Help? Which is better... Downe House or Cheltenham Ladies?

Yes, there is a lot to memorise, but because History is a super duper fascinating subject, it's fun to do. Okay I'm biased.

But in A Level the topics studied will most likely be totally different from the ones studied at IGCSE, so you wouldn't be at any significant disadvantage. There isn't really anything to catch up on to be honest - it's not like Science or Maths where skills accumulate.

Ahh, that's good then! I'll definitely consider it, thank you!
Is it your fav. subject? I'm an Economics kind of girl.

Hm, it's tied with Economics for me. It's also tied with Philosophy, which I don't actually study for GCSE but can totally imagine loving

Oh, by the way - I saw on another post that the school wants you to do Chinese 1st Language. DON'T! Seriously! I doubt universities will even NOTICE the 1st lang/2nd lang difference, but your grade will most likely be lower because the difference in difficulty is astonishing. Not worth it.

(Unfortunately I was forced to take it, and got a B. Whilst people whose Chinese levels hardly differed from mine, but were placed in a lower set, did 2nd lang and got A*. *fumes with anger*)

I think Philosophy will be really interesting, and Politics is definitely something that I can see myself falling in love with.

I know! I hate first language!!! You see the thing is, Chinese is my 3rd language... but I've been in set 1 since year 7 till well now. For my mock last year I got an A for firsts language... but I think I was just super lucky... I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with 2nd language, I LOVE IT!!! I agree, I'm sure universities won't care so much about it.

You guys take your languages a year early?

Well, the reason I didn't choose Politics was because I had a look at the content of the course, and a lot of it was learning about the British politics system, which doesn't fascinate me too much to be honest; I prefer political philosophy, the theoretical stuff.

You're so lucky you get to choose! Meh, I've always gotten A in my Chinese mocks, but my teacher was lenient. HAHA I love the 2nd lang paper too... *wistful sigh*

Actually, I took the IGCSE two years early - in Year 9. The top two sets for Chinese take the exam two years early - top set takes 1st lang, second set takes 2nd lang. Then there are two sets below that, that take 2nd lang in Y11.

I hope for your sake that you've decided on downe house because that means you'll have socials and other stuff with my school and we're cool

I hope for your sake that you've decided on downe house because that means you'll have socials and other stuff with my school and we're cool

Wow, you're so well-prepared and everything! I should probably do some research as well, haa.

If I knew I was going to take Mandaring as a 2nd lang., I would have taken it in year 9 too... some people in my class did, but gyehtuhirjo... oh well.

Do you study any other foreign languages now?

Imma nerd. Well not in the spend-all-day-studying kind of way (I wish!), but more like learning-is-fun!

Ahh well... If your school thinks you're good enough to take 1st Lang, 2nd Lang should be a breeze and you won't have to revise at all. so it doesn't really matter when you take it.

Nope. I continued with Chinese in Y10/11 and I was going to do Chinese Lang&Lit A Level but I ended up, uh, not doing it. I would have ended up with a C or lower, so I'm glad I could worm out of it!

Ahahaha! Learning is so not fun anymore (for me) because there's just too much pressure put on it! I barely do any work nowadays... which is bad. For instance, I haven't even started writing my final draft for my English coursework... bleurgh.

Yea, I just had my mocks... hmm, it was fun!

Whoa, yea, that would have been a pain!

Yeah, it's sort of same for me. Now my 'learning' basically consists of me fulfilling syllabus statements, which is bland and boring. Is your English coursework on comparing poems? Because I did that a few months ago. Final draft, wow. All I had was one draft, then my final submitted piece was that first draft with a few mistakes corrected.

You guys have your mocks before Christmas? Mine are in January. asidfjoasd must revise! Add Maths is killing me.

I've done the poetry comparison coursework for English Lit., I'm doing my Section B coursework for English Language now (which also allows comparison between texts, haa). To be honest, I usually just correct a few of my mistakes too, which is probably what I'll end up doing this time too... fail. I guess I'm just trying to get it perfect and everything!

Yupp, the last two weeks of school were mocks for us... which sucks, but I guess it's good that we have the holiday to relax and stuff. Good luck for your exams!!! Are you revising for normal Maths or Additional Maths?

Ah okay! The Eng Lang exam for me had no coursework. Tbh I like it better that way. But I guess it takes some of the stress off for the final exam?

Thank you. Additional Maths. I normally love it, but when it comes to revision it KILLS because every question takes so goddam long to do. Plus I can't do Relative Velocity, lol it is so hard & I don't understand it.

Nah, not really... the final exam. will still be very stressful, haa!

Additional Maths. can be a total pain sometimes... I guess there's just those topics that you get, which is really great, and there's those that you just don't get at all, which is gurhqteijy. I hate doing practice questions because when you get it wrong, you'd need to look back at each step and see where you made your mistake...

The only reason I'm persisting with Add Maths is because I know that if I learn everything properly in this course, I will have already covered a good chunk of A Level It's MUCH better preparation than Normal Maths.

Argh yes, I tend to just cross everything out and start again if I get a question wrong My maths book is very messy lol.

Ahaa, I'm probably going to go with Downe House. Oh that's good then, I mean only if your school is as great as you make it up to be... Kidding! May I ask which school do you attend?

What are Downe House girls like?

Haha gooood! I go to Radley, we have quite a lot of music and drama stuff with Downe House and lots of socials etc. I know some people at DH quite well and they're all really nice and laid back. In my opinion there's a better mix of people there than in some other schools(not going to name them lol), at least I've found there are more people there that are into the same kind of stuff as me, but this is just my experience and I'm rather quirky in some ways. There are some quite annoying girls, but I think you get that everywhere.
Oh yeah, I'm in the lower sixth at the moment.

I agree, and I'm most probably going to take Further Maths. in Sixth Form, so yea...

I feel so bad now because I spent the whole week doing nothing/going out, and I haven't done any revision whatsoever...

Apparently Further Maths is harder than HL Maths, which has acquired a reputation of the hardest HL in IB. So good luck with that! Haha

Well, you've already done your mocks so you should of course relax...