Current Year 13 thread Mark I (2014-2015)

As well as growing long hair, I have decided that I'm going to grow a beard like this:

And the moustache as well to complete the look?

Yeah I meant I want facial hair like that, sorry

Oh right I see haha

One day maybe I'll try for this...

Same.

Literally done nothing these past 2 weeks, first exam is on the 5th of may (Physics).

I feel like a robot on auto when I do Physics papers now, none of it is difficult.

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That's quite soon! I have an exam in ten days I think, or nine. But rest start in June

How's French?

Lol, French..

I had my speaking exam in March which went well - the lady was suggesting that I was 'above average'.

I'm planning to do 2-3 practice essays (because I suck at them) from now until the exam (22nd of May last one).

Listening and reading are all about practice really. It doesn't help that the discussion's seem to be at lightning speed. Translation is easy peasy. Sitting on a C/B from the prelim so need to pull it up to an A

My folio pieces are done and dusted: one on L'étranger and the other on elitism/the grandes écoles.

How about you?

Ah that's good then! How are your oral exams structured?

Yours exams are a lot earlier it seems.

Oooh that sounds quite fun, the elitism one. L'étranger would bore me to death

I have my oral next week (teachers still haven't told me, only found out because someone messaged me like '10 days!!!' I was like wtf) so had to finish and dust off an expose which I need to learn now

And written exam... I hate it. It's just so boring and long. 3 whole hours. I've only done a mock, no other past papers so I'm contemplating whether to try for the A* or just get an A

L'Étranger isn't that boring. La Casa de Bernarda Alba for Spanish is probably better, but once you go in depth into L'Étranger there's a lot to say.

Written exam takes a long time, but the essay takes up about half of it. It's not too hard to get an A* either as long as you can write a good essay as the UMS conversions are nice.

I couldn't even get through the first chapter, books are really not my thing. English is bad enough, forget French

I finished my mock in an hour... So I get really really bored in exams

I wouldn't know what a good essay is because no teachers

Ah that's good then! How are your oral exams structured?

Yours exams are a lot earlier it seems.

Oooh that sounds quite fun, the elitism one. L'étranger would bore me to death

I have my oral next week (teachers still haven't told me, only found out because someone messaged me like '10 days!!!' I was like wtf) so had to finish and dust off an expose which I need to learn now

And written exam... I hate it. It's just so boring and long. 3 whole hours. I've only done a mock, no other past papers so I'm contemplating whether to try for the A* or just get an A

It gets better. The first section isn't too bad, but some of the second half of the book is quite hard-going. If you want a summary I posted this on the other thread:


In an hour though? Did you actually write an essay?

Do you not have anyone "watching over you", so to speak? I guess I'm lucky in that I've got a very picky teacher who will always have some improvements for an essay, even on the rare occasion that she awards full marks.

It's a 20 minute "interview" basically. You mention the topics you'd like to focus on beforehand, then the examiner begins with some trivial questions to ease you in which after 5 minutes will lead on to more in depth questions. I just chose the topics for my essays and some of the ones we looked into (e.g. Immigration, the EU, Women's rights etc.).

The exam is split into two papers: Reading and Translation; Listening and Essay. The reading is usually an excerpt from a newspaper/book and the questions are on the word choice, linguistic techniques and the general idea of the piece - plus the usual content/understanding Qs. The essay has to be about 500 words.

How is the exam structured in A-levels?

Yeah, l'étranger was awful. I pretty much disagreed with the whole philosophy in my essay. Meh, not much point going for the A* - I find arts subjects much more difficult to get top marks because of the subjectivity.

Whaaaat? 'L'étranger' is brilliant!

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anybody here genuinely looking forward to the exams?

anybody here genuinely looking forward to the exams?

Lol you'll be easy to recognise in September

Just thought about this, but is it bad I'll probably identify you by height and accent?

I speak proper English now m8, gotta blend in at Barth

no 'gizzeh bitter that' any more? Shame