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

Best of luck! You know you've done everything you can and that's what matters. Hope the MAT goes well for you, update me on how it went. And get some sleep!

Good luck! u got this! Give it ur best shot!
Plenty of sleep, eat something! Lots of water and smash it!!!

good luck with your journey!

Best of luck with the MAT!

Add me to the list please! And good luck with the MAT and your A-levels, especially CompSci.

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:

i know this is really unrelated and offtopic but um....whenever you mention Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors I suddenly get really hungry








I AM READY TO CHEER FOR TOMORROW

Good luck! You can do this!

Keep up the good work.

This has given me some inspiration to do a GYG, but I'd probably be too lazy to update it

Just wanted to say best of luck for tomorrow! I did the 2016 paper last night and for the most part it felt like an okay paper. Didn't bother marking it today though because I don't want anything to knock my confidence. Hopefully tomorrow's paper will be kind to us!

Good luck for tomorrow!

366 days until I'll probably be sitting it

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:

Thank you very much!

And you’ll do better than me I give you that

you got this!!!!!👍🏾👍🏾

You're welcome although hopefully you're sleeping now!
I'm not so sure about that... will have to wait and see!

Good luck for the MAT!! You'll do amazingly, I'm sure!

So I just sat the MAT...

This is just a short post just to let you know I sat the MAT, it went awfully, I just completely panicked at the long questions and honestly I’m just waiting for rejection.

I know rules mean I’m not allowed to talk specifics but I’ll write a proper update this evening as I always do. Just thought I’d let you all know how I did.

I’ll format this properly later

I'm sure it wasn't that bad, and there's nothing you can do about it anyway, so stay positive
I'm here if you need to talk!

Posted from TSR Mobile

Thank you lovely

It’s just a long wait now aha!

Omg same!!! Literally need to start thinking of which of the four out of five universities I want to aim for because it will most certainly not be oxford! I don't think I even got above 40! Guessed half of multiple choice and wrote close to nothing for most of the long questions!

it went horribly for me too i wasn't expecting to do brilliantly but i did so badly and now i'm so disheartened. i literally have no hope of getting in lol