Wish upon A*...

OP

Original post by niv1234

Thanks, I like history, only the controlled assessments are rather tedious. I have no clue what product design is. How have your exams been so far?

They've been all right - last week's exams weren't too awful but I'm a bit apprehensive about this week's, especially Latin and English lit. Were yours okay?

Reply 62

Original post by glassriver

They've been all right - last week's exams weren't too awful but I'm a bit apprehensive about this week's, especially Latin and English lit. Were yours okay?

I do WJEC English, I didn't particularly like it but it wasn't too horrible. What board do you do and how did you find it? How did you find Latin Language? I thought it was definitely harder than the past paper I did in school. I need to do so much revision for Pliny before tomorrow. How are you feeling about Latin and what units do you do?

Reply 63

OP

Original post by niv1234

I do WJEC English, I didn't particularly like it but it wasn't too horrible. What board do you do and how did you find it? How did you find Latin Language? I thought it was definitely harder than the past paper I did in school. I need to do so much revision for Pliny before tomorrow. How are you feeling about Latin and what units do you do?

We do the Cambridge IGCSE (CIE) which isn't too awful. The prose text we studied for is only being examined this year, I think, so there weren't any past papers we could do. It ended up being a bit stressful in the end when I was preparing but overall, OK. Are you Welsh by any chance, as you do WJEC? :smile:

I thought the language part was all right, it was pretty tricky and I'm not all too sure how well I did because after reading discussions of the paper I realised all of the things I messed up on, so I've just got to really go for it on the literature. I think I'm doing section B for both (?)

Reply 64

Original post by glassriver

We do the Cambridge IGCSE (CIE) which isn't too awful. The prose text we studied for is only being examined this year, I think, so there weren't any past papers we could do. It ended up being a bit stressful in the end when I was preparing but overall, OK. Are you Welsh by any chance, as you do WJEC? :smile:

I thought the language part was all right, it was pretty tricky and I'm not all too sure how well I did because after reading discussions of the paper I realised all of the things I messed up on, so I've just got to really go for it on the literature. I think I'm doing section B for both (?)

Oh Ok, the CIE exams seem hard. No, I live in London and I don't know why my school does WJEC. Oh Ok, I don't know what Section B is I do, Pliny and VIrgil.

Reply 65

OP

Original post by niv1234

Oh Ok, the CIE exams seem hard. No, I live in London and I don't know why my school does WJEC. Oh Ok, I don't know what Section B is I do, Pliny and VIrgil.

Yep, that's the same as me - the avunculus meus/Arria and the Nisus and Euryalus.

Reply 66

Original post by glassriver

Yep, that's the same as me - the avunculus meus/Arria and the Nisus and Euryalus.

Good luck!

Reply 67

OP

Original post by niv1234

Good luck!

You too

Reply 68

Original post by glassriver

You too

Thanks, are you prepared for them?

Reply 69

OP

Original post by niv1234

Thanks, are you prepared for them?

I should be, if I get all my Death stuff in order :smile:

Reply 70

OP

Tuesday 24.05.16

exams to go: 18
days until final exam: 34
days until results day: 93

Yes, Latin prose and physical geography are now done (so I can forget all about the content :wink:

) and I've got physics tomorrow afternoon, so I'm going to study for that. However, I have Latin verse and my first maths paper of four on Thursday so I want to get some studying in for those because the Latin verse text is so tricky and I've not got many stylistic points in my mind at the moment.

•

Do physics unit 1 questions from the CGP revision workbook, then past papers. I cannot recommend the CGP revision guides more. They are a great base for the rest of revision and there are dad jokes and funny pictures of babies with hamburgers and stuff, which are always useful. I'm going to combine them with past papers to really check that I know my stuff, and look at my physics textbook as well.

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Memorise Virgil text. Now that all of the Pliny is over and done with, I just have Virgil to look forward to and then my Latin GCSE exams are completely over. Part of me wishes that this exam was after half term but I guess it's good to finish with it early so that I can concentrate on the other subjects which I find difficult. I'll try to make some stylistic points as well as learning the Virgil. Because sometimes it's hard to get out my text and translation when I'm travelling to school or have a spare moment, I've got a recording of the translation being spoken which I can listen to as well as reading the original text. Hopefully I will feel as blessed after the verse exam as I did after the prose!

I'm really intending to study hard over the half-term, though I know that I'm going to be diverted at some points just because the temptation of free time is so great! But I have 10 days between Friday and my first exam after half-term, so I hope to be utilising a fair bit of that for working on the 12 exams on the 2 weeks afterwards.

Reply 71

OP

Sunday 29.05.16

exams to go: 13
days until final exam: 29
days until results day: 88

I'm more than halfway through all my exams now so I've got to prepare for the exams in the next 2 weeks. Since I have a week-long break between my last exam then (Physics 2/3) and the last one (PD) I'm going to do all my PD revision in that week and concentrate on the subjects I have sooner. I plan on working backwards, so I've started revising P2 and P3 today and at the end of half-term I'll be doing geography and German ready for the exams.

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Do physics unit 2 questions from AQA textbook. Because I find them good, and as P2 is today that's what I'm going to be doing.

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P2 past paper. I have one left, so I'm going to use it.

Reply 72

OP

Saturday 04.06.16

exams to go: 13
days until final exam: 23
days until results day: 82

I was so glad that I had half-term between my exams so that I could put in some extra revision time, as although I haven't been quite as productive as I would have liked to be, it's been really useful to have extra time to recap the topics before the exams themselves. Today is B3, but I'm still finishing off part of B2 so I'm a bit behind but I still have time!

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Do biology questions from the B3 section of the AQA textbook. They're not fun like the CGP ones but they cover the bases a bit more (wish I was doing C2 right now so that I could make a pun about that).

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Maths papers. 50% of Applications is left and since I've spoken to other people about the exam (bad idea) I've realised that I went wrong in quite a few places, due to lack of common sense. I'm still kicking myself about the question which required the area of a rhombus but all I can do now is revise for next week's exam and hope for the best.

Despite my pledge to have fun while revising, I haven't played the cornet for weeks and when I remembered this and picked it up again the other day, I could only make some sad tooting sounds and bruised myself :frown:

Hopefully if I keep going with this I'll be able to build myself up again and do more practice in the summer!

Reply 73

username2312801

18

Original post by glassriver

Saturday 04.06.16

exams to go: 13
days until final exam: 23
days until results day: 82

I was so glad that I had half-term between my exams so that I could put in some extra revision time, as although I haven't been quite as productive as I would have liked to be, it's been really useful to have extra time to recap the topics before the exams themselves. Today is B3, but I'm still finishing off part of B2 so I'm a bit behind but I still have time!

•

Do biology questions from the B3 section of the AQA textbook. They're not fun like the CGP ones but they cover the bases a bit more (wish I was doing C2 right now so that I could make a pun about that).

•

Maths papers. 50% of Applications is left and since I've spoken to other people about the exam (bad idea) I've realised that I went wrong in quite a few places, due to lack of common sense. I'm still kicking myself about the question which required the area of a rhombus but all I can do now is revise for next week's exam and hope for the best.

Despite my pledge to have fun while revising, I haven't played the cornet for weeks and when I remembered this and picked it up again the other day, I could only make some sad tooting sounds and bruised myself :frown:

Hopefully if I keep going with this I'll be able to build myself up again and do more practice in the summer!

Well done !! Which textbook is the best the AQA or CGP ones for sciences ?

Reply 74

OP

Original post by nisha.sri

Well done !! Which textbook is the best the AQA or CGP ones for sciences ?

CGP seems like it covers everything but AQA does it in more detail, so I would probably say AQA. But CGP has got good questions in the revision guide/workbook to cover whole topics.

Reply 75

OP

Wednesday 08.06.16

exams to go: 10
days until final exam: 19
days until results day: 78

Today was really stressful, it wasn't great. There was a problem with the exam at the start of German so while they were sorting it we were sitting there in fear. We ended up finishing ages after the other groups which were doing the same paper - not very fun. Then there was human geography - I hope it turns out okay because I took a long time to finish and couldn't check.

Now 3 exams have been ticked off and I've just got stem subjects left - 6 science papers, 3 maths papers and PD. I'm hoping I do well on applications tomorrow and biology the day after, then all of the papers for 2 more GCSEs will have been sorted.

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MATHS MATHS MATHS questions, look at old exam answer books, use the textbook, work out how to do hard stuff which I've written down on the backs of old exam papers, basically do whatever I can to A*CE the thing tomorrow.

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Finish of biology workbook, do summary questions/examination style questions in AQA textbook.

Reply 76

OP

Monday 13.06.16

exams to go: 7
days until final exam: 14
days until results day: 73

The exams seem to have passed too quickly - I thought that they'd be longer (and more painful) but the bulk of them have been over already. For some of my subjects I feel a bit sad about dropping them because I really wanted to continue with geography etc. Only a few more to go, there will be 6 in the next 4 days (starting tomorrow) so I'm trying like crazy to build up any gaps in knowledge beforehand. Physics is my greatest concern at the moment as I have an afternoon maths exam the day before physics, which is a morning exam.

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Chemistry workbook, physics workbook... I'm revising like I did for biology with these ones. Biology wasn't too bad so if I continue with what I did for that, with some extra effort/cramming where it's most needed.

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Maths papers. 100% of Methods this week, so papers, papers, papers. I'm also doing some practice questions for particular topics that I've forgotten to do and now I'm quite confident with completing the square! I always used to find it so confusing but now it seems simple. Want to do some surds as well.

There's not much left, after this week I'll be revising PD and then I'm done and can go on holiday!

Reply 77

OP

Drinking when studying

It's nice to drink a drink between study sessions, especially as a hot one as they help you to calm down - that's the effect they have on me, anyway - and stay hydrated. 75%-ish of your brain is water, so to prevent loss of concentration/death you should probably take some time to sit down and have a nice drink. I prefer drinks which don't take very long to make because I'm otherwise going to be spending too much time away from work and will get distracted by an interesting something-or-other. These are my favourite six, which I normally make up with kettle water or microwaved milk, which is faster than boiling milk in a pan (and needs less washing up).

Water. This drink is the best one, according to most healthy people, and it takes the least energy to make. It's plain but nice, and a good thing to keep at your side throughout a whole revision session when you're working hard and don't want to go to much effort. You can make squash if you don't like the flavour too.

Tea. Tea is something that I can drink a lot of - had at least 1.25 litres of it yesterday, with milk. It's an antioxidant so good if you want to be healthy. You can have green tea as well, or iced tea, or tea with sugar. It is nice, not very expensive and pretty versatile. Can't disagree with the 84% of the UK who drink it every day!

Coffee. Depends what type of coffee you have as to how nice it is. I don't really drink this much in the afternoon because it can stop you sleeping but it's brilliant to give yourself a pick-me-up with a cup of coffee. I just have it with milk but there are many varieties, even more if you go to a coffee shop but that tends to take too much time and is quite expensive. If you buy it in China/Vietnam/Malaysia/around there you can get it with condensed milk in which is really sweet but tastes amazing.

Cocoa. I just make this with cocoa powder and some cinnamon/nutmeg with hot water and a bit of milk. You can add pepper as well, and thin it out with milk too, but I like it quite strong. Hot chocolate, though very nice, is not the same thing. It's generally sweeter, milkier and tastes more like chocolate. Both of them take roughly the same amount of time to make, so whatever you fancy really.

Bovril. I actually started drinking Bovril when I found an ancient jar of chicken Bovril in a kitchen cupboard. The normal beef version is lovely, if a bit salty, so it's hard to choose between which one I like more. Beef bovril is easier to find but you can get chicken Bovril still - Sainsbury's is the place that springs to mind - and it also tastes great and helps you to channel your inner World War 2 person. Obviously not one for the vegetarians though.

Ovaltine. Right, whoever said Ovaltine was only for old people has me to answer to. I love the stuff. It's like hot chocolate but with malt too, and doesn't contain caffeine so is very calming. I think the reason I like it so much is partly because of the malt because I am obsessed with Milo as well and like Horlicks too! You can make really nice brownies with it as well if you've got some but prefer other drinks.

Cold drinks are all very nice as well, but chilling something/waiting for it to cool down normally requires forward planning which is not my forte or general time if you're making a smoothie/juice from scratch. If you're having it out of a bottle then that's different and easier.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 78

OP