The Student Room Group

The road to turning 17, oh and also exams



The Dancing Queen To Be



Hey everyone, I'm Valerie and you guessed it, this year I am turning 17.... well not until August 2020. Anyways what you are really here for is this blog, not my age hah.

Okay a little bit about me first though.

I'm from Scotland so the education system is a little different here. This year I am doing 5 highers, which is roughly equivalent to AS levels down south.

My absolute dream would be to get 5 As this year, but realistically, I'm thinking 3 As and 2 Bs.

Some of my hobbies include, watching way too much TV for any person, playing wayyy too little flute for someone who classes themself as a musician and spending so many hours watching American politics.



My National 5 results:

Spoiler


Here are my subjects this year and my predicted grades:

Spoiler



I'll try and update this post throughout the year with links to my main/important posts.

Please comment below if you want to be tagged :smile:
Heeey tag me!

Week One


**I mean school did start a month ago but week one of this blog :smile:

Chemistry:
So far we have been doing things like trends in the periodic table, redox titrations, bonding, structures etc. It is all a lot more complicated than they make it seem at Nat 5. :cry: In my opinion, this has been the biggest jump, though after getting your head round the concepts it isn't too bad. Honestly I am enjoying unit 1 more than I thought I would , as last year it was my least favourite unit, which honestly just makes me so excited for unit 2 :flower2: !!!(my fav from last year). We have a test in 2 weeks covering everything from unit 1 so we will see how that goes....

Maths:
We apparently started with the "hardest" topic (without problem solving)- Logs and Exponentials. And to be honest it was quite a shock at first but I somehow managed to get 16/22 on the end of topic test which is 73%= A!!!! Honestly I was ecstatic with that because I honestly though I had failed it. We have now moved onto trig and it is a lot easier but there is a lot more content.

English:
English is probably my least favourite subject and I am only taking it because some courses want it, however I have a feeling that whatever course I do probably won't want it so it feels like a waste of time. I mean there isn't much to say because I basically avoid doing work for this. :mad:

Human Biology:
I have been enjoying bio so far, it has been DNA, RNA and cells so far but once we finish unit 1 it will be more organs. I wish they offered normal biology at my school, but hey ho what can you do about that. I heard that they don't teach it because it is a waste of time if you are doing medicine and apparently parts of the course are like reallllly mind numbingly boring :indiff:

Music:
This is basically my piss about/relaxing/no writing subject and honestly it is great. Obviously the pieces you play are slightly harder than nat 5, but since most people can already play at least 1 instrument really well it isn't a big deal. The only annoying thing is that my teacher takes it really seriously but everyone in that class is just there for it to be their fun subject. Like the other class have the people who are actually good. Anyways I feel like music will more just be band since I am somehow been roped into section leader of the senior band flutes, junior band flutes (I don't play in junior :confused:) and the leader of the flute ensemble that I have to apparently create and find pieces for??? Like i don't have time for this on top of all my subjects and the other 20 million bands I'm in.

Overview:
The transition into S5 has been all round pretty good. Nothing awful has happened yet anyways.

QOTP: How is school/college/uni going? And what subjects/courses are you doing?

AOTP: All good so far, but pretty busy and a lot more self study that I have to do.


Taglets: (tell me if you want to become one:smile:)

Spoiler

Original post by Valeriex

Week One


**I mean school did start a month ago but week one of this blog :smile:

Chemistry:
So far we have been doing things like trends in the periodic table, redox titrations, bonding, structures etc. It is all a lot more complicated than they make it seem at Nat 5. :cry: In my opinion, this has been the biggest jump, though after getting your head round the concepts it isn't too bad. Honestly I am enjoying unit 1 more than I thought I would , as last year it was my least favourite unit, which honestly just makes me so excited for unit 2 :flower2: !!!(my fav from last year). We have a test in 2 weeks covering everything from unit 1 so we will see how that goes....

Maths:
We apparently started with the "hardest" topic (without problem solving)- Logs and Exponentials. And to be honest it was quite a shock at first but I somehow managed to get 16/22 on the end of topic test which is 73%= A!!!! Honestly I was ecstatic with that because I honestly though I had failed it. We have now moved onto trig and it is a lot easier but there is a lot more content.

English:
English is probably my least favourite subject and I am only taking it because some courses want it, however I have a feeling that whatever course I do probably won't want it so it feels like a waste of time. I mean there isn't much to say because I basically avoid doing work for this. :mad:

Human Biology:
I have been enjoying bio so far, it has been DNA, RNA and cells so far but once we finish unit 1 it will be more organs. I wish they offered normal biology at my school, but hey ho what can you do about that. I heard that they don't teach it because it is a waste of time if you are doing medicine and apparently parts of the course are like reallllly mind numbingly boring :indiff:

Music:
This is basically my piss about/relaxing/no writing subject and honestly it is great. Obviously the pieces you play are slightly harder than nat 5, but since most people can already play at least 1 instrument really well it isn't a big deal. The only annoying thing is that my teacher takes it really seriously but everyone in that class is just there for it to be their fun subject. Like the other class have the people who are actually good. Anyways I feel like music will more just be band since I am somehow been roped into section leader of the senior band flutes, junior band flutes (I don't play in junior :confused:) and the leader of the flute ensemble that I have to apparently create and find pieces for??? Like i don't have time for this on top of all my subjects and the other 20 million bands I'm in.

Overview:
The transition into S5 has been all round pretty good. Nothing awful has happened yet anyways.

QOTP: How is school/college/uni going? And what subjects/courses are you doing?

AOTP: All good so far, but pretty busy and a lot more self study that I have to do.


Taglets: (tell me if you want to become one:smile:)

Spoiler



Tag me! And thanks for your tips on my GYG -

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6135532

Much appreciated :smile:
Maths and chemistry ew. Good luck!
Original post by Prussianxo
Maths and chemistry ew. Good luck!

Ooof do you not like them?
Original post by Valeriex
Ooof do you not like them?


I've heard horror stories about those two subjects. But they do seem like good subjects for a future career if you're good at them.

Spoiler

Add me to your tag list please :smile:
hehe I'll be the dancing queen in August as well! When's your birthday??
Nice GYG.
Can I have a tag?

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