Vanilla Aims for A*s at GCSE

OP

Today I did some flashcards for B5 - got a test in a week or two
This module's all about the body and right now, I understand about -5 of the content
Also did some admaths practice, I think getting an A will be super easy with all the work I've put in for it (you only need about 60-65 for an A anyway)
I still have so much to do and I've been procrastinating for wayyy too long oops

Reply 42

Apolexian

12

Original post by Vanilla Cupcake

Hello all

I thought doing something like this would actually motivate me to revise (that, and the prospect of opening the envelope on results day to Us...)

I currently take 10 GCSEs and the FSMQ. I did my Maths GCSE last year and got A*, so that's one taken care of!

My predicted grades are:

OCR English Language: A
OCR English Literature: A*
OCR Gateway Physics: A*
OCR Gateway Biology: A*
OCR Gateway Chemistry: A*
Edexcel Religious Studies: A*
OCR Computing: B
Edexcel French: A*
Edexcel History: A
AQA Economics: A

I think I'll be able to get History and possibly English Language to A*, as well as Computing up to an A.

My mock grades were:

English Language: A
English Literature: A*
Physics: A*
Biology: A*
Chemistry: A
Religious Studies: A
Computing: C
French: A*
History: A*
Economics: A
In English Language, RS and Economics I was one mark off A* which was really annoying but just motivates me to really work hard to secure it. I simply didn't revise enough for Chemistry (one night is not enough for all the content..) but I'm easily capable enough. Computing was a disaster and a half haha

Here's hoping I can achieve the grades I want :h:

Good luck mate, you're doing good =)

Reply 43

OP

Original post by Apolexian

Good luck mate, you're doing good =)

Thanks!!

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Reply 44

OP

Yesterday was somewhat productive, starting to unserstand B5 a little more but I guess this comes with getting confused with P6 and all the graphs

Computing is a disaster, completely stressing me out that I have to finish task three and app inventor before Easter. I'll just make the deadline for app inventor but considering I don't really have much rn it'll be a struggle

Plan on doing B1 today! Also somehow managed full marks in the RS assessment wow

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Reply 45

OP

Spent the whole day on homework and app inventor, going to try some Biology and Computing flashcards a bit later on. Definitely need a break :sigh:

Reply 46

OP

So I thought it'd be a good idea to leave half of my French CA (writing) to finish and memorise for tomorrow yay
I'm happy with the content and should get A* if I can remember it
Haven't really been doing a lot of revision but I'm in the process of doing an admaths paper which is surprisingly fun :smile:

Reply 47

Lemur14

Volunteer Section Leader

21

Original post by Vanilla Cupcake

So I thought it'd be a good idea to leave half of my French CA (writing) to finish and memorise for tomorrow yay
I'm happy with the content and should get A* if I can remember it
Haven't really been doing a lot of revision but I'm in the process of doing an admaths paper which is surprisingly fun :smile:

The French sounds exactly like me last year. We always had maximum a week to memorise it (we wrote it beforehand) and I would only work in the lessons (2 hours Monday- Wednesday- 1 hour Friday) and then at the weekend before the exam on Monday. Oh and in form times (probably mostly because there were others doing it then!)
For writing at least you can use a dictionary if you get totally stuck. I always knew my content back to front in English (helpful!)
Any maths that isn't the core maths that everyone has to do is fun imo :smile:

The stuff we have to do is in dribs and drabs which is frustrating and makes it difficult to remember.

Reply 48

OP

It's finally hit me how close the exams actually are (59 daus until RS!) so I want to up the amount of revision I'm doing. I've also realised that flashcards for history will take way too long so I've settled for memorising the textbook lol
I feel like that's something I can do closer to the exam, but I'll familiarise myself with some of the topics tomorrow
Need to hand in task three and all of A452 by next week which doesn't leave me much time to actually revise... the struggles of 60% controlled assessment :rolleyes:

Reply 49

Original post by Vanilla Cupcake

It's finally hit me how close the exams actually are (59 daus until RS!) so I want to up the amount of revision I'm doing. I've also realised that flashcards for history will take way too long so I've settled for memorising the textbook lol
I feel like that's something I can do closer to the exam, but I'll familiarise myself with some of the topics tomorrow
Need to hand in task three and all of A452 by next week which doesn't leave me much time to actually revise... the struggles of 60% controlled assessment :rolleyes:

Luckily for me, I was in your position 3 months ago.

Finalised controlled assessment grade of a low A*.

Don't worry! At the rate you're going and how hard you're trying. You're bound to get nearly all A* grades :smile:

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 50

OP

Original post by Federerr

Luckily for me, I was in your position 3 months ago.

Finalised controlled assessment grade of a low A*.

Don't worry! At the rate you're going and how hard you're trying. You're bound to get nearly all A* grades :smile:

Congratulations! I'm hoping I can get an A* in the controlled assessment but it's proving quite a challenge haha

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Reply 51

OP

Using memrise for French, I like the activities they have :smile:

Reply 52

OP

Finally started learning my flashcards for RS, as well as computing. Our teacher also gave us revision guides to support our revision so I'm hoping that'll come in handy.

School's finally broken up for Easter and I'm going to try and do lots of revision - I should be fine tbh

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Reply 53

OP

So my teacher thought it'd be fun to set us a C1 paper to do over the holidays... just finished it and it was a lot better than expected, but the grade boundaries are really tight haha

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Reply 54

I'm_infires

11

Original post by Federerr

Have you finished Task 3 in A453? That was a killer!

Final word count:

A452: 14,000
A453, 18,000

I've finished A453 finally and I've got a word count of 18000 too but my teacher wants me to cut down! He told my whole class that the word limit should be 10000 and that 18000 is way too much (but I've seen someone on the student room say they wrote 23000 words). I can't cut down 8000 words so he told me to cut down as much as I can.

My question is, did your teacher say anything about your word count? What was his/her word limit for your class? Thanks :biggrin:

Reply 55

Original post by I'm_infires

I've finished A453 finally and I've got a word count of 18000 too but my teacher wants me to cut down! He told my whole class that the word limit should be 10000 and that 18000 is way too much (but I've seen someone on the student room say they wrote 23000 words). I can't cut down 8000 words so he told me to cut down as much as I can.

My question is, did your teacher say anything about your word count? What was his/her word limit for your class? Thanks :biggrin:

I am the guy who had 23000 words lol. I think I was on my other account...

Anyways I had to cut down as much as I could which was to around 16000 words.

I was so pi**ed off when my teacher told me to cut down, the end less nights spent on this CA and we then had to cut down over 5000 words...

But yeah I got A* on it after I cut down so I wasn't that angry any more.

Reply 56

I'm_infires

11

Congratulations on your A*! I've cut down to 16000 and trying to cut down more. I don't even know why I wrote so much because I got full marks on A452 with just 6500. I just thought I'd have to write a lot more on this one because it's a lot more based on your development so I was writing about my code and how I developed at every chance I could take :tongue:

Reply 57

Original post by I'm_infires

Congratulations on your A*! I've cut down to 16000 and trying to cut down more. I don't even know why I wrote so much because I got full marks on A452 with just 6500. I just thought I'd have to write a lot more on this one because it's a lot more based on your development so I was writing about my code and how I developed at every chance I could take :tongue:

You got full marks in A452 with ONLY 6500 words? What!?

I am full of anger again XD

I did 14,000 words and only got a mere 37/45 and my A452 was really good imo.

Did you do the LMC CA?

Reply 58

I'm_infires

11

Original post by Federerr

You got full marks in A452 with ONLY 6500 words? What!?

I am full of anger again XD

I did 14,000 words and only got a mere 37/45 and my A452 was really good imo.

Did you do the LMC CA?

My A452 was on App Inventor 2 and it was to do with creating an app for a university. And don't be angry! 37 marks is still amazing! With that A* on A453 and the theory being simple, you have a high chance of getting an A* overall.

I think the reason why I got full marks was because of my babbling on. Every time I did a piece of code, I would talk about that part of code as a whole, then talk about the different components of it and why they were needed/useful, which sources helped me etc. This is the sole reason why my A453 went up to 18000 words.
My structure was also something that made me want to rip my hair out. I'm absolutely OCD about it and had to have everything PERFECT. I spent too many hours on just getting titles one specific size, then subtitles and then normal text and the spaces IN BETWEEN the text (I know, pathetic). It was way too stressful but I ended up doing the same thing on A453 :tongue:

(ugh)

I also have a question. Did your teacher give any help at all in A452? My teacher did not even give one MINUTE of help and we had to rely on research, as it is a research task. I had a lot A LOT of sources, which might of contributed to the gaining of marks.

Reply 59