Catus' Journey to University!
My goals:
To grow my grades and achieve A*AA with the A* being Law. - ACHIEVED
To get into my firm uni (the University of Leeds). - ACHIEVED
Background:
GCSEs - 6A*s, 4As and a C (Music)
AS Levels - A (Law), A (Business), B (English Literature) and B (French - 1UMS from an A, so I am re-sitting FREN1 and FREN2 for extra UMS)
A Level Predicted Grades:
English Literature - A*
Law - A/A*
French - A
LNAT Score:
29/42 (average score this year was 21)
University Applications:
Oxford (Law (Jurisprudence)): Rejected post-interview - It was always a bit of a long shot, but I thought I may as well try and I would always regret not trying.
Durham (Law LLB): A*AA offer - Lovely city, would be more than happy to study here. Applied to and was allocated Grey College.
Leeds (Law with French Law): AAA offer (Firmed)- Great course, great uni. Closest to home, but am unsure as to whether this is an advantage or not.
Manchester (Law LLB): AAA offer - Quite liked it, but will be declining as I liked Leeds better and they have the same entry requirements.
Liverpool (Law with a Year Abroad): ABB offer (Insurance) - Insurance choice, but the one I like the least unfortunately. I like it, just not as much as the others.
Progress:
Week ending 11/11/16
Week ending 25/11/16
Week ending 2/12/16
Week ending 6/1/17
To grow my grades and achieve A*AA with the A* being Law. - ACHIEVED
To get into my firm uni (the University of Leeds). - ACHIEVED
Background:
GCSEs - 6A*s, 4As and a C (Music)
AS Levels - A (Law), A (Business), B (English Literature) and B (French - 1UMS from an A, so I am re-sitting FREN1 and FREN2 for extra UMS)
A Level Predicted Grades:
English Literature - A*
Law - A/A*
French - A
LNAT Score:
29/42 (average score this year was 21)
University Applications:
Oxford (Law (Jurisprudence)): Rejected post-interview - It was always a bit of a long shot, but I thought I may as well try and I would always regret not trying.
Durham (Law LLB): A*AA offer - Lovely city, would be more than happy to study here. Applied to and was allocated Grey College.
Leeds (Law with French Law): AAA offer (Firmed)- Great course, great uni. Closest to home, but am unsure as to whether this is an advantage or not.
Manchester (Law LLB): AAA offer - Quite liked it, but will be declining as I liked Leeds better and they have the same entry requirements.
Liverpool (Law with a Year Abroad): ABB offer (Insurance) - Insurance choice, but the one I like the least unfortunately. I like it, just not as much as the others.
Progress:
Week ending 11/11/16
Spoiler
Week ending 25/11/16
Spoiler
Week ending 2/12/16
Spoiler
Week ending 6/1/17
Spoiler
(edited 6 years ago)
Scroll to see replies
To Do Lists: (orange when in progress, green once completed)
English Literature
French
Law
English Literature
Spoiler
French
Spoiler
Law
Spoiler
(edited 6 years ago)
Best of luck!x
Original post by sunshine774
Best of luck!x
Original post by boombayah
Best of luck!!!!
Thank you very much
Good luck!!
Time for an update!
I thought I'd kick off this post with a summary of where I am at progress-wise:
English Literature - An A!
I wrote an essay titled 'How does Hosseini tell the story in chapter seven of The Kite Runner?' for homework and today I received it back with a nice straight A. My teacher commented: "Well explained points with apt supporting quotes. You demonstrate an excellent understanding of the text." As I think you can tell, I'm very pleased with this - I was expecting a solid B grade for this piece, so this has been a nice confidence booster.
Law - I'm currently working around an A/B grade. I am consistently getting a mixture of As and Bs in the past paper questions we've been doing on murder, voluntary murder and manslaughter (both unlawful act and gross negligence manslaughter).
French - I'm going to have to self-assess this one, so I'd put myself on a B grade. I haven't had an assessment yet (although today I did hand in an essay, so watch this space!), but in class I'm not making too many errors and I would say that I haven't been making any basic errors. My vocabulary test results have been positive, although I'm awaiting the results of my most recent one. I do know that I did okay on it, so I'm not worried.
Other points from this week/for next week:
Today I handed in the first draft of my coursework for English Literature on including George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four in the canon of English literature. I expect that I will receive feedback either next week or the week after. Next week we'll be starting work on the next piece of coursework, which is a re-creative piece based on one of Christina Rossetti's poems (can't remember which one atm!). I'm looking forward to it, as I've done something similar before, back in the days when I had the time to write fanfiction - you find a gap in the narrative or give an alternate perspective on the text (in this case, a poem) and write a piece which fills that gap, gives that silent character a voice, or provides that different view on the situation in the text.
(In case my mention of fanfic has made you wonder, you can find my stuff here:https://www.fanfiction.net/u/4517497/ - Please be aware that there are some that are unfinished and may remain that way for some time!)
I thought I'd kick off this post with a summary of where I am at progress-wise:
English Literature - An A!
I wrote an essay titled 'How does Hosseini tell the story in chapter seven of The Kite Runner?' for homework and today I received it back with a nice straight A. My teacher commented: "Well explained points with apt supporting quotes. You demonstrate an excellent understanding of the text." As I think you can tell, I'm very pleased with this - I was expecting a solid B grade for this piece, so this has been a nice confidence booster. Law - I'm currently working around an A/B grade. I am consistently getting a mixture of As and Bs in the past paper questions we've been doing on murder, voluntary murder and manslaughter (both unlawful act and gross negligence manslaughter).
French - I'm going to have to self-assess this one, so I'd put myself on a B grade. I haven't had an assessment yet (although today I did hand in an essay, so watch this space!), but in class I'm not making too many errors and I would say that I haven't been making any basic errors. My vocabulary test results have been positive, although I'm awaiting the results of my most recent one. I do know that I did okay on it, so I'm not worried.
Other points from this week/for next week:
Today I handed in the first draft of my coursework for English Literature on including George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four in the canon of English literature. I expect that I will receive feedback either next week or the week after.
Next week we'll be starting work on the next piece of coursework, which is a re-creative piece based on one of Christina Rossetti's poems (can't remember which one atm!). I'm looking forward to it, as I've done something similar before, back in the days when I had the time to write fanfiction - you find a gap in the narrative or give an alternate perspective on the text (in this case, a poem) and write a piece which fills that gap, gives that silent character a voice, or provides that different view on the situation in the text. (In case my mention of fanfic has made you wonder, you can find my stuff here:https://www.fanfiction.net/u/4517497/ - Please be aware that there are some that are unfinished and may remain that way for some time!)
(edited 7 years ago)
Mid-week update:
This week is going well so far, I'm keeping on top of my homework well and so either this week or next week I'm going to kick off some light revision. I am to have re-read my AS Lit books (it's linear, so I need to keep them fresh in my head) by the end of the Christmas holidays, which gives me plenty of time to read and organise my key quotes for each text.
This week I also plan to revise non-fatal offences from AS Law (non-linear), as this topic comes up again this year in LAW03. We're going to go over them in class, but I really want to be on the ball and remember the cases well.
For French, I'm going to keep revising grammar, for example verb conjugations and I plan to make the effort to really get my head around the subjunctive.
Other:
I also thought I'd share with you all a slight problem I am worried about. This year in Law we are studying criminal law (offences against the person) and as such are learning about fatal offences - murder and manslaughter. Now I am not generally a squeamish person, but I have an irrational fear of bleeding to death which causes my brain to want to faint.
Bearing that in mind, you can imagine that I didn't have a very good reaction to a case study in one of the 2013 papers in which a man named Harry got a broken glass stuck in his thigh. His brother tried to stop the bleeding for 30 minutes, but couldn't and so Harry bled to death. When I read this I had all the usual symptoms. I felt sweaty and fidgety, my ears rang and my sight began to reduce to coloured fuzzy outlines. This has happened a few times before (my first 'attack' was in year 7) and so I know how to deal with it. I asked to go to the toilet - I didn't want to cause a fuss - and walked out unsteadily, as I couldn't see clearly where I was. I walked down the corridor and realised I couldn't actually see where I was going at all anymore. After a pause, my sight got better and I proceeded towards the stairs. I deemed myself safe to walk down them when I my teacher asked my if I was alright (he must have followed me, realising something was wrong). I told him not really, but once I had a short walk I'd be fine and I'd be back in a few minutes. I went down the stairs and out of the building, sat for a little while until my vision went back to normal and the ringing in my ears faded, then returned.
Unfortunately, on Monday we looked again at the exact same case study and I managed much better until somebody said 'blood everywhere'. I left quicker than last time under the same excuse (although I did actually need the toilet as well) and so I wasn't nearly as bad and recovered very quickly.
My mother thinks that maybe I should have counselling for this problem. I've only actually fainted once before, although I have come close a good few times and even the lesser 'attacks' aren't pleasant for me. I really hate that this happens to me and wish I knew how to stop it. However, this will only happen to me around 2-3 times a year and I could deal with it if it wasn't for the fear that there will be a case study like this in my Law exam and I'll lose precious time trying to calm myself down or I will not bother trying to manage it and I will actually faint in the middle of my exam. I don't know what to do. I don't like talking about it as it's a ridiculous problem which I don't think many people have! I suppose I'm wondering if anyone has any advice.
(ps. sorry for the ramble).
This week is going well so far, I'm keeping on top of my homework well and so either this week or next week I'm going to kick off some light revision. I am to have re-read my AS Lit books (it's linear, so I need to keep them fresh in my head) by the end of the Christmas holidays, which gives me plenty of time to read and organise my key quotes for each text.
This week I also plan to revise non-fatal offences from AS Law (non-linear), as this topic comes up again this year in LAW03. We're going to go over them in class, but I really want to be on the ball and remember the cases well.
For French, I'm going to keep revising grammar, for example verb conjugations and I plan to make the effort to really get my head around the subjunctive.
Other:
I also thought I'd share with you all a slight problem I am worried about. This year in Law we are studying criminal law (offences against the person) and as such are learning about fatal offences - murder and manslaughter. Now I am not generally a squeamish person, but I have an irrational fear of bleeding to death which causes my brain to want to faint.
Bearing that in mind, you can imagine that I didn't have a very good reaction to a case study in one of the 2013 papers in which a man named Harry got a broken glass stuck in his thigh. His brother tried to stop the bleeding for 30 minutes, but couldn't and so Harry bled to death. When I read this I had all the usual symptoms. I felt sweaty and fidgety, my ears rang and my sight began to reduce to coloured fuzzy outlines. This has happened a few times before (my first 'attack' was in year 7) and so I know how to deal with it. I asked to go to the toilet - I didn't want to cause a fuss - and walked out unsteadily, as I couldn't see clearly where I was. I walked down the corridor and realised I couldn't actually see where I was going at all anymore. After a pause, my sight got better and I proceeded towards the stairs. I deemed myself safe to walk down them when I my teacher asked my if I was alright (he must have followed me, realising something was wrong). I told him not really, but once I had a short walk I'd be fine and I'd be back in a few minutes. I went down the stairs and out of the building, sat for a little while until my vision went back to normal and the ringing in my ears faded, then returned.
Unfortunately, on Monday we looked again at the exact same case study and I managed much better until somebody said 'blood everywhere'. I left quicker than last time under the same excuse (although I did actually need the toilet as well) and so I wasn't nearly as bad and recovered very quickly.
My mother thinks that maybe I should have counselling for this problem. I've only actually fainted once before, although I have come close a good few times and even the lesser 'attacks' aren't pleasant for me. I really hate that this happens to me and wish I knew how to stop it. However, this will only happen to me around 2-3 times a year and I could deal with it if it wasn't for the fear that there will be a case study like this in my Law exam and I'll lose precious time trying to calm myself down or I will not bother trying to manage it and I will actually faint in the middle of my exam. I don't know what to do. I don't like talking about it as it's a ridiculous problem which I don't think many people have! I suppose I'm wondering if anyone has any advice.
(ps. sorry for the ramble).
End-of-week update:
I am happy with how this week went, although my good news on Wednesday lead to frantic research and procrastination (see 'Other'
).
I had a one-to-one with my law tutor and he said that I should certainly be able to get an A, perhaps even the elusive A*. In French, I got a translation exercise returned to me, marked. I got a C, as quite a few of the phrases could be found in the booklet and my teacher used it to set a baseline. I'm okay with that - onwards and upwards!
Lit has been uneventful this week, although on Friday we began reading the poems we're using for our re-creative coursework piece. We also received the news that a lump was found in my teacher's stomach which requires urgent surgery to remove, so she could be called in at any moment. We will then lose her for 6 weeks while she heals, so our other teacher who we have once a week will have us for all three lessons. I hope it's not cancer.
Other:
On a brighter note, I am delighted to inform the readers of this blog (if there even are any!
) that on Wednesday I received an interview invitation for Keble college, Oxford. I originally applied to Oriel, but was reallocated to Keble, which looks beautiful from the picture online and on the college website. I am honestly so shocked and excited. Shocked because there are many Oxbridge applicants with far superior grades than my comparatively measly AS AABB and GCSE 6A*, 4A and a C. I suppose I must have impressed with my LNAT! (tbh contextual data probably did wonders for me, as although I live in quite a nice village, the surrounding area is relatively deprived and my college is situated in a counsel estate!). Understandably, I am thrilled and really excited! My train tickets arrived on Friday and I'm beginning to prep for my interview. Maybe college will be able to arrange a mock interview for me - I'll have to ask my tutor.
As a side note, for Law in 2015, only 48% of applicants were invited to interview and only 15% of applicants received an offer. Therefore, statistically my chances of an offer were 15% before Wednesday and now that figure has doubled to approximately 31%!
I am happy with how this week went, although my good news on Wednesday lead to frantic research and procrastination (see 'Other'
).I had a one-to-one with my law tutor and he said that I should certainly be able to get an A, perhaps even the elusive A*
. In French, I got a translation exercise returned to me, marked. I got a C, as quite a few of the phrases could be found in the booklet and my teacher used it to set a baseline. I'm okay with that - onwards and upwards! Lit has been uneventful this week, although on Friday we began reading the poems we're using for our re-creative coursework piece. We also received the news that a lump was found in my teacher's stomach which requires urgent surgery to remove, so she could be called in at any moment. We will then lose her for 6 weeks while she heals, so our other teacher who we have once a week will have us for all three lessons. I hope it's not cancer.
Other:
On a brighter note, I am delighted to inform the readers of this blog (if there even are any!
) that on Wednesday I received an interview invitation for Keble college, Oxford. I originally applied to Oriel, but was reallocated to Keble, which looks beautiful from the picture online and on the college website. I am honestly so shocked and excited. Shocked because there are many Oxbridge applicants with far superior grades than my comparatively measly AS AABB and GCSE 6A*, 4A and a C. I suppose I must have impressed with my LNAT! (tbh contextual data probably did wonders for me, as although I live in quite a nice village, the surrounding area is relatively deprived and my college is situated in a counsel estate!). Understandably, I am thrilled and really excited! My train tickets arrived on Friday and I'm beginning to prep for my interview. Maybe college will be able to arrange a mock interview for me - I'll have to ask my tutor.As a side note, for Law in 2015, only 48% of applicants were invited to interview and only 15% of applicants received an offer. Therefore, statistically my chances of an offer were 15% before Wednesday and now that figure has doubled to approximately 31%
!(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by CatusStarbright
End-of-week update:
I am happy with how this week went, although my good news on Wednesday lead to frantic research and procrastination (see 'Other').
I had a one-to-one with my law tutor and he said that I should certainly be able to get an A, perhaps even the elusive A*. In French, I got a translation exercise returned to me, marked. I got a C, as quite a few of the phrases could be found in the booklet and my teacher used it to set a baseline. I'm okay with that - onwards and upwards!
Lit has been uneventful this week, although on Friday we began reading the poems we're using for our re-creative coursework piece. We also received the news that a lump was found in my teacher's stomach which requires urgent surgery to remove, so she could be called in at any moment. We will then lose her for 6 weeks while she heals, so our other teacher who we have once a week will have us for all three lessons. I hope it's not cancer.
Other:
On a brighter note, I am delighted to inform the readers of this blog (if there even are any!) that on Wednesday I received an interview invitation for Keble college, Oxford. I originally applied to Oriel, but was reallocated to Keble, which looks beautiful from the picture online and on the college website. I am honestly so shocked and excited. Shocked because there are many Oxbridge applicants with far superior grades than my comparatively measly AS AABB and GCSE 6A*, 4A and a C. I suppose I must have impressed with my LNAT! (tbh contextual data probably did wonders for me, as although I live in quite a nice village, the surrounding area is relatively deprived and my college is situated in a counsel estate!). Understandably, I am thrilled and really excited! My train tickets arrived on Friday and I'm beginning to prep for my interview. Maybe college will be able to arrange a mock interview for me - I'll have to ask my tutor.
As a side note, for Law in 2015, only 48% of applicants were invited to interview and only 15% of applicants received an offer. Therefore, statistically my chances of an offer were 15% before Wednesday and now that figure has doubled to approximately 31%!
I am happy with how this week went, although my good news on Wednesday lead to frantic research and procrastination (see 'Other'
).I had a one-to-one with my law tutor and he said that I should certainly be able to get an A, perhaps even the elusive A*
. In French, I got a translation exercise returned to me, marked. I got a C, as quite a few of the phrases could be found in the booklet and my teacher used it to set a baseline. I'm okay with that - onwards and upwards! Lit has been uneventful this week, although on Friday we began reading the poems we're using for our re-creative coursework piece. We also received the news that a lump was found in my teacher's stomach which requires urgent surgery to remove, so she could be called in at any moment. We will then lose her for 6 weeks while she heals, so our other teacher who we have once a week will have us for all three lessons. I hope it's not cancer.
Other:
On a brighter note, I am delighted to inform the readers of this blog (if there even are any!
) that on Wednesday I received an interview invitation for Keble college, Oxford. I originally applied to Oriel, but was reallocated to Keble, which looks beautiful from the picture online and on the college website. I am honestly so shocked and excited. Shocked because there are many Oxbridge applicants with far superior grades than my comparatively measly AS AABB and GCSE 6A*, 4A and a C. I suppose I must have impressed with my LNAT! (tbh contextual data probably did wonders for me, as although I live in quite a nice village, the surrounding area is relatively deprived and my college is situated in a counsel estate!). Understandably, I am thrilled and really excited! My train tickets arrived on Friday and I'm beginning to prep for my interview. Maybe college will be able to arrange a mock interview for me - I'll have to ask my tutor.As a side note, for Law in 2015, only 48% of applicants were invited to interview and only 15% of applicants received an offer. Therefore, statistically my chances of an offer were 15% before Wednesday and now that figure has doubled to approximately 31%
!Good luck! How exciting that your train tickets arrived!
I'm waiting to see if I'll get an interview invitation for Modern Languages
Original post by Barbastelle
Good luck! How exciting that your train tickets arrived!
I'm waiting to see if I'll get an interview invitation for Modern Languages
I'm waiting to see if I'll get an interview invitation for Modern Languages
These are exciting times - good luck!
Original post by CatusStarbright
These are exciting times - good luck!
Agreed! Exciting, terrifying times!
When are your interviews?
Original post by Barbastelle
Agreed! Exciting, terrifying times!
When are your interviews?
When are your interviews?
Keble have told me I have to be there between 9am on December 7th - 1pm on the 9th (although I may be asked to stay until later on that day). Since my journey will take about 4 hours, I'm going down on the 6th.
Original post by CatusStarbright
Keble have told me I have to be there between 9am on December 7th - 1pm on the 9th (although I may be asked to stay until later on that day). Since my journey will take about 4 hours, I'm going down on the 6th.
Oh wow - we have an overlap! In the event I get an interview, I need to be at Christ Church for 12pm on 6th December, and leave by 6pm on the 10th. My journey will be about 6 hours though, so I'm debating whether it's better to get a hotel room on the night of the 5th (or ask at the college to see if they have a room available a day early), or try and save my mum some money (she's a single parent) by getting a bus at midnight and arriving at 7:30am, and then hanging around in a cafe or something for a few hours until they can let me in
I don't want to be tired if I'm going to have interviews that day though.Original post by Barbastelle
Oh wow - we have an overlap! In the event I get an interview, I need to be at Christ Church for 12pm on 6th December, and leave by 6pm on the 10th. My journey will be about 6 hours though, so I'm debating whether it's better to get a hotel room on the night of the 5th (or ask at the college to see if they have a room available a day early), or try and save my mum some money (she's a single parent) by getting a bus at midnight and arriving at 7:30am, and then hanging around in a cafe or something for a few hours until they can let me in I don't want to be tired if I'm going to have interviews that day though.
I don't want to be tired if I'm going to have interviews that day though.I can imagine that the college will be able to put you up. After all, term will have finished by the time we get there. It's worth seeing what your invite says, as times can vary by college - my instructions from Keble are slightly different to the times posted on the website for my subject.
Original post by CatusStarbright
I can imagine that the college will be able to put you up. After all, term will have finished by the time we get there. It's worth seeing what your invite says, as times can vary by college - my instructions from Keble are slightly different to the times posted on the website for my subject.
Yes that's true
My dates are different from the ones on the website as well, the new dates were in my acknowledgement email. But I suppose they could be different in the invitation email if I get one!
Original post by Barbastelle
Yes that's true
My dates are different from the ones on the website as well, the new dates were in my acknowledgement email. But I suppose they could be different in the invitation email if I get one!
My dates are different from the ones on the website as well, the new dates were in my acknowledgement email. But I suppose they could be different in the invitation email if I get one!
Oh I see. Well possibly. Either way, there's no harm in asking if you can come and stay the night before
Original post by CatusStarbright
Oh I see. Well possibly. Either way, there's no harm in asking if you can come and stay the night before
That's true
Good luck with your application!Original post by Barbastelle
That's true Good luck with your application!
Good luck with your application!And to you
Original post by CatusStarbright
And to you
Thanks
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