I Keep Procrastinating So Hard And I Should Probably Do Something About That But I Swear I’ll Start

16/09/18 - 5/100 days of productivity

Sorry this is late - I had internet problems last night. Anyway, I did a 2 hour maths paper and did a whole bunch of filing (which took up the whole day!)

This is amazing!

here is a gif showing how blood flows through the heart in case you need extra motivation 

04/10/18 - 22/100 days of productivity

I quite like the combination of typing and then hand decoration. We are studying Das Leben Der Anderen in German and I’m making character notes. I’m going to move onto maths soon though.

I’m not having a great day, because my bus didn’t turn up and so I was late to school and very stressed this morning - I plan my day to the minute to stave off my anxiety and if it doesn’t go exactly to plan I can’t help getting upset. However, I have taken steps to calm down and I am being quite productive!

To all exam-takers

Gentle reminder that however much of a shitstorm your exams are, they do not tell you shit about yourself really. All they do is tell you how good you were at conforming to a mark scheme on that particular day. 0% doesn’t mean someone is stupid and 100% doesn’t necessarily mean someone is smart.

Of course try your best and revise and do what you can to maximise your success. But if it doesn’t go your way, know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and as long as you end up doing what you want to do, nobody gives a fuck if you don’t get straight A’s or whatever ❤️

20/01/2019

So I bought myself an iPad to save my back because I carry about far too many notebooks but I still like writing my notes. I’m also saving paper haha

I’m still getting to grips with this but I really love it so far!

Sorry for the inactivity - I just needed to take some time off. But I’m back now! I’ve got my mock results back and I’m very happy with them :)

General advice for GCSE and A levels

So I was asked a question by a follower and I thought it might be beneficial to post some general advice for all the future candidates whose GCSEs and A levels aren’t cancelled because of a pandemic. Here’s a short list of what helped me get through these exams.

1) Getting exam technique down is IMPORTANT! Do not underestimate this importance - knowing what the examiners want from you is (sadly) almost more important than knowledge of content (though you do have to know that, too!)

2) Understand the question words. For example, explain means give detail, and list means don’t waste time with such detail.

3) Answer the question as it is written, not what you want the question to be. Some questions are really long winded - they’ll wrap up the question with some background material that you haven’t learnt about per se but is still relevant and applicable to your course. You have to be able to unravel the core of what the examiners are asking. Don’t worry about the wall of information. Do read it as be ready to glean clues from it, but find the question first.

4) Read the mark schemes AND THE EXAMINERS’ REPORTS! Last year’s documents are locked because teachers like to use them for mocks, but if you’ve already done those papers, ask your teachers to send you them. These are gold! Use the mark schemes to know which buzzwords and details the examiners will reward and use the examiners reports to see which questions candidates struggled to answer. There is almost always detailed analysis of common mistakes and advice to future candidates there!

5) Look through the teacher-oriented documents. I know for OCR A Biology A level, there were sample documents that gave examples of full marks, mid marks and low marks for long response questions. They literally hand you “what a good one looks like” (and it was easy to find because of how new the specification is). I was never given these documents in class! Nobody you have contact with knows the course better than a teacher who is meant to teach it. For A level languages, I read every single document, no matter how boring it seemed, which perhaps was a bit overkill, but it helped me know what exactly was expected of me. I’m talking everything from the specification to exemplar work and speaking exam conduct (which actually was useful because I then knew what would happen if I got too distressed to continue for example, as I knew what the teacher/examiner would be required to do in that case). It sounds nuts, but seeing it from a teacher’s perspective helped me. I knew the structure of my course by heart; I knew weightings of different aspects of exams and the learning objectives by which I was assessed. A lot of it is irrelevant admin, but there are actually some useful documents so do have a root through!

6) Don’t be afraid of old spec questions if the subject matter is relevant.

7) Revising using past papers is always the best way, ultimately. If you run out of past papers, make your own questions and file them away and come back to them! I buddied up with a friend and we tested each other, swapping our own exam-style questions at periodic intervals and marking our partner’s answers. You get to be the examiner, the marker and the candidate in one simple activity!

8) Learn from your mistakes. Don’t look at a lower mark and think you’re doomed; rather, think about where you went wrong. You’d be surprised at how many marks are lost to silly mistakes for which you’ll absolutely kick yourself in hindsight! Little mistakes might be avoided by doing something as little as slowing down, taking a toilet break to clear your head and generally being aware of them.

9) If there’s a certain type of question you struggle to answer, it may help to make a checklist of what to include. For example, whenever I’m asked to draw a graph, I write down things like “suitable axes using more than half the available space, x is independent variable, labels, title, units, correctly plotted points, line of best fit” in a corner somewhere out the way - and I’m at university rn! I do this before I start fumbling about with the question; it takes less than 30s to jot it down in a shorthand I understand.

10) Teach someone else, or pretend to! Even now, I remember stuff and understand it better if I’m “explaining” my thought process out loud as if I were teaching it. Understanding things will make subjects like chemistry a lot easier, because then you can apply what you know rather than blindly rote learn a bunch of examples. Mechanism you’re not quite sure of? Draw it out and talk it through! You’ll quickly pinpoint exactly what you’re struggling with.

11) Breathe and look after yourself. It’s not impossible; so much of success is about confidence. If you convince yourself you can’t do something, you absolutely won’t - attitude is everything and so is your health.

18/5/19

17 days until my first A Level exam!

Sorry I’m so inactive - I’ve just been getting speaking exams out the way for French and German.

French went amazingly; German not so much - but then my standards are very high so it will likely still get me good enough marks.

But now I can get stuck into my other 3 subjects! Not a fancy set-up this evening; just my favourite notebook and pens and my trademark cup of tea haha

I hope you are all looking after yourself during this stressful period - especially those who are taking exams, whatever level they may be at x

6/11/18 - 57 days of productivity

So my chemistry teacher just gave me a whole chapter of questions to do for Thursday. So my life will just have to wait until the weekend haha 🙃

Anyway, one set is done. I’ve had German with my favourite teachers today and also French with another amazing teacher. I missed biology because it was extended form time for SMSC today, and there was a guest speaker (I actually hid in the toilets for an hour and binged examsolutions maths tutorials because I knew I’d get into trouble). I hate SMSC so much 😑

Overall though, it’s been a good day. Apart from Chemistry, when I felt myself boiling over for no reason whatsoever. But we have this French teacher who’s visiting and she actually thought I was French, which is compliment of the CENTURY!

Happy Tuesday, peeps!

Also, Imagine Dragons’ new song “Bad Liar” is INCREDIBLE and I thoroughly recommend you give it a listen. Best part of today, honestly.

18/3/19 Essays in the fading light

So my mental health is struggling but I am self-aware enough to know that and I am actively getting some help because I don’t want a second bout of severe depression HOWEVER I know that my stress is transient and I will have the summer to recover. It isn’t worth destroying my brain and wellbeing for A Levels!

I decided to just write a plain old paper essay for German but then quickly remembered I can’t double tap the pen to erase my mistakes sooooo Tippex is my friend!

18/09/18 - 7/100 days of productivity

Today was very busy but I started writing my personal statement in my free period and then typed up biology notes, did a French listening homework and uploaded a load of German vocab to Quizlet. And now I’m in bed - night all! :)