Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Blood, Stress and Tears - A Year 13 GYG

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No problem.

Success breeds success. I hope that's how it goes for you too.

Ah, that's interesting. It's nice of your school to arrange both of those visits. I think that it is probably good to have experts at some of London's best higher-education institutions lecturing you and giving you application advice. Onwards and upwards

Aww!

If I were to be that ‘one guy’, I would say that the silver lining here is that you're always on your toes, so you have the right mindset for school, which is one that will allow you to perform to the best of your ability.

Nice to hear that you've been considering that route. Most people do not always look at degree apprenticeships, and that, in my opinion, is a massive oversight. Honestly, I think they're a good look into what contemporary society wants in tertiary education: a nice balance between theory and practice, along with someone that can into employment quickly and contribute to the company and to society as a whole.

I've thought about them in the past, man. And they do seem rather interesting, but I think they're suited to people more interested in STEM-oriented jobs like engineering.

I've seen economics diagrams and they are quite aesthetically pleasing (well, at least some of them are). The only one that I know is the Marshallian-cross diagram. To be fair, my taste in what looks appealing in maths isn't exactly that great. I still like the look of the sin graph and gradients with an exponential function. Just something so great about the curves.

I've heard the phrase ‘more correct’ on quite a few occasions and it honestly bugs me. I really think it just means that it's the one your teachers prefer lol. I feel as if it's nothing to heed too seriously.

PRSOM!
Thank you so much for taking the time to actually write all of that. I really do appreciate it :hugs:

Yeah, its really hard to find apprenticeships that aren't STEM related but since I want to do computer science its been okay for me. There are quite a few technology based apprenticeships but the only problem for me is location since I want to stay in London.

The econ graphs may look good sometimes but it can be a pain when you have to constantly draw them.

Reply 41

Fazzy_77

Saturday 9th November 2019

Well this was a busy week! I haven't updated for nearly two weeks so here's a general update on everything.

Maths:
We've been doing differentiation with teacher 1 and learning the chain rule. At first I I just didn't get it (I don't know how since its so easy now that i think about it) but I watched a few videos and I'm really confident with it now. I was super tired in the lesson we did it in so maybe I just wasn't focusing properly :redface:

. With teacher 2 we carried on with probability distributions and mainly focused on the binomial distribution and cumulative binomial. We practised some questions and I think I've got the hang of it. Thursday was the SMC and I thought it went okay. The first 10 questions I felt really confident doing but then it got quite difficult. I just checked my answers with the solutions and I think I did alright but we'll see when the results are out I guess.

Economics:
We got our test back for econ and I got 70%, which was an A so I'm pretty happy with that. I still think I should've done a lot better because we had the whole half term to prepare for it. I got 9/10 in the multiple choice questions, 11/15 in one 15 marker and 8/15 in the second 15 marker. I mainly lost marks for not going into depth but that always seems to be my problem so I need to work on that. In lesson, we've moved on to market structures so we're looking at perfect competition and imperfect competition. It's been really interesting so far and I'm excited to learn about monopolies next week :yep:

.

Chemistry:
So we had a test on module 5.1 (acids, bases and buffers) and I got 73%, which was somehow an A! :woo:

I was actually really happy with that because up until now I've just been getting B's or below and it was starting to get to me. At least I have some hope now. We also started the next topic, which is lattice enthalpy and the Born-Haber cycle. We've only just started it but its been okay so far, nothing too headache inducing. Surprisingly I haven't been hating chem as much as I did last year, but we'll see what I have to say about that after my mocks in two weeks.

In Other News:
I finished my personal statement! Woop woop! I'm justing waiting on my referee to finish my reference and then I'm done with UCAS :biggrin:

.
I also helped out in the sixth form open evening as an econ ambassador.
Last week was charity week at my school and they hosted a movie night on Friday so I went with a friend and we watched Aladdin, which was great.

Thanks for reading! :tongue:

Beautiful People: (let me know if you want to be added or removed x)

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Reply 42

Fazzy_77

Sunday 8th December 2019

Geez! I didn't realise it had been a month since I updated this GYG :eek:

. I guess life has just been a little hectic this past month and I haven't been feeling great. But I'm back so I'll just do a massive update on everything that's happened since then.

Maths:
So we pretty much finished with differentiation, finally! We just have to do differentiation with parametric equations, and since I don't even know what a parametric equation is, that sounds like it will be great fun (note the sarcasm). We're moving on to partial fractions now. I did it last year by myself but I forgot it all so I'll have to pay attention now. With my other teacher we finished with probability and binomial distributions. We also started and finished proof pretty quickly. My teacher actually broke her foot and spent a week away but she made videos for our lessons and sent them to us, which was so cute :biggrin:

. She could've had a few more weeks off but she decided to come back with her whole cast and all, bless her. So after we finished proof, we started trig. I'm actually enjoying this topic and learning the trig identities.

Chemistry:
We started module 5.2 in chem which is on entropy I think. We've done most of this module but honestly, I've been struggling with the past few lessons so I think I'll have to go over those again soon. There have also been soooo many PAG's, which I absolutely hate :frown:

. I've also gone back to hating chemistry in general after thinking it wasn't so bad at the start of this year. Oh, how wrong I was. I already understand why everyone says Year 2 chem is really hard and we haven't even gotten to organic chem yet. Also, we sat our mock exams a few weeks ago and I've ranted so much about this already but not on this blog so here I go... So we were given an AQA paper even though we do OCR. Fine, I can deal with that. BUT, then they gave us a whole 25 minutes LESS for the exam!! :facepalm:

How? So they gave us the extra 25 mins later in class but it was so pointless since everyone had already found the answers online. This mock was basically a shambles just like my schools science department but whatever.

Economics:
In econ we finished with perfect and imperfect competition. It was actually really interesting learning about monopolies, oligopolies and the market structures. We moved on to price discrimination, which I also find really interesting. To be honest, most of what we learn in econ is quite interesting, which is why I love the subject. But we are still going super slowly through the content so my teacher has given us a whole topic to teach ourselves over the Christmas break. My teacher is also going on paternity leave soon so we're going to have a temporary teacher for a while but apparently she's an econ teacher so hopefully she's good.

Mocks:
Ok so we did our mock exams and I've gotten maths and econ back. We're having a mock results day so the teachers weren't allowed to give us grades yet. But I kind of know from the marks and percentages I got.
Maths - surprisingly, I did pretty well on both of the papers. I don't know for sure the exact marks but I know I got over 80% overall, which I'm super happy about :smile:

.
Econ - I was super frustrated about this one because I felt like I really revised for it. I didn't do bad but I really wanted more. I got 54/80 marks and I lost some silly marks. I think it's a B but I really wanted an A.

In Other News:
My UCAS application is close to being submitted. My teacher finally finished his reference so now my UCAS coordinator just has to approve it and it'll be fully submitted. Hopefully that'll happen this week :crossedf:

.
I think that's pretty much it to be honest so I'll just stop waffling now :biggrin:

.

Thanks for reading! :tongue:

Beautiful people: (let me know if you wanna be added or removed x)

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Reply 43

nyxnko_

ooh, parametric differentiation! :gah:

your science department just sounds messy :console:

haha, my school had a mock results day too... it was just stressful tbh :redface:

hope your ucas gets submitted soon! :yep:

Reply 44

Fazzy_77

Original post by nyxnko_

ooh, parametric differentiation! :gah:

your science department just sounds messy :console:

haha, my school had a mock results day too... it was just stressful tbh :redface:

hope your ucas gets submitted soon! :yep:

yepp it's definitely messy.
agh, our mock results day is on Friday :s-smilie:

Thank you! :hugs:

Reply 45

Fazzy_77

Monday 16th December 2019

This is going to be a short update because I'm too exhausted to bother remembering everything.

Maths:
We've moved onto integration with teacher 1 and I'm super lost right now but hopefully gets better soon (please someone tell me it does...). With teacher 2 we're still on trig. We've done inverse and reciprocal trig functions and tomorrow I thing we're moving on to the addition formula. I've kind of already gone over that so hopefully it'll be easier in lesson.

Economics:
My teacher has finally gone on paternity leave so we had our first lesson with the temp teacher last Friday and she was amazing! Instead of carrying on the content, we're going to do one whole topic with her on competition policy. Just in one lesson I feel like we got through so much and learnt a lot, which was great :tongue:

. It was also super interesting learning about all the case studies of the illegal things that some companies do :biggrin:

.

Chemistry:
As per usual, I am still very lost in these lessons. We just completed module 5.2 which was on redox, redox tritrations and electrode potential but I know NOTHING. Anyways, we moved onto module 5.3, which is transitions metals but I'm still struggling. I think I'll have to spend this Christmas break just going over the last few topics to make sure I'm not so confused. Also, soooo many PAG's :angry:

.

In Other News:
So mock results day was last Friday and I'm pretty happy with my grades. I got an A* for maths, a B for econ and an A for chem (by some miracle).
Also, my UCAS application was finally submitted last Thursday! :woo:

Thanks for reading!

Beautiful People: (let me know if you want to be added or removed x)

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Reply 46

Tolgash

I'm very pleased to hear that your econ. replacement teacher seems like the real deal and not some pathetic patch the sixth form just slapped onto the leak that your main teacher's departure might have caused.

If it's any consolation, you're not the only one struggling in chemistry. The gravity of my situation in the subject is really starting to press me down hard. I find it difficult to stand on my own two feet with how unconfident and insecure I am with some topics. I really have to cement this stuff because there is no escape from it in the exam. I feel crushed but have to continue fighting. I have to. I really do not see any other way. I'm too far in now. And you know what? You have to keep fighting too. It's not over just yet. :smile:

I'm so sorry to hear that mathematics is also not proving to be the easiest ride either. It never was. That's why I steered clear of it. I commend you for taking such a difficult subject. Your efforts will be recognised in the end. I can't imagine how befuddled I would be if I even dared to attempt that subject.

You're doing great. I haven't been able to catch up too much with these things because there's been a lot going on and I've been slightly indolent. I hope to see your progress and the fruits of your efforts more regularly.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 47

Fazzy_77

Original post by Tolgarda

Thank you! I really appreciate the motivation :smile:

It's nice to know I'm not alone in the struggle with chem.
Yeah, I realised you haven't updated your own GYG. I miss your posts tbh but don't worry about it. We're all super busy this year so its not really a priority to post on here.

Reply 48

Fazzy_77

Tuesday 7th January 2020 - Happy New Year!

Damn, I haven't posted since last year! - (I use this joke every year, I'm sorry...) :biggrin:

Hope everyone had a great holiday and hopefully this year will be even better! Also, I'm going to try out this new bullet pointing format for a while since its just easier and quicker.

Christmas Holidays:

•

I'd say for the first week I was pretty much on schedule with all the work I wanted to get done, but by the second week I started procrastinating and I guess I just lost it. I got all my homework done but not all my revision.

•

It was my 18th birthday! This day was super chilled. My siblings and I just took all our duvets and pillows to the living room and just binge watched movies. I also got a chocolate cake and some presents :tongue: .

•

I baked some chocolate chip cookies, which surprisingly turned out to be delicious - I say surprisingly because usually I flop when trying to cook or bake at home (and somehow I survived food tech gcse :confused: ).

Maths:

•

We started integration by inspection and I think I kind of get it now, which is better than nothing. The lessons are actually really fun now and the maths is so much more interesting that year 12 maths.

•

With teacher 2 we're still on trig but we did the double angle formula and now we're using that and the addition formula to solve problems.

Economics:

•

We just started looking at regulation and deregulation today, which was pretty straightforward. We just made some chains of analysis for the effects of both and also recapped some year 12 content.

•

My actual teacher will be back from paternity leave next week but I'll miss this substitute teacher because she's really amazing :frown: .

Chemistry:

•

On the first day back yesterday we had a surprise test on module 2, yay... (it was actually pretty easy though).

•

We also did a practical (again, ugh) - honestly year 13 has just been filled with practicals and i just hate it.

•

I think I have another test tomorrow on module 5, which I'm absolutely crap at but oh well, wish me luck.

•

We'll be moving on to module 6 soon, which I'm super terrified about because its organic chem, oh no :yucky: .

In Other News:

•

I've received two conditional offers so far - one from QMUL and one from Goldsmiths :smile:

Thanks for reading! :tongue:

Beautiful People: (let me know if you want to be added or removed x)

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Reply 49

Toastiekid

Happy (belated) new year and birthday :party:

I thought integration by inspection was just looking at the integral and seeing the answer (I don’t remember learning a method for it :dontknow:

)
Glad you’ve had a good econ substitute :biggrin:

Good luck with your test today! :wink:

Reply 50

Fazzy_77

Original post by Toastiekid

Happy (belated) new year and birthday :party:

I thought integration by inspection was just looking at the integral and seeing the answer (I don’t remember learning a method for it :dontknow:

)
Glad you’ve had a good econ substitute :biggrin:

Good luck with your test today! :wink:

Thank you!
Oops, yeah you're right I don't know why I wrote inspection. I mean the reverse chain rule with harder expressions.
:hugs:

Reply 51

absolutelysprout

happy belated birthday :awesome:

well done on your uni offers :grin:

surprise tests suck :noway:

Reply 52

Toastiekid

Original post by Fazzy_77

Thank you!
Oops, yeah you're right I don't know why I wrote inspection. I mean the reverse chain rule with harder expressions.
:hugs:

Ahhh ok

I like the reverse chain rule :gah:

Reply 53

nyxnko_

Happy (belated) birthday!!
Hope your tests went well :redface:

and congrats on the offers!! :woo:

Reply 54

Fazzy_77

Original post by entertainmyfaith

happy belated birthday :awesome:

well done on your uni offers :grin:

surprise tests suck :noway:

Thank you! :hugs:

Original post by nyxnko_

Happy (belated) birthday!!
Hope your tests went well :redface:

and congrats on the offers!! :woo:

Thanks Kei! :heart:

Original post by Toastiekid

Ahhh ok

I like the reverse chain rule :gah:

Prsom! x

Reply 55

Fazzy_77

Friday 17th January 2020

It was INSET day for me today so I've been procrastinating all day... oops. Here's a general update on my life:

Maths:

•

We're carrying on with integration. We did integration by substitution and by parts. My teacher also kept us back for one hour on Tuesday to try to catch up with the other class. Honestly, I'm finding it really difficult right now so if anyone has any tips please let me know. I just always feel lost in lesson and damn, the amount of maths headaches I've gotten this week has not been great :no: .

•

With teacher 2 we just finished off trig with some modelling questions. I need to do some more questions to make sure I understand how to do them but so far they've been okay.

Economics:

•

So my teacher is back from paternity leave. He jumped straight back into teaching us from where we left off. We're doing labour markets right now so we were going over the demand for labour and the marginal revenue product of labour. I actually missed the last lesson on this topic so I was a little confused at first but my friend caught me up :tongue: .

•

We have an exam next month on all of A2 micro, which I don't feel totally ready for yet but I'll prepare for it soon... hopefully.

Chemistry:

•

We finished module 5 and had a test on it, which was terrible. I missed a couple question and all the electrode potential stuff just seemed to have disappeared from my brain so that was fun. I'm just hoping I didn't do as bad as I feel like I did.

In Other News:

•

Parents evening is in 2 weeks, yikes :s-smilie:

•

Still waiting on 3 unis to make a decision...

Thanks for reading :tongue:

QOTD (couldn't upload a pic today):
You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. - CS Lewis

Beautiful People: (let me know if you want to be added or removed x)

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Reply 56

Tolgash

OH MY GOSH! I'm so ANGRY that I missed your birthday! Dammit! I'm terribly apologetic here aha!

Also, it's good to see that everything is running smoothly. I hope your current teacher makes you enjoy the subject as much as that substitute did! It's amazing that you were able to catch up! Keep up the good work!

Also, please don't fret about mathematics or chemistry just yet. Keep being the diligent student you are, and you will get there! We are with you every step of the way! You can do it!

Finally, I love C.S. Lewis! One of my favourite literary critics! The man's a beast. Lectured at both Oxford and Cambridge!

Reply 57

Fazzy_77

Original post by Tolgarda

Haha, no worries :tongue:

Thanks so much for the motivation! It's just what I needed actually :hugs:

And yepp, C.S. Lewis is amazing :yep:

Reply 58

Fazzy_77

Saturday 15th February 2020

It's been a month and quite a few things have happened so I'll try to summarise as best as I can.

Maths:

•

So we finished integration, finally (even though I barely get any of it) :s-smilie:

•

Started and finished variable acceleration way too quickly

•

Moved on to parametric equations, which are actually quite fun :tongue:

•

We're really close to finishing the whole course so we'll be done by April for sure.

•

I have three full mock papers coming up in March so that should be fun :o:

Economics:

•

We finished labour markets

•

Moved on to year 2 macro

•

Started practise on paper 3 which is data and context based

•

Had the micro exam, which was meh :s-smilie:

•

We're going to do a full paper 3 for the March mocks

Chemistry:

•

Got my test back and I did pretty terrible - I got like 65% or something

•

Made aspirin in a practical that lasted a whole week - didn't even work in the end :angry:

•

Finished module 6.1 (I hate organic chem :yucky: )

•

We'll be doing 2 full papers in the upcoming mocks

In Other News:

•

Did I mention I have mocks coming up in March? :rolleyes:

•

I now have 3/5 offers and an interview from ICL

•

Parents evening went surprisingly well :thumbsup:

•

My maths teacher suggested that I sit the AEA maths exam so thats one more summer exam for me

•

It's half term next week and I'll be really busy revising... fun times

Thanks for reading! :tongue:

Beautiful People: (let me know if you want to be added or removed x)

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Reply 59

Tolgash

So, I've heard a lot about integration (which I believe is the part that uses integrals) in the past because I've been surrounded by many mathematicians in the past, and either they deliberately delineate it in such a way that it seems like one of the most daunting challenges the discipline has to offer, or it really is that difficult to grasp. Don't worry about not completely understanding it just yet. However, I would definitely recommend going to your teacher for help if this topic does wrack your brain violently. Also, good luck with those mock papers. I'm sure you'll ace it.

Economics seems to be going, well, okay. I wish you the best of luck for your March mock exam! That should be interesting. Paper three in most subjects is the one where they throw everything at you from what I've heard, but I'm sure you can handle it!

If 65% is ‘terrible’, I should just drop the course now haha. That's my highest score in a complete paper, if I remember correctly. However, standards are relative, and I am proud of you for aiming so high! Also, two full papers? No! What a nightmare (at least in my head)! That truly sounds intense! Your relationship with organic chemistry might have to sweeten in that case! But I know that you can make it. The assessment writers and markers won't know what hit them when your pen makes contact with that exam paper!

Moving on, you have an interview at Imperial? Congratulations! That's a great opportunity to show off your talent! I'm also glad that parents evening went well (I'd be a little surprised if it wasn't). And finally, your teacher's suggestion is nice, but I hope you know what you're signing up for. The AEA paper takes no prisoners!