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My Year 13 Journey to A*A*A*A*

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Reply 60
**DAY 4**

Although I didnt intend to update this everyday, I've been quite busy all week so the posts seem (somewhat) justified :cool:

As promised, I started working through simple harmonic motion today - I'll need a lot more practise yet though since there's a lot of content in the topic. I also rewound back to FP1 to complete some homework on roots of polynomials that I only just realised I hadnt done. I still feel a lot stronger in pure maths compared to mechanics...

Monday will be my first day back, in year 13. I expect we'll be covering some FP1 topics for the majority of September since not much was actually taught after exams - it'll be a welcomed break from my PAT revision at home anyways

have a good weekend guys :biggrin:


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Reply 61
**DAY 10**

An unforeseen setback but I've been in hospital 5 days now. I haven't done any work since I've been here and this is my first time back on tsr. I'm hoping to go home tomorrow and perhaps slowly build up my workload.


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Your lowest ums is M1. When i looked at question 5 to the end i thought i was sitting the wrong paper maybe M2 xd
Reply 63
Since m1 was my last exam, I started my revision only the weekend before. I knew the mark wasn't going to affect my overall grade so I slacked a little. Regret this a lot now:frown:

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Original post by 98matt
Since m1 was my last exam, I started my revision only the weekend before. I knew the mark wasn't going to affect my overall grade so I slacked a little. Regret this a lot now:frown:

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You shouldn't really regret anything - you got an A* and need to stop thinking whether or not you could've gotten full marks...

The people with full marks are just like you, but with a little bit more luck on the day...
Original post by 98matt
Yes :frown: WJEC were particularly nasty this year aha - lots of subjects have new specifications, including all the sciences. They swapped a lot of the old A2 content for AS and vice versa which confused everyone. I think biology was one of the worst affected, I believe 50% raw marks was the A grade boundary for AS new spec


Tbh, I like exams with crazy low raw marks boundaries! Gives you a lot of room to make stupid mistakes and still get like full ums. I sat the old WJEC biology last year and even that had low boundaries.
Am I right in saying you have none of that stupid practical s*** in science?? just 2 exams each for 100 ums? If that is the case I am so jel because totally ****ed my coursework in chemistry and biology (42 & 44 /60 both B's) and it left me 1% out of the A* boundary for chemistry which was pretty heartbreaking
Original post by 98matt
**DAY 10**

An unforeseen setback but I've been in hospital 5 days now. I haven't done any work since I've been here and this is my first time back on tsr. I'm hoping to go home tomorrow and perhaps slowly build up my workload.

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aw, hope you're feeling better x
Reply 67
so on thursday I was diagnosed with intermediate bladder cancer - hence the lack of updates here. I'm home now & planning on easing back into school next week.

Today was my first time studying for 10 days. I tried to catch up on some FP1 Proof by Induction that I'd missed from school but I was slow & didn't get very far. Tomorrow I have a double maths lesson & physics after lunch.

Have a good week guys

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Original post by 98matt
so on thursday I was diagnosed with intermediate bladder cancer - hence the lack of updates here. I'm home now & planning on easing back into school next week.

Today was my first time studying for 10 days. I tried to catch up on some FP1 Proof by Induction that I'd missed from school but I was slow & didn't get very far. Tomorrow I have a double maths lesson & physics after lunch.

Have a good week guys

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Take it easy dude. I hope you have a fast recovery - don't put yourself under pressure. I'd say don't revise for a while until you are better.
Reply 69
**DAY 15**

Almost back to reality. Yesterday I completely covered circular motion from Unit 3 physics - this was quite simple since M2 has the same topic in much greater detail, which I've already covered.

Today I unintentionally covered all of the Nuclear Decay topic in physics also. Lots of this was from AS chemistry and GCSE Physics so there wasn't much new material to learn. I've only made 6-7 pages of notes but I think that should be enough (for now)

In maths this week we have looked at proof by induction. I found it quite an interesting topic but some of the algebra got a little messy at times :s-smilie: it's certainly one of the better FP1 topics in my opinion !

Tomorrow I have a horrendous 4 hour gap in the middle of my day between lessons. I'm planning on cracking on with PAT revision as time is running out....fast. I'm upping my revision to 2 hours a day for the PAT, starting tomorrow - I haven't even completed a paper yet, let alone in 2hrs. A teacher in my school is also giving me feedback on my personal statement draft which will be useful cos it's really really really really really bad at the moment aha.

Keep going guys...3 days till Friday

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Reply 70
**DAY 17**

Sorry for the late post. Yesterday I was set more work on Series & Summations which took quite a few hours (lots of questions). I worked through the 2012 PAT and competed about 80% of it, I didn't have time for the long physics q at the end but I'll probably look at it today. Also I didn't realise that the 2012 paper is one of the hardest ones... Oh well.

Today I had double physics, double maths in school. In physics we looked at the topic of Vibrations, specifically simple harmonic motion; it was okay but so so basic compared to M3 SHM. After finishing Series in maths we started to look at complex numbers. So far we've covered the Argand Diagram and modulus & argument form :smile:

Tomorrow we'll be continuing with that, although only for an hour's lesson. Not sure what else I'll be doing tomorrow since I can spread stuff out over the weekend - I will see what I feel like doing tomorrow lol

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Reply 71
**DAY 18**
One of my least productive days for a while - my excuse being that it's Friday! Still going through FP1, today looking at loci in the complex plane. Only spent an hour getting used to the equations & making notes so not much progress there.

Apart from that, all I've done is a little work for my Welsh Bacc project (it's compulsory and awful). My project is about the effects of time dilation for the future of space travel. I spent a few hours researching and reading up on special relativity, the Lorentz factor, etc. I also finished the prep work and introduction for it, although I'm not too sure where I want to take it next...

Enjoy the weekend guys. I'll be swotting up on my PAT knowledge hopefully :P

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Hi, I've just started Year 13, and was just wondering if you had good M1 notes (please)? Possibly? Thanks.
Are you doing WJEC for all your subjects? I hope you're feeling better!
Reply 74
Original post by MoniC255
Hi, I've just started Year 13, and was just wondering if you had good M1 notes (please)? Possibly? Thanks.


I never really made any notes for maths to be honest. I found that practising questions proved much more useful than note-taking. Have a look at http://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/maths-revision/a-level-mechanics-1/ , they have detailed notes on every topic!

Original post by Mathsqueen
Are you doing WJEC for all your subjects? I hope you're feeling better!


I'm feeling so much better than last week thanks:smile: yes WJEC for further maths, physics and welsh bacc A2

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Reply 75
**DAY 19**

I don't have any homework set over the weekend. I decided to focus on my Welsh Bacc project today, since it's pretty time consuming & a massive inconvenience. The actual investigation is quite interesting to do but because I usually have other, more important work, it's generally pushed down my list of priorities.

Other than that I haven't done any other school/academic stuff. Spent the evening at my friend's house as his 18th was yesterday. The PAT (and my lack of prep for it) is constantly on my mind - I'm almost at a stress over it already... I plan to start serious revision as of Monday. At least 2/3 hrs a day, going through past papers of UKMT, BPHo, AEA, MAT and of course the PAT itself. I should have enough time left, if I start treating it with more urgency!

Have a good Sunday :biggrin:

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Reply 76
*DAY 22**

I've finally finished my Welsh Bac investigation, which counts towards 50% of the entire qualification! I'm over the word count a little but hopefully it will still be accepted. *fingers crossed* The only reason I have been prioritising this so much is so I can now focus on the PAT and my other subjects 100% without being distracted by the stupid investigation.

I looked at the physics section of the 2012 PAT today and quickly came to the realisation that I'm no where near ready for the exam. I want to be exam ready in about 4 weeks which should be doable if I put the effort in and actually learn the physics syllabus😂

Away from the PAT, in FP1 we finished loci in the complex plane. I have an assignment to do for homework on this now. We're starting logarithmic differentiation very soon, I've already had a look at this and it seems okay - although not at all related to the rest of FP1....

My physics lessons are split between two teachers. We have just finished the nuclear decay topic of unit 3, the test of this is next week (also comes up in the PAT). With the other teacher we're continuing simple harmonic motion work at a painfully slow place. She spends 90% of the lesson trying to explain what the equations mean, which leaves very little time to actually 'do' the physics. I've been using my M3 notes on SHM which have proved very useful so far :biggrin:

Hope you're all having a good week!



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Reply 77
**DAY 23**

I spent about 4 hours on PAT past papers today. It felt quite productive and I've identified the areas (particularly in the physics section) that I need to learn. I'm finding the maths section okay and I hope to get 40+/50 on that bit which will hopefully allow for my inevitably lower mark in the physics section.

Apart from that I haven't done much else. Im about to go and complete FP1 logarithmic differentiation, it's very similar to C3 & C4 calculus just with a little extra thrown in the mix :P

I have physics & maths lessons in school tomorrow. Between those I'll be doing more PAT revision in the library. I've also got an assignment on loci in the complex plane that still needs to be done *cries*



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Reply 78
**DAY 24**

I started today off by making notes on Simple Harmonic Motion, for physics, looking at potential and kinetic energy for "a mass oscillates on a spring" type questions. I was meant to have a double physics lesson but my teacher wasn't in, so I had to make do with her notes on the topic instead.

I continued my work on the PAT after this. I focused purely on the physics section today which is much harder than the maths section! I couldn't revise this for long since I had a maths lesson to go to. We started our final FP1 topic: "Transformations using matrices" , however the lesson was only an hour so we didn't get very far. It seems quite useful/interesting from what I've seen so far...certainly better than the boring C3 transformations that requires basically no maths. We're starting M2 next which will be very useful for the PAT. Although I self-taught this module over summer, it'll still be good to have it explained in greater detail :smile:

Enjoy your Friday everyone!
Reply 79
**DAY 27**

This weekend has been very productive for me:
Yesterday I began making phys & maths notes, specifically for the PAT. I'm slowly working through each topic listed on the syllabus for the physics section - hopefully I'll have finished these notes by Wednesday or Thursday. The maths section should only take about a day to make notes on; it's mainly just reminding myself of the formulae & methods I need.

I had a look at the 2014 UKMT senior past paper too, since they're designed to test lateral thinking etc. I got a score of 81 (whatever that means - I couldnt find thresholds) which seemed pretty average to me. With more practise I hope to be able to get at least 100 on them. I'll probably do a few more of these to help with the maths section of the PAT over the next few weeks.

Earlier this afternoon I did some homework on the physics unit 3 topic about radiation... it's the easiest a2 topic imo. I also have a test on this on Wednesday, so I guess I know what I'm revising on Tuesday night now xD

My personal statement is pretty much finished now! I've tweaked it some more this weekend so I'll probably send off my uni application either this week or next... exciting times... :ahee:



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