Road to becoming an ogre achiever

OMG screaming right now! Can't believe I've found a fellow Tattooist of Auschwitz fan!!!! - I am so dramatic it is unreal. The character development in that book deserves thousands of awards and the plot just gets better and better as you read.

On a side note, how can someone hate history when it's possibly one of the most interesting and informative subjects out there.

Ok so top 5 tips

1- Find a study schedule, find it! If you need to wake up at 5am do some light revision until 6 am and then go to school and come back and do nothing for that. Or if your a night owl and you can afford to wake up at 7-8 am then revise after school until 10pm if that suits you. Do whatever you know you will consistently stick to.
mE PerSonaLLy: I wake up at 5am on a school day as it takes an hour to get to school minimum so when I come home I might do 30 mins Max but no more. So I keep the evenings for chill time.

2- Don't stress, I probably did more work for GCSE's than the entire of year 12 and I'm pretty happy with my predicted grades. As long as you know you are doing enough don't study extra for the sake of it. Racking up hours of study does not mean racking up hours of amazing grades.

3- Start organised. Folders for each subject is a minimum have plastic wallets available and dividers. Work out if you school are supplying them or if you need to go and buy them. Always keep sheets away in the folder so you do not lose them and put dates on them so you know when you studies something so you can always go back to it with ease.

4- Try out different types of note taking. I know for maths it is all about questions so I bought a book where all I do is answer maths questions. However, I know I need a different type of note taking for history where it's more of a memory recall type of revision so that requires me to learn facts and apply them to different exam questions. SO for essay subjects make exam plans and for mathsy type subjects do hundreds of questions but not at the start of the year otherwise you Will fire yourself out.

5- Finally- treat it as I finding yourself year, join clubs, do work experince, if you know what career you want to do research universities and if you do not know that research careers that may suit you. Don't revise too much just make sure you do a little bit each day and you naturally adapt to A-levels without even knowing you are doing it.

GOOD LUCK (hope that helps)

PS- what subjects are you going on to study at A-level

@Getoutamaswamp

I created a tag button so if anyone would like to be tagged in the front page of the forum let me know!

Thank you for the support- it means a lot knowing that someone would actually want to listen to my advice and learn from my experiences.
I always debated about doing economics but I was too much of a wimp so I took the easy option out and chose business. Geography GCSE was not available at my school but it definitely seemed interesting.
I was over the moon with my grades however when I moved school and noticed quite a few people had majority 9's I started to feel a little belittled but you must take that attitude you have now and move on! Certain universities do not care about GCSE's as long as they can see you decided you were going to do better at A-level.

Best of luck!

I was indecisive as per usual and could not decide between history and law. However, after trying to write a personal statement for both I realised I had over 10 different extra curricular and interesting things to say about law and 2 about history.

So in the end I have decided I want to study law

So you are going for law at cambridge! Best of lucky matey

Can I be tagged please

I am also in Year 13 (not applying to Cambridge), so can understand the stress of UCAS, exams, ect

OMG screaming right now! Can't believe I've found a fellow Tattooist of Auschwitz fan!!!! - I am so dramatic it is unreal. The character development in that book deserves thousands of awards and the plot just gets better and better as you read.

On a side note, how can someone hate history when it's possibly one of the most interesting and informative subjects out there.

Ok so top 5 tips

1- Find a study schedule, find it! If you need to wake up at 5am do some light revision until 6 am and then go to school and come back and do nothing then do that. Or if you are a night owl and you can afford to wake up at 7-8 am then revise after school until 10pm if that suits you. Do whatever you know you will consistently stick to.
mE PerSonaLLy: I wake up at 5am on a school day as it takes an hour to get to school minimum so when I come home I might do 30 mins Max but no more. So I keep the evenings for chill time.

2- Don't stress, I probably did more work for GCSE's than the entire of year 12 and I'm pretty happy with my predicted grades. As long as you know you are doing enough don't study extra for the sake of it. Racking up hours of study does not mean racking up hours of amazing grades.

3- Start organised. Folders for each subject is a minimum have plastic wallets available and dividers. Work out if your school are supplying them or if you need to go and buy them. Always keep sheets away in the folder so you do not lose them and put dates on them so you know when you studied something so you can always go back to it with ease.

4- Try out different types of note taking. I know for maths it is all about questions so I bought a book where all I do is answer maths questions. However, I know I need a different type of note taking for history where it's more of a memory recall type of revision so that requires me to learn facts and apply them to different exam questions. SO for essay subjects make exam plans and for mathsy type subjects do hundreds of questions but not at the start of the year otherwise you Will fire yourself out.

5- Finally- treat it as I finding yourself year, join clubs, do work experience, if you know what career you want to do research universities and if you do not know that research careers that may suit you. Don't revise too much just make sure you do a little bit each day and you naturally adapt to A-levels without even knowing you are doing it.

GOOD LUCK (hope that helps)

PS- what subjects are you going on to study at A-level

@Getoutamaswamp

May I ask what book you used for maths questions, I’ve been trying to find one before I start year 12 😊

Of course you can, for maths I would advise you go to Tesco or Wilko where ever is easiest and pick up an A5 lined notebook.
The one I have is blue with an elastic strap thing therefore on a rare occasion when my teacher is not in and I get handed sheets I can fold them and stick them in that book. All the working outs in that A5 notebook should be scruffy and don't waste time trying to add colour even when checking if answers are correct just get some working outs down.

For reference: the notebook only cost £1 so you could pick up 3 and you would not be out of pocket.

Then for the actual maths that you do in class (my teacher provides a maths book), if your teacher does not provide a maths book get 3 A4 lined paper pads from WHSmith and take one of them into school dedicated just for maths.

SIDENOTE: keep these two notebooks separate, one is specifically for rough questions when your doing thousands of questions to prepare for exams and the other needs to be neat examples of stuff learned in lesson with lots of colour and diagrams to help you remember.

Hope that helps (sorry it was a bit long winded)

May I ask what book you used for maths questions, I’ve been trying to find one before I start year 12 😊

Thanks 😊
Good luck with your journey to Cambridge, I’m hoping to do the same in a couple of years so this GYG will be helpful for me 😊

I created a tag button so if anyone would like to be tagged in the front page of the forum let me know!

Thanks a lot!
For any myths I do try debunk please feel free to comment your own experience as it would be so interesting to see other people's experiences compared to my own. I definitely think politicians on both side of the political spectrum have used the whole State VS Private education debate to further their own political agendas rather then educate both sides about the false assumptions regarding each group.