Current Year 12 Thread Mark I (2013-2014)

All pretty simple so far, but I've heard after Unit 1 is the real difficulty increase

Not so much an entrance exams but I have tests coming up and if you do badly they will review your place

Added ... and I'd definitely drop french ;D

Thank you! Arghh, I would but Spanish is a much bigger group and I think I'd do better overall with a smaller one - when you're learning languages you want it to be close to a one-to-one teaching thing :/

IN chemistry i had a look at the exams and the difficulty definitely rises alot :/

Yes i definitely agree with you, i prefer it like for everything, in that case go with french although Spanish is much better ;D

Good luck to all of you in your GCSE results!

One word of advice for Year 12/Lower Sixth - Do not waste it, thinking you'll be able to do everything in Year 13/Upper Sixth. Always meet deadlines, and become friendly with your teachers - then if something out of your control does go wrong, it is much easier to rectify, even if it does mean you have to redo something in Year 13/Upper Sixth.

And don't forget to enjoy yourselves! College is a great part of life, even with the stress you will come across. Remember that grades aren't everything - being a nice person and being organised is much more important.

Also, for those wondering what sort of stationary you need for Lower Sixth - pens, pencils, and rulers go without saying. Even in an essay subject, you may want to do some rough work with pencils, or draw something which helps you remember when it comes to revision. If you're taking physics or maths, you will be needing a scientific calculator (for maths, graphical ones can help - especially on the MEI exam board. They are expensive, however (£50ish), so try and get one second-hand).

In general for all subjects, you will want a lever-arch folder for each subject to keep at home. Have some plastic wallets to separate modules instead of paper file dividers - the holes in the paper ones will become destroyed after some use (eg. For maths, I have a plastic wallet with C1 on the front, then behind that plastic wallet, I have more for each topic in C1. A single plastic wallet should be able to hold all work on a single topic within a module). Next, you will want a ring-binder or other sort of (small) folder just to carry around with you at college - especially if you are working on the same piece of paper for several days at a time.

Lastly - and perhaps the most important with the exception of pens, pencils and a ruler - paper. You will not be given paper in college unless a friend is able to lend you some. Try not to go for the paper pads which have glued spines, but rather those that are ring-binded (pukka pads or Oxford paper is very good indeed). As for the quality of paper - you will probably want 70gsm or more for it to not decintergrate within 10 minutes of use (obviously, the higher the quality, the more costly it is). Make sure you keep stocked on paper - you will get through much more than you think.

Which is why I'm dropping it before it gets to A2!

Hehe, I wish it was a small group - I agree with the fact that Spanish is much better! More useful too IMO

:O no way .... A2 apparently just disproves all you learnt at AS

Went to the library last period to do some work......year 9s loudly come in 10 minutes later oh

:O no way .... A2 apparently just disproves all you learnt at AS



Yeah Spanish is awesome, which is why it always confused me why french is the international language for many things when more countries speak English or Spanish

hahaha I can imagine they aren't!

Well, I prefer French to Spanish. I still love Spanish but French has much more flair and class about it. I think French is more an international language because a lot of the Spanish speaking countries are quite poor and don't really have much of an economic status. Plus, France itself is 'superior' to Spain, it has a stronger economy, more business, higher population and a bigger tourist industry. Spain itself isn't that valuable unless you consider Mexico, Argentina etc. who all are growing countries with potential. So yeah, on a American scale, Spanish is incredibly useful... but in Europe/Africa/Asia you're best off sticking with French and perhaps Russian or German too.

Another reason for me to drop it then!

I'm really not all that interested in Chemistry, the AS course looks a lot more interesting than A2 though, so I'm dropping it after a year!

Advantage of being in sixth form


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It was me and 2 other people and we were in stitches at some of the stuff they were saying tbh

I get 1 free a week so i don't even get time to go in the library