Vanilla Aims for A*s at GCSE

OP

Original post by I'm_infires

I've finished A453 finally and I've got a word count of 18000 too

Woah

altogether mine's around 13,000 and I thought that was a lot haha
I still have to redo task one which I should do over Easter (our teachers don't really keep to the suggested time frames) and need to finish A452, which is App Inventor, I'm on around 6,000 words there and I have a feeling I'm missing something

Any tips for theory, guys? I'm horrible at it and I really want an A* overall in computing

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Reply 63

Federerr

19

Original post by Vanilla Cupcake

Woah

altogether mine's around 13,000 and I thought that was a lot haha
I still have to redo task one which I should do over Easter (our teachers don't really keep to the suggested time frames) and need to finish A452, which is App Inventor, I'm on around 6,000 words there and I have a feeling I'm missing something

Any tips for theory, guys? I'm horrible at it and I really want an A* overall in computing

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Exactly how I feel. I didn't choose computing to get anything below an A* did I?

Reply 64

Original post by Federerr

Trust me, ALL my teachers are confused too.. Well there's only 2 computing teachers in the school lol...

Anyways I tested some of their marking skills and the outcome was atrocious leading me to never trust what they say ever again...

I sent my first draft for A453 in for marking and I came out with a 36/45. I still had 5 hours on the clock to finish A453. I pretended a week later that I added a lot more development and explanation, he looked through it for like 15 minutes and gave me a rough mark of 42... For something that he previously gave me 36... They're all so lost and they get paid for doing honestly nothing...

In theory lessons, my teacher honestly just reads of the board and tells us to make notes... Most the time everyone's secretly listening to music.

He is also the head of the subject and gets paid 40k +

Now I know where my backup job lays.

That teacher of yours is something 😂 at least your marks went up though. And I didn't know that they got payed that much. All my teacher does is read off the board and get us to take notes as well, then gives us questions from previous papers.

Reply 65

Federerr

19

Original post by I'm_infires

That teacher of yours is something 😂 at least your marks went up though. And I didn't know that they got payed that much. All my teacher does is read off the board and get us to take notes as well, then gives us questions from previous papers.

My teacher gets 40k + because he is head of department.

Think about it... There's only himself and 1 other teacher to think about and that's it. So the job is not as hard as other departments which consist of 10 teachers..

Also it took my school 8 months to find someone who applied for the head of computing job. So it seems that there aren't many computing teachers in the country (or my borough atleast).

I stalked my teacher, he worked in Tesco's 8 months prior to him becoming a teacher at my school lol.

Reply 66

Original post by Vanilla Cupcake

Woah

altogether mine's around 13,000 and I thought that was a lot haha
I still have to redo task one which I should do over Easter (our teachers don't really keep to the suggested time frames) and need to finish A452, which is App Inventor, I'm on around 6,000 words there and I have a feeling I'm missing something

Any tips for theory, guys? I'm horrible at it and I really want an A* overall in computing

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My teachers didn't stick to the time limit either. I don't think many teachers do. My A452 was on App Inventor as well and I got an A* with 6500 words so I'm sure you're doing absolutely fine! And as for theory revision... I'm not really one to ask. I get by just listening in class, which I know won't work forever. I have yet to start my GCSE revision (I know. It's the worst thing. I keep telling myself that I'll start tomorrow and never do so I'm going to make a revision time table). I just read over my notes most of the time.

I think the main thing is, if you uderstand basic principles and use your common sense, you'll definitely pass. My teacher made us do a theory exam before we had even started learning the theory (because all my class except me had done computing previously so knew quite a lot of stuff) and I thought I was going to fail but I got a C/B ^_^. All I did was use common sense... but that was an easy paper. But what I recommend is PAST PAPERS. I don't know if there are a lot but use them. Go through a past paper and mark it and revise on the things you got wrong. Then try another paper (try keeping all papers you do). Once you run out of past papers, you can go back to the first ever one you did and re-try it and again, revise on the things you got wrong. But most importantly, you can reflect on how your revision is going. Compared to the first time you did that paper, how much did you improve? And what do you keep getting wrong? And BAM another thing to revise :smile:

Reply 67

Original post by Federerr

My teacher gets 40k + because he is head of department.

Think about it... There's only himself and 1 other teacher to think about and that's it. So the job is not as hard as other departments which consist of 10 teachers..

Also it took my school 8 months to find someone who applied for the head of computing job. So it seems that there aren't many computing teachers in the country (or my borough atleast).

I stalked my teacher, he worked in Tesco's 8 months prior to him becoming a teacher at my school lol.

My teacher's the head of department and we have three teachers, although, they're not very good... My teacher became head of department all because the previous one left and he was the only computing teacher at that time.

I think I know what my back up plan is now if all else fails 😂 that teacher of your makes me laugh. But hey, he now earns 40+k so good on him

Reply 68

Original post by Vanilla Cupcake

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

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I use memrise as well! I'm happy with it and my vocabulary is getting better. And somehow, in my recent mock, I recently got my first A* in listening. :biggrin:

What I struggle with is the speaking though (I get extremely nervous and usually start crying lol). For my first one, I got an A so it's alright but the second one, I was an absolute wreck and got a B (which I am re-taking soon). So can you give me any tips if you're confident with speaking? If not, it's alright.

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Reply 69

Examquestions

1

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:

How are you finding the FSMQ? I'm struggling so much!!!

Reply 70

OP

Original post by I'm_infires

I think the main thing is, if you uderstand basic principles and use your common sense, you'll definitely pass. My teacher made us do a theory exam before we had even started learning the theory (because all my class except me had done computing previously so knew quite a lot of stuff) and I thought I was going to fail but I got a C/B ^_^. All I did was use common sense... but that was an easy paper. But what I recommend is PAST PAPERS. I don't know if there are a lot but use them. Go through a past paper and mark it and revise on the things you got wrong. Then try another paper (try keeping all papers you do). Once you run out of past papers, you can go back to the first ever one you did and re-try it and again, revise on the things you got wrong. But most importantly, you can reflect on how your revision is going. Compared to the first time you did that paper, how much did you improve? And what do you keep getting wrong? And BAM another thing to revise :smile:

Thanks! I'll start on past papers as soon as I've finished covering the content :smile:

Original post by I'm_infires

So can you give me any tips if you're confident with speaking? If not, it's alright.

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I'm the same - I panic a lot with speaking, so I may not be the best person to ask. My teacher has mentioned that even though my content is good, I speak too quickly for it to all be heard haha

Original post by Examquestions

How are you finding the FSMQ? I'm struggling so much!!!

I'm finding it pretty good actually, been doing past papers and they're really helpful

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Reply 71

username2277543

2

Original post by Vanilla Cupcake

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:

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I'm still doing A453 and I hate it. Stuck on task 3, done alphabetical and that's about it

Reply 72

Original post by Vanilla Cupcake

I'm the same - I panic a lot with speaking, so I may not be the best person to ask. My teacher has mentioned that even though my content is good, I speak too quickly for it to all be heard haha
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I'm the complete opposite :tongue:

I have good content as well but when I do the speaking, I stutter like crazy and it's all so slow and I just can't seem to get much out because of how nervous I am. In my second one, I was told I'd definitely get an A* because of the content but when I went in to speak it, the nervousness took over and I FORGOT MY WHOLE FREAKING PIECE IN A MATTER OF SECONDS (except for a few sentences here and there) so I had to wing it all.

Reply 73

Original post by Thedaniellamary

I'm still doing A453 and I hate it. Stuck on task 3, done alphabetical and that's about it

I absolutely hated it as well. I recommend doing a lot of research. I spent countless amounts of nights on the internet, just trying to get my head around all the things task 3 required (no seriously. I dedicated about 2 whole freaking days to it and it wasn't enough). My teacher didn't help me at all with the 3rd task even though they're supposed to provide a little bit of teaching so that really didn't help. But look at me! I solved it so you can too! Don't give up (omg I was so very close to giving up).

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 74

username2277543

2

Original post by I'm_infires

I absolutely hated it as well. I recommend doing a lot of research. I spent countless amounts of nights on the internet, just trying to get my head around all the things task 3 required (no seriously. I dedicated about 2 whole freaking days to it and it wasn't enough). My teacher didn't help me at all with the 3rd task even though they're supposed to provide a little bit of teaching so that really didn't help. But look at me! I solved it so you can too! Don't give up (omg I was so very close to giving up).

my computing department in my school is terrible, no one was applying for vacancies for a computing teacher and when we finally got one, it was terrible. We got caught nothing for Python, probably just how to print hello, seriously. I wrote a complaint form and got my class transferred to the Head of Computing so we have so much to catch up on, I finished the App inventor so I'm trying to get through task 3. I'm hoping I'll be able to do it- it's a pain though.

Reply 75

kendo9

16

Original post by Vanilla Cupcake

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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How are you making flashcards for RS? I.e what are you putting on them?

Reply 76

Original post by Thedaniellamary

my computing department in my school is terrible, no one was applying for vacancies for a computing teacher and when we finally got one, it was terrible. We got caught nothing for Python, probably just how to print hello, seriously. I wrote a complaint form and got my class transferred to the Head of Computing so we have so much to catch up on, I finished the App inventor so I'm trying to get through task 3. I'm hoping I'll be able to do it- it's a pain though.

It was the same for my department! It seems everyone's computing departments are rubbish.

Also, we didn't get taught much for python either. This was especially bad for me because I only started computing in year 10 whereas everyone else had done it before but all my teacher taught was to print hello and do a fricken password system, which was just using an if statement. I ended up teaching myself most of all I know but it's better this way because I learned higher level coding that he wouldn't have taught because he only seemed to teach the most basic stuff. Seriously, my teacher makes me mad sometimes because he sits behind his computer and doesn't help. He just opts to do as little as possible teaching wise--just enough so he can say "I teach". He was so lazy that in year 10, when students needed help when they didn't understand, he would get me or this other kid to go help because he couldn't be bothered to get up! He literally sat behind his desk all year, drinking his rank coffee, which meant that we had to smell his smelly breath whenever he did decide to help. It hasn't got much better this year though tbh and sorry for ranting :tongue:

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Reply 77

OP

Original post by kennethdcharles

How are you making flashcards for RS? I.e what are you putting on them?

I have two different kinds, one for key terms which have the word on one side and the definition on the other, and more detailed questions from the spec like 'What do Evangelicals think about abortion?' Then on the other side I'll have a brief answer (they disagree) and a few teachings to back it up in case it's a C or D style question

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Reply 78

OP

Past couple of days have been mostly flashcard learning with computing, biology and RS, and today I'm going to hunt down my Cold War textbook and start learning the stuff in it. I tried flashcards but there's too much to learn so I'm just going to memorise the textbook :colondollar:

Isn't the best way I know but if I do this as well as learning good exam technique and a few exam questions I should be good for the real thing

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Reply 79

OP