The Student Room Group

The 'I really need to get my life together' GCSE blog








Hello, my name is Meghan, I'm a mess but very good at hiding it, I like to ramble (but I'm sure you’ll find that out in due time anyway) and, as the title says, I need to get my life together.

Welcome to my GYG blog. You’re probably here because you’re procrastinating revising. So am I.

So recently, I've been having an all time low on the motivation front, so what’s going to motivate me to get off my laptop and study? You guessed it, nothing less than public humiliation.

Mocks are just around the corner and, although I always have the motivation to revise when I actually need to, I always struggle to get it done just to get ahead. I've felt like I've been struggling stay afloat during the first two months of year eleven, so now is the perfect time to get into a good routine so it’s not such a shock in February. I was supposed to make year 9 and 10 flashcards over summer, but whelp that never happened and I'm also supposed to be making year 11 flashcards as I go, but whelp that’s not happening either.

So, uh, the basics I guess

The Subjects:

Spoiler


The Mocks:

Spoiler


The Grades:

Spoiler



Yeah, I know, overambitious much. This time last year I wanted 9 9s, but all my optimism has crashed and burned since September, so we’re being a bit more realistic now. Okay, maybe I lowkey want all 8s, but I'm just trying to keep my expectations fairly low so I'm not inevitably disappointed on results day. Honestly, I'm just going to try and aim for as many 9s and not try and pinpoint my exact grades (she says, pinpointing her exact grades).


To be frank, a solid 73% of this blog will be me insulting maths. And physics. Definitely physics.


Pointless information about me:


Spoiler



I’m about 61% nervous, 32% excited and 17% sure I won’t meet my maths target, but, hey, let’s do this!







(edited 5 years ago)

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Oh my goodness, I completely understand what you mean!! I'm not predicted as high grades as you are, some 7s as well, but I still want to do well and I have done absolutely NO revision. I'm serious. It's extremely worrying- I literally have maths and science mocks in a few days and I'm desperately under prepared- and yet, has that fact made me change anything? No, I still am completely unmotivated!! I honestly don't know what I'm going to do. I keep hoping I'll do revision in the future, and then it's the future and I Still Haven't Done Anything. Agh!

PS. I also complain about and insult Physics. A lot.
PPS. According to google, the plural is 'crises'? Who knew?
Original post by penguinstar
Oh my goodness, I completely understand what you mean!! I'm not predicted as high grades as you are, some 7s as well, but I still want to do well and I have done absolutely NO revision. I'm serious. It's extremely worrying- I literally have maths and science mocks in a few days and I'm desperately under prepared- and yet, has that fact made me change anything? No, I still am completely unmotivated!! I honestly don't know what I'm going to do. I keep hoping I'll do revision in the future, and then it's the future and I Still Haven't Done Anything. Agh!

PS. I also complain about and insult Physics. A lot.
PPS. According to google, the plural is 'crises'? Who knew?


Ah, I know, I've been blundering my way through like a dead slug this past half term, so I'm hoping starting this blog is the key to finally having the motivation. That, and my crippling latest maths score, 13/ 40 and 24/ 40, so if this doesn't work I might as well sign myself up to the retake now.
And don't even get me started on physics, we're like an on-again-off-again couple that break up every week but, inevitably, I'll come crawling back as soon as radiation comes up on a paper.
Woo! To all the crises coming our way this year! *clink* You really do learn something every day:biggrin:
hallelujah you're good at history and geog and have the same exam boards as me prepare for endless crying in your messages next year :cool: what history units are you doing?
Original post by pinegrove
hallelujah you're good at history and geog and have the same exam boards as me prepare for endless crying in your messages next year :cool: what history units are you doing?


Ahahaha:smile:) And medicine through time, Henry VIII and his lads *eyeroll*, American West *even bigger eyeroll* and Weimar Germany, which I find is really hard to look passionate about without looking like a complete Nazi, so I'm just going to say I find it really interesting.
I'm the same as you (with mostly the same predicted grades in our common subjects) but in Y10! I look forward to your updates (but I'll rant about chemistry instead of physics!)
Original post by troubletracking
Ahahaha:smile:) And medicine through time, Henry VIII and his lads *eyeroll*, American West *even bigger eyeroll* and Weimar Germany, which I find is really hard to look passionate about without looking like a complete Nazi, so I'm just going to say I find it really interesting.


Ah I'm doing American West too, love me some barbed wire and cow banter!!!:confused:
Original post by pinegrove
Ah I'm doing American West too, love me some barbed wire and cow banter!!!:confused:


Oh yes, Sitting Bull is an absolute ledge
Original post by laurawatt
I'm the same as you (with mostly the same predicted grades in our common subjects) but in Y10! I look forward to your updates (but I'll rant about chemistry instead of physics!)


Woah, I just checked out your GYG blog and I can't get over how motivated you are! In year 10, I did most of my homework the night before/ the morning it was due, and couldn't even imagine revising! I'm definitely going to be watching your blog too (best of luck in 2019:biggrin:).
Ugh, chemistry. I relate completely. (She says, considering it as one of her A-levels)
Original post by troubletracking
Woah, I just checked out your GYG blog and I can't get over how motivated you are! In year 10, I did most of my homework the night before/ the morning it was due, and couldn't even imagine revising! I'm definitely going to be watching your blog too (best of luck in 2019:biggrin:).
Ugh, chemistry. I relate completely. (She says, considering it as one of her A-levels)


Motivated? Me? God I must make good first impressions!
I try to do homework before it's due in but ... it doesn't always go to plan :smile:
Good luck for the following year too and i hope everything goes to plan :biggrin:
Original post by laurawatt
Motivated? Me? God I must make good first impressions!
I try to do homework before it's due in but ... it doesn't always go to plan :smile:
Good luck for the following year too and i hope everything goes to plan :biggrin:


Aha thank you! At this rate I'm going to need it:redface:
so you've already sat english language and got a 9 in year 10? Impressive stuff! Good luck.


To be frank, a solid 73% of this blog will be me insulting maths. And physics. Definitely physics.


:frown:
(edited 6 years ago)
Original post by _gcx
so you've already sat english language and got a 9 in year 10? Impressive stuff! Good luck.

:frown:


Yeah, it was a rollercoaster to say the least, but it was all worth it in the end. Thank you, the same to you!
Yeah, I know. Maybe this will be the year I discover a passion for our great saviour Pythagoras...?
omg when I read the title I was like okay this person is probs like me but when I saw the predicted grades.......RIP my life.
Same, I swear I was more motivated in year 10 to do well, this year all my homework has been done in form time/during lesson

Also please teach me how to get a 9 in English language, I don't think I've ever got higher than a 5 :frown:
Original post by aMassDebater
Same, I swear I was more motivated in year 10 to do well, this year all my homework has been done in form time/during lesson

Also please teach me how to get a 9 in English language, I don't think I've ever got higher than a 5 :frown:


True, I've spent most of this half term feeling like I've been hit by a truck.

I posted this in response to a thread a few days ago, if that's any help, though it's very paper 1 orientated. Let me know if you need any more help:smile:

I'm in year 11, although I did my English language paper last year and (somehow) got a 9 by:
-buying a workbook (found the revision guides pointless) and doing question after question
-Watching a Mr Bruff video on a particular question, making notes and typing up his example and printing it out before annotating why it got full marks, then attempting a question corresponding to the one I watched
-Nailing the timings- this is very important, especially if you're someone like me who could happily write for an hour on question 2. Our teacher drilled it into our heads so much it wasn't even of a question of whether or not I'd start question 5 with 45 minutes to spare even if I hadn't finished question 4 yet, so it was second nature by the time the exam rolled around
-For question 5, I made flashcards of 9 common positive words (brave, light, good..) and 9 negative words (evil, loud, dark...and found 4 more advanced synonyms of these and got people to test me on them until I could say them, and spell them, right. even if you remember them all under the pressure of exam conditions, do not be tempted to use them all. In my exam, I think I only used four, max, and was really angry at myself at it until I got my result. I think if I had used more, it would have sounded forced and pretentious, which is not what you want. You want your work to have control and flow, like you came out the womb using the word 'caliginous'.
-Make sure you go into question 5 with an open mind. Don't think "I am going to do a narrative, no matter what the stimulus is" because it might be something you aren't keen on writing, and you haven't practised writing a description. I personally lean towards a narrative, but if I don't get an idea within 30 seconds of reading the question, I do a description.
-If you're doing a narrative, be original. If the image is an idyllic paradise, make the tone dark. Take the smallest detail and roll with it. Someone told me their teacher told them not to include death because it was cliche. In my mock, I ended it by having the character commit suicide. In the real thing, I made sure I avoided death. That could have been the line between an 8 or a 9. You never know which little tip will push you over the boundary.
-For a narrative, not much should happen. It's usually an opening they ask you to write, and you only have forty minutes to write anyway, so they won't be expecting a full blown novel. Most of the writing should be internal, and physically, there shouldn't be a whole lot going in on. In my exam, the only physical activity was that a girl said a few words while lying on a bed, and the rest was either her thoughts or recollection of past events.
-For a narrative, another thing I would advise is to have any names ready in your head to save time umming and ahhing about whether to name her 'Jeanette' or 'Geraldine'. No, you don't have time for that. Time is your enemy here, and you need to put as much of it as possible towards actually answering the questions. Or, even better, do what I did and write in 1st person. If you play in carefully, no names are needed.
-If you're doing a description, try and make your structure interesting. It's very easy to conform to a set structure for a description, which I did, but try and shake it up a little to avoid similar structured and sized paragraphs, so try and vary it a little. A format I swore by was to focus on the scene as a whole (usually with a dark tone, regardless of the image.. apparently i can't write happy), then zoom in on something, zoom in on something else, a one sentence paragraph (usually with a semicolon thrown in) to describe a change (almost always something along the lines of "then, a disturbance, a flicker; a ripple in the water") and the final paragraph mirrors the first (get that cyclical structure), except there's a change (usually the light has fought the dark).
-Heads up for the description: you don't have to adhere to the picture completely. Sure, if it's a picture of a cave don't write about a forest, but if there are no trees on the picture, you can add trees if you want.
-Most pupils tend to go for the description. If you're great at both, the narrative might give you originality points.
-As said in the above post, Mr Bruff is great. I found him more helpful for Section A while Mr Salles was more helpful for Section B
-And finally, DO NOT use the old spec papers. Don't even think about it. Step away. If you do the old spec, you'll come out with great A*-G technique and non-existent 9-1 technique, and you'll be hella shocked and confused in the actual exam. If you want practice papers, there's the specimen one on the AQA website, and you get a full practice paper at the back of a workbook. If you're desperate like I was, you can buy two full sets off amazon for £5, or, even better, just ask your teacher to write you some.
Than you so much!! I'll make sure to use these techniques
Also what revision workbooks did u buy, and would you recommend Mr. Salles revision guide, because he says that it describes lots of techniques to improve writing
Original post by aMassDebater
Than you so much!! I'll make sure to use these techniques
Also what revision workbooks did u buy, and would you recommend Mr. Salles revision guide, because he says that it describes lots of techniques to improve writing


Our school gave us a deal for these purple Pearson ones, and I found the workbook very useful, though I didn't use the guide all that much. I also bought some practice papers, though I'd only recommend that if you're really stuck for questions, even though they were very useful.
Honestly, I don't know because I never bought it, but I did watch his videos and I found them very useful, particularly for the creative writing aspect. I'd say go for it- he definitely knows what he's on about, it's only like a fiver, and if it's anything like his videos, I'm sure it'll be worth it.
oh my thank you so much!! english was always one of my weak points...any tips for eng lit??
Original post by troubletracking
Ahahaha:smile:) And medicine through time, Henry VIII and his lads *eyeroll*, American West *even bigger eyeroll* and Weimar Germany, which I find is really hard to look passionate about without looking like a complete Nazi, so I'm just going to say I find it really interesting.


we’re doing the same! except i’m doing elizabethan england not henry viii :smile:

we are taking quite similar subjects, with similar grades and similar exam boards so i’m exciting to see what comes out of this gyg! it’s undoubtedly going to help me!

please check out my gyg if you have the time :smile:

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