A-level Revelations
Scroll to see replies
Original post by nyxnko_
Now, why would you do that to yourself?
I genuinely doubt any uni would ask for 3A*s unless you haven't ticked a very major box for them
But ofc, I'm not an expert so don't take my word for it.
Now, why would you do that to yourself? I genuinely doubt any uni would ask for 3A*s unless you haven't ticked a very major box for them
But ofc, I'm not an expert so don't take my word for it.According to a friend of mine, someone in the year above got a 5A* offer for Cambridge Nat Sci - that's maths, further maths and all 3 sciences!!
Original post by Sinnoh
According to a friend of mine, someone in the year above got a 5A* offer for Cambridge Nat Sci - that's maths, further maths and all 3 sciences!!
Bloody hell!!
I think I'll ask my teachers to lower my predicted grades...Original post by nyxnko_
Bloody hell!! I think I'll ask my teachers to lower my predicted grades...
I think I'll ask my teachers to lower my predicted grades...My assumption (or hope) is that they came across as cocky and overconfident in the interview
Original post by Sinnoh
My assumption (or hope) is that they came across as cocky and overconfident in the interview
Quite possibly. I think it's also possible that their interview went badly but they think they could still have a chance
"I'm going to run out of titles soon" - Update #5
I'm breaking the meta here by making an update on Tuesday, but sO MaNY thInGs hApPEneD. Nah actually I plan on making another update on Friday/Saturday because other stuff is happening then.
Alright here we go
Friday 14th - No word of lie I don't think anything noteworthy happened that day. Can't think of anything. Just lessons and that, not even any new topics.
Saturday, though - hoo boy. I was at the University of Birmingham for just over 7 hours. Let me tell you aaaaaall about it.
So the train left London Euston at 7:23, roughly half an hour after I accidentally deleted the OP from this thread. According to the ticket info I had a window seat, and this was Virgin Trains' pathetic excuse for one. So if I sit in a way that restricts my breathing I might be able to catch a glimpse of the outside. Thankfully the carriage was pretty empty and I was able to sit at a table where I tried to do a little bit of work on Argand diagrams before feeling sick from the unbelievably bumpy ride. My handwriting took an absolute hit. Arrived at Birmingham Uni pretty much at 9 exactly, did a campus tour, looked at the 1st-year physics lab, went to a talk on metamaterials - the most interesting part of it wasn't the invisibility stuff, but the fact that you can get negative and complex refractive indices of materials!
I went to another talk that was just about the course at Birmingham, then bought a burrito which was pretty good. Two wasps clearly agreed, I tried blowing on one to get it to piss off and accidentally spat out some burrito crumbs on the table outside the library
- not my finest moment (I cleaned up after tho).
Had a talk giving advice for applying, it was really more to pass the time than anything else. The woman giving the talk read out an amazing personal statement introduction - like ****ing hell I was jealous. She also read out one that was clearly made by someone intending to test if unis read PSes at all.
Looked around the accommodation, it's okay but I think Southampton was better value. Ran back to attend a talk on something, it was about how stars pulsate quite quickly and how planets are discovered. Had a chat with someone, which was nice. Then waited for half an hour playing Pokémon Go (evolved my Eevee on that day lol) before leaving.
Impressions of Birmingham:
Beautiful campus - there's also a huge green open space behind that which I didn't take any photos of
. Definitely prefer the campus to Southampton, where they seemed a bit cluttered and all over the place (really hard to believe they were going for a naval theme with some of their buildings).
The course - It's alright. Nothing special, like Southampton, but a good range of modules. Option to also go for Physics with Particle Physics and Cosmology, which are fields I'm definitely interested in (if only I could write why).
Accommodation - ehhhhhhh. Halls were alright, the private accommodation for returning undergrads is all in the same area very near to the university site. But Southampton's accommodation was better value, I thought.
Conclusion: Southampton still my
choice.
Took the train back, more crowded this time. Rate my desk!!!!1!11 (wow what a weird URL). Also, spot the mistake.
Sunday 16th - Sunday's always a chill day. I did a little bit of physics, mistakenly thinking that homework was due in Monday, had my guitar lesson. Finished reading The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson just after 1 AM (Saturday night, sort of). Very fun and interesting read, but turns out it's not all that accurate - one of the psychologists mentioned in that book published a response to it.
Monday 17th - I finally got around to marking the Specimen NSAA paper I did back before school started. I got 31/54, 57%, which I think puts me slightly above average, which is nice. That was out of 37 questions I actually did. I wasted a bit of time at some points, so there's room for improvement. We got our civil rights timed essay results back - 24/25!! There's another on Friday, but I'm in Churchill College on that day so I'll miss it
. Anyway we started labour and trade union rights. Should be interesting, definitely a different essay format than for the last 3 topics. Also had my first French lesson this term, but we mainly discussed how it would fit in to my UCAS application. My form tutor is going to bend the truth a little on my reference by saying I chose to do French AS... well, I chose that after dropping the A-level in February, which I was only taking in the first place because I have a scholarship for French and History. But apparently for Cambridge they like to see applicants being able to handle a high workload... who says I will, in the end? 
After school I stayed for about half an hour to get some questions on Argand diagrams done. Not my strong point so far.
Aside from academic, we had our first rehearsals for 'house music'. It's a biennual inter-house singing and music competition that everyone has to take part in. Sang an octave higher than I normally would, which actually worked really well (I like singing).
Tuesday 18th - Finished the third chapter of further stats. The teacher doing the applied course is absolutely blitzing through it. We may end up having stats and mechanics complete this term, unless he ends up teaching some of the pure modules.
Carried on planning my article for the school's history magazine. It's actually quite a high-quality thing so it has to be good.
I also did the NSAA paper 2, which is 40 minutes long, you choose 2 questions out of 4 that are worth 25 marks each. The main take-away from it: I am hopeless at applied differential equations. There's no mark scheme for it so I may have to badger a teacher to go over it.
I'm not the only one feeling panicky about applying. Had a brief chat with a friend of mine who's going for classics at Oxford. I think the main issue is, everything apart from the personal statement is just such smooth sailing. We've both got great grades, glowing references, we're not too worried about the admissions assessments but this... thing is so annoying.
Highlight of the week: Overhearing two girls sitting across from me on the train on the way back from Birmingham asking the real deep philosophical questions that keep us awake at night, such as "If you were a soft drink which one would you be" and "would you rather be a whiteboard or a blackboard"
Question of the week: ^ those ones.
Currently reading: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K. ****.
Song of the week: This arrangement of Plug In Baby by Muse for the harp. You'll probably be hearing a fair amount of Muse on this. I'm worried I'll use up all the good ones too soon, but there's some that I've planned to save.
iY652muRsKs
Tags:
I'm breaking the meta here by making an update on Tuesday, but sO MaNY thInGs hApPEneD. Nah actually I plan on making another update on Friday/Saturday because other stuff is happening then.
Alright here we go
Friday 14th - No word of lie I don't think anything noteworthy happened that day. Can't think of anything. Just lessons and that, not even any new topics.
Saturday, though - hoo boy. I was at the University of Birmingham for just over 7 hours. Let me tell you aaaaaall about it.
So the train left London Euston at 7:23, roughly half an hour after I accidentally deleted the OP from this thread. According to the ticket info I had a window seat, and this was Virgin Trains' pathetic excuse for one. So if I sit in a way that restricts my breathing I might be able to catch a glimpse of the outside. Thankfully the carriage was pretty empty and I was able to sit at a table where I tried to do a little bit of work on Argand diagrams before feeling sick from the unbelievably bumpy ride. My handwriting took an absolute hit. Arrived at Birmingham Uni pretty much at 9 exactly, did a campus tour, looked at the 1st-year physics lab, went to a talk on metamaterials - the most interesting part of it wasn't the invisibility stuff, but the fact that you can get negative and complex refractive indices of materials!
I went to another talk that was just about the course at Birmingham, then bought a burrito which was pretty good. Two wasps clearly agreed, I tried blowing on one to get it to piss off and accidentally spat out some burrito crumbs on the table outside the library
- not my finest moment (I cleaned up after tho).Had a talk giving advice for applying, it was really more to pass the time than anything else. The woman giving the talk read out an amazing personal statement introduction - like ****ing hell I was jealous. She also read out one that was clearly made by someone intending to test if unis read PSes at all.
Looked around the accommodation, it's okay but I think Southampton was better value. Ran back to attend a talk on something, it was about how stars pulsate quite quickly and how planets are discovered. Had a chat with someone, which was nice. Then waited for half an hour playing Pokémon Go (evolved my Eevee on that day lol) before leaving.
Impressions of Birmingham:
Beautiful campus - there's also a huge green open space behind that which I didn't take any photos of
. Definitely prefer the campus to Southampton, where they seemed a bit cluttered and all over the place (really hard to believe they were going for a naval theme with some of their buildings). The course - It's alright. Nothing special, like Southampton, but a good range of modules. Option to also go for Physics with Particle Physics and Cosmology, which are fields I'm definitely interested in (if only I could write why).
Accommodation - ehhhhhhh. Halls were alright, the private accommodation for returning undergrads is all in the same area very near to the university site. But Southampton's accommodation was better value, I thought.
Conclusion: Southampton still my
choice.Took the train back, more crowded this time. Rate my desk!!!!1!11 (wow what a weird URL). Also, spot the mistake.
Sunday 16th - Sunday's always a chill day. I did a little bit of physics, mistakenly thinking that homework was due in Monday, had my guitar lesson. Finished reading The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson just after 1 AM (Saturday night, sort of). Very fun and interesting read, but turns out it's not all that accurate - one of the psychologists mentioned in that book published a response to it.
Monday 17th - I finally got around to marking the Specimen NSAA paper I did back before school started. I got 31/54, 57%, which I think puts me slightly above average, which is nice. That was out of 37 questions I actually did. I wasted a bit of time at some points, so there's room for improvement. We got our civil rights timed essay results back - 24/25!! There's another on Friday, but I'm in Churchill College on that day so I'll miss it
. Anyway we started labour and trade union rights. Should be interesting, definitely a different essay format than for the last 3 topics. Also had my first French lesson this term, but we mainly discussed how it would fit in to my UCAS application. My form tutor is going to bend the truth a little on my reference by saying I chose to do French AS... well, I chose that after dropping the A-level in February, which I was only taking in the first place because I have a scholarship for French and History. But apparently for Cambridge they like to see applicants being able to handle a high workload... who says I will, in the end? After school I stayed for about half an hour to get some questions on Argand diagrams done. Not my strong point so far.Aside from academic, we had our first rehearsals for 'house music'. It's a biennual inter-house singing and music competition that everyone has to take part in. Sang an octave higher than I normally would, which actually worked really well (I like singing).
Tuesday 18th - Finished the third chapter of further stats. The teacher doing the applied course is absolutely blitzing through it. We may end up having stats and mechanics complete this term, unless he ends up teaching some of the pure modules.
Carried on planning my article for the school's history magazine. It's actually quite a high-quality thing so it has to be good.
I also did the NSAA paper 2, which is 40 minutes long, you choose 2 questions out of 4 that are worth 25 marks each. The main take-away from it: I am hopeless at applied differential equations. There's no mark scheme for it so I may have to badger a teacher to go over it.
I'm not the only one feeling panicky about applying. Had a brief chat with a friend of mine who's going for classics at Oxford. I think the main issue is, everything apart from the personal statement is just such smooth sailing. We've both got great grades, glowing references, we're not too worried about the admissions assessments but this... thing is so annoying.
Highlight of the week: Overhearing two girls sitting across from me on the train on the way back from Birmingham asking the real deep philosophical questions that keep us awake at night, such as "If you were a soft drink which one would you be" and "would you rather be a whiteboard or a blackboard"
Question of the week: ^ those ones.
Currently reading: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K. ****.
Song of the week: This arrangement of Plug In Baby by Muse for the harp. You'll probably be hearing a fair amount of Muse on this. I'm worried I'll use up all the good ones too soon, but there's some that I've planned to save.
iY652muRsKs
Tags:
Spoiler
(edited 5 years ago)
sounds like Ur week was p jam packed! also please keep up the muse recommendations- it's unlikely you'll run out of songs since all their songs are gr9 so...
Original post by Salmon.farm
sounds like Ur week was p jam packed! also please keep up the muse recommendations- it's unlikely you'll run out of songs since all their songs are gr9 so...
I'm saving Survival for results day and Supermassive Black Hole for whenever we start the astrophysics module
Original post by SarcAndSpark
Sounds like a good week so far and that the Birmingham visit was worthwhile!
Re questions of the week:
If I was a soft drink I would be a fruit smoothie, but one of those ones that is a bit of a weird combination and isn't any colour you want to drink- and then you do and it's heavenly!
I don't think I'd have a preference re whiteboard/blackboard though- except I suppose if I was a blackboard I'd be consigned to a skip by now!
Re questions of the week:
If I was a soft drink I would be a fruit smoothie, but one of those ones that is a bit of a weird combination and isn't any colour you want to drink- and then you do and it's heavenly!
I don't think I'd have a preference re whiteboard/blackboard though- except I suppose if I was a blackboard I'd be consigned to a skip by now!
You might be in a skip, or you'd be used in a university 🤔
didn't know people still played pokemon go
well done on history
well done on history
Original post by entertainmyfaith
didn't know people still played pokemon go
well done on history
well done on history
Thanks!
I honestly downloaded it for the first time on the 31st of July. It's coming back, I tell ya. The first 3 generations of Pokemon are included (and 4th gen should be soon so I know what I'll be looking for
)Original post by Sinnoh
Thanks!
I honestly downloaded it for the first time on the 31st of July. It's coming back, I tell ya. The first 3 generations of Pokemon are included (and 4th gen should be soon so I know what I'll be looking for)
I honestly downloaded it for the first time on the 31st of July. It's coming back, I tell ya. The first 3 generations of Pokemon are included (and 4th gen should be soon so I know what I'll be looking for
)like a year or so after it went big then
i'd have kept it if i had more data!
Original post by entertainmyfaith
like a year or so after it went big then
i'd have kept it if i had more data!
i'd have kept it if i had more data!
2 years after, It was really big back in 2016 when it came out but as a game it was a fair bit worse back then.
Original post by nyxnko_
Well done on the history!! 
If I was a soft drink, I would deffo be... Can I be water? I'm more than a bit bland.
I would much rather be a whiteboard because you've got to use chalk with blackboards and I've never been a fan of chalk.
If I was a soft drink, I would deffo be... Can I be water? I'm more than a bit bland.
I would much rather be a whiteboard because you've got to use chalk with blackboards and I've never been a fan of chalk.
Nah you'd be something fun. At least juice
Original post by Sinnoh
Nah you'd be something fun. At least juice
Okay. I'll be orange juice
I like that.I meant to post a 'cheat sheet' I made on logarithm graphs a while back (remember that one about connected particles in mechanics?) and never did back then and also forgot to add in the last update even though I planned to put it in...
Anyway. Would love to hear feedback on this. Took a whole 5 minutes
It's intended for people who are really stuck on this.
(Edit: better image)
https://imgur.com/741CaOv
Anyway. Would love to hear feedback on this. Took a whole 5 minutes
It's intended for people who are really stuck on this.
(Edit: better image)
https://imgur.com/741CaOv
(edited 5 years ago)
Original post by nyxnko_
I like your cheat sheet very much 
Thanks
do you have any ideas for other topics I should make one on?Original post by Sinnoh
Thanks do you have any ideas for other topics I should make one on?
do you have any ideas for other topics I should make one on?Maybe vectors in FM? Those are generally quite difficult and there's a lot on there
Honestly, I think most of the topics in pure FM are challenging enough that you can make cheat sheets for them. As for Maths, maybe the calculus? Original post by nyxnko_
Maybe vectors in FM? Those are generally quite difficult and there's a lot on there Honestly, I think most of the topics in pure FM are challenging enough that you can make cheat sheets for them. As for Maths, maybe the calculus?
Honestly, I think most of the topics in pure FM are challenging enough that you can make cheat sheets for them. As for Maths, maybe the calculus? I'll have to wait until I actually do those topics
Actually, the year 2 integration topics did cross my mind
Quick Reply
Related discussions
- please mark my eduqas creative writing story or just read it
- Poelt newbold
- Give me your thoughts on this passage
- RS AQA GCSE 12 Mark Question
- Personal Statement
- I’m tired…
- New Heaven New Church
- Higher English drama questions
- Can he betray me?
- the death of youth culture & the teenager
- AQA English Lit paper 1 - Hamlet
- Regret and feel dirty with my drunken antics
- GRG -1: The Sidetracked Intro
- Feel like I'm bad at everything since I started my A levels
- GCSE English Literature - An inspector Calls.
- Opting for a placement year
- Psychology, Politics or History Degree
- Choosing a University for Psychology
- Am I Muslim if I am choosing not to worship God?
- GCSE English Literature - An inspector Calls.
Latest
Last reply 2 minutes ago
A-level Geography Study Group 2023-2024Last reply 2 minutes ago
Failed 3rd year, had a gap year, repeat or stop?Last reply 3 minutes ago
Official UCL Offer Holders Thread for 2024 entryLast reply 5 minutes ago
Student Finance for non-UK/EEA spouse of UK NationalLast reply 5 minutes ago
Official Cambridge Postgraduate Applicants 2024 ThreadLast reply 6 minutes ago
Official Dental Hygiene and Therapy (Oral Health Science) 2024 Entry ThreadDentistry
2856
Last reply 8 minutes ago
Official: University of Birmingham A100 2024 Entry ApplicantsMedical Schools
1037
Last reply 12 minutes ago
Official University College London Applicant Thread for 2024Trending
Last reply 17 hours ago
💎My A-Level Journey into Cambridge (hopefully!!!!!) 💎Last reply 1 day ago
year 13 gyg journal : trying not to become an academic victim 🤡📖Trending
Last reply 17 hours ago
💎My A-Level Journey into Cambridge (hopefully!!!!!) 💎Last reply 1 day ago
year 13 gyg journal : trying not to become an academic victim 🤡📖
