Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>

Midnight Stargazing

Scroll to see replies

Original post by MidnightSymphony

Mon Sep 2-

OK so I'll start back in college on Thursday officially but I'm going to get my timetable Wednesday. This means seeing my personal tutor again and THAT probably means answering a lot of difficult questions regarding topics such as "why haven't you done any extra reading?" and "why are you so disinterested?" and honestly I don't...really...have an answer for all that.

I also have a driving lesson Wednesday- it's my 4th, but I'm still almost too scared to get in the car. Driving scares me, honestly. I don't wanna do it that much, but hey ho, ya kinda have to, so uh yeah

What have I achieved?-
Barely anything. I'm practicing for grade 8 piano very sporadically and that's all the work I'm doing. I did play for someone's little event on Saturday (note- got given the music an hour before) which was stressful but got paid £40! Which for someone who doesn't have a job, is pretty big. I'd like to keep this up-

What do I want to achieve this week?-
a) Don't argue with college tutor
b) Begin personal statement, for completion by end of October (want application sent off by half term)
c) ...begin A2 work in college?

To those who've shown interest so far, thanks muchly. At least I know I'm not talking to a metaphorical brick wall. More thorough and interesting (I hope) update will happen after I'm back in college.

This is the only time I'll carry over my old tags so if you're there please tell me if you wanna be tagged again (if you already haven't)

Spoiler

I’ve had 25 driving lessons and still don’t really trust myself fully in a car so don’t worry about it! It probably doesn’t help that my driving instructors changed cars the other weeks so I have to learn how to drive this one well before I book my test.

Reply 21

Obolinda

Volunteer Team

I start on Thursday too :gah:

Grade 8 piano! :headfire:

Reply 22

Chemusen

Original post by laurawatt

Keep me tagged please and the best of luck for Thursday :smile:

Will do, and thank you!

PRSOM
That sounds fair enough. Still difficult imo but gotta start somewhere. I did try and make a list last night...

Original post by CoffeeAndPolitics

Good luck with writing your personal statement. A good starting point is to make bullet points of things you may want to include and get it all down on paper and then cross out ones which are irrelevant and go from there. Good luck with Thursday! 🙂

I tried this bullet point thing last night. It is pretty helpful but that doesn't make it any less difficult to know what's relevant. Still, I'm back in college tomorrow, so maybe if I take in a list I'll get help there?

Original post by entertainmyfaith

tsr will likely have some good resources on how to start and what to put in your ps- which university has a good ps builder too :h:

starting it is the hardest bit, it doesn't need to be perfect the first time round; even if it's a few bullet points it's something.

PRSOM
I had thought this site might have some good resources, I really should go and look tbf.

Original post by Miriam29

Aha that's kinda encouraging tbh! Also, that must be really irritating at this point but look at the other side of things, that means that you'll be more thoroughly trained before your test (If the car's majorly different anyway. Tbh idk how much benefit that would be)

Original post by Obolinda

I start on Thursday too :gah:

Grade 8 piano! :headfire:

PRSOM
Yeah grade 8 piano. It's hard. I can't wait for it to be done.

Reply 23

JT_888

Original post by MidnightSymphony

That's good to hear as you've got something down phyiscally on paper. I definitely recommend taking that list into college tomorrow and go from there but you've still have (presumably) some more time left with planning, writing and re-drafting your personal statement to sending off the entire UCAS application altogether. Good luck with that. Btw what course are you planning to do at uni again? Sorry of you've answered this before. :smile:

Reply 24

Chemusen

Original post by CoffeeAndPolitics

The college will put on sessions to help us with our application throughout the next 2 months, apparently, so that will be beneficial. Planning to do chemistry but now realising I might wanna take another look at wider options.

Reply 25

JT_888

Original post by MidnightSymphony

Ah yes, I recall now. This is what happens to me when I follow so many GYG blogs. :biggrin:

6th Form/Colleges normally give you loads of support with the UCAS application process but obviously feel free to ask anything on here if needs be. :smile:

Reply 26

mez_merising

prsom! good luck with this year, i start tomorrow too :s-smilie:

what made you decide on a chem degree?

Reply 27

gym_leader_yeet

hi! could i be tagged please?

good luck!

Reply 28

Chemusen

Original post by gym_leader_yeet

hi! could i be tagged please?

good luck!

Noted, and thank you!

Original post by mez_merising

prsom! good luck with this year, i start tomorrow too :s-smilie:

what made you decide on a chem degree?

Thanks! I guess more than anything else the amount I like chem. That's why I need to widen options before I apply to anywhere...

Reply 29

Chemusen

Thu Sep 5-

I went to college to get my timetable yesterday afternoon. I have a lot of free time this year (unsurprising) and all of Thursday morning off again so ima do this now.

Friday is just ridiculous. Due to the period for EPQ being directly after my tutorial I don't have a lunch break. I'm just working for 7 hours. But meh I'll cope.

As I was writing this a letter came through the door from Nottingham Uni hoping I enjoyed summer school and wishing me luck with year 13. Thank you v much.

I'm missing my first chemistry lesson of the year for the orthodontist...great. The gap I had has pretty much completely shut now (from a front on view you wouldn't know there is any gap) so I wonder when I'll have these off.

What have I achieved?
Well I haven't even gone back to college yet, give me time...I've not done enormous amounts just yet. I tried to make a list of things for my personal statement on Monday and made a few more inadvertently on Tuesday but haven't actually made a proper start on the thing yet. That's about it.

What do I want to achieve?
Start personal statement properly. Practice more for grade 8 piano. That's all for the moment. Start slow and build.

I'm not gonna do loads at this point because I know I'll constantly pressure myself to do more, and workload will increase as the year goes on anyway and frankly I want to stay sane this year.

Most of you have probably started back now but good luck, especially those moving on to the next step of their time in education (sixth form, Uni). It'll be nervewracking at first but you can do it!

Spoiler

Reply 30

nyxnko_

Hope your fridays aren't always so horrible :console:

It's good that your front gap has now closed :woo:

Start slow and build :yes:

It's going to get much busier so take it easy :hugs:

Reply 31

JT_888

Original post by MidnightSymphony

Spoiler

Yikes your Fridays sounds absolutely horrible. My worse days at 6th Form were always Wednesdays because it was just packed full of lessons all day and we barely had a free period to let off the steam a bit and you know revise/prepare for another lesson in the form of private study work. I guess if you could bring in a packed lunch or buy something before school starts and someone manage to eat at some point then it should be okay. Good luck! :h:

Thanks for the best wishes regarding uni, I'm just conscious that I haven't even started packing yet and there's still a number of things I need to get, i.e. extension plug socket etc. I'm mostly excited to start but at the same time slightly nervous about meeting my housemates. Since we're living in a very large house, we don't really have flats within the house but we do have a number of kitchens (they're tiny asf) and bathrooms which are shared amongst all of us. The downside to that is apparently we have to share a tiny kitchen between 16-23 of us (I don't know how that will work when we have limited cupboard and fridge/freezer space) and a bathroom between 4-5 of us. I don't intend to get a lot of stuff since my room is also on the smaller side so I need to be careful of overpacking - I think the bigger problem will be finding space in my room to store my clothes since we have a tiny wardrobe so I'll try to make use of every space possible including underneath my bed.

Reply 32

Chemusen

Original post by CoffeeAndPolitics

If it's anything, my tutorial teacher is also the one I have for the EPQ, who is *also* my chem teacher I have in the morning, so maybe she'll let me go and get lunch...she better had, I have maths in the afternoon and maths is hard and I need to eat

That sounds tough. I'm sure you'll work something out but tough nonetheless. Good luck with it though!

Btw to those who have done an EPQ- do you have any tips for it? I am going to have to do it if not something very similar so...er...need help.

Reply 33

Chemusen

Original post by nyxnko_

Hope your fridays aren't always so horrible :console:

It's good that your front gap has now closed :woo:

Start slow and build :yes:

It's going to get much busier so take it easy :hugs:

Aha thank you, they probably will be though
I know. I've been warned. I already have a lot to do but we'll see how it goes from here.

Reply 34

Chemusen

Mon Sep 9-

Personal statement is beginning to come together. And honestly, it better had. Rest of application is mostly complete, although I need to sort the choices section because I...don't know where I'm applying to in full. I decided I didn't actually want to apply to Bristol so didn't go to the open day, which was regrettable at best and downright stupid in all honesty. It not only means I need a different 5th choice, which I will also need to go and see in an open day I won't even know if they have, it means I didn't take the chance to see a potential fantastic university which could hold a lot of options for me. I d i o t.

On another note, lessons:
PHYSICS- Thursday afternoon. Multiple Kahoot quizzes (C'mon. I like them but do we reeeeally have time to spend on that?) and a practical on simple harmonic motion. The only thing I learned was the definition of simple harmonic motion, which I already had in a handout we were given last year.

MATHEMATICS- Friday afternoon. We did partial fractions again, but I'm glad we did because I've forgotten a lot of things about it. We also filled out a form for the start of the A2 course, one of the questions on which was "Favourite Animal" which tells you a lot about the maths dept at my college. We also got scared into behaving by the same teacher we had last year who had a powerpoint on code of conduct because she's strict like that.

CHEMISTRY- Friday morning and this afternoon. Cyclic compounds. Benzene, mostly, but cyclic compounds. We did amines on Friday, and today after more Kahoots (same teacher as physics) we did isomerism.

TUTORIAL- Friday and today. UCAS applications! I'll say no more on this until I've finished it.

Tomorrow I have my other physics teacher- deputy head of 6th form (so basically the whole college) and woman who reviews all our UCAS applications before sending them off. She's frightening and I'm scared, and I'm already indebted to her because she stopped me dropping maths last year which is the best thing she could've done.

The further along I get with UCAS the more excited I get about the prospect of university. I'm *almost* looking forward to it now, but I still need to make lots of decisions, including one biiiiig one: whether to live at home or move out given going to Swansea Uni. Obviously, it's info I need for UCAS, but I'm torn between what I want (living at home and commuting) and what I think would give me a better experience (moving out). I'll certainly gain more opportunities to do things if I move into accommodation, but honestly? I'd rather not. I'd rather stay at home. I don't want to have the full university go-out-and-drink-till-3am-on-a-Thursday kinda experience, but I do want the opportunity to join societies, and whether I'll have the time for that while staying at home I don't know. I'll have to move out to go anywhere else anyway, so-

Sorry if this is all sounds really harsh and cold. I don't know if you could tell but I'm really not happy right now about all this, and I can't wait until it's over and I at least know what I'm doing.

Spoiler

Reply 35

absolutelysprout

some people stay in accommodation first year but move back home for the next years; you could do that?

Reply 36

nyxnko_

glad your PS is coming along :woo:

it will all be over soon :hugs:

Reply 37

Chemusen

Original post by nyxnko_

glad your PS is coming along :woo:

it will all be over soon :hugs:

Thank you, I hope it will!

Original post by entertainmyfaith

some people stay in accommodation first year but move back home for the next years; you could do that?

I've decided to stay at home if I go to Swansea- and staying at home and going to Swansea is what I most wanna do anyway

Reply 38

Chemusen

Thu Sep 12-

Before anything else, let's just break down today alone in my life-
-Stood up on the bus for an older woman to sit down; woman next to me places her bag on the seat instead
-'Freshers fair' in college (otherwise known as free for all leaflet stands) giving out boxes for free pizza at pizza hut which went down...well. Also have a booklet for coping with my mental illness, a sticker saying "Some people are bi, get over it", an application form for the student union, and a handout on the Welsh Youth Parliament, amongst other things.
-Proper fair in town. Town was too busy, but bought some churros, felt sick from overeating and heat, and didn't go to where the rides were because it was too wet and I wanted to go home.
-Locked briefly out of UCAS for...security reasons or something. My friend and I both had issues, I think it's okay now? It worked on my tutor's computer but I haven't been on it while on my college computer account yet. I'll have to find time tomorrow. Either way, this was a scare.
-Am the student rep for chemistry. Because nobody else volunteered to be.
-Was told by my piano teacher that she's a "bit concerned" about me sitting my exam in December.

Now that all of that is finally done, some info on academic stuff-
MATHS- I love my mechanics teacher this year. I mean the one last year was good but this guy is brilliant. We covered differentiation again- that's chain rule, product rule, quotient rule, and differentiating functions, within the one lesson. I admit, lessons are 2.5 hours, but not bad...

PHYSICS- Teacher on Tuesday wasn't as frightening as anticipated, and we covered lots of circular motion work, which had too many equations for my head to deal with in one lesson. Today? Teacher from last year doing simple harmonic motion, which isn't at all bad, but we haven't done the hardest bits yet

I only have chemistry or tutorial on Monday and Friday so that's that covered.

I'm v stressed about doing the personal statement but I think I've just gotta start doing it properly tbh. It'll be easier then. The total lack of external reading I've done is creating issues here though...I wonder if I could mention that I'm now the chemistry rep.

How's things for everyone? First two weeks been okay or more of a bumpy ride?