The Current Year 11 Thread Mark I (2017-2018)

Just got my mocks back today
Computing 6
English language 7
English lit 6
Maths 7 (one Mark away from 8)
Science 7-7
RS 5
History 5
French 4

Can i ask what exam board your maths was on? Because i have mine soon and the specimen papers i have been doing are incredibly difficult...

Got my science mocks coming up, all of them are paper 1 as we haven't done all of the paper 2 stuff yet. Biology is on the 2nd Feb, Chemistry on the 5th and Physics on the 6th. Currently making mindmaps of each topic and once I'm done with that I'm going to go through and do some practice exam questions.

Apparently we also have english literature mocks after February half term, and it's both paper 1 and paper 2 so I acc wanna kms ;-;. I really hate english lit as you have to remember so many quotes including 15 poems, and you'll only use 2 of the poems in the exam! Currently my revision technique is making knowledge organisers of quotes/info for each character/theme of each text (as well as one for each poem) and sticking them up around my room so they slowly sink in. If anyone has some tips for english lit, such as how to remember quotes and how to time yourself in the exam that would be great!

And to top things off we have MORE maths mocks coming up. Which isn't too bad I guess as I'm pretty good at maths. I got a 7 in my mocks in November although it would've been an 8 if my school had used the original grade boundaries. But instead they decided to raise them, I think you needed like 180/240 for an 8 and I got 160/240 (original grade boundary was 157/240). We used the 2017 edexcel papers.

Got my science mocks coming up, all of them are paper 1 as we haven't done all of the paper 2 stuff yet. Biology is on the 2nd Feb, Chemistry on the 5th and Physics on the 6th. Currently making mindmaps of each topic and once I'm done with that I'm going to go through and do some practice exam questions.

Apparently we also have english literature mocks after February half term, and it's both paper 1 and paper 2 so I acc wanna kms ;-;. I really hate english lit as you have to remember so many quotes including 15 poems, and you'll only use 2 of the poems in the exam! Currently my revision technique is making knowledge organisers of quotes/info for each character/theme of each text (as well as one for each poem) and sticking them up around my room so they slowly sink in. If anyone has some tips for english lit, such as how to remember quotes and how to time yourself in the exam that would be great!

And to top things off we have MORE maths mocks coming up. Which isn't too bad I guess as I'm pretty good at maths. I got a 7 in my mocks in November although it would've been an 8 if my school had used the original grade boundaries. But instead they decided to raise them, I think you needed like 180/240 for an 8 and I got 160/240 (original grade boundary was 157/240). We used the 2017 edexcel papers.

Hey guysss!

1) What you study
English Language, English Literature, Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Religious Studies, French, History and Art!
2) Your predicted grades
7s and 8s
3) The grades you're aiming for
honestly in terms of english language and literature, i'm aiming for an 8, but if i really push myself i could probably get a 9. I'd love to get an 8 in art too. In every other subject i wouldn't mind getting 6's.
4) What you're planning to do after high school
I'm not entirely sure but i've always been fond of english literature, but above all i have a long standing, strong passion for art. I have become very interested in philosophy recently, so i might study that in college. I really want to study something biology related too.
5) How you're feeling about starting year 11
Incredibly anxious. I was ill last year and missed many lessons so i feel pretty
behind in the scheme of work However, i am optimistic and am trying my best to achieve decent gcses
6) Anything else about yourself
I am absolutely terrible at maths, to the point that it gives me anxiety. I'm an artist, not that i've mentioned that already hahah! I have just recently received an electric guitar for my 16th birthday and i cant wait to learn how to play it once our gcses are out of the way! I have recently been lured in by the weeaboos, yes i am a fan of anime, and my personal favourite so far is Death Note! I love to sing and love a good meme

Sounds like you have science all planned out Good luck!
At least with English literature you have mocks for both of them! We never did a paper 1 mock and my Macbeth real exam was the third Macbeth essay I'd ever written If I recall correctly both exams are in the same week in the real exam anyway (and you'll have plenty of exams between them as well) so it's good practice though Honestly for English lit I wouldn't actually learn quotes for all 15 poems. Choose around 8-10 which cover all the themes and learn the quotes from them, and then just make sure you know the context for all the poems (since naturally any of them could come up and you need context for your essay).
Remembering quotes is a difficult one as people remember things differently. Personally, I wrote out a lot of quotes and then memorised them from that. Also writing a lot of essays closed book helped me as I then had to think of the quotes while trying to write the essays. After I'd written them I would go through and find quotes which backed up my point better and tended to remember them.
Timing wise you just have to be strict with yourself. Loads of practice essays helped to increase my speed, as did learning to plan my essays so I could get to the end of the paragraph and read my point and quotes for the next paragraph and just start writing. At one point (probably around Feb) it was realistically taking me around 4 hours to write a decent essay which should have been done in 45 minutes but through a lot of forcing myself to write paragraphs in 15 minutes I got there in the end
Well done on that score in maths A 7 isn't bad at all! The school deciding to raise them was actually pretty sensible (although possibly not by that much) as if you look at previous new specifications coming in then the grade boundaries do increase for the first few years in every case I've looked at since teachers get much better at preparing students for the exam and there are also more resources made for the specification, so generally better prepared students sit the exam, hence the grade boundaries rise to allow the same percentage of people to get the same grade. So while it sounds mad, your school was actually being pretty sensible

Thank you for your tips and advice. My teacher says we have to know quotes from all 15 poems but I might just learn a few that cover all of the themes. I'm not sure how I'm going to learn quotes but I might just put them up in my bedroom so I read them subconsciously all the time, and then continually test myself.

I kinda want to practise writing essays but most of the time I have zero motivation to do so. They just take so long to write and feel tedious, plus in the exam I will have to write multiple essays one after the other. Generally when I practise at home I work a lot slower than in the exam rook for some reason.

A 7 is kinda good in maths but I know I can do better and want to get an 8 or possibly even a 9 so I can study further maths at A-Level. I see all these people on TSR getting high grades for maths and I wish I could get that high as well, but I'm struggling to find the motivation to revise maths atm.

I'm in year 12, but whatever. Guys, just to tell you. Sweat it out this year because GCSEs will be around the corner before you know it. Otherwise, you got a real sh#%storm coming. I got 6 A* 5A and slightly regretted not revising harder for chemistry and biology. But, I did get full marks in maths and almost full in further maths!

your practically gifted

Na. Not really. A bit of hard work and revision. Thats all...