Unremarkable ventures II

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Further Maths Core Pure 1 [June 3] - This was bad, very bad. Had a panic in the exam because I had been going too slowly and made a mistake on one question I couldn't spot/recover from. As a result I didn't have time to check some questions. Could've gone worse, but I really was gutted and unoptimistic, particularly as opinions were only mixed, though low GBs can generally be expected. I feel like I could've done much better, but I did some damage assessment post-exam, and it shouldn't be too bad.

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Physics Paper 3 [June 3] - Was very unsure about how to feel about this and haven't really put too much thought into it. The exam itself wasn't that hard but there were some dodgy questions, particularly questions where I wasn't sure what was required for full marks. Disappointingly certain topics were completely absent from all papers, including my two strongest topics (nuclear and space). By all accounts it was a reasonably difficult paper, so hopefully I've managed to secure that A*. If not, no big deal, but physics is done.

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Maths Paper 1 [June 5] - Not to sound arrogant but I was not expecting this to be an issue and it wasn't. Very good paper and will have only lost a few marks due to silly mistakes. (an arithmetic slip and probably some poor explanation) I did think when I was doing it that people would find it hard, and I was correct in that.

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British History [June 5] - Bad. Banked on an international relations question coming up. It did not. I couldn't answer either essay and made it up. Should get a C, hopefully a B overall. I have probably lost too many marks already for an A already. In all likelihood I lost too many marks for an A* from Irish History alone. Sources were ok but I waffled. Essay was utter crap and I just hope it scored some pity marks.

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Further Maths Core Pure 2 [June 6] - Pretty good. Contrary to popular opinion I much preferred this over the first paper. Went overall smoothly and there were only 3 parts I made blunders on. Shouldn't be too many marks lost. My explanation was weak for another and I didn't show any working for one so possibly marks lost there. Should be relatively safe considering how people found it absolutely dreadful, but not entirely happy with the mistakes I made. Probably not going to think about it much more. If FP1 and FS1 go well I should be on target despite doubts from CP1.

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Maths Paper 2 [June 12] - This would've been a pretty decent exam if I didn't make my worst ever exam mistake in one of the first questions. Didn't realise Q2 was the trapezium rule, basically used rectangle approximations. Made an arithmetic mistake on vectors. All else numerical lined up. I preferred the first paper, but there seems to be quite considerable outrage over this one. I felt that this had bought me some leeway for Paper 3, which turned out to be unneeded because paper 3 wasn't as bad as I feared it could've been.

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Germany History [June 12] - Only History exam I don't think I failed. The first 10 marker I could cobble together enough, I think it was on what the biggest victory for West Germany was, either Foreign Policy or the Economy. I knew enough to blag. Other one was whether civilian bombing in Germany was the main reason for low quality of life which I managed to get enough out of. Best History exam but not any more than a B overall.

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Further Maths Further Pure 1 [June 13] - This paper started off well but then got quite tricky as the paper progressed. The last two questions were vectors and coordinate geometry. Didn't put much time into trying to figure the first part of the vectors question out, it was quite tricky and I thought the time was better spent on coordinate geometry. I worked my way to a (wrong) answer but didn't bother worrying too much about spotting my mistake (I made some arithmetical slip in finding the intersection meaning that my quadrilateral wasn't a trapezium) because I felt I could better spend my time elsewhere. The coordinate geometry question was 11 marks and pretty ugly, but I managed to get through it only to miss out that it wanted you to also specify the range of x. Did not have time to think about the very last question properly and probably got a mark for the coordinates of the focus. Luckily it was only 3 marks. Think I made a silly mistake elsewhere (probably a sign error), but otherwise all fine. I think relative to other people this could be my best FM exam so far. Hopefully FS1 will be good then my FM exams will be in ascending order!

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Maths Stats and Mechanics [June 14] - Decent. Stats was fine and it was probably the explanations that caught me out for a couple of marks. Numerical answers line up. Mechanics I resolved unnecessarily while taking moments, because for some reason the reaction not being horizontal/vertical threw me off, and I will have lost a few marks on explanation but my other numerical answers line up. [and I knew my answer to a show that was right] Reasonably confident that I secured an A* especially considering how hard people found Pure 1 and Pure 2. Not sure if people found this one hard, people seemed to find it a nice relief.