A Little Late GYG

A Little Late GYG

I am often only motivated closer to exams, so this is a little late. My first exam is on the 21st May (next week).

I would like to create a GYG as this will be my final chance to do this—at least of this nature I suppose, as I am not planning to take a university course that uses written exams. I only have one subject to study for exams this season (I had finished my exams for one subject earlier this year and the other subject I finished did not have written exams). I also hope to have some interactions with other users through this blog, for the reasons one may want to interact with people.

Now that most of my coursework is out of the way I have time to focus on studying English Language with the exam board everyone definitely certainly does… Eduqas! 🎉

Now that I want to revise more I find myself not being able to do as much as I want to due to random things and feeling tired and lethargic at times that would be good to revise in. I also have IT coursework to finish with our favourite exam board OCR which is unforgiving if you fail to meet one aspect of the pass criteria despite there being merit and distinction criteria too (you don’t have to try so hard to be different, it’s okay).

I will probably detail the amount of nothing I did from Monday in the next post/reply as I wanted to start this blog from then.

Reply 1

not in a room

I hope this works properly, I have not made posts here before.

Monday:

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Slept too much

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Revised spoken language features using resources on the Eduqas website

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Started the blending learning resources also available, they are not much, but are something and I have learnt some small new things from them

Tuesday:

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Finished the blended resources for spoken language

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Started the exam walkthrough for spoken language (I did not finish but I am not sure if I will learn much from it as I already know what to do, but I do like it when I get reminded of possible things to look for and include in essays that I did not know or have forgotten about)

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I wrote one paragraph (wow)

Wednesday:

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Slept too much (Less than Monday, but I finish earlier on Mondays)

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Revised word classes with the a revision workbook which was not particularly useful but I was reminded of the existence of collective nouns

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Making edits to my IT coursework so I do not fail

I want to finally start writing more paragraphs and annotating texts tomorrow; I finish earlier so that should happen. I will also collect quotes for the Section B language issues essay since I forgot that I lack quotes for topics which are not Standard & Non-Standard English and some of the ones I do have are not from “linguists”. I am currently frustrated with my progress thus far and I hope I can do better tomorrow and over the weekend.

Reply 2

not in a room

I wanted to update somewhat earlier today:

Thursday:

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I got less done then I wanted to again but it is still progress nonetheless

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I learnt about power and discourse through the blended learning resources

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Collected quotes to use for the standard and non-standard English essays, but some may be able to be used for the other language issues as well

Friday:

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I fell ill 🎉

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I managed to feel better in the afternoon and started the blended learning for crafting a language and power essay, I hope to finish it and write some paragraphs based off the topic sentences provided in the exercise

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I may work on the IT coursework some more

Tomorrow I would like to give attention on spoken language analysis again, especially developing topic sentences as I seem to be less confident with those at the moment. I will probably work on the language issues essays as well.

(edited 11 months ago)

Reply 3

mayarpapayar

Hey!! Welcome to GYG - your blog looks really neat!! Omg I swear everyone is ill now (me included) I had a bad cough during my exams 😭😭
I have one subject based on Eduquas actually, it’s Latin!!

Reply 4

not in a room

Original post by mayarpapayar

Thank you! I am majorly feeling better today. Latin sounds like an incredibly interesting subject to study!

Reply 5

mayarpapayar

Original post by not in a room

Thank you! I am majorly feeling better today. Latin sounds like an incredibly interesting subject to study!

Glad to hear you’re doing better!! Latin is pretty nice when you have a good teacher, I only plan to take it just for GCSE though 😅

Reply 6

not in a room

Original post by mayarpapayar

Glad to hear you’re doing better!! Latin is pretty nice when you have a good teacher, I only plan to take it just for GCSE though 😅

I see! Good luck with your exams!

Reply 7

not in a room

I have to update on PC as I cannot seem to find the option to create lists on the mobile website or the app which has no formatting options at all; I suppose I could try copying and pasting from Google Docs like I did before.

Saturday:

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I finished the spoken language question walkthrough, which was useful in the end when seeing the comparison paragraphs and finding out which one is a better. I had not considered including terminology in the conclusion until then.

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Some IT coursework edits

I am unsure if I will do any English revision today because I want to focus on mainly finishing the changes to the coursework today so I only have smaller changes to make before I send it tomorrow. I have also been playing some of the Splatoon Splatfest, but not much, so it is possible that I will play more later.

Reply 8

not in a room

Two days until my first exam of the season (and first real essay-based A-level exam). This is what I have been up to.

Sunday:

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Coursework

Monday:

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Coursework

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I somewhat completed an exercise for language and situation, but it was not that helpful

Tuesday:

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Started writing a spoken language analysis response, will probably finish it tomorrow.

I want to write up more responses/paragraphs for both questions tomorrow; I will also need to dedicate time to memorise quote to use in section B and recap on the types of power and Labov's studies.

Reply 9

not in a room

It is almost time for the exam... Here is the revision I completed yesterday:

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I completed a past paper, answering one question at a time with some hours between. I chose a paper that seemed quite difficult, so I feel more confident that I will be able to create adequate answers in the time limit

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I watched some videos but they were not too much help

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I created more situations to use in the language issues essay

I did not do anything this morning, especially since I woke up later than I would have if I slept well. Though I feel well rested now, thankfully.

I have now just figured out how to create lists on the mobile website!

(edited 11 months ago)

Reply 10

not in a room

I have not updated since before the exam and I keep forgetting to.

I believe the exam went well, though I would have liked for there to be more contextual information on the two spoken sources as they were spin-off shows of popular television competition shows (Strictly Come Dancing and The Apprentice). Since it was not provided, I assumed they were like the main show and may have made incorrect assumptions on some contextual factors. The main issue is that I struggle to write enough, about two pages less than the recommended for both questions, which is probably the main limiter of my grade as my points and analysis were good, I would say.

The next exam is Language Change Over Time and I fear, I fear much. In class, no one was ever given the opportunity to answer one of these questions properly and I am not sure if we were even taught how to compare three texts at once. Not meaningfully at least, as I remember more about the comparisons for spoken language.

So the half-term is somewhat inconvenient as there is no class time to revise any of this until the week of the exam, which will be okay because the Eduqas Exam Walkthroughs will help. I suppose I can read some example answers also to understand what I need to do. There are also the short answer questions that I simultaneously understand what they ask of me, yet I get confused and forget how the answer should be written out (except for Q3, which I forgot again). I really only need a pass for English in the end, but I do want to do better. I absolutely need to lock in from tomorrow, I must.

(edited 11 months ago)

Reply 11

not in a room

It is the night before the exam:

After revising and looking at exemplar answers, I have become more confident in this paper and I learnt that there was not a new technique needed to be able to compare the three texts. However, I often find it difficult to difficult to follow the recommended paragraph structure and have to divert from it as I can never write as much as recommended if I want to make meaningful points. I am also starting to divert from the PEEL format we were taught somewhat as I am finding it easier to write with less structure (our teacher taught us to put terminology and such in a specific order and that deviations were wrong) but it may also be that my interpretations of the structure was holding me back, perhaps (I did not realise how much terminology I could use and where).

I am not sure what else to mention goodnight

Reply 12

not in a room

I often think about posting after an exam, but I often do it rather late. This time, I forgot completely after a while and was planning to talk about what I had done to prepare for my final exam.

I believe the exam went well. Despite being able to not finish one question, the answer I provided for the question with the most marks felt adequate and I enjoyed the themes I was able to analyse.

For the exam tomorrow, I feel as if I should have prepared more, maybe. I had visions of writing many creative pieces and enjoying doing it, but I did not produce that many in the end (despite having various amounts of fun depending on the question). The issue is, I believe, is that we were not taught much or well of the creative writing syllabus with certain areas prioritised more than others and some parts seemingly ignored. While I was not planning to worry much, a part of me is concerned I will not be able to generate ideas quick enough on the day or make bad choices that cost me marks. I think because I have a partiality to creative writing (at least fictional unless I pretend I am writing for the Guardian) I want to do well and as it would be a waste if what I produce is not at the limits of my writing skill in general and instead is the limits of what I can produce in the exam with the stimulus provided.

(edited 10 months ago)

Reply 13

not in a room

Update 🥳🎉🎊✨

I enjoyed the exam. I could work well with the questions and stimulus and had the opportunity to pretend I was writing an opinion article for the Guardian. I usually think that my fiction writing was better, but I believe the many Guardian articles I had read over my time at college during breaks (and at home) were all for that moment as I had absorbed the Guardianspeak to use at my disposal.

Since I have finished my last exam, I am now finished for summer. Since I finished my other subjects earlier, it feels like I never finished in part, or have for a while. So it barely feels like summer for now, as I have little to do during the week and it feels like things are still how they were when I was only partly in college, except without the revision or college. What do the college leavers do? I do not exactly have many people to do those things with. I do have coding lessons to complete before August (?) so I should start them soon; I was signed up when I had coursework so I did not feel like completing it.

I plan on updating the blog again once I receive my grades (on results day if I remember) as I must reveal the grades I grew. I believe you can access them in person or online, so I am not sure what I will pick 🤔