_gcx's GCSE Journey :D

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My French and Biology tests went suprisingly well, although I'm kinda nervous about both. I think I prepared sufficiently, although I kind of messed up a part of my French, by having to improvise the last sentence.

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Computer Science - Made a start on several ProjectEuler problems, but hit a brick wall when I couldn't make my iterations quick enough. I'll look into optimizing solutions, and potentially a bit of number theory, later on this week.

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Biology - I have done around half of topic 2.

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Chemistry - I'm getting too far ahead... I've done Topics 3 and 4, and I'm now on Organic Chemistry. Considering I have yet to even start topic 1 in class, I'm going to say that I'm a bit too far ahead :P I'm faced with a dilemma to either continue and finish off C3, or wait until I cover it in class. If you're wondering how I got this far in the first place, we had a cover lesson in Chemistry and we were told to work on C1 notes. As I had already completed my C1 notes, I decided to start working on C3, and ended up finishing up Topics 3 and 4. Although they were both fairly short, I didn't expect to be done so quickly.

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Chemistry - I have expanded my C3 notes and compressed them to a decent length, and with wording that I'm happy with. This includes complete notes for topic 3-4, and semi-complete notes for topic 5. My notes for topic 3 and 4 consisted of mainly just refining my existing notes that I made in a cover lesson, while I was bored. They were thus quite vague, and thus I have added better, and more detailed explanation. Topic 3 involved electrolysis, which is also covered in C1, but not in this detail. It discusses details of electrolytic processes, including the purification of copper and electroplating. Topic 4 involves a large array of things. Firstly, it involves Avogadro's law, reversible reactions, and the production of ammonia, the last involving the Haber Process. The last topic involves Organic Chemistry, which involves general formulae, ethanol, its uses and dangers, and the usage of esters and carboxylic acids!

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Biology - Continued B1 where I left of, with topic 2, which involves, to put it simply, looking at living beings and reactions to change, both within plants and within animals. This, to be honest, was probably my weakest topic, especially while looking at auxin, and tropism within plants. Safe to say, that I have a better grasp and understanding for most concepts explored within the topic. I will be sure to review the notes, so that I am doubly sure that I have learnt everything. To be honest, I'm lucky this stuff didn't come up in my mock! To be honest, I shouldn't really have put B1 off for this long. While it is, probably, one of the easiest, if not the easiest, science module, I really should've taken notes when this information was fresh in my mind. Oh the regret of not paying attention in Year 9!

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Chemistry - Embarrased to say that I've finished C3. It was an extremely short module, consisting of only 5, relatively short topics. In my opinion, it's not even particularly harder than C2 or C1. However, I must say that it does build upon previously knowledge pretty heavily, with a slightly altered/enhanced description of exothermic and endothermic reactions, which helps in the understanding of the Haber Process and reversible reactions. I actually looked at a past paper, and I was pleasantly suprised that I could answer a few of the questions! Not too bad B) Now that I've finished my notes, I'm probably going to start learning from them, and adding information as I feel necessary. In class, we're still on the controlled assessment, so we really haven't done much C3, except brushing upon Ethanol and its use. Oddly enough, it makes up a significant proportion of C3, which probably gives you an idea of how short it is.

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General - I'm going to make a spreadsheet with the status of my notes for each module, of every subject, along with links to each within my Google Drive. I may even post it here! I feel it will help me keep on track, so that I don't get too distracted with a specific module. I still have a while until my mocks, but I feel that I should really make a tracker of some sort. Also, I may start gap analysis on earlier science topics, to refine and potentially renew my knowledge, for revision's sake.

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French - I got my French test back today. She hasn't given me a grade, rather she has identified two main points of weakness: mixing derniere and prochaine and overusing étant donné que :P Other than that, it seemingly went well. She left a smiley face, quite unusual for my teacher, so take that for what you will! :P

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English - We started the context of Bayonet Charge in class today. Seems to be similar in nature to the other "war" poems within the cluster, ie. War Photographer and Remains. Luckily, the poems we have done so far have been straightforward, with nothing too complex, really. I analysed War Photographer with my friends on Skype, and picked up several points that I had failed to pick up first time. I actually find War Photographer and Remains quite easy to write about. Fingers crossed they pop up in the exam!

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English - We did "Mother, any distance" as unseen poetry, and I managed to write far, far too much. I read far too deep into it XD I don't think I'd get lucky with unseen poetry in the English exam, so I probably wouldn't get a poem that is that easy to analyse. To give some substance to "far too much", it was in the region of 700 words for the first stanza.

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Biology - B1 Topic 3 is a decently long topic, so I wasn't really expecting to finish notes on it, and thus B1, today. I did make a start, however, and got around halfway through. The topic is titled "Inter-relationships", and basically includes drugs, pathogens, disease transmission, anti-biotics, and the such.

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Computer Science - More ProjectEuler work, and thus my Python skills have improved a fair bit, as well as my logical reasoning skills!

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Physics - I have started P2, and almost finished it. This is due to the fact that many of my notes, pre-mocks, were still usable, as opposed to many other subjects. Albeit, they only really covered topic 5, but I was able to add on to that, and get topics 1-4 done. P2, to be honest, is probably the science module with the least content, and probably the easiest imo. It seems odd to me that the grade boundaries are so low. It, however, should let me rack up UMS points in P2! I am planning on doing topic 6 soon.

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History - I have started my History notes, and I have realised the sheer amount of content. For the International Relations paper, there are two core aspects that I'm doing: Germany 18-45 and The Cold War. Luckily, they are both interesting depth studies! I am still doing Vietnam at school, but I'm due to start the British paper soon. I hear it's quite a bit easier than the International Relations paper, with lower grade boundaries. I am still yet to do the coursework, so there is that to look forward to. On the subject of notes, I've started on both modules. I have started off with the origins of the Weimar Republic for the Germany module, and the Potsdam and Yalta conferenes, along with their repercussions, for the Cold War module. I do, however, plan on picking up the pace quite soon.

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French - I am to do my writing controlled assessment in around 2 weeks. I am going to start preparing and practicing soon, but I'm not sure what sort of priority to set upon it, really.

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Biology - B1 is now finished, meaning that I only have B3 Topic 1/3 to do. I have Biology tomorrow, and I'm going to continue my controlled assessment. Fingers crossed that it'll go well!

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English Language - We haven't done anything in regards to language this term, we've mainly been doing Lit.

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English Literature - I've improved marginally in my essay writing. I don't really find myself running out of time anymore, but I'm still writing ridiculous amounts (in the region of 2000 words :O). Luckily, I now go into more detail on each point, so that definitely helps. I've done a few mocks, and I feel pretty confident that, once I apply the feedback given by my teacher, I will do pretty well in my actual mocks (19/24, 6/8 and 23/30) My teacher did say that I shouldn't consider things as deeply as I do, so I'm not sure whether that's a compliment or not. Apparently some of my points are incoherent too, so that doesn't help

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Mathematics - We finished Chapter 10, a pretty easy module, despite the fact that I kinda mucked up the test (26/30 :P). We're going back to Chapter 9, which isn't to hard, imo, although it's hell for pretty much everyone else. Apparently we are to have an interview to get into A-level Further Maths, which should be "fun".

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Biology - Started my Biology Controlled Assessment, although we had to stop mid-way, as my school's science department managed to kill the live samples that were to use for it, so they have to order more in. ^.^ Anyway, we've started Topic 1, Control Systems, with the function of the Kidney, and I've made notes on it accordingly.

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Chemistry - Finished off my Chemistry Controlled Assessment, and think I did ok. If I don't get an A*, there's a high probability that I'll retake, even if that means doing the C3 CA. We also started C3 Topic 1, and I have accordingly refined my notes on it. To be honest, it's a pretty easy topic based of memorisation alone.

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Physics - Finished off my Physics Controlled Assessment, per above.

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French - Oh dear. I would leave it at that, but I'll go on. I've done a Writing Controlled Assessment. While I was confident in practice, I kind of forgot parts of my last paragraph. This probably resulted in a sentence or two at the end, sounding like absolute nonsense. I should have focused more on the meaning of what I was writing, although I did have a vague idea. My teacher said that we'd have to retake if we didn't attain an A, so I'm not holding my breath. That said, I could be suprised, and I hope I will be proved wrong!

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History - Started and finished my Cold War notes, which is split into three: Origins, Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam, and I also started my Germany depth study notes, with notes on the origins of the Weimar Republic, and the problems that it faced early on. In class, we've finished Vietnam, and we're now moving on to the coursework, which is on civil rights, or otherwise "A New World?". The background is actually quite interesting!

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IT - Finished coursework, it's now pretty much a free period. (finished on an A*, but it hasn't yet been moderated)

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RS - Did a few practice questions, and shockingly got full marks on each! I've improved my philosophical reasoning, which has definitely helped with RS. There's not much to say, I've got pretty far ahead in the Beliefs module, where we're doing Judaism. It's quite interesting, but I mostly took RS because I find it easy, and it's pretty much exclusively essay-based

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Maths - We're quite far behind. The majority of my class buggered up the Chapter 9 (quadratics) test, so there's a high likelihood we'll be recapping the whole of Chapter 9. That will be quite fun (kill me) However, we have done Chapter 10 (probability) and Chapter 11 (multiplicative reasoning), so we're "only" 4 weeks behind, according to other sets. I will likely be catching up independently. I've been doing "ok", in module tests, at least. (ok = 8s and 9s :P) Still dreading the interview, mind.

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English - We've started An Inspector Calls, and it's actually not that too bad in the sense that it is indeed quite an interesting play. The context is actually pretty easy, and suprisingly fun to write about. We haven't done any questions about it yet, of course. We've started a bit of English Language practice, so that's good We haven't done any more poems, unfortunately. I think we'll return to that later in the year.

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Biology - We've returned to our controlled assessment, and we're close to being finished. After that, we will resume Control Systems. I have finished my B3 notes, and I may start learning from them shortly.

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Chemistry - We've finished the first topic, and we have done a progress test accordingly. Again, I have finished my C3 notes, and I'm planning on learning from it soon.

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Physics - We've finished our controlled assessment. Not much more, really :P

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French - ****ed up my controlled assessment with a 22/30. I'm probably going to be redoing that.