go out of the room i can see those grades and wonder- 'do i really want this in my actual exams?'. no. will i be talking about these grades to my friends/family/teachers? well that's quite simply my friends don't share their results with me and honestly my parent's have been the most loving and nicest to me in a while (i think they've seen how upset i had become- they finally recongnised that i am serious about doing good). as for my teachers? i have no option i have a sixth from meeting coming up and parents evening- what luck. instead of crying and thinking about these results way more often then i should be doing, i'm going to be working my butt off and in a few years time when i reflect on these times i won't be upset at younger me for not putting enough effort, but rather instead applauding that girl who finally woke up and worked her butt off. of course i can't be saying this all without a target and so here i am, about to welcome your eyes to perhaps what you may consider unrealistic grades that i want to work towards for each subject but quite frankly the last thing i need to be thinking of is low grades so here we go:
english language - 9/8
english literature - 9
maths (edexcel) - 9
biology - 9
chemistry - 9/8/7
physics - 9/8
art textiles - I AM GETTING MY 9 BACK.
business - 9
computer science - 9
german - 7/6
further maths(?) - not sure if i will be doing but if so - 8/7
so here we have my long list of results i want- fine they all may consist of 7/8/9 which i haven't really been getting but that doesn't stop me and that doesn't stop you either! if you've been reading this out of enjoyment (a bit sadistic i must admit laughing over me getting a 3), or because of procrastination- i want you guys to introduce yourself, along with the grades you want. not the grades that the schools wants you to have., not what your parents want you to have. but you. you are going to be sitting these tests- not your mum(unfortunately), you're going to be the one whose going to use these for A-Level/BTEC/T-Levels applications, you're the ones who will be getting the benefits and the drawbacks. don't limit yourself- you can always do it! if i could go from a 19/34 to 26/34 then you could honestly do so much more than you could even think of! sorry if this sounded really rant-y at certain points but i need to get this off my mind and focus on more important things like my grades, my family and friends.
please feel free to offer advice or post your own story on here!
did i cry writing this? yes. will i be doing this ever again? of course not, who do you think i am? - lots of love x
One thing I would recommend is Seneca learning. You're school might have set up a login but I think you can sign up without your school. It has some good really condensed notes and quizzes you on them. You can pay for premium but I personally don't bother.
For English Language I watched Mr Bruff videos the night before - he also has some Literature videos but I didn't use them.
I did art but we didn't have to do an exam due to covid so I guess I only really have coursework advice. You said it yourself but just keep doing the coursework. I ended up with a 6, but know I could have got a better grade if I tried harder. But I only did art because it was fun so I didn't really need to try and focused more on my other subjects.
For maths just practice. My school made everyone a big table with all the topic on which you colour coded depending on whether you got it all right, partially right, or wrong. If you don't have these I would recommend making one for yourself (electronic is probably easier / more useful). Even if it takes a long time it will be worth it. Work on the ones you got partially right first as you've already got some of the marks. I used Hegarty Maths but use whatever website your school uses (if they do). I managed to go from a 6 to an 8 from my last mock around easter to my actual GCSEs despite never getting higher than a 6 before.
Overall, I would say just revise consistently. Not only will you improve your grades, but it will create good habits for the future.
Original post by s.a.r.humphreys
I'm a current year 13 student who did my GCSEs two years ago, so I'm going to do my best to help you. First of all, the fact that you clearly want to improve at this point will help you, as many people I know did not revise until a couple of weeks before the actually GCSEs.
One thing I would recommend is Seneca learning. You're school might have set up a login but I think you can sign up without your school. It has some good really condensed notes and quizzes you on them. You can pay for premium but I personally don't bother.
For English Language I watched Mr Bruff videos the night before - he also has some Literature videos but I didn't use them.
I did art but we didn't have to do an exam due to covid so I guess I only really have coursework advice. You said it yourself but just keep doing the coursework. I ended up with a 6, but know I could have got a better grade if I tried harder. But I only did art because it was fun so I didn't really need to try and focused more on my other subjects.
For maths just practice. My school made everyone a big table with all the topic on which you colour coded depending on whether you got it all right, partially right, or wrong. If you don't have these I would recommend making one for yourself (electronic is probably easier / more useful). Even if it takes a long time it will be worth it. Work on the ones you got partially right first as you've already got some of the marks. I used Hegarty Maths but use whatever website your school uses (if they do). I managed to go from a 6 to an 8 from my last mock around easter to my actual GCSEs despite never getting higher than a 6 before.
Overall, I would say just revise consistently. Not only will you improve your grades, but it will create good habits for the future.
One thing I would recommend is Seneca learning. You're school might have set up a login but I think you can sign up without your school. It has some good really condensed notes and quizzes you on them. You can pay for premium but I personally don't bother.
For English Language I watched Mr Bruff videos the night before - he also has some Literature videos but I didn't use them.
I did art but we didn't have to do an exam due to covid so I guess I only really have coursework advice. You said it yourself but just keep doing the coursework. I ended up with a 6, but know I could have got a better grade if I tried harder. But I only did art because it was fun so I didn't really need to try and focused more on my other subjects.
For maths just practice. My school made everyone a big table with all the topic on which you colour coded depending on whether you got it all right, partially right, or wrong. If you don't have these I would recommend making one for yourself (electronic is probably easier / more useful). Even if it takes a long time it will be worth it. Work on the ones you got partially right first as you've already got some of the marks. I used Hegarty Maths but use whatever website your school uses (if they do). I managed to go from a 6 to an 8 from my last mock around easter to my actual GCSEs despite never getting higher than a 6 before.
Overall, I would say just revise consistently. Not only will you improve your grades, but it will create good habits for the future.
your advice sounds great and from the sound of it i take that you're doing A-Level Biology? when it comes to sciences i specifically find it quite hard to answer application based questions, so do you have any methods that worked best for you when it came to revising? i find that whilst i can remember most of the content, i don't think i know it in that much depth to write an answer to the 'plan the experiment' sort of questions. also good luck on A-Levels- you're going to smash this!Original post by lizzyboo
first of all, did i just make a new account just to start venting on the internet on a student forum? yes i did.
now i'll like for you guys to imagine you're me- a (recently turned!) 16 year old who goes to a grammar school with high expectations looming over you from parents to teacher, as well as being the first child- what a dream right? haha, no. going to a grammar school and being the worst in most of your classes is an interesting experience to say the least, saying you got a 6/7 in the classroom will make you look dumb, but saying you aren't happy with a 6/7 out of school makes you look 'ungrateful'. but i'm not here to trauma dump but instead ask for help!
a few days ago (and a day before my birthday-what luck), we were lead in a line and marched to the school hall (figuratively), where we prepared and embarked on the painful journey that was yet to come (literally). we got an envelope, in which contained our grades as well as our predictions. having, at that point, seen most of my scores from test papers, i was feeling confident about myself- maybe i had reached all my predictions! maybe i had surpassed them! maybe i got all 7/8/9s.... that was far from the true reality. there lying on the neon orange sheet of paper lay a row of one 8, one 7, five 6s, two 5s, one 4, and i hate to say this but one 3. immediately tears developed in my eyes but i held them in and looked up warily and got my bag and got in the car. my mum asked me how was it and i immediately opened my mouth but nothing came out, except the held in tears. now why would i cry over these results if i'm used to getting all 6's. well the funny thing is i'm not. in my september assessments i had gotten one 9, four 7s,two 6s, two 5s and one 4 (no further maths test this time). after getting the september results i was optimistic and told myself that i could aim high and next to my report i jotted down the next grades i had wanted to get in my next report- i have not gotten one of them. now i know what you're thinking, 'boo-hoo, so what you didn't put the work in did you', but i did! at least thats what i was telling myself as i was weeping whilst cutting out my textiles images (cannot be behind on coursework- learnt that the hard way) except now i'm not in that state of mind, and quite frankly i want to bloody improve myself and get ready for my gcse's and quite frankly i know there's other people like me who cannot follow the tips of an all 9s student on youtube- and that's okay! i want to create this thread to help people like me and you, as well as share resources and help us smash this!! gcse's better watch out...
well since i made this thread, i'll like to start with myself and share my grades from year 10 end of year exams (oh dear) my september mocks and january mocks as well as predictions from both of those time periods- i know not all schools have this so just say you mock results if you can! (for context of predictions: A- definitely and could work to the next grade, B- fairly sure, C-you could, but if you don't put the work in then maybe you'l get lower) this is a non-judge zone so honestly blurt away with concerns, or achievements or even when it's your dog's birthday! so here i go...
year 10: quite frankly a crazy year in my opinion, yet one which i cannot remember a singe thing from right now. i think this applied to me back then as well considering my results...
english language: (I WILL LIKE TO DEFEND LITTLE ME DESPITE THE FACT THAT I NEVER REVISED OR DID WORK FOR ENGLISH, BUT THE DEPARTMENT NEVER TOLD US WHAT PAPER/QUESTIONS COULD COME UP SO HONESTLY WHAT DID THEY EXPECT) in the end it was p1 q5 and i got a 5 - predicted a 6A
english literature: (I WILL LIKE TO DEFEND LITTLE ME DESPITE THE FACT THAT I NEVER REVISED OR DID WORK FOR ENGLISH, BUT THE DEPARTMENT NEVER TOLD US WHAT PAPER/QUESTIONS COULD COME UP SO HONESTLY WHAT DID THEY EXPECT) it was romeo and juliet, and might i like to add the first time we've done a timed essay!, oh how i have grown to despise these lovers (at that time at least) a 4. it was what it was i guess - predicted a 6A
maths: i always found maths weird- i was good at it when i was fully thinking and unfortunately i end up not fully thinking during these exams... got a 6 in the end - predicted a 7A
biology: now i love biology, i find it the easiest science (in terms of content) got a 5 - predicted a 6C
chemistry: for the record my teacher was an absolute gem but you know the thing about how gems are always hidden? well that's what he was to my class because i don't think there was one lesson where we properly did work (perks of being in bottom set i guess) got a 5 - predicted a 6C
physics: is it odd that i don't entirely hate it? i hate the content sure but the equations are okay, and that was the only thing saving me for sure (not helpful now knowing that we have the full formula sheet...) i got a 5- predicted a 6C
art textiles: MY FAVOURITE SUBJECT (well back then anyways) in year 9/10 i had always been the creative one in my small class, as well as being quite 'talented' to quote my old teacher, as well as having even won a national textiles competition (please don't try to stalk me thanks x) got a 9- predicted a 9A (hell yeah)
business: okay i mean i like business and my year 10 teacher was a darling- she really helped me improve (despite the fact that i was on the verge of sleep in her lessons) got a 6 (very close to a 7 tho!)- predicted a 7B
computer science: now i feel like 3 types of people take computer science, one which emotionally blackmailed into doing so by their wonderful parents, one which actually are passionate about it and one which have no clue what they signed up to. guess which one i was okay but in all fairness i must have been proud because in the end i got a 8 and was predicted an 8B!
german: deutsch. how do i even begin to talk about german. german. german. german. the 6 letter word i despise more that the language itself (no offense to germans- ich liebe dich!) in lockdown i remember clicking hand in on all the assignments and quits frankly i know why i'm so bad at german but surprisingly i got a 4 (wow) but predicted a 6C? i love my teacher x
so that's my year 10 grades huh. i went on a journey, i have no clue about you guys. considering i had gone on holiday before these exams, and quite frankly just watched a cognito video for revision and called it a day, i was quite honestly happy with that! however i could not help but lament seeing my english grades- i mean sure i hadn't revised but come on i can't be getting a 4 in a language i speak in - that's reserved for german only! in the summer i got interested into reading (again) and quite honestly i want to go back to that time where i could curl up in a heap and read sigh.
september mocks:
okay so you're me on the first day of the school: what do you do- A- say hi to your friends, B- see how ridiculous the 'popular' girls tan is, or C- prepare to embark on your last year of school. the answer is- none of them!
instead i went into the exam hall and sat exams how lovely!
english language: (they did learn their lesson and tell us the paper this time x) A 7. HOW DID I GET A 7 IN A PAPER 2 THAT I HADN'T EVEN DONE BEFORE. this is proof that reading works wonders for your mind! (and also watching mr salles/mr everything english) predicted a.. wait for it.. 8C. AN 8C HOLY SH-
english lit: (must have been christmas considering they told us what this was on as well) A 7 AS WELL. WHAT WAS I ON DURING THESE EXAMS. okay in all fairness tho i did enjoy Lord of the Flies book, so this exam was a bliss for me. predicted a 8C as well! see my excitement when i saw how much i improved omg!
maths: okay fine. those 2 papers were quite frankly horrible. i got a 5 and predicted a 7C (understandable)
biology: a 7! i was so happy seeing that predicted 7B
chemistry: honestly could have gone worse (surprisingly got close to a 7 tho) a 6 and predicted a 6B
physics: was a bit disappointing as i did revise a lot for physics i got a 6 and predicted a 6B
textiles: didn't sit an exam so my result stayed the same i got a 9 and predicted a 9A
business: got a 7 thank god! predicted a 7B
computer science: this is where it went downhill. in all fairness i find that i'm stronger at programming and this was a theory paper i got a 5 and predicted a 7C
german: okay in the summer i actually did do some german, going over how to say hi! or how to say what i ate (ich esse ein kekse, lecker!) i got a 4 but was predicted a 5C - was a bit sad for predicted but hey ho.
year 11 has honestly been one of maybe the worse years of my life but also the best. now i know that most people say 'oh my teachers are bad'- but when i tell you my biology teacher does not give a damn about us (proof from today's lesson in fact- was on her phone instead of teaching us about ecology- a brand new topic which she zoomed us through the last topic just to get us along to what the other classes are on), so what made it worse was the fact that i had 2 new business teachers (even tho our school promised not to give us 2- we've had traumatic experiences in year 9), a new textiles teacher and a new chemistry teacher (probably for the best tho).
off track but i would like to tell you something about textiles! now going to a grammar school which loves to boast about how many 7-9s were achieved (i think 60% of the year got a 9, not too sure tho), it's quite obvious straight away that no one gives a care about the arts faculty, let alone textiles. this was so obvious due to sketchbooks. having a new teacher, she obviously wanted us to do one 'normal' project with her and so obvious we need sketchbooks to do so right? so our school decided to order these 'heavily discounted sketchbooks' in the ripe time of september. now even being a toddler at this point, we know how awful delivery times are, and having ordered these books from the pig branded ones, which are handmade, of course they would have come after a while! and so they came in the ripe time of november! a month before our mock! because we could obviously finish a whole project by then, as well as juggle 9/10 other subjects! whilst we were doing work, no doubt, i had never started mounting my work, or creating enough pieces, as i had no sketchbook! thats like asking a painter to paint a picture without the canvas? and so i decided to put more focus into other subjects instead and do textiles when my sketchbook came. now if you're in year 10 and are doing any subject with coursework, i say this from the bottom of my heart, FINISH YOUR COURSEWORK RIGHRT NOW. I'M BEING SERIOUS, STOP READING AND WORK BECAUSE COURSEWORK IS HELL. i always eye-rolled when the pesky art student would say coursework was hell, so i guess it was karma ha. another thing about art/ textiles is that its a subjective subject- all teachers have different expectations, and no two people have the same criteria of work to include in the sketchbook, as well as personal preferences. now i will say that i do not mind this teacher, shes honestly a gem- but oh god she must hate me. whenever i showed her my work she would tell me 'it's good!' but never told me what specifically she was looking for in a sketchbook, or any amendments i should make (despite the fact that she was basically doing some of the other girls projects for them essentially). i do think shes sweet, but i honestly miss my old textiles teacher too much, as i do think that she understood my work more and just in general. when it comes to the new business teachers, i think its safe to say that i've not learnt anything this year- which is especially concerning considering we're doing finance and marketing which is worth 50% of our gcse! but who's counting? instead we're making powerpoint quizzes about our own product which don't get me wrong is fun, but not so fun knowing that we could be finishing and actually learning content quicker but whatever. chemistry is a meh, a good thing about this teacher? no one talks during lesson anymore! a bad thing about this teacher? i have no clue what we're doing. in all fairness i do not get chemistry at all, and organic chem isn't my best friend considering i don't really know anything in chemistry at all.
so the horrible results you've been waiting for? here it goes:
english lang: first full mock! paper 2 i got a 6. how did i downgrade from my september mocks even tho it was the same paper type? (looking at the grade boundries tho i was a mark off a 7 so not too bad i suppose, but still disappointing) am predicted a 7A now
english lit: now before someone calls me ungrateful, please do note this was my highest grade- i'll do whatever i want. this was a full paper 1, with romeo and juliet and pride and prejudice- in which i got a 8! now i know- i literally doubled my grade in half a year i should be happy- and yes i am! i cannot believe that i got 80% like what oh my god. the only thing is tho i can't help but wishing i had done more (doesn't everyone tho) since my feedback was to do with the lack of quotes (the points which i made had referred to them but not used them and i said 'disobedient wrench' instead of 'wretch' sigh) but predicted an 8C now!
WARNING: GOES DOWN HILL FROM HERE now being in a grammar school, it's no surprise that people want to do the best they can- but there can be a bit too much. our biology paper was a split of the actual gcse paper in 2023 so how people got access to the markscheme i have no clue, but because of that a lot of our papers grade boundries became inflated, so whilst i had got a certain grade for a certain subject i am being a bit lenient with myself as in nearly all cases i was a few marks off..
biology: i got a 6. of course its not a bad grade but honestly disappointed but was close to the next grade boundary, hence why being predicted a 7C
chemistry: i got a 5. now i'm no good at chemistry and honestly this was the most justifiable for me, so i'm definitely not in shock from that and does tell me that i need to put way more attention into chemistry predicted a 6C
physics: i got a 6. i know someone who got 6 marks above me and got a 7 but i don't know the grade boundries, but i'm guessing i was close to it? not sure. predicted a 6A
gulp.
art textiles: a 4. yes you saw that right. f-o-u-r, four. i think this was the breaking point for me see the page, 5s i'm used to but a 4? how did my grade divide into 2? sure i haven't been putting too much focus into textiles but a goddamn 4. honestly i'm quite ashamed of myself. i mean i can defend myself, that only included the component we were working on from this year (or in my case november) predicted a 6A (i mean its a 9 upside down i guess?)
business: in all fairness, some of the questions on this paper, we had done in an old mock so i should have gotten better haha i got a 6 and predicted a 7C
computer science: so for computer science we did 2 papers, and i thought i would have done better in programming than theory but there wasn't much of a difference- wish i had improved a bit more overall i got a 7 and predicted a 7C
german: i got a 5 and was 2 marks off a 6 (0.83% omg) so predicted a 6C quite happy now predicted a 6C
further maths: in all fairness i'm not even good at maths, so why did i sacrifice my after schools with doing harder maths? when opening that paper, i'm sure i witnessed a pathway to hell- that paper was horrible. i got a 3. sigh first 3 i've gotten (okay i cannot be too harsh on myself i was 3% off a 4) predicted a 4C - not too sure if i should continue tho i already have other subjects which are more of a priority to me especially textiles so there it is i guess.
before you start thinking 'oh your grades haven't changed that much, it's nothing to be sad about', that's the issue. i wanted to have improved myself to achieve the max of the max and quite frankly i know i can do better and am just disappointed in myself for having not put 1000% into revision.
and that's the last time i'm saying that. for non-stop days, i've been chanting that in my head like a daily mantra and honestly it's eating more hours into my life than my procrastination- and isn't something that i need to be lamenting over for any longer. so what am i going to do? am i going to be ignoring these grades? no, it's stuck above my computer so whenever i go out of the room i can see those grades and wonder- 'do i really want this in my actual exams?'. no. will i be talking about these grades to my friends/family/teachers? well that's quite simply my friends don't share their results with me and honestly my parent's have been the most loving and nicest to me in a while (i think they've seen how upset i had become- they finally recongnised that i am serious about doing good). as for my teachers? i have no option i have a sixth from meeting coming up and parents evening- what luck. instead of crying and thinking about these results way more often then i should be doing, i'm going to be working my butt off and in a few years time when i reflect on these times i won't be upset at younger me for not putting enough effort, but rather instead applauding that girl who finally woke up and worked her butt off. of course i can't be saying this all without a target and so here i am, about to welcome your eyes to perhaps what you may consider unrealistic grades that i want to work towards for each subject but quite frankly the last thing i need to be thinking of is low grades so here we go:
english language - 9/8
english literature - 9
maths (edexcel) - 9
biology - 9
chemistry - 9/8/7
physics - 9/8
art textiles - I AM GETTING MY 9 BACK.
business - 9
computer science - 9
german - 7/6
further maths(?) - not sure if i will be doing but if so - 8/7
so here we have my long list of results i want- fine they all may consist of 7/8/9 which i haven't really been getting but that doesn't stop me and that doesn't stop you either! if you've been reading this out of enjoyment (a bit sadistic i must admit laughing over me getting a 3), or because of procrastination- i want you guys to introduce yourself, along with the grades you want. not the grades that the schools wants you to have., not what your parents want you to have. but you. you are going to be sitting these tests- not your mum(unfortunately), you're going to be the one whose going to use these for A-Level/BTEC/T-Levels applications, you're the ones who will be getting the benefits and the drawbacks. don't limit yourself- you can always do it! if i could go from a 19/34 to 26/34 then you could honestly do so much more than you could even think of! sorry if this sounded really rant-y at certain points but i need to get this off my mind and focus on more important things like my grades, my family and friends.
please feel free to offer advice or post your own story on here! did i cry writing this? yes. will i be doing this ever again? of course not, who do you think i am?
- lots of love x
now i'll like for you guys to imagine you're me- a (recently turned!) 16 year old who goes to a grammar school with high expectations looming over you from parents to teacher, as well as being the first child- what a dream right? haha, no. going to a grammar school and being the worst in most of your classes is an interesting experience to say the least, saying you got a 6/7 in the classroom will make you look dumb, but saying you aren't happy with a 6/7 out of school makes you look 'ungrateful'. but i'm not here to trauma dump but instead ask for help!
a few days ago (and a day before my birthday-what luck), we were lead in a line and marched to the school hall (figuratively), where we prepared and embarked on the painful journey that was yet to come (literally). we got an envelope, in which contained our grades as well as our predictions. having, at that point, seen most of my scores from test papers, i was feeling confident about myself- maybe i had reached all my predictions! maybe i had surpassed them! maybe i got all 7/8/9s.... that was far from the true reality. there lying on the neon orange sheet of paper lay a row of one 8, one 7, five 6s, two 5s, one 4, and i hate to say this but one 3. immediately tears developed in my eyes but i held them in and looked up warily and got my bag and got in the car. my mum asked me how was it and i immediately opened my mouth but nothing came out, except the held in tears. now why would i cry over these results if i'm used to getting all 6's. well the funny thing is i'm not. in my september assessments i had gotten one 9, four 7s,two 6s, two 5s and one 4 (no further maths test this time). after getting the september results i was optimistic and told myself that i could aim high and next to my report i jotted down the next grades i had wanted to get in my next report- i have not gotten one of them. now i know what you're thinking, 'boo-hoo, so what you didn't put the work in did you', but i did! at least thats what i was telling myself as i was weeping whilst cutting out my textiles images (cannot be behind on coursework- learnt that the hard way) except now i'm not in that state of mind, and quite frankly i want to bloody improve myself and get ready for my gcse's and quite frankly i know there's other people like me who cannot follow the tips of an all 9s student on youtube- and that's okay! i want to create this thread to help people like me and you, as well as share resources and help us smash this!! gcse's better watch out...
well since i made this thread, i'll like to start with myself and share my grades from year 10 end of year exams (oh dear) my september mocks and january mocks as well as predictions from both of those time periods- i know not all schools have this so just say you mock results if you can! (for context of predictions: A- definitely and could work to the next grade, B- fairly sure, C-you could, but if you don't put the work in then maybe you'l get lower) this is a non-judge zone so honestly blurt away with concerns, or achievements or even when it's your dog's birthday! so here i go...
year 10: quite frankly a crazy year in my opinion, yet one which i cannot remember a singe thing from right now. i think this applied to me back then as well considering my results...
english language: (I WILL LIKE TO DEFEND LITTLE ME DESPITE THE FACT THAT I NEVER REVISED OR DID WORK FOR ENGLISH, BUT THE DEPARTMENT NEVER TOLD US WHAT PAPER/QUESTIONS COULD COME UP SO HONESTLY WHAT DID THEY EXPECT) in the end it was p1 q5 and i got a 5 - predicted a 6A
english literature: (I WILL LIKE TO DEFEND LITTLE ME DESPITE THE FACT THAT I NEVER REVISED OR DID WORK FOR ENGLISH, BUT THE DEPARTMENT NEVER TOLD US WHAT PAPER/QUESTIONS COULD COME UP SO HONESTLY WHAT DID THEY EXPECT) it was romeo and juliet, and might i like to add the first time we've done a timed essay!, oh how i have grown to despise these lovers (at that time at least) a 4. it was what it was i guess - predicted a 6A
maths: i always found maths weird- i was good at it when i was fully thinking and unfortunately i end up not fully thinking during these exams... got a 6 in the end - predicted a 7A
biology: now i love biology, i find it the easiest science (in terms of content) got a 5
- predicted a 6C chemistry: for the record my teacher was an absolute gem but you know the thing about how gems are always hidden? well that's what he was to my class because i don't think there was one lesson where we properly did work (perks of being in bottom set i guess) got a 5 - predicted a 6C
physics: is it odd that i don't entirely hate it? i hate the content sure but the equations are okay, and that was the only thing saving me for sure (not helpful now knowing that we have the full formula sheet...) i got a 5- predicted a 6C
art textiles: MY FAVOURITE SUBJECT (well back then anyways) in year 9/10 i had always been the creative one in my small class, as well as being quite 'talented' to quote my old teacher, as well as having even won a national textiles competition (please don't try to stalk me thanks x) got a 9- predicted a 9A (hell yeah)
business: okay i mean i like business and my year 10 teacher was a darling- she really helped me improve (despite the fact that i was on the verge of sleep in her lessons) got a 6 (very close to a 7 tho!)- predicted a 7B
computer science: now i feel like 3 types of people take computer science, one which emotionally blackmailed into doing so by their wonderful parents, one which actually are passionate about it and one which have no clue what they signed up to. guess which one i was
okay but in all fairness i must have been proud because in the end i got a 8 and was predicted an 8B! german: deutsch. how do i even begin to talk about german. german. german. german. the 6 letter word i despise more that the language itself (no offense to germans- ich liebe dich!) in lockdown i remember clicking hand in on all the assignments and quits frankly i know why i'm so bad at german but surprisingly i got a 4 (wow) but predicted a 6C? i love my teacher x
so that's my year 10 grades huh. i went on a journey, i have no clue about you guys. considering i had gone on holiday before these exams, and quite frankly just watched a cognito video for revision and called it a day, i was quite honestly happy with that! however i could not help but lament seeing my english grades- i mean sure i hadn't revised but come on i can't be getting a 4 in a language i speak in - that's reserved for german only! in the summer i got interested into reading (again) and quite honestly i want to go back to that time where i could curl up in a heap and read sigh.
september mocks:
okay so you're me on the first day of the school: what do you do- A- say hi to your friends, B- see how ridiculous the 'popular' girls tan is, or C- prepare to embark on your last year of school. the answer is- none of them!
instead i went into the exam hall and sat exams how lovely!
english language: (they did learn their lesson and tell us the paper this time x) A 7. HOW DID I GET A 7 IN A PAPER 2 THAT I HADN'T EVEN DONE BEFORE. this is proof that reading works wonders for your mind! (and also watching mr salles/mr everything english) predicted a.. wait for it.. 8C. AN 8C HOLY SH-
english lit: (must have been christmas considering they told us what this was on as well) A 7 AS WELL. WHAT WAS I ON DURING THESE EXAMS. okay in all fairness tho i did enjoy Lord of the Flies book, so this exam was a bliss for me. predicted a 8C as well! see my excitement when i saw how much i improved omg!
maths: okay fine. those 2 papers were quite frankly horrible. i got a 5 and predicted a 7C (understandable)
biology: a 7! i was so happy seeing that predicted 7B
chemistry: honestly could have gone worse (surprisingly got close to a 7 tho) a 6 and predicted a 6B
physics: was a bit disappointing as i did revise a lot for physics
i got a 6 and predicted a 6B textiles: didn't sit an exam so my result stayed the same
i got a 9 and predicted a 9A business: got a 7 thank god! predicted a 7B
computer science: this is where it went downhill. in all fairness i find that i'm stronger at programming and this was a theory paper i got a 5 and predicted a 7C
german: okay in the summer i actually did do some german, going over how to say hi! or how to say what i ate (ich esse ein kekse, lecker!) i got a 4 but was predicted a 5C - was a bit sad for predicted but hey ho.
year 11 has honestly been one of maybe the worse years of my life but also the best. now i know that most people say 'oh my teachers are bad'- but when i tell you my biology teacher does not give a damn about us (proof from today's lesson in fact- was on her phone instead of teaching us about ecology- a brand new topic which she zoomed us through the last topic just to get us along to what the other classes are on), so what made it worse was the fact that i had 2 new business teachers (even tho our school promised not to give us 2- we've had traumatic experiences in year 9), a new textiles teacher and a new chemistry teacher (probably for the best tho).
off track but i would like to tell you something about textiles! now going to a grammar school which loves to boast about how many 7-9s were achieved (i think 60% of the year got a 9, not too sure tho), it's quite obvious straight away that no one gives a care about the arts faculty, let alone textiles. this was so obvious due to sketchbooks. having a new teacher, she obviously wanted us to do one 'normal' project with her and so obvious we need sketchbooks to do so right? so our school decided to order these 'heavily discounted sketchbooks' in the ripe time of september. now even being a toddler at this point, we know how awful delivery times are, and having ordered these books from the pig branded ones, which are handmade, of course they would have come after a while! and so they came in the ripe time of november! a month before our mock! because we could obviously finish a whole project by then, as well as juggle 9/10 other subjects! whilst we were doing work, no doubt, i had never started mounting my work, or creating enough pieces, as i had no sketchbook! thats like asking a painter to paint a picture without the canvas? and so i decided to put more focus into other subjects instead and do textiles when my sketchbook came. now if you're in year 10 and are doing any subject with coursework, i say this from the bottom of my heart, FINISH YOUR COURSEWORK RIGHRT NOW. I'M BEING SERIOUS, STOP READING AND WORK BECAUSE COURSEWORK IS HELL. i always eye-rolled when the pesky art student would say coursework was hell, so i guess it was karma ha. another thing about art/ textiles is that its a subjective subject- all teachers have different expectations, and no two people have the same criteria of work to include in the sketchbook, as well as personal preferences. now i will say that i do not mind this teacher, shes honestly a gem- but oh god she must hate me. whenever i showed her my work she would tell me 'it's good!' but never told me what specifically she was looking for in a sketchbook, or any amendments i should make (despite the fact that she was basically doing some of the other girls projects for them essentially). i do think shes sweet, but i honestly miss my old textiles teacher too much, as i do think that she understood my work more and just in general. when it comes to the new business teachers, i think its safe to say that i've not learnt anything this year- which is especially concerning considering we're doing finance and marketing which is worth 50% of our gcse! but who's counting? instead we're making powerpoint quizzes about our own product which don't get me wrong is fun, but not so fun knowing that we could be finishing and actually learning content quicker but whatever. chemistry is a meh, a good thing about this teacher? no one talks during lesson anymore! a bad thing about this teacher? i have no clue what we're doing. in all fairness i do not get chemistry at all, and organic chem isn't my best friend considering i don't really know anything in chemistry at all.
so the horrible results you've been waiting for? here it goes:
english lang: first full mock! paper 2 i got a 6. how did i downgrade from my september mocks even tho it was the same paper type? (looking at the grade boundries tho i was a mark off a 7 so not too bad i suppose, but still disappointing) am predicted a 7A now
english lit: now before someone calls me ungrateful, please do note this was my highest grade- i'll do whatever i want. this was a full paper 1, with romeo and juliet and pride and prejudice- in which i got a 8! now i know- i literally doubled my grade in half a year i should be happy- and yes i am! i cannot believe that i got 80% like what oh my god. the only thing is tho i can't help but wishing i had done more (doesn't everyone tho) since my feedback was to do with the lack of quotes (the points which i made had referred to them but not used them and i said 'disobedient wrench' instead of 'wretch' sigh) but predicted an 8C now!
WARNING: GOES DOWN HILL FROM HERE now being in a grammar school, it's no surprise that people want to do the best they can- but there can be a bit too much. our biology paper was a split of the actual gcse paper in 2023 so how people got access to the markscheme i have no clue, but because of that a lot of our papers grade boundries became inflated, so whilst i had got a certain grade for a certain subject i am being a bit lenient with myself as in nearly all cases i was a few marks off..
biology: i got a 6. of course its not a bad grade but honestly disappointed but was close to the next grade boundary, hence why being predicted a 7C
chemistry: i got a 5. now i'm no good at chemistry and honestly this was the most justifiable for me, so i'm definitely not in shock from that and does tell me that i need to put way more attention into chemistry
predicted a 6C physics: i got a 6. i know someone who got 6 marks above me and got a 7 but i don't know the grade boundries, but i'm guessing i was close to it? not sure. predicted a 6A
gulp.
art textiles: a 4. yes you saw that right. f-o-u-r, four. i think this was the breaking point for me see the page, 5s i'm used to but a 4? how did my grade divide into 2? sure i haven't been putting too much focus into textiles but a goddamn 4. honestly i'm quite ashamed of myself. i mean i can defend myself, that only included the component we were working on from this year (or in my case november) predicted a 6A (i mean its a 9 upside down i guess?)
business: in all fairness, some of the questions on this paper, we had done in an old mock so i should have gotten better haha i got a 6 and predicted a 7C
computer science: so for computer science we did 2 papers, and i thought i would have done better in programming than theory but there wasn't much of a difference- wish i had improved a bit more overall i got a 7 and predicted a 7C
german: i got a 5 and was 2 marks off a 6 (0.83% omg) so predicted a 6C quite happy now
predicted a 6C further maths: in all fairness i'm not even good at maths, so why did i sacrifice my after schools with doing harder maths? when opening that paper, i'm sure i witnessed a pathway to hell- that paper was horrible. i got a 3. sigh first 3 i've gotten (okay i cannot be too harsh on myself i was 3% off a 4) predicted a 4C - not too sure if i should continue tho i already have other subjects which are more of a priority to me especially textiles so there it is i guess.
before you start thinking 'oh your grades haven't changed that much, it's nothing to be sad about', that's the issue. i wanted to have improved myself to achieve the max of the max and quite frankly i know i can do better and am just disappointed in myself for having not put 1000% into revision.
and that's the last time i'm saying that. for non-stop days, i've been chanting that in my head like a daily mantra and honestly it's eating more hours into my life than my procrastination- and isn't something that i need to be lamenting over for any longer. so what am i going to do? am i going to be ignoring these grades? no, it's stuck above my computer so whenever i go out of the room i can see those grades and wonder- 'do i really want this in my actual exams?'. no. will i be talking about these grades to my friends/family/teachers? well that's quite simply my friends don't share their results with me and honestly my parent's have been the most loving and nicest to me in a while (i think they've seen how upset i had become- they finally recongnised that i am serious about doing good). as for my teachers? i have no option i have a sixth from meeting coming up and parents evening- what luck. instead of crying and thinking about these results way more often then i should be doing, i'm going to be working my butt off and in a few years time when i reflect on these times i won't be upset at younger me for not putting enough effort, but rather instead applauding that girl who finally woke up and worked her butt off. of course i can't be saying this all without a target and so here i am, about to welcome your eyes to perhaps what you may consider unrealistic grades that i want to work towards for each subject but quite frankly the last thing i need to be thinking of is low grades so here we go:
english language - 9/8
english literature - 9
maths (edexcel) - 9
biology - 9
chemistry - 9/8/7
physics - 9/8
art textiles - I AM GETTING MY 9 BACK.
business - 9
computer science - 9
german - 7/6
further maths(?) - not sure if i will be doing but if so - 8/7
so here we have my long list of results i want- fine they all may consist of 7/8/9 which i haven't really been getting but that doesn't stop me and that doesn't stop you either! if you've been reading this out of enjoyment (a bit sadistic i must admit laughing over me getting a 3), or because of procrastination- i want you guys to introduce yourself, along with the grades you want. not the grades that the schools wants you to have., not what your parents want you to have. but you. you are going to be sitting these tests- not your mum(unfortunately), you're going to be the one whose going to use these for A-Level/BTEC/T-Levels applications, you're the ones who will be getting the benefits and the drawbacks. don't limit yourself- you can always do it! if i could go from a 19/34 to 26/34 then you could honestly do so much more than you could even think of! sorry if this sounded really rant-y at certain points but i need to get this off my mind and focus on more important things like my grades, my family and friends.
please feel free to offer advice or post your own story on here!
did i cry writing this? yes. will i be doing this ever again? of course not, who do you think i am? - lots of love x
1.
maths-make flashcards for the topics you don't know and look at the specification to see what you need to know, maths genie is really helpful it has videos and questions you can do and so many past papers for multiple exam boards
2.
further maths-youtube and I also use a revision guide (I think its the cgp one) but Dr Frost and integral help a lot too
3.
sciences-I'm quite good at biology and chemistry but physics is the bane of my existence, I have quizlets for each topic which cover everything on the spec but I use free science lessons and cognito (the website and youtube) and on cognito you can get questions for each topic
4.
english language-I made flashcards on how to answer each question and I used Mr Everything english on youtube, I also made a quizlet for ambituous vocabulary, structural devices, language devices and punctuation so I know what to look for in the text
5.
english lit-we might do different stuff (I do romeo and juliet, pride and prejudice, an inspector calls and power and conflict for aqa) but for me I do mindmaps (one for each character, one for each theme and one for devices ) and I add quotes and analyse them (like 5 for each one but see if you can do ones that work for as many as possible) and I put them on a quizlet with the theme on one side and the quotes on the other and test myself on them, I also have flashcards on how to answer each question. For this I'm quite lucky because I have a good teacher but I also use Mr Salles and Mr everything english
6.
german-I don't take german but I take french, spanish and chinese so this might be helpful, revise the specification vocab like your life depends on it(you can probably find a quizlet with all of it) because in the reading and listening they are very unlikely to test you on any other vocab, for speaking your teacher has probably given you some questions, if not you can normally find a list of suggested ones by clicking on a speaking past paper (teachers copy) on the exam board website and find some to practice with, make sure to use tenses, opinions complex structures and try to make your answers as long as possible, also if you are doing aqa make sure to ask a question in general conversation, answer at least 3 sentences in the photocard and answer with as little detail as possible in the roleplay to avoid mistakes, for writing you can basically use the speaking questions but make a list of complex structures youv wan't to include and make sure to answer every bullet point
7.
business-idk a lot about this one but probs quizlet or seneca will help and doing practice questions you can probably find some on a website called studymind if you click on past papers
8.
computer science-good luck omg this one is difficult loads of my friends take it
9.
Art textiles-respect but rip ur free time
10.
you are doing amazing this is such a stressful year and I hope this helps and you achieve your dream grades because its definitely within your reach! xx
11.
also if it helps I can send quizlet links xx
Original post by emma_eep
Hi I'm also in Year 11 and can definitely relate to the stress as I'm writing this I'm midway through my second set of mocks even though I had a set of mocks in december and my school has come up with the genius idea of just giving us regular lessons in between our mock exams which has been very stressful and I think might actually drop my grades but nvm. I take maths, eng lang, eng lit, bio, chem, physics, rs, french, spanish, chinese, history, further maths, fsmq and I took statistics last year and am currently predicted all 9s apart from physics and english lit (8) (unfortunately not computer science, german, textiles or business) but the rest I take the same although it might be a different exam board (most of mine are AQA but maths is edexcel and history is OCR)
1.
maths-make flashcards for the topics you don't know and look at the specification to see what you need to know, maths genie is really helpful it has videos and questions you can do and so many past papers for multiple exam boards
2.
further maths-youtube and I also use a revision guide (I think its the cgp one) but Dr Frost and integral help a lot too
3.
sciences-I'm quite good at biology and chemistry but physics is the bane of my existence, I have quizlets for each topic which cover everything on the spec but I use free science lessons and cognito (the website and youtube) and on cognito you can get questions for each topic
4.
english language-I made flashcards on how to answer each question and I used Mr Everything english on youtube, I also made a quizlet for ambituous vocabulary, structural devices, language devices and punctuation so I know what to look for in the text
5.
english lit-we might do different stuff (I do romeo and juliet, pride and prejudice, an inspector calls and power and conflict for aqa) but for me I do mindmaps (one for each character, one for each theme and one for devices ) and I add quotes and analyse them (like 5 for each one but see if you can do ones that work for as many as possible) and I put them on a quizlet with the theme on one side and the quotes on the other and test myself on them, I also have flashcards on how to answer each question. For this I'm quite lucky because I have a good teacher but I also use Mr Salles and Mr everything english
6.
german-I don't take german but I take french, spanish and chinese so this might be helpful, revise the specification vocab like your life depends on it(you can probably find a quizlet with all of it) because in the reading and listening they are very unlikely to test you on any other vocab, for speaking your teacher has probably given you some questions, if not you can normally find a list of suggested ones by clicking on a speaking past paper (teachers copy) on the exam board website and find some to practice with, make sure to use tenses, opinions complex structures and try to make your answers as long as possible, also if you are doing aqa make sure to ask a question in general conversation, answer at least 3 sentences in the photocard and answer with as little detail as possible in the roleplay to avoid mistakes, for writing you can basically use the speaking questions but make a list of complex structures youv wan't to include and make sure to answer every bullet point
7.
business-idk a lot about this one but probs quizlet or seneca will help and doing practice questions you can probably find some on a website called studymind if you click on past papers
8.
computer science-good luck omg this one is difficult loads of my friends take it
9.
Art textiles-respect but rip ur free time
10.
you are doing amazing this is such a stressful year and I hope this helps and you achieve your dream grades because its definitely within your reach! xx
11.
also if it helps I can send quizlet links xx
, honestly how are you managing that many at once, as well as lessons on the side? and the first person i’ve heard doing pride and prejudice as well! (i do romeo and juliet, lord of the flies and love and relationship poetry cluster) if you need someone to talk to about how annoying lydia is here i am 
for sciences, i find that i lose marks due to application questions since i know the topic, but not well enough to answer a 6 marker on- so how do you approach this? honestly i am quite petrified of physics especially knowing that we're getting all the formulas when that was the only thing i was good at, so now i actually have to properly understand the topics (note to self: LEARN THE GENERATOR EFFECT ASAP) also you’re so true about german/ foreign language speaking - i am learning the most for speaking since that’s my strongest (somehow) also the picture task couldn’t have been truer! i find that my writing paper mostly my 150 words answer, tends to be what brings my grades down- do you have any tips that works for you? you’re so sweet and i hope the best for you! i’ll love to share resources with you and vice versa- let me know if you’re open to that! private message me if so (edited 2 months ago)
Original post by lizzyboo
ah yay! honestly your predicted grades are incredible- your lowest is my best haha, so don’t worry i’m sure you’re going to do great. also hello let’s address that you literally do 14 subjects?! you’re an icon , honestly how are you managing that many at once, as well as lessons on the side? and the first person i’ve heard doing pride and prejudice as well! (i do romeo and juliet, lord of the flies and love and relationship poetry cluster) if you need someone to talk to about how annoying lydia is here i am for sciences, i find that i lose marks due to application questions since i know the topic, but not well enough to answer a 6 marker on- so how do you approach this? honestly i am quite petrified of physics especially knowing that we're getting all the formulas when that was the only thing i was good at, so now i actually have to properly understand the topics (note to self: LEARN THE GENERATOR EFFECT ASAP) also you’re so true about german/ foreign language speaking - i am learning the most for speaking since that’s my strongest (somehow) also the picture task couldn’t have been truer! i find that my writing paper mostly my 150 words answer, tends to be what brings my grades down- do you have any tips that works for you? you’re so sweet and i hope the best for you! i’ll love to share resources with you and vice versa- let me know if you’re open to that! private message me if so
, honestly how are you managing that many at once, as well as lessons on the side? and the first person i’ve heard doing pride and prejudice as well! (i do romeo and juliet, lord of the flies and love and relationship poetry cluster) if you need someone to talk to about how annoying lydia is here i am for sciences, i find that i lose marks due to application questions since i know the topic, but not well enough to answer a 6 marker on- so how do you approach this? honestly i am quite petrified of physics especially knowing that we're getting all the formulas when that was the only thing i was good at, so now i actually have to properly understand the topics (note to self: LEARN THE GENERATOR EFFECT ASAP) also you’re so true about german/ foreign language speaking - i am learning the most for speaking since that’s my strongest (somehow) also the picture task couldn’t have been truer! i find that my writing paper mostly my 150 words answer, tends to be what brings my grades down- do you have any tips that works for you? you’re so sweet and i hope the best for you! i’ll love to share resources with you and vice versa- let me know if you’re open to that! private message me if so Original post by lizzyboo
hi, first of all, thank you so much for clicking on this, let alone reading this- i was in a bit of a mess writing this at 1 am your advice sounds great and from the sound of it i take that you're doing A-Level Biology? when it comes to sciences i specifically find it quite hard to answer application based questions, so do you have any methods that worked best for you when it came to revising? i find that whilst i can remember most of the content, i don't think i know it in that much depth to write an answer to the 'plan the experiment' sort of questions. also good luck on A-Levels- you're going to smash this!
your advice sounds great and from the sound of it i take that you're doing A-Level Biology? when it comes to sciences i specifically find it quite hard to answer application based questions, so do you have any methods that worked best for you when it came to revising? i find that whilst i can remember most of the content, i don't think i know it in that much depth to write an answer to the 'plan the experiment' sort of questions. also good luck on A-Levels- you're going to smash this!I don't feel like I do anything different in the practicals, as I vaguely remember doing them (not helpful, I know). As a minimum, make sure you have repeats, independent variable, control variables, and dependent variables, and you're bound to get a few marks. I would make flashcards for the last three, but control variables are very similar across all experiments. I guess also watch videos on the practicals to jog your memory. We used to do a test on each practical after we did it and if your school doesn't maybe go over it a few days later to get a clearer understanding from the start.
Also, thank you so much! I know you're going to do well in your GCSEs, as you clearly have the determination and proper mindset to improve.
Original post by emma_eep
I would absolutely love that thank you so much, unfortunately it keeps saying I can't private message even though I've literally had this account for two years so I maybe could give you my email or phone number on here and then delete the message? Xx
Original post by s.a.r.humphreys
One thing I do now for biology, but didn't at GCSE, was reading the mark schemes. I copy them out when I don't get every single one of the mark schemes. Even if the questions are not exactly the same, a lot of the marking points will be similar, and some of them are a few words to remember.
I don't feel like I do anything different in the practicals, as I vaguely remember doing them (not helpful, I know). As a minimum, make sure you have repeats, independent variable, control variables, and dependent variables, and you're bound to get a few marks. I would make flashcards for the last three, but control variables are very similar across all experiments. I guess also watch videos on the practicals to jog your memory. We used to do a test on each practical after we did it and if your school doesn't maybe go over it a few days later to get a clearer understanding from the start.
Also, thank you so much! I know you're going to do well in your GCSEs, as you clearly have the determination and proper mindset to improve.
I don't feel like I do anything different in the practicals, as I vaguely remember doing them (not helpful, I know). As a minimum, make sure you have repeats, independent variable, control variables, and dependent variables, and you're bound to get a few marks. I would make flashcards for the last three, but control variables are very similar across all experiments. I guess also watch videos on the practicals to jog your memory. We used to do a test on each practical after we did it and if your school doesn't maybe go over it a few days later to get a clearer understanding from the start.
Also, thank you so much! I know you're going to do well in your GCSEs, as you clearly have the determination and proper mindset to improve.
practicals in biology are something that i will be keeping an eye out for- thank you for your help!Original post by emma_eep
emmakatesword at gmail . com xx
Original post by lizzyboo
first of all, did i just make a new account just to start venting on the internet on a student forum? yes i did.
now i'll like for you guys to imagine you're me- a (recently turned!) 16 year old who goes to a grammar school with high expectations looming over you from parents to teacher, as well as being the first child- what a dream right? haha, no. going to a grammar school and being the worst in most of your classes is an interesting experience to say the least, saying you got a 6/7 in the classroom will make you look dumb, but saying you aren't happy with a 6/7 out of school makes you look 'ungrateful'. but i'm not here to trauma dump but instead ask for help!
a few days ago (and a day before my birthday-what luck), we were lead in a line and marched to the school hall (figuratively), where we prepared and embarked on the painful journey that was yet to come (literally). we got an envelope, in which contained our grades as well as our predictions. having, at that point, seen most of my scores from test papers, i was feeling confident about myself- maybe i had reached all my predictions! maybe i had surpassed them! maybe i got all 7/8/9s.... that was far from the true reality. there lying on the neon orange sheet of paper lay a row of one 8, one 7, five 6s, two 5s, one 4, and i hate to say this but one 3. immediately tears developed in my eyes but i held them in and looked up warily and got my bag and got in the car. my mum asked me how was it and i immediately opened my mouth but nothing came out, except the held in tears. now why would i cry over these results if i'm used to getting all 6's. well the funny thing is i'm not. in my september assessments i had gotten one 9, four 7s,two 6s, two 5s and one 4 (no further maths test this time). after getting the september results i was optimistic and told myself that i could aim high and next to my report i jotted down the next grades i had wanted to get in my next report- i have not gotten one of them. now i know what you're thinking, 'boo-hoo, so what you didn't put the work in did you', but i did! at least thats what i was telling myself as i was weeping whilst cutting out my textiles images (cannot be behind on coursework- learnt that the hard way) except now i'm not in that state of mind, and quite frankly i want to bloody improve myself and get ready for my gcse's and quite frankly i know there's other people like me who cannot follow the tips of an all 9s student on youtube- and that's okay! i want to create this thread to help people like me and you, as well as share resources and help us smash this!! gcse's better watch out...
well since i made this thread, i'll like to start with myself and share my grades from year 10 end of year exams (oh dear) my september mocks and january mocks as well as predictions from both of those time periods- i know not all schools have this so just say you mock results if you can! (for context of predictions: A- definitely and could work to the next grade, B- fairly sure, C-you could, but if you don't put the work in then maybe you'l get lower) this is a non-judge zone so honestly blurt away with concerns, or achievements or even when it's your dog's birthday! so here i go...
year 10: quite frankly a crazy year in my opinion, yet one which i cannot remember a singe thing from right now. i think this applied to me back then as well considering my results...
english language: (I WILL LIKE TO DEFEND LITTLE ME DESPITE THE FACT THAT I NEVER REVISED OR DID WORK FOR ENGLISH, BUT THE DEPARTMENT NEVER TOLD US WHAT PAPER/QUESTIONS COULD COME UP SO HONESTLY WHAT DID THEY EXPECT) in the end it was p1 q5 and i got a 5 - predicted a 6A
english literature: (I WILL LIKE TO DEFEND LITTLE ME DESPITE THE FACT THAT I NEVER REVISED OR DID WORK FOR ENGLISH, BUT THE DEPARTMENT NEVER TOLD US WHAT PAPER/QUESTIONS COULD COME UP SO HONESTLY WHAT DID THEY EXPECT) it was romeo and juliet, and might i like to add the first time we've done a timed essay!, oh how i have grown to despise these lovers (at that time at least) a 4. it was what it was i guess - predicted a 6A
maths: i always found maths weird- i was good at it when i was fully thinking and unfortunately i end up not fully thinking during these exams... got a 6 in the end - predicted a 7A
biology: now i love biology, i find it the easiest science (in terms of content) got a 5 - predicted a 6C
chemistry: for the record my teacher was an absolute gem but you know the thing about how gems are always hidden? well that's what he was to my class because i don't think there was one lesson where we properly did work (perks of being in bottom set i guess) got a 5 - predicted a 6C
physics: is it odd that i don't entirely hate it? i hate the content sure but the equations are okay, and that was the only thing saving me for sure (not helpful now knowing that we have the full formula sheet...) i got a 5- predicted a 6C
art textiles: MY FAVOURITE SUBJECT (well back then anyways) in year 9/10 i had always been the creative one in my small class, as well as being quite 'talented' to quote my old teacher, as well as having even won a national textiles competition (please don't try to stalk me thanks x) got a 9- predicted a 9A (hell yeah)
business: okay i mean i like business and my year 10 teacher was a darling- she really helped me improve (despite the fact that i was on the verge of sleep in her lessons) got a 6 (very close to a 7 tho!)- predicted a 7B
computer science: now i feel like 3 types of people take computer science, one which emotionally blackmailed into doing so by their wonderful parents, one which actually are passionate about it and one which have no clue what they signed up to. guess which one i was okay but in all fairness i must have been proud because in the end i got a 8 and was predicted an 8B!
german: deutsch. how do i even begin to talk about german. german. german. german. the 6 letter word i despise more that the language itself (no offense to germans- ich liebe dich!) in lockdown i remember clicking hand in on all the assignments and quits frankly i know why i'm so bad at german but surprisingly i got a 4 (wow) but predicted a 6C? i love my teacher x
so that's my year 10 grades huh. i went on a journey, i have no clue about you guys. considering i had gone on holiday before these exams, and quite frankly just watched a cognito video for revision and called it a day, i was quite honestly happy with that! however i could not help but lament seeing my english grades- i mean sure i hadn't revised but come on i can't be getting a 4 in a language i speak in - that's reserved for german only! in the summer i got interested into reading (again) and quite honestly i want to go back to that time where i could curl up in a heap and read sigh.
september mocks:
okay so you're me on the first day of the school: what do you do- A- say hi to your friends, B- see how ridiculous the 'popular' girls tan is, or C- prepare to embark on your last year of school. the answer is- none of them!
instead i went into the exam hall and sat exams how lovely!
english language: (they did learn their lesson and tell us the paper this time x) A 7. HOW DID I GET A 7 IN A PAPER 2 THAT I HADN'T EVEN DONE BEFORE. this is proof that reading works wonders for your mind! (and also watching mr salles/mr everything english) predicted a.. wait for it.. 8C. AN 8C HOLY SH-
english lit: (must have been christmas considering they told us what this was on as well) A 7 AS WELL. WHAT WAS I ON DURING THESE EXAMS. okay in all fairness tho i did enjoy Lord of the Flies book, so this exam was a bliss for me. predicted a 8C as well! see my excitement when i saw how much i improved omg!
maths: okay fine. those 2 papers were quite frankly horrible. i got a 5 and predicted a 7C (understandable)
biology: a 7! i was so happy seeing that predicted 7B
chemistry: honestly could have gone worse (surprisingly got close to a 7 tho) a 6 and predicted a 6B
physics: was a bit disappointing as i did revise a lot for physics i got a 6 and predicted a 6B
textiles: didn't sit an exam so my result stayed the same i got a 9 and predicted a 9A
business: got a 7 thank god! predicted a 7B
computer science: this is where it went downhill. in all fairness i find that i'm stronger at programming and this was a theory paper i got a 5 and predicted a 7C
german: okay in the summer i actually did do some german, going over how to say hi! or how to say what i ate (ich esse ein kekse, lecker!) i got a 4 but was predicted a 5C - was a bit sad for predicted but hey ho.
year 11 has honestly been one of maybe the worse years of my life but also the best. now i know that most people say 'oh my teachers are bad'- but when i tell you my biology teacher does not give a damn about us (proof from today's lesson in fact- was on her phone instead of teaching us about ecology- a brand new topic which she zoomed us through the last topic just to get us along to what the other classes are on), so what made it worse was the fact that i had 2 new business teachers (even tho our school promised not to give us 2- we've had traumatic experiences in year 9), a new textiles teacher and a new chemistry teacher (probably for the best tho).
off track but i would like to tell you something about textiles! now going to a grammar school which loves to boast about how many 7-9s were achieved (i think 60% of the year got a 9, not too sure tho), it's quite obvious straight away that no one gives a care about the arts faculty, let alone textiles. this was so obvious due to sketchbooks. having a new teacher, she obviously wanted us to do one 'normal' project with her and so obvious we need sketchbooks to do so right? so our school decided to order these 'heavily discounted sketchbooks' in the ripe time of september. now even being a toddler at this point, we know how awful delivery times are, and having ordered these books from the pig branded ones, which are handmade, of course they would have come after a while! and so they came in the ripe time of november! a month before our mock! because we could obviously finish a whole project by then, as well as juggle 9/10 other subjects! whilst we were doing work, no doubt, i had never started mounting my work, or creating enough pieces, as i had no sketchbook! thats like asking a painter to paint a picture without the canvas? and so i decided to put more focus into other subjects instead and do textiles when my sketchbook came. now if you're in year 10 and are doing any subject with coursework, i say this from the bottom of my heart, FINISH YOUR COURSEWORK RIGHRT NOW. I'M BEING SERIOUS, STOP READING AND WORK BECAUSE COURSEWORK IS HELL. i always eye-rolled when the pesky art student would say coursework was hell, so i guess it was karma ha. another thing about art/ textiles is that its a subjective subject- all teachers have different expectations, and no two people have the same criteria of work to include in the sketchbook, as well as personal preferences. now i will say that i do not mind this teacher, shes honestly a gem- but oh god she must hate me. whenever i showed her my work she would tell me 'it's good!' but never told me what specifically she was looking for in a sketchbook, or any amendments i should make (despite the fact that she was basically doing some of the other girls projects for them essentially). i do think shes sweet, but i honestly miss my old textiles teacher too much, as i do think that she understood my work more and just in general. when it comes to the new business teachers, i think its safe to say that i've not learnt anything this year- which is especially concerning considering we're doing finance and marketing which is worth 50% of our gcse! but who's counting? instead we're making powerpoint quizzes about our own product which don't get me wrong is fun, but not so fun knowing that we could be finishing and actually learning content quicker but whatever. chemistry is a meh, a good thing about this teacher? no one talks during lesson anymore! a bad thing about this teacher? i have no clue what we're doing. in all fairness i do not get chemistry at all, and organic chem isn't my best friend considering i don't really know anything in chemistry at all.
so the horrible results you've been waiting for? here it goes:
english lang: first full mock! paper 2 i got a 6. how did i downgrade from my september mocks even tho it was the same paper type? (looking at the grade boundries tho i was a mark off a 7 so not too bad i suppose, but still disappointing) am predicted a 7A now
english lit: now before someone calls me ungrateful, please do note this was my highest grade- i'll do whatever i want. this was a full paper 1, with romeo and juliet and pride and prejudice- in which i got a 8! now i know- i literally doubled my grade in half a year i should be happy- and yes i am! i cannot believe that i got 80% like what oh my god. the only thing is tho i can't help but wishing i had done more (doesn't everyone tho) since my feedback was to do with the lack of quotes (the points which i made had referred to them but not used them and i said 'disobedient wrench' instead of 'wretch' sigh) but predicted an 8C now!
WARNING: GOES DOWN HILL FROM HERE now being in a grammar school, it's no surprise that people want to do the best they can- but there can be a bit too much. our biology paper was a split of the actual gcse paper in 2023 so how people got access to the markscheme i have no clue, but because of that a lot of our papers grade boundries became inflated, so whilst i had got a certain grade for a certain subject i am being a bit lenient with myself as in nearly all cases i was a few marks off..
biology: i got a 6. of course its not a bad grade but honestly disappointed but was close to the next grade boundary, hence why being predicted a 7C
chemistry: i got a 5. now i'm no good at chemistry and honestly this was the most justifiable for me, so i'm definitely not in shock from that and does tell me that i need to put way more attention into chemistry predicted a 6C
physics: i got a 6. i know someone who got 6 marks above me and got a 7 but i don't know the grade boundries, but i'm guessing i was close to it? not sure. predicted a 6A
gulp.
art textiles: a 4. yes you saw that right. f-o-u-r, four. i think this was the breaking point for me see the page, 5s i'm used to but a 4? how did my grade divide into 2? sure i haven't been putting too much focus into textiles but a goddamn 4. honestly i'm quite ashamed of myself. i mean i can defend myself, that only included the component we were working on from this year (or in my case november) predicted a 6A (i mean its a 9 upside down i guess?)
business: in all fairness, some of the questions on this paper, we had done in an old mock so i should have gotten better haha i got a 6 and predicted a 7C
computer science: so for computer science we did 2 papers, and i thought i would have done better in programming than theory but there wasn't much of a difference- wish i had improved a bit more overall i got a 7 and predicted a 7C
german: i got a 5 and was 2 marks off a 6 (0.83% omg) so predicted a 6C quite happy now predicted a 6C
further maths: in all fairness i'm not even good at maths, so why did i sacrifice my after schools with doing harder maths? when opening that paper, i'm sure i witnessed a pathway to hell- that paper was horrible. i got a 3. sigh first 3 i've gotten (okay i cannot be too harsh on myself i was 3% off a 4) predicted a 4C - not too sure if i should continue tho i already have other subjects which are more of a priority to me especially textiles so there it is i guess.
before you start thinking 'oh your grades haven't changed that much, it's nothing to be sad about', that's the issue. i wanted to have improved myself to achieve the max of the max and quite frankly i know i can do better and am just disappointed in myself for having not put 1000% into revision.
and that's the last time i'm saying that. for non-stop days, i've been chanting that in my head like a daily mantra and honestly it's eating more hours into my life than my procrastination- and isn't something that i need to be lamenting over for any longer. so what am i going to do? am i going to be ignoring these grades? no, it's stuck above my computer so whenever i go out of the room i can see those grades and wonder- 'do i really want this in my actual exams?'. no. will i be talking about these grades to my friends/family/teachers? well that's quite simply my friends don't share their results with me and honestly my parent's have been the most loving and nicest to me in a while (i think they've seen how upset i had become- they finally recongnised that i am serious about doing good). as for my teachers? i have no option i have a sixth from meeting coming up and parents evening- what luck. instead of crying and thinking about these results way more often then i should be doing, i'm going to be working my butt off and in a few years time when i reflect on these times i won't be upset at younger me for not putting enough effort, but rather instead applauding that girl who finally woke up and worked her butt off. of course i can't be saying this all without a target and so here i am, about to welcome your eyes to perhaps what you may consider unrealistic grades that i want to work towards for each subject but quite frankly the last thing i need to be thinking of is low grades so here we go:
english language - 9/8
english literature - 9
maths (edexcel) - 9
biology - 9
chemistry - 9/8/7
physics - 9/8
art textiles - I AM GETTING MY 9 BACK.
business - 9
computer science - 9
german - 7/6
further maths(?) - not sure if i will be doing but if so - 8/7
so here we have my long list of results i want- fine they all may consist of 7/8/9 which i haven't really been getting but that doesn't stop me and that doesn't stop you either! if you've been reading this out of enjoyment (a bit sadistic i must admit laughing over me getting a 3), or because of procrastination- i want you guys to introduce yourself, along with the grades you want. not the grades that the schools wants you to have., not what your parents want you to have. but you. you are going to be sitting these tests- not your mum(unfortunately), you're going to be the one whose going to use these for A-Level/BTEC/T-Levels applications, you're the ones who will be getting the benefits and the drawbacks. don't limit yourself- you can always do it! if i could go from a 19/34 to 26/34 then you could honestly do so much more than you could even think of! sorry if this sounded really rant-y at certain points but i need to get this off my mind and focus on more important things like my grades, my family and friends.
please feel free to offer advice or post your own story on here! did i cry writing this? yes. will i be doing this ever again? of course not, who do you think i am?
- lots of love x
now i'll like for you guys to imagine you're me- a (recently turned!) 16 year old who goes to a grammar school with high expectations looming over you from parents to teacher, as well as being the first child- what a dream right? haha, no. going to a grammar school and being the worst in most of your classes is an interesting experience to say the least, saying you got a 6/7 in the classroom will make you look dumb, but saying you aren't happy with a 6/7 out of school makes you look 'ungrateful'. but i'm not here to trauma dump but instead ask for help!
a few days ago (and a day before my birthday-what luck), we were lead in a line and marched to the school hall (figuratively), where we prepared and embarked on the painful journey that was yet to come (literally). we got an envelope, in which contained our grades as well as our predictions. having, at that point, seen most of my scores from test papers, i was feeling confident about myself- maybe i had reached all my predictions! maybe i had surpassed them! maybe i got all 7/8/9s.... that was far from the true reality. there lying on the neon orange sheet of paper lay a row of one 8, one 7, five 6s, two 5s, one 4, and i hate to say this but one 3. immediately tears developed in my eyes but i held them in and looked up warily and got my bag and got in the car. my mum asked me how was it and i immediately opened my mouth but nothing came out, except the held in tears. now why would i cry over these results if i'm used to getting all 6's. well the funny thing is i'm not. in my september assessments i had gotten one 9, four 7s,two 6s, two 5s and one 4 (no further maths test this time). after getting the september results i was optimistic and told myself that i could aim high and next to my report i jotted down the next grades i had wanted to get in my next report- i have not gotten one of them. now i know what you're thinking, 'boo-hoo, so what you didn't put the work in did you', but i did! at least thats what i was telling myself as i was weeping whilst cutting out my textiles images (cannot be behind on coursework- learnt that the hard way) except now i'm not in that state of mind, and quite frankly i want to bloody improve myself and get ready for my gcse's and quite frankly i know there's other people like me who cannot follow the tips of an all 9s student on youtube- and that's okay! i want to create this thread to help people like me and you, as well as share resources and help us smash this!! gcse's better watch out...
well since i made this thread, i'll like to start with myself and share my grades from year 10 end of year exams (oh dear) my september mocks and january mocks as well as predictions from both of those time periods- i know not all schools have this so just say you mock results if you can! (for context of predictions: A- definitely and could work to the next grade, B- fairly sure, C-you could, but if you don't put the work in then maybe you'l get lower) this is a non-judge zone so honestly blurt away with concerns, or achievements or even when it's your dog's birthday! so here i go...
year 10: quite frankly a crazy year in my opinion, yet one which i cannot remember a singe thing from right now. i think this applied to me back then as well considering my results...
english language: (I WILL LIKE TO DEFEND LITTLE ME DESPITE THE FACT THAT I NEVER REVISED OR DID WORK FOR ENGLISH, BUT THE DEPARTMENT NEVER TOLD US WHAT PAPER/QUESTIONS COULD COME UP SO HONESTLY WHAT DID THEY EXPECT) in the end it was p1 q5 and i got a 5 - predicted a 6A
english literature: (I WILL LIKE TO DEFEND LITTLE ME DESPITE THE FACT THAT I NEVER REVISED OR DID WORK FOR ENGLISH, BUT THE DEPARTMENT NEVER TOLD US WHAT PAPER/QUESTIONS COULD COME UP SO HONESTLY WHAT DID THEY EXPECT) it was romeo and juliet, and might i like to add the first time we've done a timed essay!, oh how i have grown to despise these lovers (at that time at least) a 4. it was what it was i guess - predicted a 6A
maths: i always found maths weird- i was good at it when i was fully thinking and unfortunately i end up not fully thinking during these exams... got a 6 in the end - predicted a 7A
biology: now i love biology, i find it the easiest science (in terms of content) got a 5
- predicted a 6C chemistry: for the record my teacher was an absolute gem but you know the thing about how gems are always hidden? well that's what he was to my class because i don't think there was one lesson where we properly did work (perks of being in bottom set i guess) got a 5 - predicted a 6C
physics: is it odd that i don't entirely hate it? i hate the content sure but the equations are okay, and that was the only thing saving me for sure (not helpful now knowing that we have the full formula sheet...) i got a 5- predicted a 6C
art textiles: MY FAVOURITE SUBJECT (well back then anyways) in year 9/10 i had always been the creative one in my small class, as well as being quite 'talented' to quote my old teacher, as well as having even won a national textiles competition (please don't try to stalk me thanks x) got a 9- predicted a 9A (hell yeah)
business: okay i mean i like business and my year 10 teacher was a darling- she really helped me improve (despite the fact that i was on the verge of sleep in her lessons) got a 6 (very close to a 7 tho!)- predicted a 7B
computer science: now i feel like 3 types of people take computer science, one which emotionally blackmailed into doing so by their wonderful parents, one which actually are passionate about it and one which have no clue what they signed up to. guess which one i was
okay but in all fairness i must have been proud because in the end i got a 8 and was predicted an 8B! german: deutsch. how do i even begin to talk about german. german. german. german. the 6 letter word i despise more that the language itself (no offense to germans- ich liebe dich!) in lockdown i remember clicking hand in on all the assignments and quits frankly i know why i'm so bad at german but surprisingly i got a 4 (wow) but predicted a 6C? i love my teacher x
so that's my year 10 grades huh. i went on a journey, i have no clue about you guys. considering i had gone on holiday before these exams, and quite frankly just watched a cognito video for revision and called it a day, i was quite honestly happy with that! however i could not help but lament seeing my english grades- i mean sure i hadn't revised but come on i can't be getting a 4 in a language i speak in - that's reserved for german only! in the summer i got interested into reading (again) and quite honestly i want to go back to that time where i could curl up in a heap and read sigh.
september mocks:
okay so you're me on the first day of the school: what do you do- A- say hi to your friends, B- see how ridiculous the 'popular' girls tan is, or C- prepare to embark on your last year of school. the answer is- none of them!
instead i went into the exam hall and sat exams how lovely!
english language: (they did learn their lesson and tell us the paper this time x) A 7. HOW DID I GET A 7 IN A PAPER 2 THAT I HADN'T EVEN DONE BEFORE. this is proof that reading works wonders for your mind! (and also watching mr salles/mr everything english) predicted a.. wait for it.. 8C. AN 8C HOLY SH-
english lit: (must have been christmas considering they told us what this was on as well) A 7 AS WELL. WHAT WAS I ON DURING THESE EXAMS. okay in all fairness tho i did enjoy Lord of the Flies book, so this exam was a bliss for me. predicted a 8C as well! see my excitement when i saw how much i improved omg!
maths: okay fine. those 2 papers were quite frankly horrible. i got a 5 and predicted a 7C (understandable)
biology: a 7! i was so happy seeing that predicted 7B
chemistry: honestly could have gone worse (surprisingly got close to a 7 tho) a 6 and predicted a 6B
physics: was a bit disappointing as i did revise a lot for physics
i got a 6 and predicted a 6B textiles: didn't sit an exam so my result stayed the same
i got a 9 and predicted a 9A business: got a 7 thank god! predicted a 7B
computer science: this is where it went downhill. in all fairness i find that i'm stronger at programming and this was a theory paper i got a 5 and predicted a 7C
german: okay in the summer i actually did do some german, going over how to say hi! or how to say what i ate (ich esse ein kekse, lecker!) i got a 4 but was predicted a 5C - was a bit sad for predicted but hey ho.
year 11 has honestly been one of maybe the worse years of my life but also the best. now i know that most people say 'oh my teachers are bad'- but when i tell you my biology teacher does not give a damn about us (proof from today's lesson in fact- was on her phone instead of teaching us about ecology- a brand new topic which she zoomed us through the last topic just to get us along to what the other classes are on), so what made it worse was the fact that i had 2 new business teachers (even tho our school promised not to give us 2- we've had traumatic experiences in year 9), a new textiles teacher and a new chemistry teacher (probably for the best tho).
off track but i would like to tell you something about textiles! now going to a grammar school which loves to boast about how many 7-9s were achieved (i think 60% of the year got a 9, not too sure tho), it's quite obvious straight away that no one gives a care about the arts faculty, let alone textiles. this was so obvious due to sketchbooks. having a new teacher, she obviously wanted us to do one 'normal' project with her and so obvious we need sketchbooks to do so right? so our school decided to order these 'heavily discounted sketchbooks' in the ripe time of september. now even being a toddler at this point, we know how awful delivery times are, and having ordered these books from the pig branded ones, which are handmade, of course they would have come after a while! and so they came in the ripe time of november! a month before our mock! because we could obviously finish a whole project by then, as well as juggle 9/10 other subjects! whilst we were doing work, no doubt, i had never started mounting my work, or creating enough pieces, as i had no sketchbook! thats like asking a painter to paint a picture without the canvas? and so i decided to put more focus into other subjects instead and do textiles when my sketchbook came. now if you're in year 10 and are doing any subject with coursework, i say this from the bottom of my heart, FINISH YOUR COURSEWORK RIGHRT NOW. I'M BEING SERIOUS, STOP READING AND WORK BECAUSE COURSEWORK IS HELL. i always eye-rolled when the pesky art student would say coursework was hell, so i guess it was karma ha. another thing about art/ textiles is that its a subjective subject- all teachers have different expectations, and no two people have the same criteria of work to include in the sketchbook, as well as personal preferences. now i will say that i do not mind this teacher, shes honestly a gem- but oh god she must hate me. whenever i showed her my work she would tell me 'it's good!' but never told me what specifically she was looking for in a sketchbook, or any amendments i should make (despite the fact that she was basically doing some of the other girls projects for them essentially). i do think shes sweet, but i honestly miss my old textiles teacher too much, as i do think that she understood my work more and just in general. when it comes to the new business teachers, i think its safe to say that i've not learnt anything this year- which is especially concerning considering we're doing finance and marketing which is worth 50% of our gcse! but who's counting? instead we're making powerpoint quizzes about our own product which don't get me wrong is fun, but not so fun knowing that we could be finishing and actually learning content quicker but whatever. chemistry is a meh, a good thing about this teacher? no one talks during lesson anymore! a bad thing about this teacher? i have no clue what we're doing. in all fairness i do not get chemistry at all, and organic chem isn't my best friend considering i don't really know anything in chemistry at all.
so the horrible results you've been waiting for? here it goes:
english lang: first full mock! paper 2 i got a 6. how did i downgrade from my september mocks even tho it was the same paper type? (looking at the grade boundries tho i was a mark off a 7 so not too bad i suppose, but still disappointing) am predicted a 7A now
english lit: now before someone calls me ungrateful, please do note this was my highest grade- i'll do whatever i want. this was a full paper 1, with romeo and juliet and pride and prejudice- in which i got a 8! now i know- i literally doubled my grade in half a year i should be happy- and yes i am! i cannot believe that i got 80% like what oh my god. the only thing is tho i can't help but wishing i had done more (doesn't everyone tho) since my feedback was to do with the lack of quotes (the points which i made had referred to them but not used them and i said 'disobedient wrench' instead of 'wretch' sigh) but predicted an 8C now!
WARNING: GOES DOWN HILL FROM HERE now being in a grammar school, it's no surprise that people want to do the best they can- but there can be a bit too much. our biology paper was a split of the actual gcse paper in 2023 so how people got access to the markscheme i have no clue, but because of that a lot of our papers grade boundries became inflated, so whilst i had got a certain grade for a certain subject i am being a bit lenient with myself as in nearly all cases i was a few marks off..
biology: i got a 6. of course its not a bad grade but honestly disappointed but was close to the next grade boundary, hence why being predicted a 7C
chemistry: i got a 5. now i'm no good at chemistry and honestly this was the most justifiable for me, so i'm definitely not in shock from that and does tell me that i need to put way more attention into chemistry
predicted a 6C physics: i got a 6. i know someone who got 6 marks above me and got a 7 but i don't know the grade boundries, but i'm guessing i was close to it? not sure. predicted a 6A
gulp.
art textiles: a 4. yes you saw that right. f-o-u-r, four. i think this was the breaking point for me see the page, 5s i'm used to but a 4? how did my grade divide into 2? sure i haven't been putting too much focus into textiles but a goddamn 4. honestly i'm quite ashamed of myself. i mean i can defend myself, that only included the component we were working on from this year (or in my case november) predicted a 6A (i mean its a 9 upside down i guess?)
business: in all fairness, some of the questions on this paper, we had done in an old mock so i should have gotten better haha i got a 6 and predicted a 7C
computer science: so for computer science we did 2 papers, and i thought i would have done better in programming than theory but there wasn't much of a difference- wish i had improved a bit more overall i got a 7 and predicted a 7C
german: i got a 5 and was 2 marks off a 6 (0.83% omg) so predicted a 6C quite happy now
predicted a 6C further maths: in all fairness i'm not even good at maths, so why did i sacrifice my after schools with doing harder maths? when opening that paper, i'm sure i witnessed a pathway to hell- that paper was horrible. i got a 3. sigh first 3 i've gotten (okay i cannot be too harsh on myself i was 3% off a 4) predicted a 4C - not too sure if i should continue tho i already have other subjects which are more of a priority to me especially textiles so there it is i guess.
before you start thinking 'oh your grades haven't changed that much, it's nothing to be sad about', that's the issue. i wanted to have improved myself to achieve the max of the max and quite frankly i know i can do better and am just disappointed in myself for having not put 1000% into revision.
and that's the last time i'm saying that. for non-stop days, i've been chanting that in my head like a daily mantra and honestly it's eating more hours into my life than my procrastination- and isn't something that i need to be lamenting over for any longer. so what am i going to do? am i going to be ignoring these grades? no, it's stuck above my computer so whenever i go out of the room i can see those grades and wonder- 'do i really want this in my actual exams?'. no. will i be talking about these grades to my friends/family/teachers? well that's quite simply my friends don't share their results with me and honestly my parent's have been the most loving and nicest to me in a while (i think they've seen how upset i had become- they finally recongnised that i am serious about doing good). as for my teachers? i have no option i have a sixth from meeting coming up and parents evening- what luck. instead of crying and thinking about these results way more often then i should be doing, i'm going to be working my butt off and in a few years time when i reflect on these times i won't be upset at younger me for not putting enough effort, but rather instead applauding that girl who finally woke up and worked her butt off. of course i can't be saying this all without a target and so here i am, about to welcome your eyes to perhaps what you may consider unrealistic grades that i want to work towards for each subject but quite frankly the last thing i need to be thinking of is low grades so here we go:
english language - 9/8
english literature - 9
maths (edexcel) - 9
biology - 9
chemistry - 9/8/7
physics - 9/8
art textiles - I AM GETTING MY 9 BACK.
business - 9
computer science - 9
german - 7/6
further maths(?) - not sure if i will be doing but if so - 8/7
so here we have my long list of results i want- fine they all may consist of 7/8/9 which i haven't really been getting but that doesn't stop me and that doesn't stop you either! if you've been reading this out of enjoyment (a bit sadistic i must admit laughing over me getting a 3), or because of procrastination- i want you guys to introduce yourself, along with the grades you want. not the grades that the schools wants you to have., not what your parents want you to have. but you. you are going to be sitting these tests- not your mum(unfortunately), you're going to be the one whose going to use these for A-Level/BTEC/T-Levels applications, you're the ones who will be getting the benefits and the drawbacks. don't limit yourself- you can always do it! if i could go from a 19/34 to 26/34 then you could honestly do so much more than you could even think of! sorry if this sounded really rant-y at certain points but i need to get this off my mind and focus on more important things like my grades, my family and friends.
please feel free to offer advice or post your own story on here!
did i cry writing this? yes. will i be doing this ever again? of course not, who do you think i am? - lots of love x
thank you
Original post by uniqueen8888
woow i love your confidence i always wanted to give up to achive 8s and 9s in my gcse becouse i have nt been getting them in my mocks and aswell i srtuglle with anxiety so ifear to fail my exam you give motivation to never give up IAM GONNA GET THOSE 8S/ 9S with through hard work
thank you
thank you
Original post by Baobing
Did i make an account just to comment on this? YES. Is this yap unbearable? YES. GULP!
Couldn't agree more
Original post by Baobing
Did i make an account just to comment on this? YES. Is this yap unbearable? YES. GULP!
haha thanks for reading all of that despite how unbearable it was although im not sure if you made an acc rn since it says june 2023 but hey-ho whatever suits you x
(edited 1 week ago)
Original post by Baobing
Haha! GULP! xxx
Lots of love xxx
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