Am I good enough for Oxbridge? Proving it here.

OP

Tasks for this week

Cram/learn Bio4
Finish M2
Make some progress with Fp3
Do the F325 legacy spec topic questions I have printed. Perhaps extra for Transition metals. And do the exam style questions from textbook.

I would have previously said this was too much but I managed to learn F325 last week despite other things stealing time so who knows :biggrin:

. I've bolded the things that have to be done. Further maths may unfortunately have to take a step back till next week but I shall see what I can do.

Reply 142

Mayhem™

I feel proud to be tagged in an A-level student's learning blog

What would you say is the hardest subject you do? I'm taking maths,further maths, chemistry and physics at A-level and want to understand my next 2 years a little more.

Reply 143

OP

Original post by Mayhem™

I feel proud to be tagged in an A-level student's learning blog

What would you say is the hardest subject you do? I'm taking maths,further maths, chemistry and physics at A-level and want to understand my next 2 years a little more.

You commented on my first page so thought I'd tag you :tongue:

. But thanks :h:

. I'm told that physics isn't that difficult - just a bit boring and watered down. Chemistry isn't that difficult either (I did lose a lot of marks in my paper yes but due to a lack of experience and not conceptual difficulty) AS Chemistry followed on nicely from GCSE Chemistry, for me. Though the practical stuff was difficult. I didn't even know what a burrette was due to my year 10/11 situation :tongue:

.

Further Mathematics is probably the most difficult. But is still relatively straight forward. Its difficulty comes from the sheer volume of maths you're meant to be familiar with. In Fp3, for instance, there is an integration chapter which requires you be familiar with the specific things taught there as well as the things taught in C3/4 and C2. The difficulty for me will be dedicating time to practice once I've covered the material and making sure I get exposed to different things.

TL;DR Further Mathematics>Chemistry>Physics=Maths imo

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 144

Student403

You're gonna be fine mate. Illness sucks but if you keep your head down from now, you'll get there comfortably!

Reply 145

ByronicHero

Original post by Kvothe the arcane

Update 15/03/16

Confession :sad:

With a heavy heart, I'd like to admit the following...
Due to a combination of my time abroad and my recent illness . I was forced into an unexpected study hiatus.
I have not done Further Maths in weeks and I never started Chemistry and Biology.

Extra illness info

Last week

Since starting to recover, however, I have begun to work again.

I successfully covered F325 (Chem 5) last week. It was what I concentrated on however I wasn't my most efficient. There is room for improvement however I am impressed with the speed at which I went through the material. I did the Summary questions from the book for each micro unit and make various notes, here and there.

Past paper

It's the first module I've completed and I did a past paper today. I got 72/100

Question 1: 7/8 Enthalpy Change
Question 2: 8/10 Rate of reactions
Question 3: 13/17 pH, Acids and Bases
Question 4: 12/13 Fuel cells and E/C cells
Question 5: 16/22 Thermodynamics I dropped a lot of marks however they were silly errors such as thinking 198K=25C :facepalm:

Question 6: 10/22 Transition metals I incorrectly balanced an equation and there was no ECF :erm:

I missed out an 8 marker completely. I will have to go over the mark scheme for that part and spend time on this topic
Question 7: 6/8 Misread a question :facepalm:

It was June 2010 and 71/100 was an A that year so I got an A. Not bad for a first paper, I suppose.

While, I clearly need to specifically spend more time on transition metals, I think my performance in most topics was OK. More practice is needed, however, as I can't afford to lose a mark or two a question as that'll cost me my A* :eek:

.

A perfectly reasonable start. You know where one weakness is so you can address it, which is positive. I believe in you bruh.

Things I believe in:

Keron
Crawdad Man
Aliens
A thing called love
Angels, something good in everything I see

Reply 146

Ayman!

15

Really well done on chem 5, that paper honestly murders me at times. Before doing any more past papers try clearing out transition metals first. It can be a bitch to learn but you'll notice that the exam questions aren't usually that bad. Learn those deprotonation and ligand exchange exchange reactions with ammonia and OH - ions by heart, as well as the colour changes.

You should put your head down like 403 said and work, work, work! I'm struggling with my sleep cycle and lethargy as well and that's bad because I have exactly 2 months till exams :frown:

I'm trying to look up remedies, I'll share a few links with you when I'm home.

You should also aim to finish the applied modules as soon as you can. They will be your lifeline to get that A*. It's not an issue if you finish FP2 and 3 by mid April.

I imagine bio isn't much of a worry since you need just an A in it!

Reply 147

OP

Original post by Student403

You're gonna be fine mate. Illness sucks but if you keep your head down from now, you'll get there comfortably!

Thank you. It was a relief completing the Summary questions and notes for F325 in a week. So my targets this week don't seem too unrealistic.

Original post by ByronicHero

A perfectly reasonable start. You know where one weakness is so you can address it, which is positive. I believe in you bruh.

Thank you bear. Your belief in me means a lot :biggrin:

. I know it sounds sarcastic but I am grateful.
Also, PRSOM.

Original post by aymanzayedmannan

Really well done on chem 5, that paper honestly murders me at times. Before doing any more past papers try clearing out transition metals first. It can be a bitch to learn but you'll notice that the exam questions aren't usually that bad. Learn those deprotonation and ligand exchange exchange reactions with ammonia and OH - ions by heart, as well as the colour changes.

Thanks ayman :biggrin:

. Ah, indeed. While I am planning on repeating the papers, I want to delay the rest until at least my Easter break from work at the start of April. I still have to go back and do the exam style questions from the textbook and I'm going to do A LOT of transition metal questions from the packs. I have to burn it into my memory and I've never been the one for pretty notes :tongue:

. I will also see if I can print off a transition metal reaction revision page so I can look at it from time to time.

You should put your head down like 403 said and work, work, work! I'm struggling with my sleep cycle and lethargy as well and that's bad because I have exactly 2 months till exams :frown:

I'm trying to look up remedies, I'll share a few links with you when I'm home.

I am really sorry to hear that :/. Keep at it! But thank you :smile:

.

You should also aim to finish the applied modules as soon as you can. They will be your lifeline to get that A*. It's not an issue if you finish FP2 and 3 by mid April.

You think? R.e. Fp3/Fp3. Well I suppose M2 and S2 are possible A* contenders. D1 is a bit irrelevant but will contribute to the 480, I guess. I have a long weekend next week Fri-Monday so hoping that if I haven't added Further Mathematics to the mix, I will by then! Maybe try to Start cramming S2 on the Monday!

I imagine bio isn't much of a worry since you need just an A in it!

Thanks. I'm a bit undecided. On one hand, I could go the route of concentrating on just Bio4 as a A in it and no improvement in the other will give me an A as my other UMS is okay. However Biology is easily my best subject so it seems a waste to not try with it to get the grade.

I get the Packs I refer to here: http://sciencemathsmaster.weebly.com/. They aren't hosted by the owner. He just hyperlinks to external resources. Still, it's a nice collation of materials.

Biology Modules

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 148

OP

Update 16/03/16
Textbook

I've decided to buy this textbook as the Nelson Thornes one for A level bio is absolutely vile. I am using the similar CGP textbook for Chemistry and that was excellent so hope I have a similar experience for Bio.

As such, I'll concentrate this evenings revision on getting that Chemistry practice in and start Biology tomorrow.

Reflections

I went over a couple of the weaker topics on youtube videos while eating during the evening.
My mistake was thinking I could do an all-nighter. I went to sleep at ~10:30pm intending to awaken at midnight and stay up to get some stuff done.
To my horror, however, I awoke at 6am the following day. I have tried all nighters recently on Fridays and failed also. I assumed it was because I was exceptionally tired due to it being the end of the week but perhaps due to my fatigue problem or just getting older, it seems I've lost the ability in general. I've resigned myself to just having to do it in the afternoon as a normal person.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 149

Ayman!

15

Original post by Kvothe the arcane

Thanks ayman :biggrin:

. Ah, indeed. While I am planning on repeating the papers, I want to delay the rest until at least my Easter break from work at the start of April. I still have to go back and do the exam style questions from the textbook and I'm going to do A LOT of transition metal questions from the packs. I have to burn it into my memory and I've never been the one for pretty notes :tongue:

. I will also see if I can print off a transition metal reaction revision page so I can look at it from time to time.

That website looks awesome - I think my teacher linked me to it once! I'm gonna download them for organic and do them since that's what I'm weakest in.
Have you seen chemrevise? That webpage has awesome stuff and I pretty much only refer to those notes now. By the way, don't you guys have a module with all synthetic routes?

You think? R.e. Fp3/Fp3. Well I suppose M2 and S2 are possible A* contenders. D1 is a bit irrelevant but will contribute to the 480, I guess. I have a long weekend next week Fri-Monday so hoping that if I haven't added Further Mathematics to the mix, I will by then! Maybe try to Start cramming S2 on the Monday!

As long as you really understand all the content thoroughly by the end of April-ish you should be fine. I feel like I started past papers a little early but then again I had mocks to prepare for. I'll probably redo the ones I've already done because I'll forget them :tongue:

D1 will be easy UMS but you'll need M2/S2 to be max pretty much since it puts you in a huge lead. Unfortunately for you, there's a D1-M2 and FP3-S2 clash so I'd suggest practising those past papers one after another as mocks. That's what I'm doing for S2-FP3! :h:

You'll be done with S2 in no time since it's a really easy module, but as you've probably heard, pretty nasty boundaries :redface:

I've recently done a past paper and I thought I did quite well getting 72/75 only to see that I barely scraped an A* :angry:

Thanks. I'm a bit undecided. On one hand, I could go the route of concentrating on just Bio4 as a A in it and no improvement in the other will give me an A as my other UMS is okay. However Biology is easily my best subject so it seems a waste to not try with it to get the grade.

Wow, your AS Biology UMS is pretty amazing... It's than Unit 6 grade that's gonna be a little bit of a pain but I'm pretty sure if you aim for full UMS in everything you can cover it up! Sucks for UK students that they don't have written Unit 6s - must be really difficult to retake :console:

You're one of those people that naturally understands biology then :tongue:

Definitely work hard for it in that case, don't let the opportunity go to waste!

Reply 150

OP

Original post by aymanzayedmannan

That website looks awesome - I think my teacher linked me to it once! I'm gonna download them for organic and do them since that's what I'm weakest in.

Awesome! Glad I was able to help :biggrin:

.

Have you seen chemrevise? That webpage has awesome stuff and I pretty much only refer to those notes now. By the way, don't you guys have a module with all synthetic routes?

I have yea. Mhmm?

As long as you really understand all the content thoroughly by the end of April-ish you should be fine. I feel like I started past papers a little early but then again I had mocks to prepare for. I'll probably redo the ones I've already done because I'll forget them :tongue:

D1 will be easy UMS but you'll need M2/S2 to be max pretty much since it puts you in a huge lead. Unfortunately for you, there's a D1-M2 and FP3-S2 clash so I'd suggest practising those past papers one after another as mocks. That's what I'm doing for S2-FP3! :h:

Perhaps you're right! I'm not sure. I wasn't that good a student in year 12. I managed to do fine with just the odd mock and questions for homework. I think I'll work on S2 next weekend. Perhaps Easter Monday. What annoying clashes :/. Always happens...sigh

You'll be done with S2 in no time since it's a really easy module, but as you've probably heard, pretty nasty boundaries :redface:

I've recently done a past paper and I thought I did quite well getting 72/75 only to see that I barely scraped an A* :angry:

Hopefully!

Wow, your AS Biology UMS is pretty amazing... It's than Unit 6 grade that's gonna be a little bit of a pain but I'm pretty sure if you aim for full UMS in everything you can cover it up! Sucks for UK students that they don't have written Unit 6s - must be really difficult to retake :console:

Thank you. It's okay! Yes, the EMPA would have been much too expensive for me to resit.

You're one of those people that naturally understands biology then :tongue:

Definitely work hard for it in that case, don't let the opportunity go to waste!

I wouldn't say naturally :tongue:

. But thanks.

Reply 151

OP

20/03/16 update

A week in review
Honestly, pretty bad. I have had some busy days at work however I just lacked the motivation to study on the days I was free. And today I was troubled by something.

Things I have done were a Chem 5 past paper on Monday, few microunits for Bio4 and a few questions on the thermodynamics pack on Chemistry.

Appalling really. I feel ashamed and guilty and the pressure is stressing me out. All I can say is better luck to myself next week. It feels like the unbelievable protests of a drug addict now but it's all I can do :dontknow:

. I'll try to make the posts daily just to try and force myself into some type of habit.

It is clear to me after 2 failed attempts last week that all nighters aren't possible for me at this point in time. THat's a shame. It seems I'll have to really make a choice between my evening activities. Anyway, I'm off to sleep and this is a wrap. Hopefully my update tomorrow will be more positive.

List: @aymanzayedmannan @Student403

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 152

Aristotle's' Disciple

Original post by Kvothe the arcane

X

Do you absolutely have to work? I'd definitely quit working out now and just focus on caloric deficit btw, at least until your exams are over.

Reply 153

Doones

21

Original post by Aristotle's' Disciple

Do you absolutely have to work? I'd definitely quit working out now and just focus on caloric deficit btw, at least until your exams are over.

I have to say I agree with this. @Kvothe the arcane, you need to decide what your priorities are... it was always going to be a challenge to attempt to hold down a full-time job whilst doing a serious amount of academic study, and it sounds like it's just too much :frown:

Reply 154

Student403

Original post by Aristotle's' Disciple

Do you absolutely have to work? I'd definitely quit working out now and just focus on caloric deficit btw, at least until your exams are over.

I think he means he's actually working at a part or full time job :redface:

Good advice though and I agree

Reply 155

Doones

21

Original post by Student403

I think he means he's actually working at a part or full time job :redface:

Good advice though and I agree

Yes, I didn't quite understand the comment about calorific deficit in this context lol.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 156

OP