The A-level thread

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Author	Message

gabor

Posted: Apr 22, 2009 at 10:14

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[Quoten]
Good job on getting an offer from all you're choices. From what I hear, London life can be very different. I sometimes you may not get a place near where you study so could end up travelling for a long time every morning! Not to mention that London is very expensive to live in. On the other hand London will be an exceptional experience, and different to anywhere else. Good luck with UCL.

I have my my Computing exam coming up on the 11th of May. This year I have Computing, Maths, Economics & Psychology exams to take.
Only exam I'm actually quite worried about is economics. The others I know that I can do well if I put effot in, but Economics has such a variety of questions, it's tough to revise for. I've been getting around 78% in my mock papers which is kind of cutting it a bit too fine for my target of at least 3 A's. Anyone got any good revision techniques for a subject like Economics? For Maths & Psychology I find the best way of learning to be just doing lots of past papers.[/Quoten]
Thanks! I'm used to living in big cities so that should be no problem. As for accommodation, 90% of UCL accommodation is within about 5-15 minutes walking, I put proximity as no. 1 priority on the accommodation application form.

London will be expensive but I was comparing it to other people's fees and the difference wasn't that big. I was thinking about this the other day and I think I'd probably hate living in a small town, I've always lived in big cities (1+ million people) and I think they suit me a lot more.

Good luck on the exams! As for revision techniques for economics... I'm not really sure, is doing lots of past papers not of as much use as with say maths?

harriieee wrote:

Awww not going to bath any more eh?

If you want my personal advice (you probably don't, but I have a massively inflated sense of my own importance) I wouldn't go to university in London, mainly because of the price thing, and just the fact that it's so damn big, if you really want to get out you have to travel for 45 minutes before you're anywhere near the edge. It's a personal thing. If I remember rightly from the GCSE thread you're a fairly high-flying academic; didn't think of going for Oxbridge/Durham or was it not your kind of thing?

I'm in a bit of a predicament now. I've got 4 offers for history from Edinburgh, Exeter, Nottingham and Sheffield, and one rejection from Oxford, all on deferred. My UMS scores are good enough to get 3 As if I work, Edinburgh (which looked f*ckin' awesome) has offered me three Bs. I can't take my Edinburgh offer and reapply to Oxford, I have to ditch it and start from scratch. I have good friends going to both.... and I still don't know if I want to go to Oxford, it still seems a little prenentious/competitive/too much work. There are things I like about the idea of Oxford and things I don't like; especially since my gf ditched me (she got into Ox on normal entry this year) a few pretensions have been stripped from afore my eyes. I'll probably end up reaplying just to see if I can get in, but if I lose my Edinburgh offer next year I won't be a happy child. Still, Sheffield sounds like fun....

Doing Maths, history, Latin this year by the way. Latin translation and Core Maths is killing me at the moment - I'm kinda riding my Maths AS score of 291/300 right now. First exam in 3-4 weeks; it's crunch time baby. Maybe I should get off pinkbike and work right now.

No haha, sorry.

Didn't even really consider Oxford or Cambridge, I realised I shouldn't have even applied to Imperial. I may have the grades (and possibly the intelligence? Not sure on that) for Oxbridge, but frankly I think I'd detest it - it's not the environment I'm looking for. I'm not obsessed with my subject and I'm not as smart as I'm cut out (the predicted 4 A's at A-Level isn't everything). I think UCL is a good compromise between good academics but at the same time a good social life.

What I hate is how everyone seemed to be shocked that I wasn't applying to Oxbridge (not talking about you but people I know in person, and when I say shocked I mean like literally open-mouthed). "You're not applying to Oxbridge?! But why? You'll waste all that potential bla bla bla." That's probably the phrase I hate hearing most. Potential? Just because I could do something doesn't mean I need to go do it.

Congratulations on the offers! Put in the effort and I'm sure you'll got those A's you'd like. Remember that you can't have study time without a lot of playtime, it was key to my 10A*s at GCSE. I got more by doing less, if you will. While people burnt themselves out studying 10 hours a day while on study leave I'd study for an hour, play videogames for 2, study another 2 hours, go for a long ride or something, go out, etc. Otherwise you'll become so stressed it'll affect your work.

Cheers

harriieee

Posted: Apr 22, 2009 at 10:47

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Yeah f*ck that, one thing I've learnt is that no-one else can tell you what you want to do; my school is obsessed with getting people into "top universities" so there's not really any good advice to get there. If it's not for you it's not for you... I just really, really can't decide at the moment.... Edinburgh just looks so fricken great (the sport is off the wall as well) and that'll be an extra year on my course, which sure won't be a bad thing.... erghhhh.... I've got a year to think about it though. Hopefully I'll have some life-changing gap-year experience and that will make me decide (highly doubt it though....)

gabor

Posted: Apr 22, 2009 at 12:37

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harriieee wrote:

Definitely, glad to hear I'm not the only one. Imperial this, Oxbridge that, but I find that they're pushing people for that sort of universities even if they don't seem to want to do that. I already had the headmaster push me into doing 5 A-levels which was, for a lack of a better expression, utter shit (3 sciences, maths and Spanish). Now, Spanish is piss easy and I speak it at roughly the same level as English but it was still taking up some of my time and I was sick to death of essays, I wanted a calculator and a sliderule not a pencil and a short story to dissect so I just dropped Spanish for my A2 year.

Edinburgh looks sweet. Make sure you look into the course properly though and ask them about the entry point, reading through some of the stuff they sent me for chemical engineering there was a chance that I would've started in the 2nd year had I not rejected their offer in the end, I think it's something to do with how in Scotland school ends a year earlier so the first year is actually very similar to A-level in terms of difficulty? I'm not sure to be honest.

Have you got anything planned for your gap year? Take a year off, think about it, meditate a little. It's good to think things over.

crazygeorge

Posted: Apr 23, 2009 at 10:14

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harriieee wrote:

Doing Maths, history, Latin this year by the way. Latin translation and Core Maths is killing me at the moment - I'm kinda riding my Maths AS score of 291/300 right now. First exam in 3-4 weeks; it's crunch time baby. Maybe I should get off pinkbike and work right now.

Go latin buddies!

Need to start seriously learning my cicero and ovid! My translation should be ok though!
C1 mock tomorrow @ 8.45! Should be a nice wake up! Also got C2 and M1. Both should be ok though. History and Geog are rolling along nicely!
On the subject of scottish unis; what do people think about St Andrews?

PS gabor, when did you last use a slide rule?

harriieee

Posted: Apr 23, 2009 at 11:44

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crazygeorge wrote:

On the subject of scottish unis; what do people think about St Andrews?

If you want my honest opinion, there would be too many posh eejits from public school at St Andrews.... if there's one thing worse than an Oxbridge person, it;s a failed Oxbridge person. Aberdeen and Edinburgh look far nicer places to be for a start.... my eldest brother went to Aberdeen and loved it.

gabor

Posted: Apr 23, 2009 at 11:47

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Wtf, looks like I didn't hit "Submit." Argggh. Anyway, retyped:

>_> It was a figure of speech George.

On the topic of mocks, do you guys only have very few mocks? I see you treating them as extremely serious exams but perhaps they have a different meaning to you guys over there. Here we have 5-6 mocks a week so we don't really study much for them, if at all (at least I don't) seeing as it's been like this for over a month now, so they're definitely not cut out to be important.

Pasty

Posted: Apr 26, 2009 at 9:39	Quote
i changed all my courses about a month ago and i'm truly in the shit right now.... maths, further maths, physics and computing, it probably wasn't a good idea changing this late but still. What do people think of loughborough and bath as uni's ?

crazygeorge

Posted: Apr 26, 2009 at 11:51

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harriieee wrote:

If you want my honest opinion, there would be too many posh eejits from public school at St Andrews.... if there's one thing worse than an Oxbridge person, it;s a failed Oxbridge person.

Cheers, its a fair old way not to be seriously looking at it. Might try and visit edinburugh though.

gabor wrote:

>_> It was a figure of speech George.

Nah, not really important IMHO. Though doing badly can mean teachers jump on your back and dent your confidence.

gabor

Posted: Apr 26, 2009 at 13:57	Quote
Pasty: I've heard great things about both, I don't think you can go wrong with either. George: I had a C2 Friday morning, I got a 93% hungover as hell, not having studied anything and having slept three hours. The maths is pretty dialed at the moment, can't say the same for chemistry...

crazygeorge

Posted: Apr 27, 2009 at 8:27	Quote
Nice one gabor... Semi failed M1 this morning - couldnt remember any tension stuff but the rest was ok. C1 and 2 are going ok though.

beanhead44

Posted: May 5, 2009 at 9:38	Quote
sounds like ive got off easy ive only got three exams (geography, biology and chemistry) over 2 days lol i really should start revising tho. anyone going to bristol uni ? be good to meet some like minded peoplle i.e bikes lol

gabor

Posted: May 5, 2009 at 13:03	Quote
Chemistry unit 3 practical on Monday, uhh. And I've got a massssive rave on Saturday which I can't miss, this is going to be interesting.

Pasty

Posted: May 5, 2009 at 13:05

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gabor wrote:

Chemistry unit 3 practical on Monday, uhh.

And I've got a massssive rave on Saturday which I can't miss, this is going to be interesting.

i find situations like this really relaxing, for gcse's we had a few small basketball tournaments scheduled in around them just to help us relax a bit, definately helps release any stress you have

dirtjumpur

Posted: May 5, 2009 at 13:10	Quote
I got some shitty "personal finance" FSMQ exam next Tuesday, should be a doddle. Week after I have two maths exams on Wednesday afternoon, then two physics exams on Thursday afternoon. Should be FUNFUN

gabor

Posted: May 5, 2009 at 13:11

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Pasty wrote:

gabor wrote:

Chemistry unit 3 practical on Monday, uhh.

And I've got a massssive rave on Saturday which I can't miss, this is going to be interesting.

i find situations like this really relaxing, for gcse's we had a few small basketball tournaments scheduled in around them just to help us relax a bit, definately helps release any stress you have

Nah, I'm definitely fine with it (hell, it'll be good to relax as you say, my motto has always been to study hard you have to party even harder), I just don't like the idea of stumbling home half blind and half deaf around 8am because the sleeping time and whatnot will be completely off on Sunday night, so it could be bad. I'm not sure if it'd be better to sleep at 8am and wake up at 2pm and then just try to sleep at a normal time or to try to get a full 8-10 hours of sleep and then just sleep as soon as I can on Sunday night (probably around 2am haha). Any ideas?

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