Abusive&#x27;s Road to Full A*

Original post by Abusive

Daily Review - Thursday, 26th January [Week 1]
Maths
I haven't had Maths in a while since my GCSE results because my class has split into 3, and my third still doesn't have a teacher. I did attempt to do some coordinate geometry from my Additional Maths lessons, but not going I did find it quite challenging. I'm going to try a few other questions after writing this post to try and get my head around it.
Biology
In Biology today we began a new topic called 'Blood and Circulation' which I have made some notes on today, it doesn't seem that difficult thus far but we still haven't learnt a lot of the unit so I don't want to jinx it. :wink:

I have a good understanding of the topic so far because we did do some of the work during KS3. But I'd imagine now it's GCSE it will go into a little more detail, so I'm going to read up on it before sleeping tonight.
English Literature
In English Literature I continued making notes on my Heroes book for the start of the 17 chapters. I'm 11 chapters in so I'm hoping to finish them during the next English Literature session after school. As soon as I have finished notes on Heroes I am going to being notemaking on An Inspector Calls, really hoping to get all the notes finished before the 10th of February.
General Remarks
Quite tired today, so revision felt a bit slow. I bought myself a new white calculator which I'm hoping to swap the buttons over on to a black calculator as soon as I am able to find a screwdriver small enough to remove the back of the calculator. I also bought a new refill for my parker pen, some new pens, York Notes book for 'Heroes' and 'An Inspector Calls' which I am hoping to put to good use. Finally I bought a new ruler, hoping this one doesn't snap in my bag :x. Also considering buying a bullet diary after watching some YouTube videos of people making them, but I'm not too artsy so I have to justify spending that money lol

. Thanks for reading, feel free to ask questions :biggrin:

26/01/17

I finished Blood and Circulation a week ago and don't worry, it doesn't get hard, it's just a load of facts and then applying those facts.

I also haven't seen anyone else studying this combination of books for Literature, so aaaayyyyeeee. I would recommend starting revision with the York Notes, but when you get more into it I would get the Oxford Literature Companion revision guides, as they have more in-depth analyses.

I've also seen bullet journaling a lot but I don't really think it's for me, though I think they look so nice :biggrin:

Reply 22

Batman2k1

14

1) How do you stay so dedicated?
I'm also feeling jealous of your dedication hehe :u:

2) What if you have a mental illness problem and it affects your academic performance. How would a person be efficient, you think?
3) Do you count, stuff you did in school as revision, like classwork??
4) Currently, in GCSES, in mocks, im getting B's on average but my potential is A*'s. I'm having some trouble in the past which lead me to downgrade my performance. how can i make up for this u think?
thanks

Reply 23

username1207499

18

Keep it up Abusive! My revision technique which seems to have worked quite well so far is to go through every course to make sure you understand everything then make a couple of pages of notes per subject of just hard facts/formale/stuff i forget easily, then do a load of past papers, adding or removing from the notes as i go and attempting to cram it all into my head :biggrin:

.

best of luck

Reply 24

OP

Original post by Tombre

I finished Blood and Circulation a week ago and don't worry, it doesn't get hard, it's just a load of facts and then applying those facts.

I also haven't seen anyone else studying this combination of books for Literature, so aaaayyyyeeee. I would recommend starting revision with the York Notes, but when you get more into it I would get the Oxford Literature Companion revision guides, as they have more in-depth analyses.

I've also seen bullet journaling a lot but I don't really think it's for me, though I think they look so nice :biggrin:

Thanks for the suggestion with the Oxford Literature Companions. I'll have a look into them. Did you do OMAM at the first literature exam too? I think I've also decided against the Bullet journal, it would probably end up being terrible :hmmm:

Original post by Batman2k1

1) How do you stay so dedicated?
I'm also feeling jealous of your dedication hehe :u:

2) What if you have a mental illness problem and it affects your academic performance. How would a person be efficient, you think?
3) Do you count, stuff you did in school as revision, like classwork??
4) Currently, in GCSES, in mocks, im getting B's on average but my potential is A*'s. I'm having some trouble in the past which lead me to downgrade my performance. how can i make up for this u think?
thanks

1. To be honest I don't know how I stay dedicated. I just really want good grades and I guess that's my motivation. :colone:

2. If you have a mental issue or know someone with one could you try therapy or something similar? I know my school is very supportive of people with mental issues. Do you have someone to speak to in school?
3. No I don't count stuff I did in classwork as revision. The way I like to see it is they supply the facts and you have to learn them yourself.
4. Even if you think your mocks went badly they're not your real grades. Just revise to improve them and you'll be fine.

Original post by D3LLI5

Keep it up Abusive! My revision technique which seems to have worked quite well so far is to go through every course to make sure you understand everything then make a couple of pages of notes per subject of just hard facts/formale/stuff i forget easily, then do a load of past papers, adding or removing from the notes as i go and attempting to cram it all into my head :biggrin:

.

best of luck

Yeah that's quite similar to my revision technique. Although I would say that 75% of my revision is past papers :redface:

.

Sorry for any typos wrote this on my phone :smile:

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 25

Original post by Abusive

Thanks for the suggestion with the Oxford Literature Companions. I'll have a look into them. Did you do OMAM at the first literature exam too? I think I've also decided against the Bullet journal, it would probably end up being terrible :hmmm:

Posted from TSR Mobile

No prob, they're really good! I did OMAM yes, I chose the Crooks essay, wby?
Also I think you should still try out the Bullet Journal if you feel inspired, you may surprise yourself!

Reply 26

OP

Original post by Tombre

No prob, they're really good! I did OMAM yes, I chose the Crooks essay, wby?
Also I think you should still try out the Bullet Journal if you feel inspired, you may surprise yourself!

I chose the Crooks essay too, but honestly for the entire paper I felt I was just writing a load of rubbish :frown:

.

Reply 27

OP

Daily Review - Friday, 27th January [Week 1]
Welsh
Today I am only going to focus on writing one of my pieces for my Welsh portfolio. 700 words in currently and have no idea what else to write. I'm complaining about facilities in a sports centre if anyone has ideas :biggrin:

. Welsh AS is a lot of work but I'm hoping it will all pay off in the end with an A grade. Anyone who's done Welsh AS in the past alongside GCSE's I respect you :tongue:

.
General Remarks
Good day of school, quite a relaxing day actually. Spent my first 3 lessons in the same computer room completing some of my work. The rest of the day was just going through our next CA for Geography which I have to do some research on either tonight or Saturday morning not sure yet. The final lesson was biology where I'm just finishing writing up my CA also. Things I want to get done over the weekend are; finish my Welsh, while making both pieces of text longer and checking spelling/grammar, I also want to do some research for my Geography. I think I'm going to end this day by re-reading heroes. :borat:

27/01/17

Reply 28

Original post by Abusive

I chose the Crooks essay too, but honestly for the entire paper I felt I was just writing a load of rubbish :frown:

.

Me too, my mock felt so much better.

Reply 29

OP

Daily Review - Saturday, 28th January [Week 1]
Welsh/ICT/Geography/Physics/English Lit
Feeling slightly under the weather today. I finished my Welsh piece, awaiting for it to be marked and sent back. With ICT we still don't have the coursework, but I'm sure we're going to start it this week. Geography I couldn't do much for considering I didn't have my book because it's being marked. Physics I am going to over my notes later on after having a sleep. With English Literature my heroes guide has still not arrived but I'm going to re-read heroes againg tonight, also going to read Inspector Calls again.
General Remarks
Not much to say today, woke up early feeling awful. Done minimal studying and just want to sleep. Went to go and make notes on some of my things but I don't have the book since they're being marked. Looking forward to reading later though, to try and relax. I'll give an update if I'm feeling better later and what I'm doing

28/01/17

Reply 30

OP

Daily Review - Sunday, 29th January [Week 1]
Maths
I completed a sheet handed to us on Friday. Took approximately an hour to complete, although I was stuck on one question for about 20 minutes. Then realised I had copied the question out incorrectly -_-. I thought the questions didn't seem too challenging and didn't require a lot of effort.
Biology
Made some more notes on the Blood and Circulation topic. We're about 50% of the way through the topic and I am able to remember most of it at this point in time. Also found out that William Harvey was Charles the 1st doctor, which was quite weird. I'm enjoying this topic so far, one thing which I find quite weird about searching red blood cell on the internet is, most of the pictures draw it with a nucleus for some reason.
English Language
There wasn't a whole lot I can do for English Language, I'm going to wait for my mark back from the teacher then improve on what went bad. It shouldn't be too long until it gets marked. I'm also feeling a lot more confident about English in general since my teacher complimented my style during exams.
General Remarks
I think I'm mostly recovered from the illness which sabotaged yesterday's plans, I still have a sour throat and a slight cold. But am feeling 10x better in comparison to how I was feeling yesterday. I have a UKMT Challenge on the 2nd of February (I think) so I'm going to have a look at some of the questions from past challenges to see how difficult they are, wish me luck :tongue:

. Only a few days left in January now, counting down the days until the results of my January exams. Really hoping I did well, luckily even if they don't go so well I can still resit in Summer. But it would be a lot of hassle redoing the 4 on top of the 12 exams I already have. Hope everyone had/is having a great day. :borat:

29/01/17

Reply 31

OP

Daily Review - Monday, 30th January [Week 2]
Biology
During revision of Biology today, I remade notes on the blood and circulation topic. I went over William Harvey again, the adaptations of White Blood Cells and Red Blood Cells. Why having a double circulatory system is advantageous. Labelled diagram of a heart and then finally answered a QWC of the path taken by the blood from the Right Ventricle to the Left Atrium. This topic has been quite enjoyable so far. There's nothing challenging you need to learn, just be sure you learn all the facts. Oh, another positive is I only have my evaluation/conclusion left to do in my Biology controlled assessment which is amazing.
Chemistry
In Chemistry today we began a new topic Additional Organic Chemistry, the beginning, which we went through today was basically exactly the same as C2 basic organic chemistry, although there were some new key words introduced and also we learnt about alcohol and the general formula which was CnHn+1OH, if I remember correctly. So this topic either hasn't been difficult so far. Everything seems fine at the moment throughout the majority of my sciences excluding Physics. We still haven't started the controlled assessment.
General Remarks
Feeling almost fully recovered today. Not much happened in school, but I did get a new topic for Chemistry which is exciting. My York Notes Heroes book arrived today which was another positive, throughout this has been a very positive and pleasing day. I'm going to have a read of the book before I go to sleep tonight. Hope everyone had a good day too :biggrin:

P.S. Only a few REP points off my 3rd bar if you want to help :wink:

30/01/17

Reply 32

Original post by Abusive

Daily Review - Monday, 30th January [Week 2]
Biology
During revision of Biology today, I remade notes on the blood and circulation topic. I went over William Harvey again, the adaptations of White Blood Cells and Red Blood Cells. Why having a double circulatory system is advantageous. Labelled diagram of a heart and then finally answered a QWC of the path taken by the blood from the Right Ventricle to the Left Atrium. This topic has been quite enjoyable so far. There's nothing challenging you need to learn, just be sure you learn all the facts. Oh, another positive is I only have my evaluation/conclusion left to do in my Biology controlled assessment which is amazing.
Chemistry
In Chemistry today we began a new topic Additional Organic Chemistry, the beginning, which we went through today was basically exactly the same as C2 basic organic chemistry, although there were some new key words introduced and also we learnt about alcohol and the general formula which was CnHn+1OH, if I remember correctly. So this topic either hasn't been difficult so far. Everything seems fine at the moment throughout the majority of my sciences excluding Physics. We still haven't started the controlled assessment.
General Remarks
Feeling almost fully recovered today. Not much happened in school, but I did get a new topic for Chemistry which is exciting. My York Notes Heroes book arrived today which was another positive, throughout this has been a very positive and pleasing day. I'm going to have a read of the book before I go to sleep tonight. Hope everyone had a good day too :biggrin:

P.S. Only a few REP points off my 3rd bar if you want to help :wink:

30/01/17

Which controlled assessments are you doing for the sciences? For Biology we did something about enzymes (tbh I don't remember much). In Physics we originally did something with water waves, but TODAY she told our class we are to redo it and now it's about current and resistance. In Chemistry we are doing the iodine clock experiment.

P.S I tried to give REP but it wouldn't let me :colonhash:

Reply 33

OP

Original post by Tombre

Which controlled assessments are you doing for the sciences? For Biology we did something about enzymes (tbh I don't remember much). In Physics we originally did something with water waves, but TODAY she told our class we are to redo it and now it's about current and resistance. In Chemistry we are doing the iodine clock experiment.

P.S I tried to give REP but it wouldn't let me :colonhash:

I don't remember what I did in chemistry :facepalm:

But in Biology we did Osmosis and in Physics we are doing electricity too. Don't worry about the rep haha :tongue:

Reply 34

OP

Daily Review - Tuesday, 31st January [Week 2]
General Remarks
Decided to take a break from revision today. Will post on what I do tomorrow. Will be nice to have a night off :biggrin:

31/01/17

Reply 35

wolfmoon88

21

Original post by Abusive

Daily Review - Tuesday, 31st January [Week 2]
General Remarks
Decided to take a break from revision today. Will post on what I do tomorrow. Will be nice to have a night off :biggrin:

31/01/17

Woah man, Cardiff Sixth Form? (it has an international reputation so even I know about it xD) Good luck man :smile:

subbing and rooting for you!

Reply 36

OP

Original post by wolfmoon88

Woah man, Cardiff Sixth Form? (it has an international reputation so even I know about it xD) Good luck man :smile:

subbing and rooting for you!

Thank you

It's hopeful but that's what I'm going for :smile:

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 37

OP

Daily Review - Wednesday, 1st February [Week 2]
Maths
In maths today we began doing differentiation, which is quite difficult at the moment, but we didn't practice much and it seems like one of the topics which you get the hang of it after a while. I've attempted some questions which weren't too bad, but it takes quite a lot of writing to get to the answer :smile:

. Currently I'm watching some YouTube videos to assist me in answering the questions. Hopefully I will be able to do them well by the end of the night.
Chemistry
In Chemistry today I made a little a5 booklet on word which took a good 2 hours to make, on the topic of Reversible Reactions, Industrial Processes and Important Chemicals. It took may way too long to figure out how to make it print correctly :facepalm:

. But I'm really happy I made this booklet because it corresponds to the specification really well, also has some extra notes on certain experiments to do with this topic. I really enjoyed making the booklet and I think I may do it more often for Chem.
General Remarks
Really productive day, didn't get home from school until 4:30 and have been working on doing productive things all day. I also have the UKMT Challenge tomorrow, which I've done minimal revision for. But I don't feel like you can revise for it much anyway just got to be sure to interpret the questions correctly and I think I'll be fine. I hope everyone had an amazing first day of February

Also forgot to mention: I won't be posting until Sunday again, visiting family :biggrin:

.

1/02/17

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 38

Original post by Abusive

Daily Review - Wednesday, 1st February [Week 2]
Maths
In maths today we began doing differentiation, which is quite difficult at the moment, but we didn't practice much and it seems like one of the topics which you get the hang of it after a while. I've attempted some questions which weren't too bad, but it takes quite a lot of writing to get to the answer :smile:

. Currently I'm watching some YouTube videos to assist me in answering the questions. Hopefully I will be able to do them well by the end of the night.
Chemistry
In Chemistry today I made a little a5 booklet on word which took a good 2 hours to make, on the topic of Reversible Reactions, Industrial Processes and Important Chemicals. It took may way too long to figure out how to make it print correctly :facepalm:

. But I'm really happy I made this booklet because it corresponds to the specification really well, also has some extra notes on certain experiments to do with this topic. I really enjoyed making the booklet and I think I may do it more often for Chem.
General Remarks
Really productive day, didn't get home from school until 4:30 and have been working on doing productive things all day. I also have the UKMT Challenge tomorrow, which I've done minimal revision for. But I don't feel like you can revise for it much anyway just got to be sure to interpret the questions correctly and I think I'll be fine. I hope everyone had an amazing first day of February

1/02/17

I love making little booklet thingies! It is actually so useful. I also have the UKMT and yikesssssssssssssss. I hope your day was great too! It sure sounds it! Whoooo! :biggrin:

Reply 39

OP