From BCE to AAC
Ladies and Gentlemen (or other), I welcome you to my Journey through A-Levels...
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Before I jump right into this, I thought I’d give you a little insight into who I am.
Being a relatively new member of the student room (of this actual account, I have used the service for a few years now), I don’t completely understand how everything works. Regardless of how many times I read “how to…” threads I still struggle. And let’s face it, with the task of tackling A-Levels, who has time for life anymore?
I am in my second year of sixth form studies (my subjects include Biology, Chemistry, History and EPQ), I’m from West Yorkshire, I am female and I own a cat. (I think I’ve covered the basics, now let’s get into the important stuff).
AS LEVELs
I struggled massively last year, not with the content or even the exams, but I was quite ill (still am in fact). The school have been informed, but there’s not much they can do when it comes to exams. Gratefully, they have blessed me with “special arrangements” by sitting me at the back of the hall so I can leave in a rush if I need to and a beautifully cool wall to rest my head on when I get a headache (although, when they assigned my seat I don’t think that’s what they were thinking about).
When I got my results, I was very upset, but I was also proud. In Biology, I achieved a B, I was predicted an A and although I would normally have been devastated by this news, I was quite happy – I hadn’t worked as hard as I could have, I had a lack of motivation last year and was going through quite a rough spot in my life mentally. I got a C in history, which was a bloody miracle, because the paper was very difficult for my year – there was a question on a section which we had overlooked (at least it taught me the importance of revising literally everything). Finally, Chemistry; unfortunately, I was very ill in the first exam, ended up crying and didn’t write half the paper, so that completely flunked. I only achieved an E.
Of course, I believe I was a good student at GCSE, I achieved 8As, 3Bs and 2Cs (French and Further Mathematics, ugh). I thought I was good, that I had handled this dramatic change that everyone had spoken about. I dropped English Literature to focus on the subjects that would get me where I wanted university wise…
It was my fault at the end of the day. I spread myself out too thinly and didn’t have enough time to prepare. So, of course I was heartbroken, but it gave me the determination necessary to get better, improve and grab life by its balls! (Can I say that on here?)
In conclusion….
2015 AS Level Examination Results:
AQA Biology B
AQA Chemistry E
Edexcel History C
PREDICTED GRADES
After explaining all the above to my wonderful, caring teachers (in case they read this and recognise me, hi Mrs M!) thankfully made me feel much better. They offered me the support and guidance to continue pushing for better grades, they even gave me a remarkable reference which made my Grandma cry because she was so surprised that I was good at sixth form (I know, thanks Grandma, totally haven’t spoken to you about it every day).
They awarded me the predicted grades…
AQA Biology A
AQA Chemistry C
Edexcel History A
AQA Extended Project A*
I know you’re thinking, what the hell? How can she possibly achieve that compared to those *****y AS Level grades and to be honest, I don’t have an answer. So far this year I have made flashcards, started to pay attention in a higher percentage of my classes (I still zone out a little bit, but I’m working hard on it) and have organised some revision folders.
My year is more difficult than ever before, we must resit all our AS exams as well as A2 (which in my case may be a godsend…) and I feel so stressed out about everything, but I am determined for the following reason…
FALLING IN LOVE (with a University)
I admit it, I was always the person to tell everyone that I would go to Oxford and that it would be the best thing to happen to me. At 10 years old, I would tell my Grandma’s my entire futures regarding London and Oxford/Cambridge. But let’s face it, I grew up.
I found the love of my life after watching one YouTube video by Alice Thorpe, who showed me around the campus of LINCOLN UNIVERSITY (In Lincoln, duh). I don’t think it was love at first sight, but I can’t completely be sure. I remember watching the videos (around her accommodation, around the campus, her subject – completely different to mine) and knew that I had to at least visit. So, there I went, after booking an open day and dragging my supportive parents on. And I was fascinated, like a kid in a candy shop, something clicked and I finally felt like a belonged (you might think that this is A. cheesy or B. extremely exaggerated, but I genuinely feel that way). It was just the applications now…
UNIVERSITY
I’m not stupid, I knew that to get the best chance of getting into at least one university, I had to apply to more than one at the time. I selected Lincoln, Chester, Cumbria and York – all with varying entry requirements from AAB to CCC, to give me the best possible chance.
I applied before the Oxford deadline, I sent my (hopefully) polished application to UCAS in October 2016. A few weeks later I had two replies, another week passed and my last two came in. The first was… Lincoln, they had offered me Masters Biology, the thing I had spent nights dreaming over. Chester, Cumbria and York all offered Bachelors Biology. I felt accepted, I was accepted.
It’s a weird feeling when you get all your offers, it’s not to brag, but it almost feels like an extra push in the right direction. I felt like these institutions had acknowledged the fact that I could do this, I could have the future that I wanted. So, I have replied to my offers with Lincoln as my firm choice and Chester as my insurance.
LET’S GET PERSONAL
Constructive criticism is always welcome, new ideas for revision are always welcome, I just ask that everyone is kind to each other in the replies section of this blog post. I don’t tolerate nastiness or bullying in any format – please keep it constructive, whether that be to me or anyone else that is commenting, I’m always looking for areas to improve.
If you have any questions about me, my college, my GCSEs, my experiences, anything I can help you with, please don’t hesitate to ask, I’ll be trying to update this blog as often as possible, with at least one to do list a week (keep on at me if I don’t or if I forget, I forget things a lot).
MOCKS IN JANUARY
5th November 2016 to 12th November 2016
Spoiler
12th November 2016 to 19th November 2016
Spoiler
(edited 7 years ago)
Hey, you are going to make it. I got ACDDD in my AS which transformed into A*AAB in A2. IT WAS THE MOST STRESSFUL YEAR OF MY LIFE. THERE WERE DAYS WHERE I DIDN'T EVEN SLEEP. TBH WITH YOU, I'M STILL NOT HAPPY WITH MY RESULTS BUT I'M NOT DISSAPOINTED EITHER.
Original post by Dominator1
Hey, you are going to make it. I got ACDDD in my AS which transformed into A*AAB in A2. IT WAS THE MOST STRESSFUL YEAR OF MY LIFE. THERE WERE DAYS WHERE I DIDN'T EVEN SLEEP. TBH WITH YOU, I'M STILL NOT HAPPY WITH MY RESULTS BUT I'M NOT DISSAPOINTED EITHER.
Wow, that's crazy, how did you manage that?
Original post by HellWontBeatUs
Wow, that's crazy, how did you manage that?
Said good bye to sleep, said good bye to social life, completely changed my study strategy, I resat almost the entire AS modules. But my secrete ingredient was extreme motivation. I'm always viewed as an incredibly smart person, so these AS grades were like a scar on my honor, whenever I spoke to people and they realised how erudite I was they always asked me what I got in AS, expecting me to say AAAA. That was so humiliating that I had this burning passion to crush everyone else in my school.
My son has fallen in love with Lincoln too after an open day visit last weekend, it had been his number 2 choice and then joint first choice for a while but it absolutely blew him away when he visited and only an hour into the day he declared he didn't need to go any further, it would be his firm choice if he was lucky enough to get an offer (still waiting for PS approval and reference at college).
He too has faced a struggle through illness and disability which had an impact on his education (especially his GCSEs) but he got his determined head on and has turned it all around and has gone from a student who was thought would be very average to the top student in his year group. It hasn't been easy but he is now really driven and motivated, very stubborn and college work comes first before friends, social outings and everything else.
He too has faced a struggle through illness and disability which had an impact on his education (especially his GCSEs) but he got his determined head on and has turned it all around and has gone from a student who was thought would be very average to the top student in his year group. It hasn't been easy but he is now really driven and motivated, very stubborn and college work comes first before friends, social outings and everything else.
Original post by Crazysue1
My son has fallen in love with Lincoln too after an open day visit last weekend, it had been his number 2 choice and then joint first choice for a while but it absolutely blew him away when he visited and only an hour into the day he declared he didn't need to go any further, it would be his firm choice if he was lucky enough to get an offer (still waiting for PS approval and reference at college).
He too has faced a struggle through illness and disability which had an impact on his education (especially his GCSEs) but he got his determined head on and has turned it all around and has gone from a student who was thought would be very average to the top student in his year group. It hasn't been easy but he is now really driven and motivated, very stubborn and college work comes first before friends, social outings and everything else.
He too has faced a struggle through illness and disability which had an impact on his education (especially his GCSEs) but he got his determined head on and has turned it all around and has gone from a student who was thought would be very average to the top student in his year group. It hasn't been easy but he is now really driven and motivated, very stubborn and college work comes first before friends, social outings and everything else.
That's great to hear! Hopefully, he'll get an offer and grades he needs for his course at Lincoln. I may even meet him next year! It's nice to know that other people are finding it difficult as well and that I'm not the only one that has struggled, at least I'm not alone in all this.
I too am trying to get more driven and motivated but it is very difficult, try to keep us all updated with how everything turns out for him?
Best of luck!
One thing that helped him is the same as Dominator1, he is embarrassed about his GCSEs and wants to prove that is not the sum total of his intelligence, he knew he was brighter than that, I knew he was but the school just wrote him off, put him in the most disruptive classes, entered him into foundation GCSEs for most of his courses and didn't provide the support they were legally supposed to as per his statement of educational needs.
The school actually thought they had done well with him as his prognosis had always been that he would never sit GCSEs (we were also told he would never go to a mainstream high school), so they were going around patting themselves on the back on results day for a job well done whilst my son was in absolute despair as he knew he could do better than that given half a chance and the hardest thing of all for him, a different place of education.
College was a revelation for him, I had secretly spoken to them and advised them on what to do with him in regards support and they agreed to allow him to find his own level instead of judging it because of his disabilities and previous record....they soon found his level was not near the bottom of the class but at the top and the rest is history really.
Well that is the short version, the long version involves a hell of a lot more and various locking of heads between myself, his head of year and the head over their treatment of him when they became an academy, it was a decent school before that and he had been doing well.
The school actually thought they had done well with him as his prognosis had always been that he would never sit GCSEs (we were also told he would never go to a mainstream high school), so they were going around patting themselves on the back on results day for a job well done whilst my son was in absolute despair as he knew he could do better than that given half a chance and the hardest thing of all for him, a different place of education.
College was a revelation for him, I had secretly spoken to them and advised them on what to do with him in regards support and they agreed to allow him to find his own level instead of judging it because of his disabilities and previous record....they soon found his level was not near the bottom of the class but at the top and the rest is history really.
Well that is the short version, the long version involves a hell of a lot more and various locking of heads between myself, his head of year and the head over their treatment of him when they became an academy, it was a decent school before that and he had been doing well.
Original post by Crazysue1
One thing that helped him is the same as Dominator1, he is embarrassed about his GCSEs and wants to prove that is not the sum total of his intelligence, he knew he was brighter than that, I knew he was but the school just wrote him off, put him in the most disruptive classes, entered him into foundation GCSEs for most of his courses and didn't provide the support they were legally supposed to as per his statement of educational needs.
The school actually thought they had done well with him as his prognosis had always been that he would never sit GCSEs (we were also told he would never go to a mainstream high school), so they were going around patting themselves on the back on results day for a job well done whilst my son was in absolute despair as he knew he could do better than that given half a chance and the hardest thing of all for him, a different place of education.
College was a revelation for him, I had secretly spoken to them and advised them on what to do with him in regards support and they agreed to allow him to find his own level instead of judging it because of his disabilities and previous record....they soon found his level was not near the bottom of the class but at the top and the rest is history really.
Well that is the short version, the long version involves a hell of a lot more and various locking of heads between myself, his head of year and the head over their treatment of him when they became an academy, it was a decent school before that and he had been doing well.
The school actually thought they had done well with him as his prognosis had always been that he would never sit GCSEs (we were also told he would never go to a mainstream high school), so they were going around patting themselves on the back on results day for a job well done whilst my son was in absolute despair as he knew he could do better than that given half a chance and the hardest thing of all for him, a different place of education.
College was a revelation for him, I had secretly spoken to them and advised them on what to do with him in regards support and they agreed to allow him to find his own level instead of judging it because of his disabilities and previous record....they soon found his level was not near the bottom of the class but at the top and the rest is history really.
Well that is the short version, the long version involves a hell of a lot more and various locking of heads between myself, his head of year and the head over their treatment of him when they became an academy, it was a decent school before that and he had been doing well.
I applaud and admire what you did for your child, mothers do truly deserve a special place in heaven.
Thanks Dominator1, truth be told, I only advised, the hard work has been done by my son. He's really the one who has turned everything around through sheer determination.
I just provide the food, heat, roof over his head etc and a sounding board when he needs it (even if half the time I haven't a clue what he is going on about
)
I just provide the food, heat, roof over his head etc and a sounding board when he needs it (even if half the time I haven't a clue what he is going on about
)
Good luck! I will also be applying to Lincoln this year with predicted grades AAC!
Original post by HellWontBeatUs
UNIVERSITY
I’m not stupid, I knew that to get the best chance of getting into at least one university, I had to apply to more than one at the time. I selected Lincoln, Chester, Cumbria and York – all with varying entry requirements from AAB to CCC, to give me the best possible chance.
I applied before the Oxford deadline, I sent my (hopefully) polished application to UCAS in October 2016. A few weeks later I had two replies, another week passed and my last two came in. The first was… Lincoln, they had offered me Masters Biology, the thing I had spent nights dreaming over. Chester, Cumbria and York all offered Bachelors Biology. I felt accepted, I was accepted.
It’s a weird feeling when you get all your offers, it’s not to brag, but it almost feels like an extra push in the right direction. I felt like these institutions had acknowledged the fact that I could do this, I could have the future that I wanted. So, I have replied to my offers with Lincoln as my firm choice and Chester as my insurance.
UNIVERSITY
I’m not stupid, I knew that to get the best chance of getting into at least one university, I had to apply to more than one at the time. I selected Lincoln, Chester, Cumbria and York – all with varying entry requirements from AAB to CCC, to give me the best possible chance.
I applied before the Oxford deadline, I sent my (hopefully) polished application to UCAS in October 2016. A few weeks later I had two replies, another week passed and my last two came in. The first was… Lincoln, they had offered me Masters Biology, the thing I had spent nights dreaming over. Chester, Cumbria and York all offered Bachelors Biology. I felt accepted, I was accepted.
It’s a weird feeling when you get all your offers, it’s not to brag, but it almost feels like an extra push in the right direction. I felt like these institutions had acknowledged the fact that I could do this, I could have the future that I wanted. So, I have replied to my offers with Lincoln as my firm choice and Chester as my insurance.
I'm so glad that you have an offer from your dream course/university and I really hope you get in
Original post by jessyjellytot14
Good luck! I will also be applying to Lincoln this year with predicted grades AAC!
Awesome! What are you applying for?
Original post by CatusStarbright
I'm so glad that you have an offer from your dream course/university and I really hope you get in
Thank you so much, I really appreciate it
Synopsis:
Homework: History x2, Biology x2, Chemistry x2
Coursework: History
Revision for this weekend: History and Chemistry
I feel that to give a full picture of how studying is going, I will need to tell you about my days as they happen, and what actually happens instead of just all the revision work; I guess you can say that I miss the blogging I used to partake in… plus, I may like to look back at this one day and say, I did this or damn, what the hell was I thinking?
Week: 5/11/2016-12/11/2016
Saturday:
I spent the first half of the day doing homework – surprisingly, I had quite a small amount this week, that or I managed to stay on top of it (which is a miracle). It was two past paper question (PPQ) booklets for chemistry, two more for biology and then a small number of notes for history. The only problem I feel I will have this week is completing my third section of my history coursework; to me, the topic is not very motivating, some days I find it interesting, some days I hate it (for obvious reasons, I’m not going to go into too much detail regarding what my topic is.etc.), but I feel that way about everything nowadays. I then had a driving lesson (which went “great”…., ate some food, read a book and called it a day with some free time to myself). I felt it was important to set aside some time to just chill out and relax because the hard work was beginning tomorrow…
Sunday:
I guess you could class this as my productive day, I began by waking up, having breakfast and having a nice big cup of tea. Can I just tell you how stressful the decoupled A Levels now are? To keep on top of all my revision, I have dragged my dusty textbook on last years’ topics out to start trudging through. After consuming the entire first season of “The Crown” on Netflix (brilliant by the way, and relevant to my history course – Britain and The USA as democracies), I had made my way through the first section of the first section (yes, you read that right, that’s how long these bloody books are). The clock hit 7pm and I thought I should call it a day, cooked a vegetable lasagne (it was ok…), watched some TV, had a shower and went to bed. I figure you can call it successful, I kind of remember what I saw writing note-wise but I definitely feel I should consolidate all of it again anyway. Onwards and upwards!
Monday:
After crying into my pillow because it’s Monday morning… just kidding. But, wow, today has been a handful. I don’t have lessons until 11am on a Monday morning (how lucky am I?) So, I decided to finish the chapter from my history notes and read a fictional book regarding my new section in history (this week was a history fuelled week, I’ll give you that). By Ian Mortimer (fascinating read) about time-travelling to the Medieval Ages (just light Monday reading). Chemistry was interesting, my experiment failed which is the perfect representation of my life, because it started off well, then… well, wasn’t going to great and the results were terrible. Thankfully, the teacher gave my partner and I the ‘benefit of doubt’ treatment and let us move on… Biology was simple and History was very interesting – the teacher was being supervised by another one to just do a ‘random spot check’ so he tried so hard and decided that to be diverse and interesting, we should write on a table… Once home, I got started on my next section of history coursework, reading the source I was using again in its entirety, making a few notes and then off to bed (after a shower of course, but I’m going to leave those ‘everyday’ details out, because they’re obvious).
Tuesday:
It was reasonably eventful. I spent the first two hours of my sixth form day studying Chemistry in a lesson. I then lost my phone. It was in my hand. After 50 minutes of searching, checking around the entire school at ‘lost property’ points and speaking to my head of year. It was discovered that after all that time, it was 30 inches away from my face. It was sandwiched between two table tops, one underneath the other, between the gap. Of course, my luck meant that it got to the end of the free period before we found it. Thank you to all my friends for their help when I get seriously agitated. For the rest of the afternoon, I worked on history coursework – my teacher said that it seems to be going well, which is good news.
Wednesday:
I stayed home on Wednesday; with only a light earache and headache, deep snow where I live and only 2 hours in school. The potential risks outweighed the benefits for me. Because I would be missing Biology, I decided to do a small amount of Biology revision, another 500 words of my history coursework, some chemistry revision and a break – of GTA with my friend who had just successfully applied for her dream apprenticeship! (I’m very proud).
Thursday:
What didn’t happen on Thursday? The first two hours of my day were uneventful – I went to History, enjoyed some light conversation on Henry the 6th and then had a free period, I decided to give myself a small break and went for an hour walk outside. Chemistry and Biology were simple as well. Once at home, I completed my history coursework so that’s good.
Friday:
Driving into sixth form, I got sick, so had to turn back home and stayed there all day (and trust me, it was the best decision for that day). It gave me the opportunity to send in the coursework and finish some history homework.
Saturday:
Today, I plan on having a little bit of relaxation time – a bubble bath, some delicious veggie breakfast.
Then, it’s homework and revision while watching some Supernatural or a movie… Fun times!
How was your week? What do you plan on doing? Did you go out with friends/attend any open days/events? Tell me about yourself in the comments below, I like to think that I reply pretty fast!
Homework: History x2, Biology x2, Chemistry x2
Coursework: History
Revision for this weekend: History and Chemistry
I feel that to give a full picture of how studying is going, I will need to tell you about my days as they happen, and what actually happens instead of just all the revision work; I guess you can say that I miss the blogging I used to partake in… plus, I may like to look back at this one day and say, I did this or damn, what the hell was I thinking?
Week: 5/11/2016-12/11/2016
Saturday:
I spent the first half of the day doing homework – surprisingly, I had quite a small amount this week, that or I managed to stay on top of it (which is a miracle). It was two past paper question (PPQ) booklets for chemistry, two more for biology and then a small number of notes for history. The only problem I feel I will have this week is completing my third section of my history coursework; to me, the topic is not very motivating, some days I find it interesting, some days I hate it (for obvious reasons, I’m not going to go into too much detail regarding what my topic is.etc.), but I feel that way about everything nowadays. I then had a driving lesson (which went “great”…., ate some food, read a book and called it a day with some free time to myself). I felt it was important to set aside some time to just chill out and relax because the hard work was beginning tomorrow…
Sunday:
I guess you could class this as my productive day, I began by waking up, having breakfast and having a nice big cup of tea. Can I just tell you how stressful the decoupled A Levels now are? To keep on top of all my revision, I have dragged my dusty textbook on last years’ topics out to start trudging through. After consuming the entire first season of “The Crown” on Netflix (brilliant by the way, and relevant to my history course – Britain and The USA as democracies), I had made my way through the first section of the first section (yes, you read that right, that’s how long these bloody books are). The clock hit 7pm and I thought I should call it a day, cooked a vegetable lasagne (it was ok…), watched some TV, had a shower and went to bed. I figure you can call it successful, I kind of remember what I saw writing note-wise but I definitely feel I should consolidate all of it again anyway. Onwards and upwards!
Monday:
After crying into my pillow because it’s Monday morning… just kidding. But, wow, today has been a handful. I don’t have lessons until 11am on a Monday morning (how lucky am I?) So, I decided to finish the chapter from my history notes and read a fictional book regarding my new section in history (this week was a history fuelled week, I’ll give you that). By Ian Mortimer (fascinating read) about time-travelling to the Medieval Ages (just light Monday reading). Chemistry was interesting, my experiment failed which is the perfect representation of my life, because it started off well, then… well, wasn’t going to great and the results were terrible. Thankfully, the teacher gave my partner and I the ‘benefit of doubt’ treatment and let us move on… Biology was simple and History was very interesting – the teacher was being supervised by another one to just do a ‘random spot check’ so he tried so hard and decided that to be diverse and interesting, we should write on a table… Once home, I got started on my next section of history coursework, reading the source I was using again in its entirety, making a few notes and then off to bed (after a shower of course, but I’m going to leave those ‘everyday’ details out, because they’re obvious).
Tuesday:
It was reasonably eventful. I spent the first two hours of my sixth form day studying Chemistry in a lesson. I then lost my phone. It was in my hand. After 50 minutes of searching, checking around the entire school at ‘lost property’ points and speaking to my head of year. It was discovered that after all that time, it was 30 inches away from my face. It was sandwiched between two table tops, one underneath the other, between the gap. Of course, my luck meant that it got to the end of the free period before we found it. Thank you to all my friends for their help when I get seriously agitated. For the rest of the afternoon, I worked on history coursework – my teacher said that it seems to be going well, which is good news.
Wednesday:
I stayed home on Wednesday; with only a light earache and headache, deep snow where I live and only 2 hours in school. The potential risks outweighed the benefits for me. Because I would be missing Biology, I decided to do a small amount of Biology revision, another 500 words of my history coursework, some chemistry revision and a break – of GTA with my friend who had just successfully applied for her dream apprenticeship! (I’m very proud).
Thursday:
What didn’t happen on Thursday? The first two hours of my day were uneventful – I went to History, enjoyed some light conversation on Henry the 6th and then had a free period, I decided to give myself a small break and went for an hour walk outside. Chemistry and Biology were simple as well. Once at home, I completed my history coursework so that’s good.
Friday:
Driving into sixth form, I got sick, so had to turn back home and stayed there all day (and trust me, it was the best decision for that day). It gave me the opportunity to send in the coursework and finish some history homework.
Saturday:
Today, I plan on having a little bit of relaxation time – a bubble bath, some delicious veggie breakfast.
Then, it’s homework and revision while watching some Supernatural or a movie… Fun times!
How was your week? What do you plan on doing? Did you go out with friends/attend any open days/events? Tell me about yourself in the comments below, I like to think that I reply pretty fast!
I really hope you do not mind me posting, feels a little strange for me but I also want you to feel supported, especially if you may end up being at Lincoln with youngest son (if he gets an offer that is!).
You've certainly packed a lot into the week but I do hope you are making sure you are leaving enough time to rest and recharge, the last thing you want is the pressure from trying to catch up from being ill. Youngest son does it all the time and puts so much pressure on himself to make sure his grades don't fall that it just makes him worse and although he pushes through it, he ends up completely exhausted and picking up all the horrible little bugs going around. He isn't the strongest health wise as it is (hence not going full time at school until he was 11 and a horrid attendance record thereafter) and a cold could end up with his admittance to hospital if he is not careful. So please please take care of yourself, make sure you build in breaks to just chill and eat and sleep as well as you can.
My week was fairly ordinary although I did try to spice it up by testing myself on GCSE psychology (I am not at all GCSE age, they didn't even exist when I was at school!), got 80% without doing any reading up or studying first. Moved onto biology thinking it would be easy peasy as I have an O level in it, confuzzled myself and then realised I was looking at A level, didn't do too badly but my ego took a battering.
I think I should explain myself, my parents think I should go back to education and eventually to university (yes it still happens even when you are mid 40's) so that I can have a career change now the boys are either off at uni or about to go to uni and I am trying to work out what I would want to do as qualifications as the majority of mine are 30 years old. I do/did have some credits at a higher level as I had been doing an OU degree course in law but had to put it by the wayside when things became very stressy and eeky with the two younger offspring (both ASD with other disabilities)...annoyingly, I was just a small bit away from reaching foundation degree level when I stopped.
One thing I realised though when doing the law courses was that it completely destroyed my interest in the subject, so it is not something I would want to carry on with but what to do now? I have no absolutely no idea. All this is complicated by the fact that the years of caring for ASD children has had an impact on my health and where formally I had a photographic memory with excellent recall, a huge amount of energy and concentration, I now suffer from brain fogs, use a wheelchair and suffer from chronic fatigue, so any educational course has to be at a slower pace....an access to HE course would not be suitable because it is very very full on.
For the one who is your age - youngest son has been busy doing loads of coursework, working on his development of a new map for a game, discovering he likes cups of tea (he's been strictly a bottle of water type of student - he abhors alcohol) and doing more research/adding to his critical analysis of an area of political history (it's his own interest and not something he is doing for college or even connected to any of his courses, it's a completely different subject area!).
He's also still waiting for an appointment for going over his PS with his head of year, so no further forward in putting his UCAS application in at the moment....it's all so very frustrating!
You've certainly packed a lot into the week but I do hope you are making sure you are leaving enough time to rest and recharge, the last thing you want is the pressure from trying to catch up from being ill. Youngest son does it all the time and puts so much pressure on himself to make sure his grades don't fall that it just makes him worse and although he pushes through it, he ends up completely exhausted and picking up all the horrible little bugs going around. He isn't the strongest health wise as it is (hence not going full time at school until he was 11 and a horrid attendance record thereafter) and a cold could end up with his admittance to hospital if he is not careful. So please please take care of yourself, make sure you build in breaks to just chill and eat and sleep as well as you can.
My week was fairly ordinary although I did try to spice it up by testing myself on GCSE psychology (I am not at all GCSE age, they didn't even exist when I was at school!), got 80% without doing any reading up or studying first. Moved onto biology thinking it would be easy peasy as I have an O level in it, confuzzled myself and then realised I was looking at A level, didn't do too badly but my ego took a battering.
I think I should explain myself, my parents think I should go back to education and eventually to university (yes it still happens even when you are mid 40's) so that I can have a career change now the boys are either off at uni or about to go to uni and I am trying to work out what I would want to do as qualifications as the majority of mine are 30 years old. I do/did have some credits at a higher level as I had been doing an OU degree course in law but had to put it by the wayside when things became very stressy and eeky with the two younger offspring (both ASD with other disabilities)...annoyingly, I was just a small bit away from reaching foundation degree level when I stopped.
One thing I realised though when doing the law courses was that it completely destroyed my interest in the subject, so it is not something I would want to carry on with but what to do now? I have no absolutely no idea. All this is complicated by the fact that the years of caring for ASD children has had an impact on my health and where formally I had a photographic memory with excellent recall, a huge amount of energy and concentration, I now suffer from brain fogs, use a wheelchair and suffer from chronic fatigue, so any educational course has to be at a slower pace....an access to HE course would not be suitable because it is very very full on.
For the one who is your age - youngest son has been busy doing loads of coursework, working on his development of a new map for a game, discovering he likes cups of tea (he's been strictly a bottle of water type of student - he abhors alcohol) and doing more research/adding to his critical analysis of an area of political history (it's his own interest and not something he is doing for college or even connected to any of his courses, it's a completely different subject area!).
He's also still waiting for an appointment for going over his PS with his head of year, so no further forward in putting his UCAS application in at the moment....it's all so very frustrating!
Original post by Crazysue1
I really hope you do not mind me posting, feels a little strange for me but I also want you to feel supported, especially if you may end up being at Lincoln with youngest son (if he gets an offer that is!).
You've certainly packed a lot into the week but I do hope you are making sure you are leaving enough time to rest and recharge, the last thing you want is the pressure from trying to catch up from being ill. Youngest son does it all the time and puts so much pressure on himself to make sure his grades don't fall that it just makes him worse and although he pushes through it, he ends up completely exhausted and picking up all the horrible little bugs going around. He isn't the strongest health wise as it is (hence not going full time at school until he was 11 and a horrid attendance record thereafter) and a cold could end up with his admittance to hospital if he is not careful. So please please take care of yourself, make sure you build in breaks to just chill and eat and sleep as well as you can.
My week was fairly ordinary although I did try to spice it up by testing myself on GCSE psychology (I am not at all GCSE age, they didn't even exist when I was at school!), got 80% without doing any reading up or studying first. Moved onto biology thinking it would be easy peasy as I have an O level in it, confuzzled myself and then realised I was looking at A level, didn't do too badly but my ego took a battering.
I think I should explain myself, my parents think I should go back to education and eventually to university (yes it still happens even when you are mid 40's) so that I can have a career change now the boys are either off at uni or about to go to uni and I am trying to work out what I would want to do as qualifications as the majority of mine are 30 years old. I do/did have some credits at a higher level as I had been doing an OU degree course in law but had to put it by the wayside when things became very stressy and eeky with the two younger offspring (both ASD with other disabilities)...annoyingly, I was just a small bit away from reaching foundation degree level when I stopped.
One thing I realised though when doing the law courses was that it completely destroyed my interest in the subject, so it is not something I would want to carry on with but what to do now? I have no absolutely no idea. All this is complicated by the fact that the years of caring for ASD children has had an impact on my health and where formally I had a photographic memory with excellent recall, a huge amount of energy and concentration, I now suffer from brain fogs, use a wheelchair and suffer from chronic fatigue, so any educational course has to be at a slower pace....an access to HE course would not be suitable because it is very very full on.
For the one who is your age - youngest son has been busy doing loads of coursework, working on his development of a new map for a game, discovering he likes cups of tea (he's been strictly a bottle of water type of student - he abhors alcohol) and doing more research/adding to his critical analysis of an area of political history (it's his own interest and not something he is doing for college or even connected to any of his courses, it's a completely different subject area!).
He's also still waiting for an appointment for going over his PS with his head of year, so no further forward in putting his UCAS application in at the moment....it's all so very frustrating!
You've certainly packed a lot into the week but I do hope you are making sure you are leaving enough time to rest and recharge, the last thing you want is the pressure from trying to catch up from being ill. Youngest son does it all the time and puts so much pressure on himself to make sure his grades don't fall that it just makes him worse and although he pushes through it, he ends up completely exhausted and picking up all the horrible little bugs going around. He isn't the strongest health wise as it is (hence not going full time at school until he was 11 and a horrid attendance record thereafter) and a cold could end up with his admittance to hospital if he is not careful. So please please take care of yourself, make sure you build in breaks to just chill and eat and sleep as well as you can.
My week was fairly ordinary although I did try to spice it up by testing myself on GCSE psychology (I am not at all GCSE age, they didn't even exist when I was at school!), got 80% without doing any reading up or studying first. Moved onto biology thinking it would be easy peasy as I have an O level in it, confuzzled myself and then realised I was looking at A level, didn't do too badly but my ego took a battering.
I think I should explain myself, my parents think I should go back to education and eventually to university (yes it still happens even when you are mid 40's) so that I can have a career change now the boys are either off at uni or about to go to uni and I am trying to work out what I would want to do as qualifications as the majority of mine are 30 years old. I do/did have some credits at a higher level as I had been doing an OU degree course in law but had to put it by the wayside when things became very stressy and eeky with the two younger offspring (both ASD with other disabilities)...annoyingly, I was just a small bit away from reaching foundation degree level when I stopped.
One thing I realised though when doing the law courses was that it completely destroyed my interest in the subject, so it is not something I would want to carry on with but what to do now? I have no absolutely no idea. All this is complicated by the fact that the years of caring for ASD children has had an impact on my health and where formally I had a photographic memory with excellent recall, a huge amount of energy and concentration, I now suffer from brain fogs, use a wheelchair and suffer from chronic fatigue, so any educational course has to be at a slower pace....an access to HE course would not be suitable because it is very very full on.
For the one who is your age - youngest son has been busy doing loads of coursework, working on his development of a new map for a game, discovering he likes cups of tea (he's been strictly a bottle of water type of student - he abhors alcohol) and doing more research/adding to his critical analysis of an area of political history (it's his own interest and not something he is doing for college or even connected to any of his courses, it's a completely different subject area!).
He's also still waiting for an appointment for going over his PS with his head of year, so no further forward in putting his UCAS application in at the moment....it's all so very frustrating!
Don't worry! I'm not spreading myself too thinly, although I always have little motivation when I'm ill, but I don't think I'm alone in that situation!
I don't think anyone is 'too old' for education, it's always important for me to keep moving forward, knowledge is what allows the world to develop and I have always enjoyed seeing how others progress as well - so keep us all updated! And make sure it's something you're genuinely interested in, I hate chemistry and really wish I hadn't have continued with it instead of English Literature, I feel I would have been much happier with it. But that was a year ago, so it's too late for me, onwards and upwards!
Also, for your son, I'm sure he'll get his application in on time, the final deadline is January but I know how frustrating it can be when people don't get back to you when you need it, I made sure my personal statement was one of the first ones in to avoid the backlash and it was a good thing I did! They're now going through them in alphabetical order so I would be very near the bottom with an "S' surname! Are there any other teachers he could ask, I asked as many people as possible for their opinions - whether they were related to the subject I was applying to or not!
P.s. if he has a specific uni in mind, use some of the words they look for on their website, like "enthusiastic".etc. (obviously don't copy!)
Have a nice week and keep us all updated!
This past week was extremely hectic; with coursework deadlines looming, pressures of chemistry tests and way too much biology homework, I completely forgot that I was even doing grow my grades (which sounds really bad, I know).
So, for this week, allow me to just do one simple paragraph instead of my usual breakdown (just this once, I hope); Monday through Friday was completely uneventful, I had a laugh on Friday when my friend completely forgot that we had a chemistry lesson and ended up going home an hour early (only realising her mistake when her parents looked surprised at her early arrival).
This past weekend, I played some games with my friends, had family over (who I hadn’t seen in years) and juggled all the homework for the week.
I haven’t had time to revise, which is really bothering me and I’m considering talking to a few teachers to ask them not to set 6 pieces of homework per week (it’s just too much).
But other than that, this week I’m going out for lunch with my friend (Tuesday) and allocating some time to revise Chemistry (I have two big tests coming up in the next week and a half so…)
Tell me about your week? Was it as hectic as mine?
So, for this week, allow me to just do one simple paragraph instead of my usual breakdown (just this once, I hope); Monday through Friday was completely uneventful, I had a laugh on Friday when my friend completely forgot that we had a chemistry lesson and ended up going home an hour early (only realising her mistake when her parents looked surprised at her early arrival).
This past weekend, I played some games with my friends, had family over (who I hadn’t seen in years) and juggled all the homework for the week.
I haven’t had time to revise, which is really bothering me and I’m considering talking to a few teachers to ask them not to set 6 pieces of homework per week (it’s just too much).
But other than that, this week I’m going out for lunch with my friend (Tuesday) and allocating some time to revise Chemistry (I have two big tests coming up in the next week and a half so…)
Tell me about your week? Was it as hectic as mine?
You've been very quiet, I hope you are ok Hellwontbeatus?
Youngest's PS was finally passed as ok and his UCAS was submitted this week, he got an unconditional offer for Lincoln but the thing which surprised us was the response from York offering an interview only 2 hours and 40 minutes after UCAS passed his application onto the universities.
He's now in a quandary, he loved Lincoln but he now has a question of what if, if he turns the York interview invite down given their very quick response and personal contact via a senior lecturer...basically his ego has been stroked and he is wavering.
Youngest's PS was finally passed as ok and his UCAS was submitted this week, he got an unconditional offer for Lincoln but the thing which surprised us was the response from York offering an interview only 2 hours and 40 minutes after UCAS passed his application onto the universities.
He's now in a quandary, he loved Lincoln but he now has a question of what if, if he turns the York interview invite down given their very quick response and personal contact via a senior lecturer...basically his ego has been stroked and he is wavering.
Original post by Dominator1
Said good bye to sleep, said good bye to social life, completely changed my study strategy, I resat almost the entire AS modules. But my secrete ingredient was extreme motivation. I'm always viewed as an incredibly smart person, so these AS grades were like a scar on my honor, whenever I spoke to people and they realised how erudite I was they always asked me what I got in AS, expecting me to say AAAA. That was so humiliating that I had this burning passion to crush everyone else in my school.
I wish I could have the same burning passion but for some reason I just don't feel that way and it might be because ever since I did my GCSEs, I didn't feel the need to be too competitive because despite not studying for them at all, I still managed to achieve really good grades.
Mentally, I want to prioritise studying to get into either Sheffield or York who both want AAA because A Levels are on another level and do seriously require hard work but physically, my body is telling me no and puts me in sleep mode whenever I attempt to study... and I end up procrastinating for the longest duration ever!!!!
I'm currently achieving ABC but predicted AAA (History, Philosophy and Ethics, English).
You say you changed your study strategies, could you share some of that?
Could do with a bit of guidance!
Best of luck. I love that you like Dean Winchester
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