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Vanilla Aims for A*s at GCSE

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Original post by I'm_infires
Basically, I'm no help and do past papers in timed conditions if you can.

And I think I'm kind of getting worried cause my plans to start revising with my friends fell through and my exams are starting soon too... but no sense of urgency or stress has set in? However, I'm going to revise today (well, it's all homework so I kinda have to do it lol). I have an English lang. past paper, French past paper, maths past paper, Biology research and B1-3 past paper to do. On top of that, I think I might revise some Further Maths and Chemistry 5 (which I absolutely failed cause I forgot all equations in the exam lol). but instead... I'm procrastinating on TSR :smile:


Thanks for the advice! Woah, that's a lot of work good luck lol


Original post by I'm_infires
Omg I just realised that I haven't revised History at all and need to start that to :'( Do you do History? If so, how do you revise for that?


I haven't even started history revision... I'm too lazy to make flashcards for history (wayyyy too much content) but for the past couple of practice exams we've had at school, revision has always consisted of me frantically trying to memorise the textbook the night before.
Which I am not planning to do this year lol
I'm probably the worst person to ask when it comes to revision strategies, but I'll be practising my technique a lot and hopefully my teacher will give us some revision material I can use

I've been told that mind maps and timelines are good for history, so maybe that'll work for you?

Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by Vanilla Cupcake
Thanks for the advice! Woah, that's a lot of work good luck lol


I haven't even started history revision... I'm too lazy to make flashcards for history (wayyyy too much content) but for the past couple of practice exams we've had at school, revision has always consisted of me frantically trying to memorise the textbook the night before.
Which I am not planning to do this year lol
I'm probably the worst person to ask when it comes to revision strategies, but I'll be practising my technique a lot and hopefully my teacher will give us some revision material I can use

I've been told that mind maps and timelines are good for history, so maybe that'll work for you?

Posted from TSR Mobile


Last mock I started revising for my History mock on the bus to school and during line up before going into the exam hall :P I'm definitely not letting myself do that this in the real exam.

And it's good to know I'm not the only one who has left History revision late (according to teachers). And thanks for the advice btw. I like timelines but mind maps don't seem to work for me. I think it's because it looks so messy and it's all over the place and I don't think it would be well for History because we need to know the dates and facts really well so I think structured revision that helps learn the information in order like timelines are best. That sentence was too long.
Super happy today haha

Got 81/100 in June 2014 FSMQ, which is a secure A then 66/72 in June 2015 C1, which is an A according to my teacher! How I managed to get an A in an AS paper is beyond me (although it is mainly GCSE and admaths stuff...)

French speaking was meh but that's my last one so I'm happy

Today I plan on doing A452 and hopefully some chem revision

Posted from TSR Mobile
Last night I actually did some chem revision yay me

Wondering when I should start past papers... for physics there's a whole load of exam questions separated by module so I may do some of those for P1 and P2 until I learn P3 (as the first paper is P123). Nearly finished with B3 so maybe start papers next week? RS I could probs attempt a Unit 2 paper but I don't really want to practice how best to keep my wrist attached to my hand while writing at the speed of light lol

Today we'll be doing physics revision in class, which reminds me that I need to go over relays from P6 (as our teacher just skipped it for some reason)

edit: did not do A452

Posted from TSR Mobile
A452 is now at 7k, haven't finished lol
Have a lesson today and I'm going after school so hopefully I can finish it and get my teacher to briefly look over it to see if I have everything
If I finish that today, I'll be able to revise a bit wow
Original post by Vanilla Cupcake
A452 is now at 7k, haven't finished lol
Have a lesson today and I'm going after school so hopefully I can finish it and get my teacher to briefly look over it to see if I have everything
If I finish that today, I'll be able to revise a bit wow


Congratulations on doing your A452! (I hated it so I'm happy for you). I'm really pissed off at my computing teacher right now because, when first starting A453, he was going on about how thorough our test tables had to be and how we should analyse the task, explain the code and so much more bs and today, he was going on at me about how my task shouldn't be 70 pages long and that a student could get an A* with 10 pages and only like 2000 words but EXCUSE ME SIR, YOU TOLD ME TO WRITE THIS. My second task has like 25 tests and 3rd has 50 tests, how do you expect me to fit that into 10 pages??? And how many pages and words is your A452 & A453 right now? My teacher was going on about how my A452 had 6k words and A453 had 18k and that that was WAY too much and that the examiner would think that we didn't do it in 20 hrs even though I did A452 in less. Urghh sorry for this rant but he's getting on my nerves and I'm wondering if other computing teachers are like this because one thing in common that they seem to have is the fact that they're crap and don't know what they're doing.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by I'm_infires
x.


Well I gave in my A452 yesterday (yay) and it came to 8k with 37 pages I think
A453 was something like 12k with probably more than 50 pages
I don't think the examiners are really thinking how long it took you, just checking whether the marks your teacher gave line up with the quality of your work. Sorry about your teacher, he sounds really annoying :jumphug:
In year ten I had a really bad teacher who left us to our own devices for both task one and two, and didn't ever mark them.. Fortunately we got a better teacher this year and he gave us loads of feedback and guidance so I'm quite happy. As long as my A452 is good, I just have to concentrate on theory

Posted from TSR Mobile
Update for the week:
. Gave in A452 but I've realised that there are quite a few things I could improve... yesterday was the final deadline apparently but I'm sure it'll be fine if I add a few minor things
. Full marks in my RS assessment on crime and punishment woop
. Admaths mock was a disgrace, will probably get a B if I'm lucky
. Got our final exam timetables and because of a clash, I'll be in school for seven hours :colonhash:

What I'll be doing today:
. RS homework
. Russia content revision - we got a worksheet in class and it's really long but I'm hoping it'll be useful (as I've done nothing on Russia since Easter)
. Cold War revision lol
. Questions from P1 and P2, my teacher put a whole bunch of past papers up so that'll be fun
. Actually finish B3 flashcards
. Maybe revise for the globalisation econ test I have on Monday but I can do that tomorrow
Forgot to mention my predicted grades have changed :smile:
English Lang: A
English Lit: A*
Biology: A*
Physics: A*
Chemistry: A/A* ( :colonhash: )
RS: A (soz about the mock sir)
History: A*
Economics: A
French: A*
Computing: A

A* in RS is easy as I've actually been revising for it, econ is a little harder because I do worse in unit 11 but there are more past papers for it. Computing I really really really want A* after all the work I've put in but idek. Chemistry is easy A* when I start revising, and I'd be happy with an A in English language tbh but my controlled assessments are A* and I'm usually a mark off in the exams so hopefully that'll push it up

History I may get an A though, not feeling too confident about that

Posted from TSR Mobile
Update on today's work

. did some of the RS homework but I didn't write it all down so I need to ask someone about it
. did six sides worth of Russia revision
. haven't touched Cold War, a bit scared to tbh
. decided to do a P123 past paper and got A*, 48/75. I'm happy with the grade (obviously) but the mark is quite bad, considering I somehow got 81% in the mock. I'd like to get a solid A* (especially since I'm taking it for A level) instead of two marks in lol. Tbf I only covered P3 today and there weren't as many equations as I would've liked so I can only go up from here
. haven't done this yet but I am determined to do it :colonhash:
. will find some good data tomorrow
Today's goals!
. Revise for globalisation test
. Do some Cold War revision
. Revise all of C1
. Do a past paper for A451
Original post by Vanilla Cupcake
Today's goals!
. Revise for globalisation test
. Do some Cold War revision
. Revise all of C1
. Do a past paper for A451


Update:
. Did some revision and feeling confident about at least an A here
. lol
. Half is good enough, exam is ages away
. Got an A :biggrin:

Posted from TSR Mobile
Somehow managed to get an A in the admaths mock I thought went terribly omg
Today I feel oddly motivated so I may try a P123 and B123 past paper hehe
[QUOTE=Vanilla Cupcake;64407163]Somehow managed to get an A in the admaths mock I thought went terribly omg
Today I feel oddly motivated so I may try a P123 and B123 past paper hehe

Well done! Hopefully the same has happened in my lang mock that I had today.
I have those days where I just feel really productive. It makes up for all the other days I don't do anything!
Original post by Lemur14
Well done! Hopefully the same has happened in my lang mock that I had today.
I have those days where I just feel really productive. It makes up for all the other days I don't do anything!


Ooh, hope you do well! Language is horrible for me, absolutely no clue on how to structure my points :s-smilie:

Same! These past couple of days have been totally unproductive so hopefully this'll make up for it

Posted from TSR Mobile
[QUOTE=Vanilla Cupcake;64409075]Ooh, hope you do well! Language is horrible for me, absolutely no clue on how to structure my points :s-smilie:

Same! These past couple of days have been totally unproductive so hopefully this'll make up for it

Posted from TSR Mobile
I hope so too. We only have an hour a week and didn't have either our books to revise or a revision lessons so it was really a test of what we had already memorized. I think I made it too one sided and didn't refer to the source often enough though. :frown:
That's the exact reason I've been stuck doing loads of homework this evening that's due in tomorrow! Not enjoying it though, much rather be revising in the year 10 Skype group
Original post by Lemur14
much rather be revising in the year 10 Skype group


You're a year 10?? Wow, for some reason I thought you were year 11 and were just having mocks really late oops :colondollar:

The year tens at our school have their end of years starting from next week so that actually makes sense haha

How are the new 9-1 GCSEs? Which subjects are you doing them for?
Only ended up doing the bio paper and got 51/75, which is A*
Praise the low grade boundaries of OCR biology
[QUOTE=Vanilla Cupcake;64417233]You're a year 10?? Wow, for some reason I thought you were year 11 and were just having mocks really late oops :colondollar:

The year tens at our school have their end of years starting from next week so that actually makes sense haha

How are the new 9-1 GCSEs? Which subjects are you doing them for?
Yep, I'm year 10, we just do a load of GCSEs early for some reason. I have no objections to being thought to be in year 11 though, much better than being a 'twin' with my sister who is tall and only just in secondary school!
We have mocks all throughout the year in year 10, just whenever we finish a unit in each subject (or the teacher feels like it, like in this case)
We don't actually have end of year tests other than in the sciences/maths though. I think this might lead to lots of panicking in mocks next year as no one has been under the stress of multiple subjects revision at once.
The new 9-1 GCSEs are ok. I'm only doing maths and English so not too many thankfully. The maths I don't find too difficult but I know it's much harder than the current one as I used to be able to get an A in it without even having completed the course whereas with the new one I have to work a lot harder to get the same result. The lit is not much different as far as I can tell. It's a closed book exam with lots of essay questions. Exams are longer which is a bit of a pain as I struggle to write for that long and they are no longer tiered so in higher we get the same extra point as in foundation which is quite helpful. Personally, I hate lang but I don't think that is a result of the new GCSEs lol I think I just hate it and my teacher doesn't help that feeling at all :frown:
Original post by Vanilla Cupcake
Only ended up doing the bio paper and got 51/75, which is A*
Praise the low grade boundaries of OCR biology


lol it's truly a blessing. I can't seem to get higher than like 56 in the biology papers but that's fine with me cause it's still an A* :P And the thing is, the chemistry and physics papers' grade boundaries are lower than biology so if 51 is an A* BOY IMMA GET MYSELF SOME EASY A*s. I hope this years exams are easy :P

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