24 April 2019,

[3/50 days of productivity]

this morning was spent doing some biology revision of the heart, and then some musical periods revision as i’m doing my grade 6 violin exam at the end of may and needed a refresher on the key elements of each era🎻

🎶- requiem: dear evan hansen

sunday 13 october

hi! long time no see, tumblr. i took a break for the first month or so of school because there was so much to do, including my final silver dofe expedition, but now it’s the break and i’m spending the time off relaxing and catching up on everything.

those who have done gold duke of edinburgh- is it worth it? i’m really questioning whether to do it, as this is a big year for me and on top of 5 highers i’m doing grade 7 violin so i’m not convinced i could take it on and do well in everything. please let me know if you did it and think it’s actually worth it in the long run lol :)

06/08/20

hello! i took a short break from social media bc of life stuff, but i’m back bc i start school in a week! today i:

completed lists & dictionaries in python

finished my maths review cards from pre summer content

cycled to my friend’s house to drop off a paper

& i’m going to do a violin practice session this evening

summer studying challenge 6th aug: what book are you currently reading?

i just finished this is how you lose the time war, which i 100% recommend! now onto inferior by angela saini.

here’s a little school update which to be frank is more for me to look back on lasted this year than for tumblr, but anyway

did my lab work and handed in my assignment reports for 20% of my grade in physics and chem! really happy with both of them.

got into the uni space programme for this summer that i applied for in january! really really happy making :D

things are getting lowkey stressful, with four weeks until the easter holiday and the threat of schools closing due to covid19. really hoping we don’t have to though.

did my coursing for next year and i am officially taking advanced higher maths, ah chem and ah physics. v excited to not do english next year but i will miss french.

i’ve been reading a lot this year and am currently on my 16th of 2020 (for reference in 2019 i read 18 total) which i’m really loving.

i got straight As in my prelims which i’m over the moon about, and got top of my year for physics chem and french (somehow) so i’ve got a sweep at the awards ceremony ;) i also have my fingers crossed for junior dux but i guess we’ll see in june.

in conclusion i’m a nerd and happy about it. s5 has been My Year so far.

my tips for doing highers :)

(seeing as there are v few scottish studyblrs and highers are bloody difficult!)

(for non-scots, highers are exams we do in between gcse and a-level equivalents)

understand, don’t memorise. this applies to basically every class- if you understand why you do a certain method to solve a problem/ conjugate a verb/ analyse a poem then you can do it in every scenario

prepare to get stuff wrong. there is a significant difference between national 5s and highers, and most people i know took a confidence bump at the start of the year because of the sheer quantity of work. it’s okay!! it’s all learning and all learning is good

work with the right people. i sat with my friends in maths and desperately wish i hadn’t because i worked way better with people who actually challenged me to work hard! find people who are a similar level to you and work together

past papers. there are dozens of past papers online, far more than national 5s. watch out for content that isn’t in courses anymore! dunblane high school’s website has a great collection of past papers that i used loads

have time off. the workload in s5 is crazy so you need to balance your time. use any study periods to finish work and give yourself relax time in the evenings and at the weekends as much as you can

prelims are important but make sure you don’t burn out. as soon as you finish prelims you’ll likely start learning the next part of the course, and i know from experience that it is horrible to do when you’re completely exhausted after prelims. schedule days off into your prelim leave when you can!

i hope that helped somebody because s5 was a really difficult year for me and i wish i had known some of this at the start! if anybody happens to want tips on a particular subject, i got As in maths, physics, chem, french and english and would be more than happy to tell you what was helpful for me!! <3

thirty first of august - twenty nineteen

english is much much harder as higher than national 5. insanely high workload compared to last year and i can’t say i’m loving it.

29.06.20

today was the first day of my six week summer holiday and i’m already feeling very listless, so here is my plan for getting a big step up in russian. i’ve been loosely learning for a year so i know basic phrases and the alphabet but i want to use this time to really get to grips with it. so i’m posting this here because accountability is important! i’m hoping to fill up these sheets with vocab by the end too.

do things badly. make messy origami that vaguely resembles a crane, play piano with clashing notes, draw like you’re a child and dont care what it looks like, make mistakes and fail and mess up but for the love of god TRY.

i loveeeeeee nonlinear storytelling. show me where we are. now show me how we got here. the end before the beginning. show me how it was inevitable or how many chances we had to change things(nothing was ever going to change). let's meet in the middle as all the puzzle pieces slide into place hell yeah that's the good shit.