Sarah's GYG

Hi everyone,

I'm not a new user of TSR but I am relatively new to posting. What I love about TSR is the way I can speak candidly about school, grades and academics without fear of judgement and with people who understand, and are also passionate about my maintaining good grades.

About me...

My name is Sarah, I'm in Year 12 and I live in London. I'm an Aquarius (not really into astrology but it's fun to talk about!) and I am super into music. If I weren't such a realist, I would be as singer. I love playing my guitar - my favourite band is The Strokes and my all-time favourite singer is Lana Del Rey. My music taste is quite varied: I could be listening to Yung Lean one minute and the Beach Boys the next. I love listening to podcasts, Diary of a CEO, The Joe Rogan Experience, P1 with Matt and Tommy, but my most favourite is The Rest is History.
Here's the podcast I'm listening to as a write: [video]https://youtu.be/uPup-1pDepY[/video]
I also am a huge fan of Formula One. I'm a Ferrari girl at heart, of course, but sometimes I find myself wondering whether my allegiance to Sainz and Leclerc is more important than my mental health... sigh.

I was a bit disappointed with my GCSE results, to be fair. I was aiming for 8s and 9s in absolutely everything but lost out in CompSci, Physics and Chemistry. Everything else went quite well, however. I'm currently doing English Lit (Edexcel), Geography (Edexcel) and Biology (AQA) and AS Maths (Edexcel). I'm aiming to read Law at Oriel College, Oxford.

I've been quite lucky and already have obtained a number of opportunities and experiences to put on my UCAS application - Next week, I'm going to start helping a group of Year 7s with their reading in the mornings. I've also applied to an extensive list of work experiences at law firms in London and have applied to the Sutton Trust Law Pathway programme (fingers crossed!).

As for my first post on this blog, I'll talk about how I'm finding my courses so far:

English Lit - I am loving English so far. We're currently reading 'A Streetcar Named Desire' and 'Othello'. Streetcar is most definitely my favourite, the play is wonderful and I also watched the film which I thoroughly I enjoyed. Only problem is the fact that I find Stanley hot.

Geography - This is a very boring subject for me, even at GCSE. However, I enjoy the fact that I find it easy, and my teachers are so lovely, which makes the lessons a bit better.

Biology - Surprisingly, I am really enjoying. I think the kind of teachers you have make all the difference, because at GCSE I was really struggling, was scared to ask questions and would often do poorly in class assessments. But now, I've found that although the content is not easy, I am understanding it. My teacher pushes me but in a way that is comfortable, and she also gives us the ability to pre-read the lesson notes beforehand which makes a world of a difference.

Maths - No words.

I have a Year 12 Learning Gateway Assessment in two weeks, so we're spending our time in lessons preparing for that. It's pretty early to be doing tests but I'm not too worried.

I hope this blog will be a good motivator for me to keep up my grades and work consistently. I'll try and update often x

- Sarah x

Reply 1

Pwca

TSR Community Staff

Hi! You sound super motivated and like you've got a really clear idea of where you're hoping to end up. I definitely agree that which teacher you have for a subject makes a massive difference. I'm really into podcasts and history too - have you listened to You're Dead To Me?

Reply 2

summerbummer

Original post by Pwca

Hey, thanks so much! yes I loveeee You're Dead To Me, such a funny podcast. I think I've kind of have a niche for historical events - I'm always researching the most random events, the Roman Empire, the Great Fire of London, the Aztecs lol. Super regret not picking history at GCSE.

Reply 3

Pwca

TSR Community Staff

Original post by summerbummer

I love that variety haha - basically Horrible Histories vibes! I get totally hung up on weird historical mysteries as well as random events. You said you're doing geography this year, do you know yet what topics you'll be covering?

(edited 7 months ago)

Reply 4

summerbummer

Hi guys,

It's learning gateway assessment week this week...yay.

I feel a bit more confident now that I know exactly when they will be and what they are about. English has given us the questions and is allowing us to use our notes!!

Biology and Geography are okay so far...

Will update soon x.