GCSE Astronomy? (especially people who are doing/have done A6 Shadow Stick)

I did GCSE Astronomy last year and absolutely loved it; just a really enjoyable and interesting subject to do - plus there was some fantastic banter in our class! Most of our lessons mainly consisted of watching lots of documentaries with quite a lot of Brian Cox which we all ended up loving. We have so many running jokes about the Brian Cox stuff which no one else will ever understand. Aside from that, we did some really cool practical activities which included going to the local observatory with its damn awesome telescope!

I did the shadow stick experiment too, and also the sunspots one. The coursework was a bit of a pain to do to be honest, but I still found it really exciting. Seeing a large image of the Sun projected onto a screen when we observed it with a telescope was just beyond amazing! For all the time related stuff, just remember "East is early". In the case of your experiment it is 8 minutes LATER than 1200, so it will be 2 degrees West.

I've always had a really good natural ability at remembering raw facts, so this subject suited me perfectly and I didn't need to revise much at all to get a top grade. The only revision method that I could really recommend is to make notes from the textbook and keep looking over them. I found that watching the documentaries helped massively as it gives you plenty of background knowledge on the subject and helps you to understand it more. They also tend to be littered with some of the facts that you need to know. I would seriously recommend watching the full series of Brian Cox's Wonders of the Universe and the Wonders of the Solar System. Those documentaries really made me love Astronomy and Physics. They are just absolutely brilliant!

Anyway, Astronomy is a wonderful subject to take and was certainly one of the most rewarding for me. I wish you good luck with it!

I didnt even know this subject existed!!

I'm doing it after school, in a very small group of other 'gifted' students. It's a lot of hardwork. I'm doing my coursework on Lunar features.

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I'm doing it after school, in a very small group of other 'gifted' students. It's a lot of hardwork. I'm doing my coursework on Lunar features.Posted from TSR Mobile

Haha, yeah. We never took the Brian Cox documentaries seriously either, but that's what made them so fun. Its clear to see that Brian doesn't take himself too seriously and there's some subtle jokes in there!I got an A in the end, but was going for an A* but the exam didn't go perfectly for me. I was admittedly still a bit lazy when it came to revision during my GCSEs. The full course had to be done in just a single year for us, so only 2 of us in the whole year got above a D (that other person was on a low B). The others really struggled to memorise the facts and they all ended up with Es and Fs. The way it seems to be with Astronomy is that you will get a high grade if you have a good natural academic ability, but if not you may have a lot of issues with it. If you aren't so naturally gifted, you should start revising as soon as possible.If you need a hand with anything, don't hesitate to drop me a message!

Haha 'gifted students' It is a lot of hard work, but hopefully it should pay off (I was also considering doing lunar features btw) x

We're doing in one year, with no teaching but 1 hour a week after school. Might not enter for the exam - it's very stressful.Posted from TSR Mobile

How do you manage to fit everything in?! Those must be pretty intensive astronomy sessions...Depends how you feel in May, although I might just do the exam regardless because I've wasted so much time on astronomy already... x

I wish I could've done GCSE Astronomy And about Brian Cox, he is a lad

Well as I said we're supposedly 'gifted' students, so we're given sheets and whiz through most of the facts. Then he'll sit and explain the more complicated things to us. Also requires a lot of self-teaching.

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Aww Haha, the lad part made me laugh his documentaries remind me of the Horrible Histories spinoffs from Greek and Roman times... Don't tell me I'm the only one who remembers XD x

He makes any space documentary all the more interesting (if that's even possible)
Yeah I remember them haha

I'd also like to point out that I can do a pretty good Brian Cox impression

We're doing in one year, with no teaching but 1 hour a week after school. Might not enter for the exam - it's very stressful.

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