Tombre's 100 or so day journey to all A*s!

Thanks for the help! I'm going to talk to my maths teacher to help me get a good grade. Was the maths tutor worth it?

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Reply 161

Shaaayxp

12

I think you should go for the resit- I have faith that you can ace both exams! :biggrin:

Reply 162

Tombre

OP

13

Original post by Jpijx

Thanks for the help! I'm going to talk to my maths teacher to help me get a good grade. Was the maths tutor worth it?

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Definitely!

Reply 163

Tombre

OP

13

Original post by Shaaayxp

I think you should go for the resit- I have faith that you can ace both exams! :biggrin:

I've signed the entry! Thank you so much! :biggrin:

Reply 164

Tombre

OP

13

Hey everyone, just dropping in quickly to let you know I'm still here, haha! :biggrin:

I've been on a school trip to Barcelona and forgot to say beforehand. But I'm back now. I had the most amazing time and will probably write about it tomorrow, as it is educational and honestly I want to keep living in the trip! It was a great experience and oh my god now I'm getting the same post-trip sadness that I got after Iceland last October :tongue:

I'll be getting back on track with revision tomorrow but I'm having one last night of freedom before hell begins. I hope you're all well and I'll catching up on other GYGs over the next few days :h:

Reply 165

jdijx

17

Oh lucky ! I'm writing notes atm where I just rewrite everything we have done so far into a text book, and I'm just wondering about what to do next. Should I summarise the info and make revision notes or just revise from my notes (bearing in mind there is a lot of info). I don't like having lots of paper everywhere so I really don't know what to do¿ how do you approach science revision ? I remember asking you and you said you rewrite notes, did you just rewrite them straight after note taking or...? We have this thing where our school gives us notes for science as the wjec isn't the best when it comes to new spec revision guides and there is quite a lot of info

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Reply 166

Tombre

OP

13

Original post by Jpijx

Oh lucky ! I'm writing notes atm where I just rewrite everything we have done so far into a text book, and I'm just wondering about what to do next. Should I summarise the info and make revision notes or just revise from my notes (bearing in mind there is a lot of info). I don't like having lots of paper everywhere so I really don't know what to do¿ how do you approach science revision ? I remember asking you and you said you rewrite notes, did you just rewrite them straight after note taking or...? We have this thing where our school gives us notes for science as the wjec isn't the best when it comes to new spec revision guides and there is quite a lot of info

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Honestly, I can't answer your first question because only you know what will work best for you. I personally would write them again (but simplified) but that may not help you.

Yes, that's my major source of science revision. I also watch a lot of YouTube videos.

Also, practise questions on the topic, I know there are no past papers, but if you go onto the WJEC Question Bank choose a science and then you can search through the topics and find questions based on these topics. Most will be the same, Biology and Chemistry cover the exact same content with both specs, it's just all scattered across different places than you will be used to. You have a couple of extra topics in Physics like domestic electricity, but you can find questions in papers for other boards. Just practice the questions. My school also writes notes, they will be a great source of revision for you.

Download your specification and the teachers guide from the WJEC website and see exactly what you need to know for each topic. For example, attached is the Physics topic that I'm currently revising. It tells me that I need to know how to write nuclear equations and blah blah blah and I know exactly which bits they can ask me on the exam.

Screen Shot 2017-04-13 at 19.38.50.png

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 167

jdijx

17

Thank you! I honestly don't have a clue what I'm doing when revising, I'm kind of trailing things out atm but I don't want to do something that won't be beneficial as exams aren't a long time away. I have been using the question bank for a few weeks now and it's great (esp for maths!).

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Reply 168

username2931236

11

Original post by Tombre

Hey everyone, just dropping in quickly to let you know I'm still here, haha! :biggrin:

I've been on a school trip to Barcelona and forgot to say beforehand. But I'm back now. I had the most amazing time and will probably write about it tomorrow, as it is educational and honestly I want to keep living in the trip! It was a great experience and oh my god now I'm getting the same post-trip sadness that I got after Iceland last October :tongue:

I'll be getting back on track with revision tomorrow but I'm having one last night of freedom before hell begins. I hope you're all well and I'll catching up on other GYGs over the next few days :h:

Hey, glad you had a good time!
Please do a post about the trip I'd love to hear about it :smile:

Reply 169

Tombre

OP

13

Original post by misstiah_h

Hey, glad you had a good time!
Please do a post about the trip I'd love to hear about it :smile:

Thank you! I will very soon, as soon as I get the time! :smile:

Reply 170

Tombre

OP

13

I know what you're thinking. What the heck, Tom is back?!?!?!

I am. Briefly.

I'm sorry I haven't been posting, I've been very busy recently with revision and balancing that with a social life and hobbies! I'm aiming from now on to post on Saturday evenings and reflect on the week as a whole, rather than the daily posts I used to do. Sorry for my inactivity, I'm very behind on the GYG and reading everyone else's, so I apologise if you notice a lack of activity from me on yours! :smile:

Reply 171

niamhdoesmaths

21

Original post by Tombre

I know what you're thinking. What the heck, Tom is back?!?!?!

I am. Briefly.

I'm sorry I haven't been posting, I've been very busy recently with revision and balancing that with a social life and hobbies! I'm aiming from now on to post on Saturday evenings and reflect on the week as a whole, rather than the daily posts I used to do. Sorry for my inactivity, I'm very behind on the GYG and reading everyone else's, so I apologise if you notice a lack of activity from me on yours! :smile:

Good to see you here again, even if it is only briefly :tongue:

No need to apologise for being busy :nah:

it happens! At least it's been a good busy from what I gather :smile:

No pressure to post daily at all - it's your blog after all! Whatever suits you best :h:

Reply 172

Tombre

OP

13

Original post by NiamhM1801

Good to see you here again, even if it is only briefly :tongue:

No need to apologise for being busy :nah:

it happens! At least it's been a good busy from what I gather :smile:

No pressure to post daily at all - it's your blog after all! Whatever suits you best :h:

Thank you! I think I'm back on top of this now! :biggrin:

Reply 173

Tombre

OP

13

HELLO

So to get back in the swing of things I'm not going to review what I did in school last week because I honestly don't remember in detail lol. Instead I thought I'd go through each of my subjects and say how I'm feeling about them!

English Language
I feel pretty good about this subject. I'm not going to be revising for it until half term because I have very few exams after half term and I feel like this subject requires very little attention from me. Besides, the classwork has basically been revision :tongue:

English Literature
I think I could comfortably sit the exam right now, I feel I'm okay with the texts and everything I need to know for them. Yet, for some reason, I just feel like I can't do enough for this subject. I think I just need a bit of consolidation of knowledge (especially for Heroes) and I should be okay :h:

Biology
I've finished revising the topics and done all of the past papers. So now I've just got to revise the topics again and eventually do all of the papers again. I feel good about Bio, B3 is pretty straightforward and I've already built solid foundations with B1 and B2 :smile:

Chemistry
This (and Geography) has become my best subject I think. I'm very secure with my grades in C1 and C2 and the controlled assessment. It's also nice that C3 is extremely short. I've revised once and done some of the past papers. I just need to do some more past papers and go over the topics again :biggrin:

Physics
I've been mainly revising P2 through past papers and have been pleased with my marks in them. I feel very ready for P2. I have gone through most of P3, there's just a few other bits I need to check over :colondollar:

Geography
I'm in a very good position in geog in terms of UMS. I honestly haven't revised much because the exam is after half term (when there are only 2 other subjects left). I'm revising a little bit now for my mock next Monday and doing small amounts anyway :smile:

Spanish
I'm honestly stuck on how I should be revising Spanish. I've just been learning some vocab and doing past papers. I'm doing really well in the past papers but I'm just a bit worried that some random vocab that I didn't revise is going to come up. Also the vocab doesn't always seem to stick in my head. Languages are strange to revise for :tongue:

Drama
My final performance is in 11 days and I'm very nervous. I know all of my lines and all of that jazz but my teacher thinks that there are a few elements to my character that I haven't hit yet. Also she's been on to me about watching this really obscure version of the play that is so hard to find and I will have to pay for. And honestly I'm going to have to do that tonight because otherwise tomorrow won't be fun... And in terms of the written exam I'm not too sure how to feel. It's a strange exam that's all about the exam technique. Overall, I'm not really worried about drama, just nervous :redface:

Religious Studies
I feel good about this subject. There's not too much to learn and a lot of the content for this spec is common sense. I'm dedicating a whole evening to it tomorrow, just to ensure I cover all of the content quickly and can practice exam technique for the next 2 weeks :biggrin:

Additional Maths
I haven't paid much attention to this subject for a few reasons: 1) I'm feeling okay with most of the content. 2) It's my final exam and 10 days after the penultimate one, so I'll have 10 days to go through a very short spec. And obviously in half term I will be revising for it :smile:

Stay tuned because on Thursday I will have a post all about the school trip I went on to Barcelona over Easter!

Reply 174

Tombre

OP

13

Lol 3 days late, but here is my post all about the

BARCELONA TRIP

(I will edit in pictures from the trip soon!)

At the start of the Easter holidays I travelled to Calafell with my school's Spanish department and honestly had the most amazing time! I experienced some Spanish culture, talked to so many people that I don't normally talk to and actually picked up a bit more Spanish!

On the first day I got to school at 2:30AM and we drove all the way to Birmingham Airport. The flight was pretty chilled, I just talked with some friends and ate a very delicious wrap from Pret.

When I got to Spain we settled into the hotel, grabbed some lunch and then we had a 2 hour language seminar with this genuinely crazy Spanish woman. I haven't yet met a language teacher who isn't at least slightly nuts, to be honest. Then we got to go to the beach and that was super fun and relaxing.

The following day we trekked into Barcelona itself. This is the second time I've been and it's one of my favourite cities ever. We started the day by circling La Segrada Familia, which is just mindblowing. I can't believe something of such scale and intricacy is actually being built. Next, we had an hour to wander down Las Ramblas, which is the main stretch of restaurants and cafes and shops in Barcelona. I ate a very delicious pistachio and hazelnut ice cream (I even ordered in Spanish :cool:

) and absorbed the relaxed culture. Me and my friends stopped in the market, which is phenomenal. So many colours, so much food and so many aromas. I grabbed a watermelon juice, which was so refreshing and I'm honestly craving it right now! :biggrin:

At the bottom of Las Ramblas, the group gathered back together (and I had a photo with some creepy alien dude).

After Las Ramblas, we headed to a location above the city to eat lunch. The views of the entire city were just incredible. After that, we headed to Camp Nou. I'm not the biggest fan of football, but I could definitely appreciate it in a place like that. It was so interesting and the whole football culture might be controversial and negative sometimes, but I could definitely see how people are passionate about it and how it brings people together.

The following day was a whole day excursion to Port Aventura, which is the Universal Studios park in Spain. Despite the long queues, me and my friends managed to get on quite a few rides and I had an amazing time. The rides were so much fun and we had quite the experience trying to talk to some French speaking teenagers in one queue. It's weird how much you can actually understand with a major language barrier.

The final full day was spent partially in a town near the French border in the Salvador Dali museum. Most people did not appreciate the art, however, I wandered around with my Spanish teacher who was an expert on his work and she explaining all of the context and meanings of the art, so me and my friend really did appreciate what we saw. It was mind-blowing. Next, we went to Girona and got to wander the cobbled streets. It was rich full of culture and the architecture was stunning.

And that was a VERY brief summary of the Spanish trip! I had a great time and would recommend Barcelona to everyone! :biggrin:

Reply 175

Tombre

OP

13

5 DAYS UNTIL EXAMS BEGIN

So today I spent the majority of the day revising for English Literature, as that is probably the subject I feel least confident in, out of all of the exams that I have before half term. I did some character mind-maps, revised key quotes and analyses and did an essay for each of the texts!

I have 5 days until my first exam, which is my Drama Final Performance. I suppose it isn't an exam exam, but it's still important and an examiner will be watching, so EEK. I feel quite ready for it, there's just a few fine details I need to work on in some parts. We also need to rehearse with lights and music because we haven't really done that yet.

My first written exam is next Monday - Religion and Life Issues. I'm pretty ready for this exam, I think I just need to do some more practice questions to get all of the religious teachings consolidated in my brain.

The following day I have B3, which I am so relaxed about. It is the most straightforward out of all of the Biology units and I've been getting consistently high marks on the past papers. I feel I need to just check over the last 2 topics to make sure I am fully ready to tackle them.

Next week I also have my C3 exam, which I feel the same as Biology about. On that same day I have Drama Unit 1 (the written essay exam) which I am quite nervous for. I'm very stuck on how I should be preparing, but I have found a good online revision guide. If anybody here has done/is doing AQA Drama, how did you/do you revise for this exam?

And my last exams next week are my Spanish exams. I'm feeling quite good about them. I feel I know most vocab that I need to know, it is impossible for me to know it all, so I'm just going in there to do the best that I can. My past paper marks have been very good so hopefully I can maintain them!

How is everyone else coping with the start of exams?