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Charlie's Year 1/AS GYG Blog

This is my grow your grades blog for the academic year 2021/22 where I will take everyone on my journey as an AS Level student. The highs, the lows, the in-betweens, the academic stuff and the extracurricular stuff. Hopefully, you will be able to help me and I will be able to help you!

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Original post by Medcalf
This is my grow your grades blog for the academic year 2021/22 where I will take everyone on my journey as an AS Level student. The highs, the lows, the in-betweens, the academic stuff and the extracurricular stuff. Hopefully, you will be able to help me and I will be able to help you!

Ooh I’m in yr 12 too, how you finding the first term?
Reply 2
Original post by 3ggfriedrice
Ooh I’m in yr 12 too, how you finding the first term?

Hello, I am honestly finding year 12 great fun. I was told that there would be a big jump from GCSE to A-Level which there is but it does not hit you as soon as you may think I have discovered. At the moment, the content of my subjects is not the hard part, it is the speed we are going through it and the amount of homework because I got hardly any homework at GCSE level.

How are you finding year 12 so far? Which subjects are you taking? Do you plan to go to university? If so, what do you plan to study? We should chat some more at some point?

I am constantly on the lookout for Year 12 friends and connections because who knows when we may need each other and what we could help each other with!
Reply 3
As a year 12 A-Level student, my advice to any year elevens considering doing A-Levels is that if you love and enjoy learning then A-Levels are for you.

If you HATE learning and you HATE hard work then A-Levels are the worse possible option. (I am sorry but I say it as it is because I see no point lying about it!)
Original post by Medcalf
Hello, I am honestly finding year 12 great fun. I was told that there would be a big jump from GCSE to A-Level which there is but it does not hit you as soon as you may think I have discovered. At the moment, the content of my subjects is not the hard part, it is the speed we are going through it and the amount of homework because I got hardly any homework at GCSE level.

How are you finding year 12 so far? Which subjects are you taking? Do you plan to go to university? If so, what do you plan to study? We should chat some more at some point?

I am constantly on the lookout for Year 12 friends and connections because who knows when we may need each other and what we could help each other with!

Yeah I agree with the speed, in maths we are zooming through chapters 🏎 I’m doing art as well 😂😂

I’m settling in well, I stayed at my old school so I know the waysss. I’m studying maths, chem, psych and art BUT REALLY WANT TO DROP PSYCH BUT MY MUM WON’T LET ME 😔

uni seems to be the only option bc my mum expects me to go, so when I go I will study graphic design or smth similar.

All these questions back at you 😁

I agree, it’s nice chatting to a stranger the same year as me 😂 I wouldn’t do that so easily irl

Do you do extracurricular atm or stuff like that?
Original post by Medcalf
As a year 12 A-Level student, my advice to any year elevens considering doing A-Levels is that if you love and enjoy learning then A-Levels are for you.

If you HATE learning and you HATE hard work then A-Levels are the worse possible option. (I am sorry but I say it as it is because I see no point lying about it!)

That’s funny, the only thing I would rather study is just art on its own. But I’ll suffer through the academics 😔🤞
Reply 6
Original post by 3ggfriedrice
Yeah I agree with the speed, in maths we are zooming through chapters 🏎 I’m doing art as well 😂😂

I’m settling in well, I stayed at my old school so I know the waysss. I’m studying maths, chem, psych and art BUT REALLY WANT TO DROP PSYCH BUT MY MUM WON’T LET ME 😔

uni seems to be the only option bc my mum expects me to go, so when I go I will study graphic design or smth similar.

All these questions back at you 😁

I agree, it’s nice chatting to a stranger the same year as me 😂 I wouldn’t do that so easily irl

Do you do extracurricular atm or stuff like that?

Well let me start with responding to you, a very interesting selection and I fully agree with mathematics as I am already on Chapter 6 in Pure and chapter 6 in Applied statistics, to my surprise I surprisingly enjoy statistics.

I am studying Psychology, Mathematics and Criminology and I was doing Business but I dropped it within the first 2 weeks. That was honestly one of the best choices I made looking back now. I find it definitely helps if you enjoy the subjects. I do plan to go to university to study Law with a Psychology degree with my backup degree.

Why do you want to drop Psychology? Psychology is one of the best A-Levels you could do as not only does it combine Mathematics, Science and English but Psychology is all around us and will be relevant in any job you ever want. For example, since I have started studying Psychology I have been noticing things that I would not have noticed before like how we remember/forget and conformity. Universities and employers love Mathematics and Science, English is also a great skill to have and so Psychology is a great all-round subject especially if you want to work with people. Which exam board are you with? Which topics have you been covering? Why do you want to drop it?

And finally with the extra-curricular question. When I started my sixth form, as I was an external applicant, I told myself that I was not going to get involved with any of the extra-curricular stuff and just focus on my studies, however, the exact opposite has happened. I think the phrase "It will look good on your UCAS application" always wins my interest.

So, to start with I am part of the student leadership team as a Prefect which is very enjoyable, especially as I love helping people out. This sees me among other things help with after school events like open evenings and I also do a break time duty every week amongst other things. I am then (as you may have guessed) a subject ambassador for Psychology because of how much I love the subject. Then every Wednesday afternoon, all year 12's are off timetable for their extracurricular societies. My sixth form had a wide range of societies and I took on the advice of one of my social science teachers, who knows I want to study Law, and I joined the Amnesty society. This sees me running my school's Amnesty youth group, I get guest speakers ib and I have even been to the Amnesty International Headquarters in London for a Youth Conference which was great. I am proud to be in the Amnesty society especially how we are one of the very few state schools to have an Amnesty group as it is normally a Private school thing.

Outside of school, I am also a Corporal at the Royal Air Force Air Cadets. This sees me, teacher cadets, the Air Cadet BTEC syllabus among other things and I have even signed up to do a BTEC myself alongside A-Level studies. To be honest, that sentence "Signed up to do a BTEC alongside A-Level studies" makes me sound crazy. But yes, I will manage and luckily I love learning.

Furthermore, I also love doing online courses on websites such as OpenLearn and Future Learn so as you can imagine I am very busy.

Do you do any extra-curricular things?
Reply 7
What is one thing I wish I could do on this GYG blog which I can't?
Well, the one thing I wish I could do but can't is schedule blog posts. This is because I have a few things in mind but would just love it if I could just do the blog posts in advance and schedule them to come on.
Original post by Medcalf
Well let me start with responding to you, a very interesting selection and I fully agree with mathematics as I am already on Chapter 6 in Pure and chapter 6 in Applied statistics, to my surprise I surprisingly enjoy statistics.

I am studying Psychology, Mathematics and Criminology and I was doing Business but I dropped it within the first 2 weeks. That was honestly one of the best choices I made looking back now. I find it definitely helps if you enjoy the subjects. I do plan to go to university to study Law with a Psychology degree with my backup degree.

Why do you want to drop Psychology? Psychology is one of the best A-Levels you could do as not only does it combine Mathematics, Science and English but Psychology is all around us and will be relevant in any job you ever want. For example, since I have started studying Psychology I have been noticing things that I would not have noticed before like how we remember/forget and conformity. Universities and employers love Mathematics and Science, English is also a great skill to have and so Psychology is a great all-round subject especially if you want to work with people. Which exam board are you with? Which topics have you been covering? Why do you want to drop it?

And finally with the extra-curricular question. When I started my sixth form, as I was an external applicant, I told myself that I was not going to get involved with any of the extra-curricular stuff and just focus on my studies, however, the exact opposite has happened. I think the phrase "It will look good on your UCAS application" always wins my interest.

So, to start with I am part of the student leadership team as a Prefect which is very enjoyable, especially as I love helping people out. This sees me among other things help with after school events like open evenings and I also do a break time duty every week amongst other things. I am then (as you may have guessed) a subject ambassador for Psychology because of how much I love the subject. Then every Wednesday afternoon, all year 12's are off timetable for their extracurricular societies. My sixth form had a wide range of societies and I took on the advice of one of my social science teachers, who knows I want to study Law, and I joined the Amnesty society. This sees me running my school's Amnesty youth group, I get guest speakers ib and I have even been to the Amnesty International Headquarters in London for a Youth Conference which was great. I am proud to be in the Amnesty society especially how we are one of the very few state schools to have an Amnesty group as it is normally a Private school thing.

Outside of school, I am also a Corporal at the Royal Air Force Air Cadets. This sees me, teacher cadets, the Air Cadet BTEC syllabus among other things and I have even signed up to do a BTEC myself alongside A-Level studies. To be honest, that sentence "Signed up to do a BTEC alongside A-Level studies" makes me sound crazy. But yes, I will manage and luckily I love learning.

Furthermore, I also love doing online courses on websites such as OpenLearn and Future Learn so as you can imagine I am very busy.

Do you do any extra-curricular things?

Oh my god we are on complete ends of the spectrum 😂😂

We go through all pure (chapter 9 atm) then move on to stats. I hear stats is a LOT of writing though, what do you think?

On that note, i want to drop psych bc of all the writing 😒😒 psychology in itself is no doubt fascinating, we’ve learnt about obedience and prejudice and are doing cognitive with the other (boring) teacher, but Jesus research methods?? Essays?? No. I’d much rather learn about the human instead of learning how long it takes for my hand to ache 😂😂 we are doing edexcel, it I hear aqa is the meanest for psych

How come you guys have a Wednesday off!! I don’t go to a state school but we can’t even leave school for lunch 😔 I’ve been appointed Art Ambassador but am waiting for the year 13s to finish with their roles to pass down to us. Other than that, I’m drawing hands in my sketchbook :P my friend runs Japanese club which I attend and we babysit the younger years at a music club bc there’s no teacher available to supervise haha

You really sound like someone who is going to achieve high grades whilst balancing all those other cool things you do. Can’t relate 😅
Reply 9
Original post by 3ggfriedrice
Oh my god we are on complete ends of the spectrum 😂😂

We go through all pure (chapter 9 atm) then move on to stats. I hear stats is a LOT of writing though, what do you think?

On that note, i want to drop psych bc of all the writing 😒😒 psychology in itself is no doubt fascinating, we’ve learnt about obedience and prejudice and are doing cognitive with the other (boring) teacher, but Jesus research methods?? Essays?? No. I’d much rather learn about the human instead of learning how long it takes for my hand to ache 😂😂 we are doing edexcel, it I hear aqa is the meanest for psych

How come you guys have a Wednesday off!! I don’t go to a state school but we can’t even leave school for lunch 😔 I’ve been appointed Art Ambassador but am waiting for the year 13s to finish with their roles to pass down to us. Other than that, I’m drawing hands in my sketchbook :P my friend runs Japanese club which I attend and we babysit the younger years at a music club bc there’s no teacher available to supervise haha

You really sound like someone who is going to achieve high grades whilst balancing all those other cool things you do. Can’t relate 😅

Gosh, that sounds like hardwork doing all of Pure then stats and then Mechanics. I really like how we have 6 lessons pure and then 4 lessons applied (or something like that) over two weeks as it really breaks it up plus psychology says learning different topics all at once helps you to learn. Hence why in Psychology I am learning Social Influence, Memory and Research methods all at the same time with two different teachers.

Statistics is a lot like psychology. It is a lot of writing, particularly in chapter one where it is actually all writing. Plus, just like Psychology your written responses must be very accurate and applied to the given scenario. After the first chapter, it is much more maths than writing but obviously, Edexcel love to incorporate the written topic into all the other questions. The stats questions are actually quite nice.

Psychology is certainly content-heavy but because I enjoy it so much I am managing. I do however find it hard to remember some of the studies and all the evaluations for each topic. I am with the AQA board which I am quite happy about because since GCSE AQA has been my favourite exam board mainly because of how easy their website is to navigate and how easy it is to get past papers. The Edexcel website is a pain when it comes to navigating the website or getting exam papers. I am unable to comment on whether AQA is the harshest for Psychology as I don't really look at the other exam boards content but from what I have seen AQA seems to cover the most interesting content.

Sorry, I did not mean we have Wednesday off, my school is a lot like yours and we year 12's are not allowed to leave the school site during the school day. What I meant was that on the final period of Wednesday we are off timetable not cover any of our subjects and instead that is the dedicated time for the range of societies on offer.

Thank you! I sure do hope I get high grades, I am certainly not one to give up and I did have to work much harder than most other people at GCSE level so I feel I have what it takes. It is hard work with everything though.
Original post by Medcalf
Gosh, that sounds like hardwork doing all of Pure then stats and then Mechanics. I really like how we have 6 lessons pure and then 4 lessons applied (or something like that) over two weeks as it really breaks it up plus psychology says learning different topics all at once helps you to learn. Hence why in Psychology I am learning Social Influence, Memory and Research methods all at the same time with two different teachers.

Statistics is a lot like psychology. It is a lot of writing, particularly in chapter one where it is actually all writing. Plus, just like Psychology your written responses must be very accurate and applied to the given scenario. After the first chapter, it is much more maths than writing but obviously, Edexcel love to incorporate the written topic into all the other questions. The stats questions are actually quite nice.

Psychology is certainly content-heavy but because I enjoy it so much I am managing. I do however find it hard to remember some of the studies and all the evaluations for each topic. I am with the AQA board which I am quite happy about because since GCSE AQA has been my favourite exam board mainly because of how easy their website is to navigate and how easy it is to get past papers. The Edexcel website is a pain when it comes to navigating the website or getting exam papers. I am unable to comment on whether AQA is the harshest for Psychology as I don't really look at the other exam boards content but from what I have seen AQA seems to cover the most interesting content.

Sorry, I did not mean we have Wednesday off, my school is a lot like yours and we year 12's are not allowed to leave the school site during the school day. What I meant was that on the final period of Wednesday we are off timetable not cover any of our subjects and instead that is the dedicated time for the range of societies on offer.

Thank you! I sure do hope I get high grades, I am certainly not one to give up and I did have to work much harder than most other people at GCSE level so I feel I have what it takes. It is hard work with everything though.

I thought it was easier, there’s no flicking back and forth and getting confused. I can’t wait to start stats -_-

Oh well, I’ve asked the head of 6th for and they told me to hold on until January to drop. I’d much rather invest more time in Art than Psychology than try motivate myself to memorise studies and dates (which is so hard for some reason??). We are learning Memory with the other (boring) teacher, I can’t believe I even survived Research Methods 😂😂

As long as you enjoy it, you will ace it 😎 Do you have mocks? The school close to us do Yr12 mocks in November already, but we only have end of term tests.
Reply 11
Original post by 3ggfriedrice

I’m settling in well, I stayed at my old school so I know the waysss. I’m studying maths, chem, psych and art BUT REALLY WANT TO DROP PSYCH BUT MY MUM WON’T LET ME 😔


well just drop it, it's not her decision to make
Original post by Sinnoh
well just drop it, it's not her decision to make

Funny story, she let me drop when she saw the B on my report 😂 I just have to wait to actually sign the form in January
Reply 13
Original post by 3ggfriedrice
I thought it was easier, there’s no flicking back and forth and getting confused. I can’t wait to start stats -_-

Oh well, I’ve asked the head of 6th for and they told me to hold on until January to drop. I’d much rather invest more time in Art than Psychology than try motivate myself to memorise studies and dates (which is so hard for some reason??). We are learning Memory with the other (boring) teacher, I can’t believe I even survived Research Methods 😂😂

As long as you enjoy it, you will ace it 😎 Do you have mocks? The school close to us do Yr12 mocks in November already, but we only have end of term tests.

Yes, I very much enjoy it. I have mocked after Christmas (If school's are still open, dare I say) and so it will be a busy break. I used to like the end of term/topic tests at GCSE but now at A-Level most of my subjects do it a bit differently. It is only mathematics that still do end of topic tests.
Reply 14
Masks in School

Today, Tuesday 30th November marks the first day of compulsory mask-wearing at school for the second time during the Coronavirus pandemic. This is all due to the new Omricon variant which just like every other variant seems to be worse than the last. This new mask rule requires all members of my school and sixth form college to wear face masks whenever they are in an indoor area so; public transport and transport to school, corridors and classrooms.
I have always been pro masks and I still am but there must be a point where enough is enough and we have to just notice we are not doing something right. It just seems to be a vicious cycle. Furthermore, how does this look for the exams at the end of the year? I will hopefully write again soon on further news of my academic studies as well as the Coronavirus in my Post-16 further education.
Reply 15
To write or not to write
Share your thoughts below.
During my time in year 11, which was during the Coronavirus pandemic with teacher assessed grades and the second lockdown, I wrote a book about my journey as a year 11 student during the times of Covid. This book is yet to be published because it is currently waiting to go into the editing phase. With the recent news of the new Covid Varient, masks in school and the never-ending worry of end of year exams, Should I start writing a second book documenting my time as a year 12 during the time of Covid?

Please let me know in the comments below!
(edited 2 years ago)
Original post by Medcalf
To write or not to write
Share your thoughts below.
During my time in year 11, which was during the Coronavirus pandemic with teacher assessed grades and the second lockdown, I wrote a book about my journey as a year 11 student during the times of Covid. This book is yet to be published because it is currently waiting to go into the editing phase. With the recent news of the new Covid Varient, masks in school and the never-ending worry of end of year exams, Should I start writing a second book documenting my time as a year 12 during the time of Covid?

Please let me know in the comments below!

As in a proper paperback book? I used to want to publish my own poems via Amazon 😂 could I read a snippet of your yr11 journey? You have lots on your plate already from what I’ve gathered, so it’s better to focus your energy on those. But if this is something you don’t have to think too much when writing then go for it.
Reply 17
Original post by 3ggfriedrice
As in a proper paperback book? I used to want to publish my own poems via Amazon 😂 could I read a snippet of your yr11 journey? You have lots on your plate already from what I’ve gathered, so it’s better to focus your energy on those. But if this is something you don’t have to think too much when writing then go for it.

Thank you for your thoughts, I will look into sharing a small extract with you!
Reply 18
Social Influence
Yesterday, I was really delighted to have finally finished the first topic of my psychology course, social influence. Although, I was the only person in my class to have finished the topic as the rest of the class wanted to play quizzes. I will admit, quizzes are fun and a great source of revision but with only one bit of evaluation to do I just needed to finish the topic plus it was a perfect time as if I needed any support I had a teacher readily available. It is an achievement in its self having completed one topic already but now I just need to revise it, memorise the areas I am struggling with and in particular evaluation.

Today, I hope to finish the second topic, memory, if my second Psychology teacher and I think I will also encourage her to set the last two parts of research methods as flipped learning so then we would have completed three topics altogether this term which is exciting but scary because as I said I am not doing too well remembering some parts including some of the studies and the evaluation which is particularly hard.
Reply 19
So it is now the Christmas Holiday! This first term of A Levels seems to have gone so fast yet so slow. For example, the start of the year seems ages ago as does the start of the second half term yet it also feels so fast. I am particularly happy that I have been excited to go to school everyday as normally when I was in compulsory school the second part of the autumn term was dreadful and just dragged. I think I am now at the point where I am enjoying school more than I did at GCSE which was great. Anyway, I will do a post on my holiday plans soon. Also, I have also now finished the Psychology Memory topic which is great and incredibly satisfying!

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