bubble, toil and trouble : year 13 gyg

Reply 60

clouddbubbles

OP

21

Original post by Toastiekid

true

am just a bit worried about it at uni when i'm living on my own :ahhhhh:

you can do it :smile:

oh god yeah i thought about that! it would be so horrible let’s hope you don’t have to :sad:

Reply 61

clouddbubbles

OP

21

making decisions

my isolation period is thankfully almost over, but it’s been another tough week trying to sort things out and learn remotely. i’m also terrified to go back in case i’m told to isolate again, this time due to sitting next to someone at school or something :cry2:

the internal deadline for early entry is actually next friday and somehow i’m still not sure of the best thing for me to do. i really do doubt that i’m good enough to apply for oxford after having to beg teachers to up my predicted grades and also the BMAT just fills me with dread… so i’m stressing quite a lot about my decision and it needs to be made soon :sadnod:

i have managed to decide on some of my UCAS choices though, so that’s a positive.

anyway, here’s my round up of the week…

biology

teacher 1) completed a multiple choice test and wrote up some notes on factory farming and how this relates to efficiency/productivity of energy

teacher 2) lotssss of notes and questions have been done! i’ve managed to cover light-dependent reaction and light-independent reaction in addition to doing some work on factors limiting photosynthesis which was basically reviewing gcse stuff

chemistry

teacher 1) started on rates which is maths which is :no:

so i’ve done orders of reaction and concentration-time graphs, it’s mostly been okay but there’s certain questions and mathsy bits that i can’t get my head around. luckily i’ve been working a little bit ahead of my class so should be able to review my weaknesses when i’m back in school

teacher 2) getting through the content on carbonyls a bit quicker now, i looked at some stuff about boiling points and solubility before moving onto nucleophilic addition (yeaaa gonna need to review that because i cannot remember what it’s about or anything :eek3:

) and some of the tests that can be done to identify aldehydes and ketones

spanish

teacher 1) more on what led to the civil war, it’s all starting to make sense now i think?!?! basically we’ve got to the point where there’s a lot of resentment for the government due to losses in wars, the role of the king, the coups and the rise of franco. pretty cool

teacher 2) some comprehension stuff on migration looking at reasons for it i guess i don’t really know?? as i haven’t really been set work so i’ve just been hoping for the best by copying notes from my friends :lol:

also have done some translations and recapped present subjunctive :happy:

epq

still nothing to report hehe glad to not have to worry about this for a bit

ucas

i made some very uncomfortable/embarrassing emails to teachers about my predictions and how it would be useful to have an A* prediction for oxford, initially they didn’t seem to budge but my head of year and some of the higher education team also contacted my teachers and my unifrog has updated...
so it’s now

biology A*
chemistry A*
spanish A
epq A*

i guess the spanish grade could also change but i honestly doubt i could get an A* in anything except epq so that’s great :getmecoat:

and my personal statement has had some further feedback, it’s now being actively cut down to the word limit/line limit/character limit

of course my primary concern is still oxford or not - if any of you have any advice on how you have reached decisions, particularly if you considered oxbridge and then crossed it off the list, or equally were unsure but decided to go for it, i’d love some advice!! i feel like the admissions tests and interviews are likely to come at the wrong time for me so I’m not sure what the sensible thing to do is, but i know i’ll regret it if i don’t go for it…

decisions decisions :no:

hopefully by next week i’ll be able to tell you that i’ve figured my life out!! :gah:

please let me know if you want to be added/removed from the tag list
bubble squad :bubbles:

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Reply 62

procrastinatingb

14

glad you've managed to keep yourself busy during isolation!! and also well done for narrowing down some ucas choices, i've been trying to do the same myself with limited success haha.

as for Oxford - I initially ruled it out because the course I wanted to take made you specialise, and none of the options available for that appealed to me at the time. I later changed my mind abt my course so considered oxford again because I absolutely LOVE it as a place but ultimately ruled it out again. as much as I'd absolutely love to study there, personally I feel like the standard at which you're held for your work would become too overwhelming and competitive for me personally. of course you should work hard in university and achieve your best grades possible, and I am stereotyping a bit here, but I don't want my entire uni life to have the cloud of 'oxford expectations' hanging over me. not sure if that made sense haha but I hope you kinda got the gist of what I meant? I may regret it in the future because as I said I do really love the university and Oxford as a whole but it feels like a lot of extra stress for a university that, despite it's high reputation, isn't necessarily the number one choice for the degree I want to do

Reply 63

Sinnoh

22

Really with those predicted grades an offer would be pretty much a given everywhere except Oxford and Imperial. Remember the point isn't to get five offers, it's to get two that you're happy with. If the BMAT is what's worrying you, I guess it just depends on if you think you can make a competitive application with it.

I think people worry a lot more about worrying about "what could have been" wrt Oxford/Cambridge than people actually do worry about that. That was a very awkward sentence but I hope it makes sense. Once you're at uni, if you're happy there, who cares.

Reply 64

clouddbubbles

OP

21

Original post by procrastinatingb

glad you've managed to keep yourself busy during isolation!! and also well done for narrowing down some ucas choices, i've been trying to do the same myself with limited success haha.

as for Oxford - I initially ruled it out because the course I wanted to take made you specialise, and none of the options available for that appealed to me at the time. I later changed my mind abt my course so considered oxford again because I absolutely LOVE it as a place but ultimately ruled it out again. as much as I'd absolutely love to study there, personally I feel like the standard at which you're held for your work would become too overwhelming and competitive for me personally. of course you should work hard in university and achieve your best grades possible, and I am stereotyping a bit here, but I don't want my entire uni life to have the cloud of 'oxford expectations' hanging over me. not sure if that made sense haha but I hope you kinda got the gist of what I meant? I may regret it in the future because as I said I do really love the university and Oxford as a whole but it feels like a lot of extra stress for a university that, despite it's high reputation, isn't necessarily the number one choice for the degree I want to do

don’t worry!! i had a list of like 18 or something and i’m still overthinking about what will make the shortlist :laugh:

that’s really insightful actually. it’s weird because i’d always said cambridge over oxford, and generally wasn’t considering oxbridge because i was more inclined towards medicine.

what you’ve said definitely rings true with me,, especially the concerns about workload and stress and expectation. ultimately i don’t know what the best thing for me is mentally... it’s such a beautiful prestigious place :dontknow:

Reply 65

clouddbubbles

OP

21

Original post by Sinnoh

Really with those predicted grades an offer would be pretty much a given everywhere except Oxford and Imperial. Remember the point isn't to get five offers, it's to get two that you're happy with. If the BMAT is what's worrying you, I guess it just depends on if you think you can make a competitive application with it.

I think people worry a lot more about worrying about "what could have been" wrt Oxford/Cambridge than people actually do worry about that. That was a very awkward sentence but I hope it makes sense. Once you're at uni, if you're happy there, who cares.

i hope so

BMAT is definitely a concern as i’m generally weaker at probelm solving and maths which forms quite a big part of the exam... i’m sure i could work to get a decent score but it wouldn’t be a competitive one :s-smilie:

your comments are very useful,, maybe i’m putting too much emphasis on the what ifs :s-smilie:

Glad you had a decent week :h:

You’re so close to the end of isolation :dumbells:

Oh wow your early entry deadline is so soon :eek:

hopefully you make whichever decision is best for you :yep:

(I think I’m eering on the side of applying to ox now??)
Hope you have a fab week and can get back to school soon! :hugs:

Reply 67

clouddbubbles

OP

21

Original post by laurawatt

Glad you had a decent week :h:

You’re so close to the end of isolation :dumbells:

Oh wow your early entry deadline is so soon :eek:

hopefully you make whichever decision is best for you :yep:

(I think I’m eering on the side of applying to ox now??)
Hope you have a fab week and can get back to school soon! :hugs:

prsom! i should be back at school on monday :gah:

i think i’m eering towards it too, it’s just the admissions test and i’m thinking, is it really really worth it? i don’t know :dontknow:

(edited 3 years ago)

Original post by clouddbubbles

prsom! i should be back at school on monday :gah:

i think i’m eering towards it too, it’s just the admissions test and i’m thinking, is it really really worth it? i don’t know :dontknow:

Yesssss

Yeah that’s totally understandable, esp when there’s so much to do and so little time to do it :sadnod:

Reply 69

Becca216

22

I'm not the best person to give advice on oxbridge stuff, but even if only a small part of you wants to apply, I would say go for it! You still have another 4 choices :smile:

Whatever you chose, best of luck, and if you do decide to apply to Oxford I hope this next week isn't too stressful for you :hugs:

Reply 70

clouddbubbles

OP

21

Original post by Becca216

I'm not the best person to give advice on oxbridge stuff, but even if only a small part of you wants to apply, I would say go for it! You still have another 4 choices :smile:

Whatever you chose, best of luck, and if you do decide to apply to Oxford I hope this next week isn't too stressful for you :hugs:

thank you

this next week shouldn’t be too stressful anyway as i’ve already sorted most things out, it’s just the prospect of having to prepare for the admissions tests etc :no:

Reply 71

beginningofanera

13

I'm probably not the best person to be giving advice re oxbridge etc, but I've decided just to go for it as you don't need to get 5 offers, in reality you need 2 that you're happy with so as long as your other choices are realistic then there's nothing to lose really and I'd always wonder what would/could have happened if I didn't apply. The only disadvantage is the early deadline, as I have about 2 weeks left and still haven't finalised my personal statement :eek:

but as long as I don't hang around it will be fine.

Good luck this week and I hope that you don't have to isolate again :smile:

Reply 72

clouddbubbles

OP

21

Original post by beginningofanera

I'm probably not the best person to be giving advice re oxbridge etc, but I've decided just to go for it as you don't need to get 5 offers, in reality you need 2 that you're happy with so as long as your other choices are realistic then there's nothing to lose really and I'd always wonder what would/could have happened if I didn't apply. The only disadvantage is the early deadline, as I have about 2 weeks left and still haven't finalised my personal statement :eek:

but as long as I don't hang around it will be fine.

Good luck this week and I hope that you don't have to isolate again :smile:

yeah, i've tried to follow with that mindset - good luck to you too :love:

Reply 73

clouddbubbles

OP

21

eeek i’m overwhelmed

so i guess i never did have covid! i finished my 14 days isolation with no symptoms so i could go back into school :h:

it’s a bit weird as all the rules have changed now and continue to change but i’m glad i’ve lasted a full week without being told to go self isolate again :getmecoat:

going back to school, and talking to people who were doing early entry helped me to reach a decision. i’ve decided i’ll try for oxford, and i think it helps that i’m not too obsessed with it as it should make it easier to go through the process (and deal with rejection when i inevitably fail my BMAT :no:

) and me being me i got my application in before the internal deadline (most of my friends are still stressing away :gah:

)

the next few weeks/terms are going to be soooo stressful. i’ve started using notion (yes i gave into the studytube peer pressure) to try and organise my life so hopefully it’ll help :yep:

biology

teacher 1) so we went through the diagnostic test (i did mine at home) and i got 92% which i’m really happy with. also started to do work on nutrient cycles, specifically the phosphorous cycle, and looked at fertilisers and eutrophication. ive done a few exam questions on this but yeah the way it was taught was a bit chaotic!!

teacher 2) turns out i was ahead with the work i did at home so we had a lesson on factors affecting photosynthesis, i just used it to sort of recap things i don’t get - for example i never really understood the concept of a limiting factor. all good now :woo:

chemistry

teacher 1) i was also ahead for this teacher, so sat through a lesson on concentration-time graphs and was able to add to my notes.

teacher 2) i think we have finished the carbonyls unit? reviewed nucleophilic addition again (still can’t do it) and something else that i can’t remember :laugh:

then carboxylic acids, all the different reactions and how to form the products

spanish

teacher 1) we finished our contextual history stuff and have now started our literature text (requiem por un campesino español) i’m not really sure what to do in terms of reviewing/revision which regard to this so :dontknow:

but the vocab is hardddd!!!

teacher 2) no actual lessons this week, i had to do a test on my first lesson and it was made up of some past papers i had done during lockdown :giggle:

so not too difficult, then the other lesson we went through the answers and had a grammar recap

i’m so bad at grammar :gah:

epq

trying to arrange a meeting with my supervisor where i can get feedback for my first draft, scary!! :cry2:

ucas

umm so i’ve sent it off to my referee!!! this is super crazy. i’ve entered BMAT :no:

and applied for oxford so... we’ll see how it goes, see if i can cope mentally :erm:

i’m honestly shattered after my first full week in school since march !! been trying to make my study periods as productive as possible but i still end up coming home and working sometimes until 10, around other things like driving/eating. it’s also incredibly stressful being constantly reminded of mocks and the fact that everything you do now counts in case we have another lockdown and exams are called off... just hoping it won’t get too much for me :crossedf:

how is school for everyone else?
do you prefer online school or actual school? i have to say i probably prefer online school but it’s nice to be around friends again :hugs:

please let me know if you want to be added/removed from the tag list
bubble squad :bubbles:

Spoiler

Reply 74

Becca216

22

Best of luck applying to oxford! It’s good that you’re not ‘obsessed’ but hopefully you’ll smash the whole application process including the BMAT :woo:

I feel the same way about being reminded that everything we do could count to our final grade - it makes the whole thing much more stressful :eek:

I definitely prefer actual school, I have never been good at self learning and have to be around other people to actually find the motivation to work :redface:

Hope you have a good weekend :hugs:

Reply 75

clouddbubbles

OP

21

Original post by Becca216

Best of luck applying to oxford! It’s good that you’re not ‘obsessed’ but hopefully you’ll smash the whole application process including the BMAT :woo:

I feel the same way about being reminded that everything we do could count to our final grade - it makes the whole thing much more stressful :eek:

I definitely prefer actual school, I have never been good at self learning and have to be around other people to actually find the motivation to work :redface:

Hope you have a good weekend :hugs:

thank you!!

it’s very annoying :s-smilie:

oooh i get distracted by friends :laugh:

so can’t relate...