Croissanting my way to AAA

OP

Thursday 09/02/17

Lack of updates...

I just thought I'd clarify that I am still working hard despite not posting any updates for a while. My house has had no WiFi for a while and won't do for about another week *cries*. It is like living in a cave! To be fair, it has helped me to procrastinate less.
Today I have my Psychology mock exam resit which I am quite nervous about. I've spent this morning in the library going through my flashcards but have now gone into the noisy study room because my stomach kept growling which was awkward.
I'm hoping to get at least an A but I'm not sure if I have covered everything in enough depth...

After the mock exam, I'm going to do some Core 1 revision for maths on sequences and series.

Au revoir, Croissant :smile:

Reply 21

username2982648

OP

20

Sunday 12/02/17

My neighbours have very kindly gave me their WiFi password, so I can use their WiFi for the time being :biggrin:

.
I am feeling quite content today- mainly because yesterday was my last official day at my job which means I can now have my weekends back and hopefully see an improvement in my studies at sixth form!
Part of me feels silly for giving up my job but I guess I need to keep sight of my goals. My education is very important to me. I chose to do A-levels because I want to succeed in them!

I have created a revision timetable for the upcoming month or so:
Revision timetable 1.jpg

It looks like a lot, but the green slots represent the timetabled lessons that I have at sixth form. The rest are self-study sessions and I have made sessions for each exam paper that I'll be doing rather than just for each subject. Hopefully, this will help me to stay on top of all of my subjects and be prepared for each exam.

Today got off to a slow start due to thinking my first session was at 10am instead of 9am :tongue:

. Oh well, I have still managed to complete everything for today!

Maths:
Core 4- I answered a few textbook questions on Integration with parts which is alright. I am terrible at substituting limits back into the integrated function though! It's so easy to make a mistake.
Mechanics 1- I watched some ExamSolutions tutorials on vectors (and made notes) because this is a topic that I have never understood, even at GCSE! I understand it better now though. There are some more tutorials that I need to watch, but I'll watch them on Wednesday when I have my next M1 session.

Psychology:
Research Methods- I've decided to start revising this topic from Paper 2 first because it is such a massive topic and I haven't even looked at it since last May!! Today I just made some flashcards on experimental design and different types of variables.

Physics:
Mechanics- This is quite a big topic in Paper 1 and I'm not great at it so I'm focusing on this at the moment. I answered the questions on vectors and forces from the CGP textbook and got all of them correct :h:

.

Reply 22

username2982648

OP

20

Monday 13/02/17

It is currently past midnight but I feel wide awake (probably due to coffee :biggrin:

).
I haven't done that much today because I've been out all day with my family. I did some work in the evening though.

Maths:
Core 3- I did the June 2005 paper and ended up getting 50/75... YIKES!!! :s-smilie:

. I've been getting similar marks in the Solomon papers so I thought that perhaps doing an "easier" normal paper would improve my marks, but nope! It appears that I just have lots of gaps in my knowledge. Hopefully, doing frequent past papers (i.e. two per week for now) will combat this. In March, I'll probably start doing three per week.

Physics:
Mechanics- I answered the questions on Moments from the CGP textbook and got them all correct, although there were only three questions on that topic for some reason! Oh well, I guess once I start doing M1 papers for maths I'll get plenty of practice.
Data skills- My teacher gave us a booklet of data and practical skills questions and I attempted to do question 1. However, I have drew the graph wrong for part (a) which means that parts (b), (c) and (d) are also all incorrect. I guess I'll have to redo them tomorrow. This is why I shouldn't study at night.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 23

aRandomGuy

11

Original post by LeCroissant

Hello,

I have decided to make a 'Grow your grades' thread for the remainder of my Year 13 journey.
I actually made one last year for AS, but it was on a different account which I will no longer be using :tongue:

.

Academic Profile:

GCSEs: A*A* BAAAA BAAAA (The baa baa bit sounds cool.)

AS: AAD (Psychology, Maths and Physics respectively)

UCAS Predictions: AAC

My Goal: A*A*A

I don't care if my goal seems unrealistic; these are the grades that I want to get. So I guess this blog will be me challenging myself to try and get these grades.
Next year, I intend to study Psychology at Lancaster University. I am leaning towards Lancaster at the moment anyway. For that, I need to get AAB. But if I get A*A*A, I will be awarded with an academic excellence scholarship :biggrin:

.

Let the challenge commence :tongue:

Maths past papers grade tracker:

Spoiler

Best of luck!!!!

On a side note, it's Valentine's and I'm hungry and you look delicious.

Reply 24

username2982648

OP

20

Original post by aRandomGuy

Best of luck!!!!

On a side note, it's Valentine's and I'm hungry and you look delicious.

Thank you! :h:

Unfortunately, LeCroissant cannot be eaten, but you can have some Pain Au Chocolats instead :smile:

Reply 25

ray_029

3

Original post by LeCroissant

Thank you! :h:

Unfortunately, LeCroissant cannot be eaten, but you can have some Pain Au Chocolats instead :smile:

Lol. You're too funny. Gd luck with ur revision. I take physics as well and struggle with mechanics too but hopefully practice makes perfect.

Reply 26

username2312801

18

Good luck ! Well done,your doing so well. I'm sure you'll achieve your goals x

Reply 27

username2982648

OP

20

Sunday 19/02/17

Half term update:

For many, half term is just beginning- but mine is coming to an end. Unfortunately, I have not been as productive as I anticipated, but I've still managed to get some work done.

Today has definitely been the most unproductive day of the whole week. My Physics teacher gave us a booklet of exam-style questions on practical skills and wanted us to do questions 1-6 for tomorrow. I've been attempting the questions at various points throughout the week but haven't been very successful, so I decided to try and get them all done today. I have still been unsuccessful due to not having a clue what the questions are on about. This made me feel really demotivated and stupid so I haven't done anything else for the rest of the day. Hopefully my teacher will explain how to do them tomorrow.

I watched a documentary this afternoon about the education system in South Korea and was astounded by how rigorous the students are with their studies. Their school day starts at 8am and ends at MIDNIGHT!!! Well, lessons finish at about 4.30pm but it is expected of students to partake in independent study until very late at night, either at their school, a local study club or the library.
My sixth form closes at 5pm, as do my local libraries :laugh:

. It isn't even safe to walk around the streets at midnight here!
It has made me question my work ethic; is it really necessary for me to be giving myself evenings and nights "off" so that I can look after my mental health? Should I be utilising the time that I have in order to study more and get more work done? I'm not saying that my mental health isn't important- it is. But getting bad grades this summer will be even worse for my mental health. I don't want to fail.
For some reason, I just don't have the stamina to work for hours into the night. Perhaps I could try the Pomodoro technique.
I don't even know what I'm trying to say, but I'm just not working hard enough and that needs to change.
This quote summarises what I'm saying quite well:

I hope your studies are going better than mine :h:

Reply 28

username2982648

OP

20

Monday 20/02/17

I need to start going to sleep earlier but I'll write this post anyway.

Maths:
C3- I did a past paper in the morning during my frees. I started marking it at the end of the day after lessons but got frustrated because I dropped some silly marks on the first two questions which are supposed to be relatively easy, so I was going to just give myself a U without marking the rest. I can be very irrational at times. My friend took it off me and marked it for me -I ended up getting 62/75 which turns out to be far from a U. Using the grade boundaries for that exam season, I would have just scraped an A. My first A in C3.... :dance:

I definitely need to revise differentiation more though.
M1- I watched some ExamSolutions tutorials for velocity vectors and made notes.

Psychology:
In class, we started learning about psychological therapies for schizophrenia which was interesting. I need to make notes for it still, although I'm not sure if i'll have time to before the weekend.

Physics:
In class, we worked independently on the practical skills exam questions and I didn't get much done because they're SO TRICKY. My teacher wants us to complete the whole booklet (100+ marks worth of questions wtf???) as homework for Thursday but I'm definitely not going to be able to do that so I'm not sure what to do... I'm tempted to just not go to the lesson but I have him again on Friday ugghhhh. That booklet has caused me so much stress over this past week and right now it is at the bottom of my priority list.
Mechanics- In the evening, I answered questions on Newton's laws from the CGP textbook which was quite simple because they just required using F=ma.

Random:
I have ordered a French grammar textbook off Amazon because I want to start learning French again. I actually wanted to do A-level French last year but when I started sixth form, they weren't doing it because not enough students had shown interest.
I really wish that I'd gone to a different sixth form instead of the one joined on to my secondary school. And if I could re-choose my A-levels, I'd pick Psychology, French, Maths and Further Maths. I didn't pick Further Maths because I thought it would be too difficult, yet here I am doing Physics :colonhash:

...

Reply 29

emduck

12

I wish I had chosen to do French instead of Biology, but I thought I wasn't any good at it at GCSE, though that was because I didn't prepare for controlled assessments or revise for my exams. I have found that now I can't remember much of the french I learnt..

Reply 30

username2982648

OP

20

Original post by emduck

I wish I had chosen to do French instead of Biology, but I thought I wasn't any good at it at GCSE, though that was because I didn't prepare for controlled assessments or revise for my exams. I have found that now I can't remember much of the french I learnt..

Me too, I didn't prepare nearly as much as I should have for the exams, but this probably would have changed if I did it for A-level haha. I can remember random words but can't put many sentences together :tongue:

.

Reply 31

emduck

12

Original post by LeCroissant

Me too, I didn't prepare nearly as much as I should have for the exams, but this probably would have changed if I did it for A-level haha. I can remember random words but can't put many sentences together :tongue:

.

I can remember the first 4 sentences of one of my french speaking assessments, and then random words as well. I can barely remember the tenses.

Reply 32

username2982648

OP

20

Wednesday 22/02/17

I forgot to post yesterday but I was only really productive in the morning.
Today however, I actually feel quite proud of what I've managed to get done... (even though I overslept and so couldn't do a C1 past paper in the library before lessons started).

Psychology:
Forensics- In class, we went over behaviour modification in custody, which we were supposed to write notes for over half term but I didn't :spank:. Oh well, I managed to make them in class- which is more than I usually do. I definitely need to start being more productive in lessons!
Schizophrenia- In class, we started learning about the interactionist approach which was fairly straightforward. I'm so behind on my Schizophrenia notes though :s-smilie:

. In addition, my teacher has given us a massive bundle of homework sheets!!

Maths:
C4- In class, we learned how to solve differential equations which is not too bad. However, I struggled quite a bit on the ones which involve exponentials because the indices laws confuse me.
M1- I finished watching the ExamSolutions tutorials on vectors and then answered the exercises from my textbook which my teacher emailed me to complete. I think he low-key hates me because I'm so lazy in his lessons and my assessment grades are not very good. At least he won't be able to hate me for not catching up on what we're doing in class now :lol:

. In fact, I am actually ahead now! I shoud be able to start doing M1 past papers next week.

Physics:
Practical skills- Despite not thinking it would be possible, I spent a good few hours this evening completing the exam-practice booklet that my teacher set as homework which is due tomorrow! In fairness, there are a few parts to questions which I just don't know how to answer so have left blank, but hopefully I can get help on them at some point.

Random:

•

I am quite annoyed at how snakey some of teachers at my sixth form are. Instead of approaching me in person or even sending me an email, they feel the need to email AND phone my PARENTS about the fact that I didn't go to the Physics intervention session on Monday. I didn't go to it because it is just full of people messing about so I don't see the point. Fair enough, my mock exam grade and resit grade are very concerning but it wouldn't hurt to approach me first seeing as this is my education and I'm practically an adult.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 33

username3012438

15

study hard everyday no phucking around

u gotta do whatever it takes and u'll make it brah

Reply 34

username2982648

OP

20

Tuesday 28/02/17

This is going to be my last update for a while because I have decided that I'm going to try and give up The Student Room for lent - (inspired by @CheeseIsVeg ).
I think it will be beneficial for my overall productivity. Last time I gave up The Student Room, I lasted 3 days so hopefully I can beat that this time :tongue:

.

I don't need to go into sixth form today because my Maths teacher isn't in :thumbsup:

... so I'm going to spend the afternoon going over integration (C4) and I also want to practice some exam questions for vectors (M1).
I also need to write 2 essays for Psychology...ha...haha I should probably log out now.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me so far and Happy Pancake Day!
If only there was a Croissant day...

Update: I have my Psychology resit results now which are:
- Biopsychology: 67%
- Relationships: 83%
I'm still not where I'd like to be but it's a massive improvement!
I've also decided that I'm going to buy the CGP revision guide for Psychology, just because it will probably explain some things differently to how my textbook does- which might help me a little!
Plus, I like buying books and stationary...

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 35

Do it Right

5

Original post by LeCroissant

Tuesday 28/02/17

This is going to be my last update for a while because I have decided that I'm going to try and give up The Student Room for lent - (inspired by @CheeseIsVeg ).
I think it will be beneficial for my overall productivity. Last time I gave up The Student Room, I lasted 3 days so hopefully I can beat that this time :tongue:

.

I don't need to go into sixth form today because my Maths teacher isn't in :thumbsup:

... so I'm going to spend the afternoon going over integration (C4) and I also want to practice some exam questions for vectors (M1).
I also need to write 2 essays for Psychology...ha...haha I should probably log out now.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me so far and Happy Pancake Day!
If only there was a Croissant day...

Huge fan. Can I just say I love your branding

Reply 36

Zentox

13

Hey, nice thread! Also in Year 13 and reading about other people's hard work like yours really pushes me too. My friends barely study with me in frees and such, not really aiming too high this year.

So yeah. Good luck :smile:

I won't be making a thread but I am going for A*AA! Maybe higher, who knows.

Edit: (just realised you wont be updating this - gonna look for a different thread lol)

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 37

username2982648

OP

20

Original post by Zentox

Hey, nice thread! Also in Year 13 and reading about other people's hard work like yours really pushes me too. My friends barely study with me in frees and such, not really aiming too high this year.

So yeah. Good luck :smile:

I won't be making a thread but I am going for A*AA! Maybe higher, who knows.

Edit: (just realised you wont be updating this - gonna look for a different thread lol)

Thank you! :smile:

I find it difficult to study around my friends too but the way I see it is if you have a certain goal you'd like to reach, don't let anybody stop you. I'm going to start spending more of my free periods in the library so that I won't get distracted as much.

Good luck to you too!
I won't be leaving The Student Room until tomorrow, so I'll still be here for the rest of today haha. I'll be back in April :smile:

Reply 38

Zentox

13

Original post by LeCroissant

Thank you! :smile:

I find it difficult to study around my friends too but the way I see it is if you have a certain goal you'd like to reach, don't let anybody stop you. I'm going to start spending more of my free periods in the library so that I won't get distracted as much.

Good luck to you too!
I won't be leaving The Student Room until tomorrow, so I'll still be here for the rest of today haha. I'll be back in April :smile:

That is what I do. I go to the common room occasionally and my friends are like "where have you been?!" - it annoys me when they don't realise how little time we have to cover so much. But then again some of them do BTECs or "softer" subjects than me.

Haha have fun away from TSR lol

Reply 39

username2982648

OP

20

Sunday 12/03/17

My lent has finished early...

The two things I decided to try and give up for Lent were The Student Room and my hair straighteners. I survived 8 days without TSR and 11 days without my hair straighteners :redface:

.

I thought it would be a good idea to write this post now since I am feeling quite unmotivated (but also really motivated, if that makes sense?). Yesterday, I went to the applicant day at Lancaster University and absolutely adored the campus and atmosphere. The psychology course is also really scientific, which I like!

I just want to go away to university NOW! I guess this is a good incentive for me to get high grades because they are what I need to go there :tongue:

.

Tonight's agenda:
- Maths: M1- January 2001 paper

- Maths: C3- Exponentials revision (since this is where I keep losing marks in past papers).

- Physics: Mechanics- Conservation of energy revision & textbook questions

- Psychology: Issues & Debates- Gender bias notes and homework sheet.

(edited 7 years ago)