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Studying, Panics & Cats: buzzyambee's Journey Through Year 12




why, hello there.

Welcome to my second ever GYG blog - this time in sixth from edition! Thanks for popping by... do u like cats?

As many of you may be aware, I'm hoping to apply to study Veterinary Medicine in October. It's a dream but I'm pretty determined to get there :smile: I'm hoping to get AAAA in my AS exams (though I'd also be happy with AABB), and AAA at A2. Here's what I'm taking and my current predicted grades:

Biology (AQA)/A
Chemistry (OCR)/A
French (AQA)/A
Psychology (AQA)/A

Things that'll probably feature in my blog are my study routines, tips, rants and maybe some sneaky mentions of my pets (I have two floofy rescue cats and I have a sassy horse on loan. irrelevant but who cares).


And if you'd like to know what I've got in terms of GCSEs, look no further:


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And if you'd like to know what I have in terms of vetty work experience, also look no further:

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Mock Results:

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:smile:


(edited 5 years ago)

Scroll to see replies

Original post by buzzyambee






why, hello there.


Welcome to my second ever GYG blog - this time in sixth from edition! Thanks for popping by... go grab a cushion and make yourself a nice cuppa (and one for me too please: milk, no sugar) for this may be a long journey.


Anyways, here is what I am taking in terms of AS subjects and the grades I would ideally like to achieve by the end of Year 12:



Biology (AQA) - A

Chemistry (OCR) - B

French (Edexcel) - A

Politics (Edexcel) - B


And if you'd like to know what I've got in terms of GCSEs, look no further:




Spoiler






And if you're just nosey and would like to know a little more about me, then also look no further:





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And since many of you may have seen me about in the vet hopefuls thread, I'll show what I've got in terms of work experience:

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I hope to keep this updated as much as I can. Enjoy (:









I HAD to look up what a russian dwarf hamster is... so adorable!

Reply 2
Original post by Fox Corner
I HAD to look up what a russian dwarf hamster is... so adorable!



They're so cute!! Beanie looks almost identical to the one on the bottom right :h:
Reply 3
13th September: rip summer.

Good evening everyone! This marks the post of my first ever A-Level GYG update and possibly the start of a very rocky (but exciting!) journey to hopefully getting into vet school :h:

Right now though, all I can say is... whERE HAS THE TIME GONE??! It really doesn't seem long ago that I was stupidly panicking for my pointless year 10 mock exams, and now somehow I've received my GCSE results and started sixth form. It has been a little shock to the system starting the ol' school again, too... especially seeing as this time a fortnight ago I was probably still lying on the beach absorbing as much of the Corsican heat as I could...

Anyways, cutting to the cheese, I bet you'd all love to know what I've been up to today...

Psychology
As some of you may have noticed, I decided, 4 days into sixth form, that I wanted to drop Politics as my subject combination was just too weird for vet med. So, rather than die by forcing myself into taking Maths or Physics, I decided to switch to Psychology as it is sort of a science subject. So far, after two lessons, I'm loving it!
In today's lesson, we were doing the Behaviourist approach in psychology; we looked at classical conditioning (looking at Pavlov's dogs in particular) and operant conditioning (and Skinner's experiment). I found the part on operant conditioning the most interesting - after looking on how positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and punishment methods affected the poor rat in Skinner's experiment we were then able to apply to real-life situations in people's lives. This then of course gave us the excuse to watch a few clips from 'The Super Nanny', which we later found out to be our teacher's favourite TV show :tongue:

French
During my free today, I managed to crack on with some of my French homework which was basically revising the present tense and mentally preparing myself for the essay I have to write over the weekend on single-parent households... I am liking French so far, though - it's a nice break from all my other subjects (:

Biology
In our lesson today, we looked at carbohydrates (monosaccharides, disaccharides and polysaccharides), especially focussing on starch. This gave us the opportunity for a nice practical that is also part of our spec; we got lots of old and slightly mouldy food (including flour, weetabix, cheese and a gross bit of lard) and tested them for start using an iodine solution. And for the second part of the lesson, we briefly looked at the digestive system and then the teacher set us homework (which I did this evening) to research one area of the digestive system. I also made some notes on the textbook section on digestion for me to refer to in the future.

Chemistry
Today was a nice lesson: we touched a little on EM radiation and some of the formulae needed for the exams and then looked quantum levels and emission spectra. The majority of the lesson was another nice practical, where we stuck splints soaked in different chemicals into a bunsen burner and looked at the pretty colours they emitted :3

That's all for now! I'll try to post again by the end of this week :smile:
Reply 4
18th September: pls let me sleep

Looking at the title, you can probably guess how I'm feeling today: very tired! After working at the kennels on saturday (7am start... oof) and the stables on sunday on top of school has made me a little undermotivated for the week... I still love it though :smile:

A little worrying news though - I got told that I may have to have surgery at some point this year (nothing serious - not to worry!). I'm a little scared of the amount of school I'll have to miss as a result of it and how it might affect my studying... fingers crossed my bloods are all clear!

Study wise (on top of lessons), today I have done:

Biology
I basically looked over carbohydrates: monosaccharides (eg. glucose, fructose), disaccharides (maltose, lactose etc.) and polysaccharides (starch, cellulose, glycogen), their functions and how to test for them. I touched up on my notes using the textbook and then finished off with some flashcards.

French
I revised the present tense and made a total of 34 flashcards for as many verbs as I could during one of my study periods. Not very exciting but hey ho.

Psychology
Completed my notes on Wundt and the scientific approach in psychology and then started my notes on the biological approach. The textbook's quite wordy but I do find it interesting :smile:

Apologies for the slightly boring update! Have a lovely rest of the week :h:
Reply 5
28th September: homework madness

Bonsoir!

This week has been somewhat productive in some ways - I've booked in a 2 week placement at a farm vets for next summer and now in the process of confirming a 2 week placement in lambing and a 1 day placement at an abattoir so things on my veterinary work experience front are looking positive :h: I'm also looking forward to work at the kennels and the stables this weekend and riding Tara - so many animals to squish!

Study-wise, I haven't been doing loads at the moment: depending on my lessons and frees I have at school, I usually do 1-2 hours in the evening at home max. and not much more at the weekend due to my jobs... not ideal but it's ok for now I guess.

Anywaysss... today I had:

Biology
We had a lovely lesson on mitosis and a bit of revision of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells; I always make sure to make good notes during lessons and then add to them after the lesson using the textbook/internet so I have a good reference point for when I'm revising. I also love my biology teachers - there's not one lesson where they don't make us burst into laughter (turns out making sound effects when learning stages of mitosis helps you remember them!).

Psychology
Eh... not the most exciting lesson of them all today. Over the past couple of lessons we've been looking at experimental techniques which isn't really as interesting as the rest of the content but thankfully next lesson we'll be moving on to something new! I also asked for a little extension task on the exam question homework our teacher set us (as I'm a nerd and finished it early), so I got given some extra reading to do specifically on animal behaviour (some nice vetty stuff) and an essay to do on that to do over the weekend. I think it's always good to ask for things to practice with - it gets you more prepared for exam questions!

Chemistry
We got given looooads of homework this week, so in my two free periods and in about an hour after school I managed to complete them! The homework was on covalent bonding, shapes and angles - it took me a little while to complete as I had to go over my class notes first and add to them using the textbook so I fully understood it all first. I also made some flashcards on the bond angles we need to memorise.

French
Started on an essay on marriage set for homework and made corrections to the essay that was set last week... someone save me


Tomorrow, I have French, Biology, Psychology, Chemistry and a free (which I'll do my psychology essay in) and then my singing lesson in the evening - busy, busy!
(edited 6 years ago)
hi @buzzyambee! You've made it as one of our favourite blogs this week. Looking forward to seeing your next update! :excited:
Reply 7
Original post by Fox Corner
hi @buzzyambee! You've made it as one of our favourite blogs this week. Looking forward to seeing your next update! :excited:


Oooh, thank you! Next update on its way :h:
Love this GYG Blog !
Reply 9
8th November: am i still alive??

Yes. Hello, I'm still here. Apologies for not updating in an unacceptable amount of time :colondollar:

Truth is, the past month or so has had its ups and downs and I've only just been able to get myself organised again this week. Not only have I been having to balance revising with homework, work experience, my 2 jobs and hobbies, but I've also had personal issues going on which hasn't been great. And to top that, I badly sprained my knee at work at the weekend so I'm currently hobbling around on crutches with my knee looking like a purple tennis ball which is really annoying as I have to be off work and sport (and vetty work experience) for at least 2 weeks...

But hey, I did alright-ish in my end of term tests and have my 17th birthday to look forward to next week and my cats to cuddle in the mean time :smile:

(I get my current predicted grades tomorrow so will have to update then).

Anyway, here's my study plan for this evening:

Finish notes/flashcards on active transport (Biology)

Finish write up for enthalpy change of neutralisation practical (Chemistry)

Revise origins of psychology and the behaviourist approach (Psychology)



Bon soirée!

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(edited 6 years ago)
15th December: oops again

Looks like I've been a bit rubbish at updating my GYG this year, sorry guys! :colondollar:

So, as an update, here are my December mock exam results so far:

Chemistry - B
Psychology - A

I still haven't received my results for Biology and French: school has been a bit all over the place this week with the snow and ice but most of us are finally back on our feet (literally!:snow:). I'm satisfied with my results so far though - especially with Chemistry as I genuinely thought I'd not got any higher than a D in the exam due to how hard it was!

I'm now starting to create some sort of homework/study plan for the holidays. I've decided not to do much (if any) revision as I don't have mocks till March and I feel like this will be the last school holiday I can actually chill out for... But what I'm planning is to do a tiny bit everyday except for Christmas day, boxing day, New Year's eve and New Year's day: like maybe one psychology essay one day and touching up on Biology notes on another - nothing special :smile:

And as for vetty work experience, I have nothing officially planned for the holidays as I'm still recovering from my knee injury, but I'm hoping to do a few days working at the kennels and the stables :biggrin:

That's all for now (and knowing me, about a month). I'm off to finish an essay for psychology...
5th January: happy new year!

2017 really did fly by :moon:

I would say that overall it was a big year for me. I had some health struggles, a break up and I lost my grandad in March which was very difficult for the whole family, but at the same time I was able to overcome many fears and anxieties, make new friends, do well in my GCSEs, do lots of work experience and found the job I love. I saw my favourite band, starting sharing a horse, went to my first music festival and went to Les Miz twice... it's been pretty good I'd say :h:

More onto the school stuff, I got my full mock exam results. I got AAAB (B in Chemistry) which I'm really quite happy with for now seeing as I didn't revise as much as I had planned to running up to them!

Today I've done a mediocre amount of work, but enough for me to want to have the evening off after this (still not fully recovered from Christmas). I spent my free periods catching up on notes on defense mechanisms and phagocytosis for Biology, alkanes for Chemistry and making a start on some grammar exercises for French homework. I made a list of topics I need to finish notes for yesterday so I've been working through that. After school, I managed to finish my notes on redox and oxidation numbers for chem, learn some more french vocab, look over some cell ultrastructure notes for bio and get myself booked in for a 1 week placement at a small animal veterinary practice next summer.

Tomorrow, I'll do my Chemistry ES2 practical write up, finish my french homework (ughg essays) and do a psychology exam question. What fun.

Have a great weekend. I'm off to probably sleep.

Thursday 11th January

Hey everyone. I'll just jump straight into what I'm doing today rather than have a ramble:

Biology
It's been quite a chilled out start of term for us - we spent the first couple of lessons doing a bit of recap and then started on protein synthesis with one teacher and carried on with the immune system with our other teacher (which is probably one of my favourite parts of the course!) and then outside lessons I've been touching up class notes and reading up on stuff I don't quite understand.

Chemistry
A slightly less chilled out start of the term for chemistry, on the other hand! We've just started doing electrolysis and some pretty fun practicals, which is one reason I love the subject because we get to have a break from all the new content for at least a lesson a week! Outside of lessons I have been catching up on notes and experiment write-ups.

French
I went to a french literature masterclass at Oxford University with school this week which was quite interesting for me. It was nice to look around the colleges a bit (although I don't plan on going there) and learn a bit more about literary techniques, even if it was quite challenging!! I've made a plan for myself to revise the tenses this week as I'm a bit rusty with my grammar a the moment...

Psychology
Today has been a particularly busy day for this subject! I was a bit silly and left my homework til last minute and so ended writing some essays on forgetting in my free periods before my psychology lesson last thing:colondollar: I then stayed after school to catch up with a lesson I had missed while at the masterclass on the effect of anxiety on eyewitness testimony.

Other extra curricular stuff...
I have quite a lot of stuff going on at the moment actually. I've been working with our school's 'Active Listening' service every week to help provide support to younger students which has been really lovely - I've learnt a lot communication skills in the process as well. And I'm also working on my Grade 6 singing exam which will be happening in February/March sometime as well as rehearsing for a concert my singing teacher is hoping to put on for the ME charity. I'm still working at my lovely job at the kennels and have been booked nearly all my work experience for the upcoming school holidays; my next placement is at an alpaca farm and I'm so excited:biggrin:!! I'm also in contact with a couple of dairy farmers now and have arranged to meet one in a week's time after so long of searching - yay!
19/01/2018

Bon soir! i'm sitting with a cat rn
Biology
Been going over/revising some content on the immune system: making notes, flashcards etc. Just trying to memorise how it all works so it comes more naturally :smile: I was going over T-cells, B-cells n all that jazz. I'm aiming to finish my notes for the Cells module this weekend (hopefully).

Chemistry
I had a whopping ONE LESSON today on my entire timetable and that one lesson was a chemistry practical:biggrin: I spent 2 of my 4 free periods focussing on what we have learnt in the ES module; did some of the mountain of homework set on bleach titrations and did some notes on chlorine production (fascinating).

French
Practised using the imperfect tense and translating some passages from the textbook. We've also started studying the film 'La Haine' so I've started doing some research on that; it seems like a really interesting (and depressing) film, I'm looking forward to watching it fully!



In other non academic stuff, I'm still continuing working with the active listening service at school which I love and practicing like crazy for my Grade 6 singing exam. My loan horse also went lame, so she's having a nice rest for a week or two (cry). And to improve this cold, dark january night, have a look at Henry the kitty lazing about my notes last weekend:tongue:
IMG_0603.jpg


Tagging those who may be interested (not tryna self-promote or anything:colondollar:)

Spoiler

Original post by buzzyambee
19/01/2018

Bon soir! i'm sitting with a cat rn
Biology
Been going over/revising some content on the immune system: making notes, flashcards etc. Just trying to memorise how it all works so it comes more naturally :smile: I was going over T-cells, B-cells n all that jazz. I'm aiming to finish my notes for the Cells module this weekend (hopefully).

Chemistry
I had a whopping ONE LESSON today on my entire timetable and that one lesson was a chemistry practical:biggrin: I spent 2 of my 4 free periods focussing on what we have learnt in the ES module; did some of the mountain of homework set on bleach titrations and did some notes on chlorine production (fascinating).

French
Practised using the imperfect tense and translating some passages from the textbook. We've also started studying the film 'La Haine' so I've started doing some research on that; it seems like a really interesting (and depressing) film, I'm looking forward to watching it fully!



In other non academic stuff, I'm still continuing working with the active listening service at school which I love and practicing like crazy for my Grade 6 singing exam. My loan horse also went lame, so she's having a nice rest for a week or two (cry). And to improve this cold, dark january night, have a look at Henry the kitty lazing about my notes last weekend:tongue:
IMG_0603.jpg


Tagging those who may be interested (not tryna self-promote or anything:colondollar:)

Spoiler



Sounds like you’ve got a lot on your hands! How is college going, are you yr12 too? Also what are your ‘go to’ revision methods and resources for biology and chemistry - I’m interested :smile:
Original post by NiamhDaisy
Sounds like you’ve got a lot on your hands! How is college going, are you yr12 too? Also what are your ‘go to’ revision methods and resources for biology and chemistry - I’m interested :smile:


Haha yeah it’s all quite busy at the moment!! I’m in year 12 (guessing you are too as I saw you round the 2019 vet applicants thread!). I guess at the moment I’m just making sure I understand EVERYTHING we’ve covered in lessons (especially for chemistry!!), making sure I have all my notes up to date and just practicing questions😊 how are you finding it??
Original post by buzzyambee
19/01/2018

Bon soir! i'm sitting with a cat rn
Biology
Been going over/revising some content on the immune system: making notes, flashcards etc. Just trying to memorise how it all works so it comes more naturally :smile: I was going over T-cells, B-cells n all that jazz. I'm aiming to finish my notes for the Cells module this weekend (hopefully).

Chemistry
I had a whopping ONE LESSON today on my entire timetable and that one lesson was a chemistry practical:biggrin: I spent 2 of my 4 free periods focussing on what we have learnt in the ES module; did some of the mountain of homework set on bleach titrations and did some notes on chlorine production (fascinating).

French
Practised using the imperfect tense and translating some passages from the textbook. We've also started studying the film 'La Haine' so I've started doing some research on that; it seems like a really interesting (and depressing) film, I'm looking forward to watching it fully!



In other non academic stuff, I'm still continuing working with the active listening service at school which I love and practicing like crazy for my Grade 6 singing exam. My loan horse also went lame, so she's having a nice rest for a week or two (cry). And to improve this cold, dark january night, have a look at Henry the kitty lazing about my notes last weekend:tongue:
IMG_0603.jpg


Tagging those who may be interested (not tryna self-promote or anything:colondollar:)

Spoiler



You sound like you've got everything planned and under control!! :smile: I'm trying to be organised however I'm panicking right now about mocks in a weeks time😬😬
Original post by CupOfCaramel
You sound like you've got everything planned and under control!! :smile: I'm trying to be organised however I'm panicking right now about mocks in a weeks time😬😬


haha, I hope I do lol!! Good luck for mocks in a week - remember they're just practice, they're just there to help you out (however horrible they are!!) :smile:
17/02/2018

Happy end of half term everyone... :/

It's been quite a busy week for me as I've been on work experience at an alpaca stud farm which I absolutely loved! However, I've also been a bit poorly with a rotten cold so as soon as I get home each day I flop into bed with barely any energy to do any revision... oops.

The past few days I have done no school work whatsoever (tut tut tut). I feel quite bad for that, but I've also needed to sleep off my virus... Today, as it was my last day of work experience, I've come home and started organising what homework/revision I need to do tomorrow and also finishing off my alpaca research/notes for my work experience :smile:

So yeah, just a quick update! See you all in the next term :smile:
08/04/2018

Hope you all had a lovely Easter! :bunny2:

I'm currently on lambing work experience and have absolutely loved it so far! It's been really busy but also really hands on and interesting - I've learnt loads and it's only been a week. I've delivered a few lambs myself which was amazing and have done some ringing and castrating, but it's mostly been feeding etc. The farm I'm on is also calving, so when I'm not busy with the sheep I've been helping with vaccinations, sorting cattle for market and feeding which has been interesting too :smile:

On the contrary I've done very minimal school work so far this holiday (naughty me) as I've been so busy with lambing. I've been self-teaching some stuff I've missed at school such as transport in the xylem and phloem for Biology using notes, textbooks and good ol Mr Pollock on youtube to help me, but other than that I've done n o t h i n g...

Today, however, I've made myself a to-do list:
1) Do a Biology past paper and mark
2) Finish notes for every topic in Chemistry
3) Do some French grammar exercises
4) Finish notes Attachment notes for Psychology
5) Add to work experience diary

Hopefully I'll manage to get this done... ya never know

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