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GYG: Journey to 3A*s and Cambridge

Hi everybody :biggrin:!

GYG looks like a really good way to get motivated and, as a major procrastinator :colondollar:, I'm hoping that tracking my progress will help me achieve 3A*s in my A-levels this year!

UPDATE: As of January 10th, I have (somehow?! :tongue:) also been offered a place to read history at Cambridge so getting the grades is ever more important to get there next autumn :biggrin:!

In the past (and to this day) I've really struggled with having confidence in my academic abilities and have had some anxiety wobbles in the past so I really hope to get the grades and to prove to myself and to any others who have ever doubted themselves that it is possible to overcome the hurdles we might be facing to achieve our goals :biggrin:!

I really enjoy school and my subjects, but know I have a lot to learn about learning and revising effectively and so if anyone has any handy tips, please do share! I'm also happy to answer any questions about the Oxbridge admissions process from a successful applicant's perspective if anyone is thinking of applying in the future :smile:.

My predicted grades are…

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My GCSE grades are…

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Dates and deadlines…

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(edited 6 years ago)

Scroll to see replies

So, hoping to get off to a good start, I have made a to-do list for tonight, which is as follows:

1. Latin: translation 1
2. Latin: translation 2
3. Latin: 15 marker on the Aeneid
4. Latin: prep lines 170-185
5. Latin (why is there so much :tongue:?!): translation 3
6. History sources essay
7. Catch-up on lessons and homework from Friday and Tuesday (which I missed due to illness)

Everyday tasks...
1. Add to Latin revision notes
2. Revise Latin vocabulary

If I have any time later, I will...
1. Do extra reading for history

Will hopefully update in a couple of hours :biggrin:!
(edited 6 years ago)
Original post by BlueberryViolin
So, hoping to get off to a good start, I have made a to-do list for tonight, which is as follows:

1. Latin: translation 1
2. Latin: translation 2
3. Latin: 15 marker on the Aeneid
4. Latin: prep lines 170-185
5. Latin (why is there so much :tongue:?!): translation 3
6. History sources essay
7. Catch-up on lessons and homework from Friday and Tuesday (which I missed due to illness)

Everyday tasks...
1. Add to Latin revision notes
2. Revise Latin vocabulary

If I have any time later, I will...
1. Do extra reading for history

Will hopefully update in a couple of hours :biggrin:!


Oops, fell asleep yesterday trying to learn the vocab so didn't manage to update :colondollar:...

Yesterday was reasonably productive and of my homework tasks I managed to complete the following:

1. Latin: translation 1
2. Latin: translation 2
3. Latin: 15 marker on the Aeneid
4. Latin: prep lines 170-185
7. Catch-up on lessons and homework from Friday and Tuesday (which I missed due to illness)

And of my everyday tasks, I managed to complete both-ish :tongue:

1. Add to Latin revision notes
2. Revise Latin vocabulary (well, sort of :colondollar:... sleep called :wink:)

Today's lessons were fun :biggrin:! We're studying France in Revolution (1774-1815) and Tudor England (1485-1603) in history and in today's class we waved goodbye to Napoleon and Louis XVIII returned to France (though he will not last :rolleyes:)! In English, one of the texts we're studying is Paradise Lost; the language is quite archaic so can be hard to understand but looking at all the possible different interpretations (did or did Eve not try to kill Adam :eek:?!) is actually really dramatic and fun :colondollar:! Today's Latin lesson was on grammar (which sounds dull but it is actually incredibly satisfying when you finally understand it :wink::biggrin:).

Tonight's updated to-do list is as follows:

1. Latin: translation 3 (hoping this won't take too long, but it looks hard :redface:...)
2. History sources essay
3. Extra reading for history. As I didn't find the time to do this yesterday, I'll try to fit some in tonight.

Everyday tasks:

1. Add to Latin revision notes
2. Revise Latin vocabulary

Trying to find some good music to listen to while studying, if anyone has any suggestions? :smile:
(edited 6 years ago)
"In the past (and to this day) I've really struggled with having confidence in my academic abilities and have had some anxiety wobbles in the past so I really hope to get the grades and to prove to myself and to any others who have ever doubted themselves that it is possible to overcome the hurdles we might be facing to achieve our goals ! ". Gets 11A*s at GCSE and is predicted 3A*s :biggrin::biggrin::smile:. You are lucky your coursework is due so late, my teacher was annoyed when we hadn't finished our first draft by the beginning of Y13! When I have homework that is quite easy like just questions where the exact answer is in the textbook I like to listen to the music I normally listen to. I found it too hard to listen to music when I am doing studying that is harder :smile:.
Original post by DrinkerOfCups
"In the past (and to this day) I've really struggled with having confidence in my academic abilities and have had some anxiety wobbles in the past so I really hope to get the grades and to prove to myself and to any others who have ever doubted themselves that it is possible to overcome the hurdles we might be facing to achieve our goals ! ". Gets 11A*s at GCSE and is predicted 3A*s :biggrin::biggrin::smile:. You are lucky your coursework is due so late, my teacher was annoyed when we hadn't finished our first draft by the beginning of Y13! When I have homework that is quite easy like just questions where the exact answer is in the textbook I like to listen to the music I normally listen to. I found it too hard to listen to music when I am doing studying that is harder :smile:.


I know it might sound a little silly, but having confidence is something I have genuinely found really hard over the years. I've had (and am still having) counselling about it, which has really helped this year :smile:.

Wow! That seems like a much earlier deadline for your first draft! How are you finding it and what is your topic?
Reply 5
I use to procrastinate so much too, but I've dealt with it by:

1. Studying regularly in my local library which if far less distracting.
2. Getting an app that blocks all the websites I procrastinate on for a time period which I specify.

Good luck and I will be following this thread! :smile:
Original post by BlueberryViolin
I know it might sound a little silly, but having confidence is something I have genuinely found really hard over the years. I've had (and am still having) counselling about it, which has really helped this year :smile:.

Wow! That seems like a much earlier deadline for your first draft! How are you finding it and what is your topic?


Sorry for being insensitive :frown:. Yeah it is really weird at the beginning of Y13 my teacher was angry at us for not doing a complete first draft over the summer- when she only asked us for the first 2 paragraphs. Then she set the deadline to the first week after half term but then didn't and hasn't checked it. All of us are struggling which is really weird because 3 people in her class last year got 40/40. Ours is France 1814-1900. Have you heard anything from Fitzwilliam? What is your EPQ about?
(edited 6 years ago)
Original post by Baaah
I use to procrastinate so much too, but I've dealt with it by:

1. Studying regularly in my local library which if far less distracting.
2. Getting an app that blocks all the websites I procrastinate on for a time period which I specify.

Good luck and I will be following this thread! :smile:


Oooh, thanks for the advice :biggrin:! I do like studying in my local library when I can! What app do you use to block distracting websites? It sounds really useful - procrastinating online is definitely one of my worst habits :colondollar:!

Thank you :biggrin:!
Original post by DrinkerOfCups
Sorry for being insensitive :frown:. Yeah it is really weird at the beginning of Y13 my teacher was angry at us for not doing a complete first draft over the summer- when she only asked us for the first 2 paragraphs. Then she set the deadline to the first week after half term but then didn't and hasn't checked it. All of us are struggling which is really weird because 3 people in her class last year got 40/40. Ours is France 1814-1900. Have you heard anything from Fitzwilliam? What is your EPQ about?


Oh no, please don't worry :smile:! It does sound a bit odd but I'm working on it!

Sorry about that! That does seem very confusing :frown:. Perhaps she'll be more helpful once she has seen your first drafts? 40/40 is amazing! Hope you get that this year :smile:! Are you all doing your coursework on that topic? It sounds really interesting!

Not yet, although apparently the history decisions haven't been sent out by Fitz yet, so hopefully the news will come soon. Quite scared though :colondollar:! Well done for getting an interview at Girton :biggrin:! That's amazing news - good job and best of luck :biggrin:!

My EPQ question is: 'What was the nature of the relationship between the State and music in the USSR between 1917 and 1936?'. I love history and music so thought my EPQ question could blend the two :smile:.
Yeah it is really weird, I hope so but I have no chance. Your lucky you're interview will come so late, all the more time to revise :biggrin:. Interesting, one of my topics for A level history is Russia 1917-1953 so in culture we do a bit about music.
Original post by BlueberryViolin
Oops, fell asleep yesterday trying to learn the vocab so didn't manage to update :colondollar:...

Yesterday was reasonably productive and of my homework tasks I managed to complete the following:

1. Latin: translation 1
2. Latin: translation 2
3. Latin: 15 marker on the Aeneid
4. Latin: prep lines 170-185
7. Catch-up on lessons and homework from Friday and Tuesday (which I missed due to illness)

And of my everyday tasks, I managed to complete both-ish :tongue:

1. Add to Latin revision notes
2. Revise Latin vocabulary (well, sort of :colondollar:... sleep called :wink:)

Today's lessons were fun :biggrin:! We're studying France in Revolution (1774-1815) and Tudor England (1485-1603) in history and in today's class we waved goodbye to Napoleon and Louis XVIII returned to France (though he will not last :rolleyes:)! In English, one of the texts we're studying is Paradise Lost; the language is quite archaic so can be hard to understand but looking at all the possible different interpretations (did or did Eve not try to kill Adam :eek:?!) is actually really dramatic and fun :colondollar:! Today's Latin lesson was on grammar (which sounds dull but it is actually incredibly satisfying when you finally understand it :wink::biggrin:).

Tonight's updated to-do list is as follows:

1. Latin: translation 3 (hoping this won't take too long, but it looks hard :redface:...)
2. History sources essay
3. Extra reading for history. As I didn't find the time to do this yesterday, I'll try to fit some in tonight.

Everyday tasks:

1. Add to Latin revision notes
2. Revise Latin vocabulary

Trying to find some good music to listen to while studying, if anyone has any suggestions? :smile:


As it's Saturday today, I'm hoping to use the extra time to make some revision notes for history. Not sure how far I'll get, but I'm aiming to complete as many notes as possible so it might be a bit of a marathon!

I've done some research about effective revision methods and it seems to be that practising memory recall by quizzing yourself is one of the most useful techniques so I'm going to come up with as many short answer questions as possible to help build up my history knowledge when revising, which will hopefully be useful for history source questions where I'll need to use my own knowledge to analyse and evaluate the sources.

After I've done that I'm hoping to look at some of the historiography about the history topics so have picked up some books from the library to do that.

Does anyone have any other handy revision method tips or ideas? :smile:
Original post by DrinkerOfCups
Yeah it is really weird, I hope so but I have no chance. Your lucky you're interview will come so late, all the more time to revise :biggrin:. Interesting, one of my topics for A level history is Russia 1917-1953 so in culture we do a bit about music.


'I have no chance' at acing this history coursework says Cambridge history applicant :wink:. Don't worry - you'll do really well :biggrin:! Oooh, you're lucky - Russian history is so interesting :biggrin:! What sort of music have you come across?
So it has been very hectic in the past two-ish weeks so I haven't really updated this thread :colondollar:...

It's now the last week of term though and with mocks looming in January :eek:, I will (be trying to :tongue:) focus on preparing for those.

My exam timetable is as follows:

8th Jan - History 1 (2hr 30), English Literature 1 (2hr 30)
9th Jan - Latin 1 (1hr 45), Latin 3 (2hr)
10th Jan - History 2 (2hr 30), English Literature 2 (2hr 30)
12th Jan - Latin 2 (1hr 15), Latin 4 (2hr)

I have drawn up a list of all the topics I will need to cover in preparation for the exams, have made most of my revision notes and just need to make a few more before term ends on Friday :biggrin:!
Original post by BlueberryViolin
So it has been very hectic in the past two-ish weeks so I haven't really updated this thread :colondollar:...

It's now the last week of term though and with mocks looming in January :eek:, I will (be trying to :tongue:) focus on preparing for those.

My exam timetable is as follows:

8th Jan - History 1 (2hr 30), English Literature 1 (2hr 30)
9th Jan - Latin 1 (1hr 45), Latin 3 (2hr)
10th Jan - History 2 (2hr 30), English Literature 2 (2hr 30)
12th Jan - Latin 2 (1hr 15), Latin 4 (2hr)

I have drawn up a list of all the topics I will need to cover in preparation for the exams, have made most of my revision notes and just need to make a few more before term ends on Friday :biggrin:!


Tonight I'm going to write up short-answer quiz questions to help revise the factual content for history paper 1 - the Tudors.

Does anyone have any useful techniques for memorising lots of factual details?

Just adding some people whose threads I'm enjoying watching :smile:

@mez_merising @gcsemusicsucks @abiantoinette @EstieA @ErinMei @K1NGZ @sturdy swifter @rm.25 @saffarinda @agaaga1010 @bookloverlolly @Charliewiz @_RobbieL_ @chelseafc141 @stressedpotato @IssyCon @Jooms @F3rnw3h @hayama093 @Protostar @cester @PeetaRJ
(edited 6 years ago)
Reply 14
Original post by BlueberryViolin
Tonight I'm going to write up short-answer quiz questions to help revise the factual content for history paper 1 - the Tudors.

Does anyone have any useful techniques for memorising lots of factual details?

Just adding some people whose threads I'm enjoying watching :smile:

@mez_merising @gcsemusicsucks @abiantoinette @EstieA @ErinMei @K1NGZ @sturdy swifter @rm.25 @saffarinda @agaaga1010 @bookloverlolly @SGHD26716 @Charliewiz @_RobbieL_ @chelseafc141 @stressedpotato @IssyCon @Jooms @F3rnw3h @hayama093 @Protostar @cester @PeetaRJ


Remove my name from the tag list.
Original post by BlueberryViolin
Hi everybody :biggrin:!

GYG looks like a really good way to get motivated and, as a major procrastinator :colondollar:, I'm hoping that tracking my progress will help me achieve 3A*s in my A-levels this year!

In the past (and to this day) I've really struggled with having confidence in my academic abilities and have had some anxiety wobbles in the past so I really hope to get the grades and to prove to myself and to any others who have ever doubted themselves that it is possible to overcome the hurdles we might be facing to achieve our goals :biggrin:!

My predicted grades are…

Spoiler


My GCSE grades are…

Spoiler


Dates and deadlines…

Spoiler




Hello! Will definitely be following this :smile: We do completely opposite subjects though - Latin sounds scary! :afraid:

Have/will you be applying to uni? :h:
Original post by BlueberryViolin
Tonight I'm going to write up short-answer quiz questions to help revise the factual content for history paper 1 - the Tudors.

Does anyone have any useful techniques for memorising lots of factual details?

Just adding some people whose threads I'm enjoying watching :smile:

@mez_merising @gcsemusicsucks @abiantoinette @EstieA @ErinMei @K1NGZ @sturdy swifter @rm.25 @saffarinda @agaaga1010 @bookloverlolly @Charliewiz @_RobbieL_ @chelseafc141 @stressedpotato @IssyCon @Jooms @F3rnw3h @hayama093 @Protostar @cester @PeetaRJ


Damn, the way I've been going lately, I'm surprised I'm being watched still.
Thank you! More to come!
Original post by Protostar
Hello! Will definitely be following this :smile: We do completely opposite subjects though - Latin sounds scary! :afraid:

Have/will you be applying to uni? :h:


Enjoying following you too :biggrin:! Really admire you for doing maths and further maths :eek: - that would kill me :colondollar:! Latin is scary but good fun too!

Yes, by some strange miracle (or more likely an administrative error :tongue:!), I have offers to read history from Durham, UCL, King's and York?! Still waiting to hear about the last one though...

How have you found the application process?
You’re clearly not that much of a procrastinator if you did that well in your GCSEs :smile:
Original post by BlueberryViolin
Enjoying following you too :biggrin:! Really admire you for doing maths and further maths :eek: - that would kill me :colondollar:! Latin is scary but good fun too!

Yes, by some strange miracle (or more likely an administrative error :tongue:!), I have offers to read history from Durham, UCL, King's and York?! Still waiting to hear about the last one though...

How have you found the application process?


Have to say it's killing me at the moment :colondollar: Glad it's fun at least!

Oooh wow! Where are you waiting to hear back from? Nice work on getting an offer from Durham before January! :five:

I've found it fine really! Have got offers from 4/5 now so I'm just waiting for that last one like you :tongue:

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