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End of my School Era - Year 13 GYG 2020/2021

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Original post by beginningofanera

Week 2: 14th-18th September

I've had a really good week overall! Still no confirmed cases at my school, which is pretty incredible since it seems that half the schools in my city have classes or whole year groups isolating. It's only a matter of time till that happens to us, as my area is an 'area of concern' with rates above the national average, but I'm enjoying being at school (while it lasts :cool:

). I also got my predicted grades today, but more on that later :smile:

Maths: The majority of my lessons have been with teacher 1, and we finished chapter 8 on parametric equations which I still don't really understand, and I've got a homework sheet to complete on that this weekend so that's gonna be fun :mad:

. In the like 1 lesson with teacher 2 we covered some more of chapter 7 on trigonometry, which I'm finding hard but manageable, I just need to keep practicing questions from the textbook so I get more confident.

Geography: No lessons with teacher 1 this week, which was honestly great as I love a week break from physical geography :yeah:

. With teacher 2 we started researching for our NEA, and I think I've decided on a topic. I think I'm going to do it based on how the place profile of an area differs the demise of the high street in the last few years, and I'll use 2 local towns with contrasting demographics/age range/built environment as examples to compare/contrast. Like half my class are doing the NEA on tree carbon, and barley anybody is doing human geography, which makes me nervous as apparently physical projects are easier to score higher on :confused:

not too sure how true that is but that's most of my classes' logic :biggrin:

Economics: I enjoy each lesson so much, I just get so excited by this subject :smile:

I know that's kinda cringey, but it's so true. Teacher 1 covered minimum wages this week, and we analysed diagrams in the context of a 25 mark question in this lesson. Teacher 2 is our new one for this year and they're actually really good, they put a seating plan in place to try to sort the serious behaviour issues with some of the class which is annoying as I can't sit next to my friend in their lessons, but at least we can actually learn instead of constant removals from the lesson. Sometimes I question why people bother doing sixth form if they're just going to mess around, but hey-ho. Teacher 2 covered short and long term objectives of firms, which was pretty interesting though the diagrams are horrible :s-smilie:

For everything else, I got my UCAS predictions today! My school are known for being really stingy, so I was hoping for the best but expecting the worst. Sooooooo, I got:
Maths: A*
Economics: A*
Geography: A

I'm really happy with these, and I especially wasn't expecting the A* in maths. To be fair, I was one of the only people in my class religiously doing the work set through lockdown, and got an A in the online exam, but still to know that my teachers have faith in me to maybe get an A* is crazy especially as I'm coming from one of the lower GCSE standpoints in the class. I don't think I'll necessarily actually achieve that, but here's to hoping :colondollar:

.
I was happy with Geography and Economics, as they were identical to my summer online exam result. I would have been annoyed if economics hadn't have been an A* to be honest, as I was doing pretty well throughout lockdown, and got an A* in the summer. I thought that if I was going to be getting A*A*A, geography would have been the other A*, but it appeared the the department were being pretty stingy, and I only really need an A anyway so I'm not mad about it at all.
Honestly, I'm just grateful that I don't have to make a meeting to appeal my predictions like some of my friends are having to do, as there has not been much consistency between departments.

With these grades, I have decided that I'm going to apply to Cambridge :biggrin:

I love the look of the Land Economy course, and with these grades, it's worth a shot right? I'm tempted to swap out Liverpool from my choices for Nottingham, but I feel as though I wouldn't like Notts as much as Liverpool for various reasons, so I don't really know what to do. The only reason I'm thinking this is that I don't want to sell myself short with my predicted grades, but equally I want to apply to places that I really want to go to, and I don't really know if I could see myself at Nottingham :confused:

That's it for this week's post, hope everyone has had a great week and best wishes for next week! Let me know if you'd like a tag :smile:

Taglist:
@Becca216
@StudentMania

Hopefully you don't get any confirmed cases at your school as it would be such a shame having to self-isolate after not being back long.

Congrats on those amazing predicted grades and good luck applying to Cambridge :clap2:

Reply 21

scottishnerd

I've just come across this thread and wow! I wish you the very very VERY best of luck for your uni application! (I'm also applying for Land Economy haha)
Out of curiosity, have you started thinking about Cambridge colleges yet?

And yes, maths is a struggle (I do AH maths coz I'm Scottish, but I feel like the struggle of maths is a universal experience)

Have a nice Sunday :smile:

Reply 22

beginningofanera

Original post by scottishnerd

Original post by StudentMania

Thank you! I’m really happy that I can at least give my application a reasonable chance.
Fingers crossed the Covid situation remains good for everyone, I can’t imagine how annoying it must be for those who need to self isolate but obviously it’s necessary in the situation

Reply 23

scottishnerd

Original post by beginningofanera

Thank you, and best of luck to you too! It’s pretty rare to come across landec applicants as it’s a pretty small/unique course.
I’m going to apply to St Catherines college I’ve decided. I’m in the fortunate position where I visit Cambridge fairly frequently anyway, and I’ve always thought Catz looked nice, and it has (comparatively) more landec students per year than others, so it looks to be a good choice. Do you know where you’re going to apply yet?
Maths is such a struggle ahh
Hope you have a good week ahead!

Thank you! I’m really happy that I can at least give my application a reasonable chance.
Fingers crossed the Covid situation remains good for everyone, I can’t imagine how annoying it must be for those who need to self isolate but obviously it’s necessary in the situation

I've never visited Cambridge before haha (so the only time I will ever visit it is if I get an offer lol) But I'm leaning towards Clare because they have a really cool bar and they seem super friendly :smile:

Reply 24

beginningofanera

Original post by scottishnerd

It’s so hard to apply to unis without seeing them and it’s so annoying that we don’t have open days to actually visit where we’re applying to :frown:

Clare looks really nice and having a good bar is definitely a priority :biggrin:

Reply 25

beginningofanera

Week 3: 21st-25th September

My third week of year 13 has been and gone, and though it hasn't been that stressful for me, everything that I need to do this term is getting pretty overwhelming. My school technically has a confirmed case of coronavirus, but the way the email was worded makes it seem that it's not a student or a teacher :smile:

fingers crossed that we don't have to close any time soon, especially as the early UCAS deadline is looming.

Maths: Most of my lessons this week were with teacher 2, and we finished the trigonometry chapter 7, and started differentiation chapter 9. Trigonometry really hasn't made much sense to me at all in the lessons, but surprisingly I understood all of the homework sheet we have been given so maybe that's progress :biggrin:

. With teacher 1 we started chapter 1 algebraic fractions, which makes sense as a lot of it's pretty similar to GCSE. It really stresses me out that we don't do the textbook chapters in any logical order, idk why :confused:

Geography: A mostly physical geography week, so that was pretty painful :mad:

we covered the carbon and water cycles, and tbh I don't really remember much of it as my teacher is so boring and just keeps talking for agesssss. I also had to embarrassingly ask for printed out powerpoint slides as I can't copy down the volume of notes they make us take in the time we're given due to my slow processing. It helps being able to do the notes later on in my own time and not hold up the class, but I felt so embarrassed asking for help :frown:

In human geography we worked on our proposal forms for our NEA, its so hard to know what to write especially for the methodology and aims of the project sections.

Economics: My favourite subject, and the lessons this week did not disappoint. One of the troublemakers has left the school, so hopefully the behaviour issues will become less of a disruption (at least, here's to hoping :crossedf:

). With teacher 1 we covered maximum wages and looked at 25 mark essay technique, and with teacher 2 we looked at the theory of the firm, objectives of firms and monopolistic competition. I've got plenty of questions to do for homework over the weekend, so that will be fun :smile:

I'd probably be really annoyed if it was any other subject, but I really don't mind for economics.

For everything else, this week I've been finalising my personal statement as I am going to pay/send my UCAS application very soon. I would have done it this weekend, but UCAS apply is down :s-smilie:

. I've got a meeting on Tuesday for my school to add my reference/predicted grades and then it will be sent off! Ngl, I'm kinda over stressing over every last character on my personal statement and I really want to get an offer from at least one of my choices, just to know that I'm not a complete failure and will be going to uni next year if I get the grades.

I've decided that I'm applying to:
Cambridge (Land Economy)
Durham (Economics)
Leeds (Economics)
Southampton (Economics)
Liverpool (Economics)

Hope everyone has had a good week and good luck for next week! Especially if you're an early UCAS applicant as the deadline is so close, my school's internal deadline is in just over a week (not that I'm leaving it late as I'm pretty much ready to apply). Let me know if you'd like a tag/woudl like me to check out your blog!

Taglist:
@Becca216
@StudentMania

Reply 26

Becca216

Ahhh the water and carbon cycle, easily the most boring parts of geography imo :frown:

Best of luck with your application! :woo:

Reply 27

beginningofanera

Original post by Becca216

Ahhh the water and carbon cycle, easily the most boring parts of geography imo :frown:

Best of luck with your application! :woo:

Literally want to fall asleep in those lessons lol :frown:

Thank you!

Reply 28

beginningofanera

Week 4: 28th September - 2nd October

Hi everyone! I hope you've all had a good week :gthumb:

. This week's been pretty exciting for me with regards to school stuff actually :smile:

but more on that later. A bunch of people at my school have been sent home cos of corona cases, so I'm pretty worried about that as I really don't want to lose 2 weeks learning if any of this happens to people in my year :frown:

.

Maths: This week I had a lot of lessons with teacher 1, and we covered partial fractions, recapped long algebraic division, covered proof by counter example and started looking at more advanced functions, graphing and solving them. I've felt pretty confident with this teachers work lately, as I've been practicing quite a bit in the evenings. Teacher 2's content is a different story though :bawling:

. We've been looking at differentiating functions with sin/cos/tan and powers of e and logs, but I just really don't understand it. Like, the concepts make sense enough, but applied to the questions I just have no idea whatsoever and end up just staring blankly at questions for ages trying to get my head around it :confused:

.

Geography: Luckily no lessons with teacher 1 this week :banana:

, especially as I'm really just getting sick of anything to do with physical geography, and that teacher is so boring every lesson feels like it's at least 5 hours long :frown:

. This week our lessons with teacher 2 were based on the NEA again, and I luckily had my proposal form approved the first time, yay! Though I am going to change my title slightly based on my teacher's feedback. I also have my introduction to write this weekend, so that's going to be fun as I don't really know where to start as the whole project just seems so overwhelming :mad:

Economics: These lessons this week were really interesting, as usual :smile:

. With teacher 1 we learnt about the flexibility in labour markets, and with teacher 2 we covered monopolistic competition, oligopolies and started to look at game theory. We also did a couple of essays; a timed 8 marker in class which I'm kinda annoyed about as I messed up my graphs so couldn't score above 4/8, and a 12 marker as homework which was a pretty interesting question on minimum wage and poverty, and I got 10/12, an A but I was a little disappointed as I'm predicted an A* and every piece of work this year could count due to the uncertainty about exams

In other news, I submitted my UCAS on Monday and it was sent to the universities on Tuesday. What's even more exciting though, is that yesterday I got my first offer! YAY! Leeds have offered me a place and they want AAA, which is their standard grades. I'm so excited as I didn't expect it to come this soon, and I don't know anybody else at my school who's got an offer yet. Even my form tutor was shocked it was this early lol.

Hope everyone's has a good week, and let me know if you'd like me to check out your blog or add you to my taglist :smile:

Taglist:
@Becca216
@StudentMania

Reply 29

Becca216

Wow! well done on your offer from Leeds :woo:

I can say it is a great uni in a great city :yep:

Differentiation is hard (I’m not going to lie) and unfortunately the only way to really understand it is to practice, but hopefully you’ll get better at it soon :smile:

Also well done on getting your initial proposal form approved, I have a few more weeks to do mine :eek:

Hope you have a good weekend :hugs:

Reply 30

beginningofanera

Original post by Becca216

Wow! well done on your offer from Leeds :woo:

I can say it is a great uni in a great city :yep:

Differentiation is hard (I’m not going to lie) and unfortunately the only way to really understand it is to practice, but hopefully you’ll get better at it soon :smile:

Also well done on getting your initial proposal form approved, I have a few more weeks to do mine :eek:

Hope you have a good weekend :hugs:

Sorry I've only just seen this, but thankyou! I'm so happy about the offer, I could really see myself studying at Leeds so its pretty exciting ahhh

Reply 31

beginningofanera

Weeks 4+5 - October 5th-16th

So, it took less than half of a term for me to miss an update on this blog :frown:

in all honesty I've been just so overwhelmed with school stuff in the last 2 weeks and I need to take more time for myself within the week and to chill out a bit with working. The last 2 weeks have just been so stressful, I had my first coursework deadline, feeling like I'm failing at one of my subjects and more uni application stuff :mad:

Maths: With teacher 1 we covered the functions topic, which was okay and the questions seemed pretty manageable ngl. Today we started the sequences/series topic, which I'm already falling behind on as I wasn't really taught it at GCSE so the rest of the class understood whilst I had to ask lots of questions. My teacher is lovely and didn't mind, but I really hope that she doesn't think I'm stupid, as in almost all of our lessons I'm one of like 2 people who ever asks questions and I really hope that she doesn't see it as I'm dumb and don't understand :bawling:

. With teacher 2 we have continued with differentiation, and I'm starting to understand it more which is great, but again I feel like the stupidest person in the class as my teacher literally had to come over and explain stuff to me to help, and I had to go to help club to understand some of this stuff. Super embarrassing, but at least I got there in the end and am willing to work until I understand stuff.

Geography: where do I even start :eek:

teacher 1 is just so annoying, I barley understand physical geography as it is and she won't make the adjustments that I need for my slow processing even though learning support have reminded her multiple times :frown:

it's just so annoying, like I usually get print outs of the powerpoints but she refuses and I can't take notes in the time she gives us (the whole reason I have the print outs) and then I have no idea what's going on and have to copy my classmates notes later. Teacher 2 has just been NEA stuff, I handed in my first draft of the introduction today for peer reviews which was pretty good, but the idea of the whole project is just so overwhelming right now.

Economics: the one subject that I can usually rely on to be good, and it's mostly delivered the last 2 weeks. I'm a bit annoyed as in lesson today we did a timed 25 mark question that I really fluffed up and I don't want my teacher to doubt giving me an A* prediction, but she sure will when I wrote a load of rubbish, quite literally. Otherwise the lessons have been interesting as per usual, and I've got to read a bunch of magazines and photocopy relevant articles as I'm a department prefect, so that's something interesting to get started on next week.

Sorry that I missed a week and that this week's update hasn't been the most positive, I just needed to take some time away from thinking about school stuff as I'm getting myself worked up over everything. I haven't even really started preparing for my admissions assessment in like less than 3 weeks and the stress over whether exams will actually happen next year is so much.

Hope you all are doing well and have a good week ahead! Let me know if you'd like a tag or would like me to check out your blog!

Taglist:
@Becca216
@StudentMania

Reply 32

Becca216

It's okay to miss an update - Y13 is tough and your life/education comes before this blog :yep:

I hope you are okay and are finding time to breath :hugs:

It sounds like school isn't going too bad, hopefully your geography teacher will soon catch on that she needs to slow down/give your print outs :frown:

Hopefully this week is better for you!

Reply 33

XViconX

Hey I'm in year 13 as well and I get how stressful it is :frown:

This year is especially stressful with the uncertainty over exams and what happens next but try not to worry too much ! Hopefully the situation will improve :yep:

can I get added to the tag list please :smile:

Reply 34

beginningofanera

Original post by Becca216

It's okay to miss an update - Y13 is tough and your life/education comes before this blog :yep:

I hope you are okay and are finding time to breath :hugs:

It sounds like school isn't going too bad, hopefully your geography teacher will soon catch on that she needs to slow down/give your print outs :frown:

Hopefully this week is better for you!

Thank you! I ended up taking this weekend off doing any school work at all as I don’t have crazy amounts due next week and honestly it’s just going to be better for me to get myself through one last week before half term :smile:

still felt really guilty about it, but there we go...

Original post by XViconX

Hey I'm in year 13 as well and I get how stressful it is :frown:

This year is especially stressful with the uncertainty over exams and what happens next but try not to worry too much ! Hopefully the situation will improve :yep:

can I get added to the tag list please :smile:

Heya! Thanks for checking out my blog, I’ll add you to the tag list :smile:

what subjects do you do? And do you have a blog that I can go check out? The stress of this year is crazy but I’m trying to put myself first and not feel bad at occasionally taking some time off doing work, as guilty as I feel :frown:

Reply 35

XViconX

I do French, English and Sociology, currently aiming for a law degree. Thanks for adding me to the tag list!
Yeah I do have a blog :smile:

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6689484

Reply 36

beginningofanera

Weeks 6+7 (and half term!) - October 19th-November 6th

Woah, the last few weeks have been kinda crazy so sorry for not updating the blog more! Half term was a fab break from work, though I still had a long to do list :afraid:

Maths: Not gonna lie, I've been really struggling here. With teacher 1 we've covered functions and sequences, which is okay, but with teacher 2 it's been differentiation, which is such a difficult chapter. It doesn't make things better that I went to help club to ask teacher 1 for help as we had a borderline impossible homework, and she told me that I need to go and confess to teacher 1 that I'm struggling so much. Like, um that's not happening, firstly it would be too embarrassing and secondly I don't want her to not believe in me especially as she's the teacher who predicted me an A* and I already feel like the dumbest person ever. I've got a test at the end of the month on the first sections of year 2 pure content, so I've started revising for that as well.

Geography: Oh....NEA. Is it just me, but I literally can not be bothered with this, like it should either be worth like 40% or we should just have an extra exam as it's way too much effort for only 20% of our grade. I've 'collected data' aka done most of it but faked questionnaires as there's no way I'm going up to someone on the street and asking them to do a survey, like I'm too socially awkward for that. I've finished my methods section and now need to start on the data presentation. For physical geography lessons, my teacher has improved with giving me the powerpoint print outs but that doesn't fix the fact that I just find physical geog so boring and the lessons really drag on. I've got a physical geography test at the end of the week which I need to start revising for, if I can even motivate myself ngl as the carbon and water cycles are just so boring and basically biology which I don't really care for ngl.

Economics: My fav subject as per the usual, and had mostly been pretty good, apart from the fact that I embarrassingly got a C in a test the week before half term. Not fab considering I'm predicted an A*, but I got an A* in an essay this week so I'm hoping that kinda makes up for it. Otherwise there's nothing to report really, lessons have been interesting covering market structures and revising externalities, which I enjoy.

In other news, I've received another 2 uni offers! Liverpool and Southampton have both offered me a place, both asking for AAB. I'm super excited about those, and I also took the TSA S1 this week for my Cambridge Application, which went okay but time was very tight. There was also a whole drama regarding my school not applying for my extra time in the days leading up to the test which was really stressful, and I only found out that I was able to have my 25% extra the morning of the exam. Not fun, but I survived and I dread to think how awful it would have gone without my extra time. I also took the UKMT senior maths challenge the same day, which was okay but I more did it to get over my fear of exam halls thanks to stuff that happened throughout my gcses, as I'd rather mess up a maths challenge than my A-Levels (if they even happen, but that's a whole different story)

Hope you have all had a good last couple of weeks and all the best for the next few weeks!

Taglist:
@Becca216
@StudentMania
@XViconX

Let me know if you'd like to be added to the taglist or would like me to check out your blog!

Reply 37

Becca216

IMO differentiation and integration are the hardest part of alevel maths, so don't worry if you don't understand it straight away :sadnod:

Dunno about you but I thought the geography NEA would be a walk in the park (literally!) you know, just collecting some data and analysing it, but boyyyyy was I wrong! It is awful and such hard work for the few marks it is worth :frown:

Also can relate to not liking water and carbon cycle, it is just so dull and the markschemes always seem really harsh :eek:

oh well.....

WELL DONE on your uni offers :woo:

I also did the senior maths challenge last week - it was okay but I don't think I did that well :redface:

Hopefully it helped you get over your fears of exam halls :yep:

Hope you have a good week :hugs:

Reply 38

beginningofanera

Original post by Becca216

IMO differentiation and integration are the hardest part of alevel maths, so don't worry if you don't understand it straight away :sadnod:

Also can relate to not liking water and carbon cycle, it is just so dull and the markschemes always seem really harsh :eek:

oh well.....

WELL DONE on your uni offers :woo:

I also did the senior maths challenge last week - it was okay but I don't think I did that well :redface:

Hopefully it helped you get over your fears of exam halls :yep:

Hope you have a good week :hugs:

Thank you! Literally, the NEA is so much work and ngl I just can't see the point of it :frown:

Reply 39

beginningofanera

Weeks 7+8 (November 9th-20th)

Hi everyone :smile:

year 13 is super stressful so I don't think I'm going to realistically be able to update this more than every other week as there's just so much that needs to be done :mad:

I've had a decent, albeit stressful couple of weeks

Maths: As usual, I'm struggling. I've got a test on Tuesday that's on everything we've done so far from the A2 course, and I'm panicking. I feel under so much pressure to do well, as I need to prove to my teachers that I'm worthy of the A* prediction they've given me, and I don't want to feel like a failure. Safe to say, this weekend has mostly been revision for this test, yayyyyyyyy :biggrin:

One of my teachers told me last week that I'm fully capable of getting an A* if I believe in myself, but that's exactly what I find most difficult....

Geography: Another week, another NEA rant. It's just honestly ridiculous how we're expected to collect primary data in the middle of a pandemic, like I struck lucky by doing it in half term, but some of my classmates are literally stuffed given that the corona case rate is rising in our area so we'll almost definitely be under a local lockdown after the end of the national one. I've finished my data presentation and need to start my analysis section, but it just seems like such a big task that I keep putting it off, oops :tongue:

For physical geography, we had a test on the parts of earth life support systems that we've covered so far last week and it went okay, hopefully I get my results back soon :smile:

Economics: As usual, my favourite subject. Our lessons are so interesting yet difficult at the moment, as we're covering financial markets which is one of the hardest topics, and it's part of macroeconomics which I personally find way way harder to understand and revise than microeconomics. One of my teachers is leaving at Christmas :creep:

my class will be on our 4th teacher, though we have 2 at a time so its not as bad as it seems, though still frustrating. Also, we did a timed essay in class last week and I got an A/A*! I'm so happy about that, at least my essay technique is finally starting to improve.

For everything else, I'm waiting to hear back from Cambridge as to whether they're inviting me to interview and I'm so nervous :s-smilie:

I didn't do too good on the senior maths challenge a couple of weeks ago, but I'm happy nonetheless as it helped me to try to get over my fears of exam halls, which I'll need for A-Levels (if those even happen at this rate, though I'd definitely prefer exams over CAGs). Otherwise, I'm just nervous and stressed about this maths test this week, as I really need to do well and do myself proud as I've honestly spent so much time revising.

Hope everyone has a good week!

Taglist:

@Becca216
@StudentMania
@XViconX