EmilySarah00’s 2017/18 struggle to University (A*AA)

Resitting S2 would help me be able to get an A* in Further Maths I just don't know if it's worth it. I'm so scared of missing the A* in Maths bc it's all down to C3 and 4 where as in FM it's more lenient

Ah well I have until February to decide

Take your time deciding. My advice would be to not resit. Have a bit of faith in C3/4. On results day the difference between and A or an A* doesn't usually determine which university you go to. Although there will always be exceptions.

I have A*AA offers from Bristol (and Durham presuming they give me an offer) And Oxford would also be A*AA if some miracle happens.

So I feel like in my case getting an A* is kinda important. Of course if I miss it there's always a great insurance option but ah. I'll worry more when I've heard from Oxford.

What normally happens is there's grades you're told to get, and then there's grades they'll let you in with on results day (near miss). AAA will be a sufficient near miss for at least Bristol in my subjective and uninformed opinion. Possibly Durham too.

I've seen a near miss for Durham before now

your notes are so nice! ahhh the MAT is so close now i'm dreading it too - i'm just praying for good multiple choice questions to score me a good chunk of marks 🙏🏽

ps what did you think of the bake off finale ????

31/10/17 Update - Mathsy Halloween! :

Trust me, I tried to think of a better pun for the title but didn't succeed so this is what we're left with. It's now only 2 days until the MAT and I'm trying to keep myself positive and motivated. Going to college today was probably good for me as it got me out of the house for once and took my mind off the MAT for a short while at least.

I woke up today the earliest I have in well over a week and it was such a struggle! I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed and into college, luckily I only had 2 lessons to ease myself back into it. I first had Computer Science in which I spent the hour making some theory revision posters (they're a long working process, pictures will be to come once I begin plastering them up on my wall!) I then had an hour of Further Maths where I did some FP4 questions on Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors (fun fun fun! )

Then I came home and prepared myself for yet another MAT paper. Today I challenged myself to doing the 2016 paper, to time, in exam conditions. I was really tired while doing it for the first half especially but that was no excuse for the worst multiple choice score yet, 2/10 (yeah you heard me right... 2!) There was like 3 questions where i'd whittled the possible 5 options down to 2 and then picked the wrong one out of those two which was awfully frustrating. I picked myself up a little on the lengthier questions doing slightly better than I would normally. However the bad outweighed the good and I ended up with 44/100 marks which slowly becoming nearer to my average score

Finally I did my first out of three lessons worth of maths catch up making some Halloween colour inspired M1 notes on Resultant and Resolving Forces (with a break in the middle to watch the Bake Off Finale!) I spent way longer than I should have on them to be honest but I'll include a picture of one of the sheets below



So that's it for today, the looming dread will probably come across more in tomorrow's update but we'll soon see
Until then,
-Emily x

Spooky Squad :

@RoyalSheepy is of course a gem in making tag-lists, which are currently the bane of my life.

This post has made me very glad I am no longer doing maths. C3 and C4 were enough for me.

What can I say, what can I say

Those notes are so neat

1 day until the MAT You'll smash it though!

Your notes are so neat ahhh! Pastel highlighters are my life - and just stationery in general, I have way too much of it And oh my gosh I'm literally dying inside it's tomorrow I'm gonna die ahhhh >.<

I couldn’t do notes without them! I’m dreading tomorrow so much my practice today hasn’t even gone well! Glad we’re in it together

Update 01/11/17 - Doomsday is Dawning :

With the MAT in only 13 hours I am trying my best to stay calm but it's not very easy. My stress levels are through the roof and I feel super super sick, I could hardly eat my dinner!

So today started at 6AM after a measly 5 hours of sleep. In the time between waking up and leaving the house I managed to cause myself a minor injury! In an effort to get my stapler to work and staple together the sheets of my final MAT practice paper I managed to staple myself in the thumb and had to pull the staple back out again. Safe to say it wasn't pleasant and hurt a fair bit! So after a bit of minor first aid and a change of clothes (because I got blood on my first set *sigh*) I managed to miss my bus and had to get mum to take me in to college. She didn't complain however because I think she felt a bit sorry for me so she let me go to McDonalds and get myself breakfast there too!

I had a very fast paced Maths lesson first period in which we did M1 forces exam questions. Then second lesson I had Computer Science where I was supposed to be doing my coursework but since we found out the deadline to finish this current section has been extended a week (until the 9th) I decided I wanted to just have a more relaxing lesson. So I pretty much sat and did nothing besides a couple of MAT multiple choice questions.

I then had two free periods. I had intended to completely smash out my final MAT paper in this time then I'd be done for the day. However this really didn't happen as my friends are distractions and there was an unusually large amount of gossip within my friendship group today so I couldn't help but get involved in conversation. In these two hours I only focused on the MAT paper for about a quarter of the time and I managed to just complete the multiple choice questions and make an attempt at the puzzle question. I didn't manage to do the puzzle as well as usual scoring 9/15 (It was the vampires and werewolves one from 2015 for anyone interested.)

Finally I had Further Maths where we spent the first half of the lesson just chatting to our teacher. I showed him the puzzle from the MAT paper and it even managed to confuse him! When we finally got around to working we did our last lesson on Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors and have now completely finished the FP4 content (Woo! )

When I got home I procrastinated for a while before getting the MAT paper finished. I managed 53/100 which was higher than the national average of 44 on this specific paper. So a bit better than yesterday but not amazing.

Overall I am proud of myself for the amount of work I have put in to preparing for this (I got every past paper on the website done,) I can go into tomorrow knowing I have practised for this to the best of my ability and I just need to sit the paper and give it my best shot. I am absolutely flippin' petrified but I'm expecting the worst so then anything more is a bonus!

To anyone else sitting the MAT (or any other admissions test) tomorrow I wish you the best of luck!
-Emily x

My own personal Support Team:

Update 01/11/17 - Doomsday is Dawning :

With the MAT in only 13 hours I am trying my best to stay calm but it's not very easy. My stress levels are through the roof and I feel super super sick, I could hardly eat my dinner!

So today started at 6AM after a measly 5 hours of sleep. In the time between waking up and leaving the house I managed to cause myself a minor injury! In an effort to get my stapler to work and staple together the sheets of my final MAT practice paper I managed to staple myself in the thumb and had to pull the staple back out again. Safe to say it wasn't pleasant and hurt a fair bit! So after a bit of minor first aid and a change of clothes (because I got blood on my first set *sigh*) I managed to miss my bus and had to get mum to take me in to college. She didn't complain however because I think she felt a bit sorry for me so she let me go to McDonalds and get myself breakfast there too!

I had a very fast paced Maths lesson first period in which we did M1 forces exam questions. Then second lesson I had Computer Science where I was supposed to be doing my coursework but since we found out the deadline to finish this current section has been extended a week (until the 9th) I decided I wanted to just have a more relaxing lesson. So I pretty much sat and did nothing besides a couple of MAT multiple choice questions.

I then had two free periods. I had intended to completely smash out my final MAT paper in this time then I'd be done for the day. However this really didn't happen as my friends are distractions and there was an unusually large amount of gossip within my friendship group today so I couldn't help but get involved in conversation. In these two hours I only focused on the MAT paper for about a quarter of the time and I managed to just complete the multiple choice questions and make an attempt at the puzzle question. I didn't manage to do the puzzle as well as usual scoring 9/15 (It was the vampires and werewolves one from 2015 for anyone interested.)

Finally I had Further Maths where we spent the first half of the lesson just chatting to our teacher. I showed him the puzzle from the MAT paper and it even managed to confuse him! When we finally got around to working we did our last lesson on Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors and have now completely finished the FP4 content (Woo! )

When I got home I procrastinated for a while before getting the MAT paper finished. I managed 53/100 which was higher than the national average of 44 on this specific paper. So a bit better than yesterday but not amazing.

Overall I am proud of myself for the amount of work I have put in to preparing for this (I got every past paper on the website done,) I can go into tomorrow knowing I have practised for this to the best of my ability and I just need to sit the paper and give it my best shot. I am absolutely flippin' petrified but I'm expecting the worst so then anything more is a bonus!

To anyone else sitting the MAT (or any other admissions test) tomorrow I wish you the best of luck!
-Emily x

My own personal Support Team:

Update 01/11/17 - Doomsday is Dawning :

With the MAT in only 13 hours I am trying my best to stay calm but it's not very easy. My stress levels are through the roof and I feel super super sick, I could hardly eat my dinner!

So today started at 6AM after a measly 5 hours of sleep. In the time between waking up and leaving the house I managed to cause myself a minor injury! In an effort to get my stapler to work and staple together the sheets of my final MAT practice paper I managed to staple myself in the thumb and had to pull the staple back out again. Safe to say it wasn't pleasant and hurt a fair bit! So after a bit of minor first aid and a change of clothes (because I got blood on my first set *sigh*) I managed to miss my bus and had to get mum to take me in to college. She didn't complain however because I think she felt a bit sorry for me so she let me go to McDonalds and get myself breakfast there too!

I had a very fast paced Maths lesson first period in which we did M1 forces exam questions. Then second lesson I had Computer Science where I was supposed to be doing my coursework but since we found out the deadline to finish this current section has been extended a week (until the 9th) I decided I wanted to just have a more relaxing lesson. So I pretty much sat and did nothing besides a couple of MAT multiple choice questions.

I then had two free periods. I had intended to completely smash out my final MAT paper in this time then I'd be done for the day. However this really didn't happen as my friends are distractions and there was an unusually large amount of gossip within my friendship group today so I couldn't help but get involved in conversation. In these two hours I only focused on the MAT paper for about a quarter of the time and I managed to just complete the multiple choice questions and make an attempt at the puzzle question. I didn't manage to do the puzzle as well as usual scoring 9/15 (It was the vampires and werewolves one from 2015 for anyone interested.)

Finally I had Further Maths where we spent the first half of the lesson just chatting to our teacher. I showed him the puzzle from the MAT paper and it even managed to confuse him! When we finally got around to working we did our last lesson on Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors and have now completely finished the FP4 content (Woo! )

When I got home I procrastinated for a while before getting the MAT paper finished. I managed 53/100 which was higher than the national average of 44 on this specific paper. So a bit better than yesterday but not amazing.

Overall I am proud of myself for the amount of work I have put in to preparing for this (I got every past paper on the website done,) I can go into tomorrow knowing I have practised for this to the best of my ability and I just need to sit the paper and give it my best shot. I am absolutely flippin' petrified but I'm expecting the worst so then anything more is a bonus!

To anyone else sitting the MAT (or any other admissions test) tomorrow I wish you the best of luck!
-Emily x

My own personal Support Team:

Update 01/11/17 - Doomsday is Dawning :

With the MAT in only 13 hours I am trying my best to stay calm but it's not very easy. My stress levels are through the roof and I feel super super sick, I could hardly eat my dinner!

So today started at 6AM after a measly 5 hours of sleep. In the time between waking up and leaving the house I managed to cause myself a minor injury! In an effort to get my stapler to work and staple together the sheets of my final MAT practice paper I managed to staple myself in the thumb and had to pull the staple back out again. Safe to say it wasn't pleasant and hurt a fair bit! So after a bit of minor first aid and a change of clothes (because I got blood on my first set *sigh*) I managed to miss my bus and had to get mum to take me in to college. She didn't complain however because I think she felt a bit sorry for me so she let me go to McDonalds and get myself breakfast there too!

I had a very fast paced Maths lesson first period in which we did M1 forces exam questions. Then second lesson I had Computer Science where I was supposed to be doing my coursework but since we found out the deadline to finish this current section has been extended a week (until the 9th) I decided I wanted to just have a more relaxing lesson. So I pretty much sat and did nothing besides a couple of MAT multiple choice questions.

I then had two free periods. I had intended to completely smash out my final MAT paper in this time then I'd be done for the day. However this really didn't happen as my friends are distractions and there was an unusually large amount of gossip within my friendship group today so I couldn't help but get involved in conversation. In these two hours I only focused on the MAT paper for about a quarter of the time and I managed to just complete the multiple choice questions and make an attempt at the puzzle question. I didn't manage to do the puzzle as well as usual scoring 9/15 (It was the vampires and werewolves one from 2015 for anyone interested.)

Finally I had Further Maths where we spent the first half of the lesson just chatting to our teacher. I showed him the puzzle from the MAT paper and it even managed to confuse him! When we finally got around to working we did our last lesson on Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors and have now completely finished the FP4 content (Woo! )

When I got home I procrastinated for a while before getting the MAT paper finished. I managed 53/100 which was higher than the national average of 44 on this specific paper. So a bit better than yesterday but not amazing.

Overall I am proud of myself for the amount of work I have put in to preparing for this (I got every past paper on the website done,) I can go into tomorrow knowing I have practised for this to the best of my ability and I just need to sit the paper and give it my best shot. I am absolutely flippin' petrified but I'm expecting the worst so then anything more is a bonus!

To anyone else sitting the MAT (or any other admissions test) tomorrow I wish you the best of luck!
-Emily x

My own personal Support Team: