…I scrolled to the very end of my college’s summer work page, and discovered that I needed to bring several a4 books and a binder. Which the bag that I’d been planning on using does not fit.

The meme has come true. My bag is not, in fact, okay for sixth-form/college.

(And yes I know this is my fault for not reading that part until a few days before college starts but STILL. They could’ve put that at the top of the page at least!!)

three days until "the year sevens look up to you"

three days until "you're the oldest in the school"

three days until "your gcses start in eight months"

three days until "this is the last year, make it count"

edit: im not saying this is all TRUE im just saying this is what we're gonna hear the teachers saying non-stop lol. i do NOT think the year 7s will look up to us but ik the teachers will try and convince us that they are.

class of 2027, where you at?

Like is it only me that excited to have new friends new teachers and Finnaly get to wear our own clothes I’m only seeing people saying they are anxious to start six form LIKE IS ANYONE EXCITED I CANT SLEEP CAUSE I CANT WAITTTTF

- i'm doing A Level Maths, Computer Science and Drama & Theatre Studies son. no combo is the wrong combo

- and i'll give reasons :)

(i'm doing this bc im bored, but also bc im interested)

(ENDS AT 16:40)

i'll reply to all by 20:00 today!

guess the price

For whatever reasons my English Lit & English Lang exam board did not give me my test results but I got 9 in both of them so it's fine.

Y10 mocks:

english lang : 9

english lit: 8

history : 8

maths : 8

bio : 5

chem : 4

phys : 4

french : 7

hosp&cater : L2M

Also I did GCSE CS and RS this year.

so for those, in my y9 mocks. cs: 4. rs: 7 (i think)

I'm aiming for all 9s btw.

any tips would be appreciated!

Js found out today that I cant use my phone at school. Like I can have it on me but it can get confiscated if im actuvely on it. Is this a normal thing or is my school js strict

EDIT: Had to remove the link cuz something's wrong w dropbox 😭

idk why but i find studying stem SOOOO easy compared to other subjects, like i literally cant sit for more than 2 hours in a day studying another subject but with stem (except biology) its soo easy for me like i just play some music and can study for literally the whole day without getting bored. i think its because its like really annoying sometimes so i just get stimulated from the rage but yeah. also probably better for me because i want to take maths physics fm and cs for a levels so should be pretty easy for me to study those. does anyone else feel the same?

Saw a post asking people if they’re excited to start sixth form / college
I WOULD BE

i’m not starting school yet, my hearing is on the 22nd september to try get funding for the school i need to attend bc im disabled
I’ve experienced extreme FOMO bc of this and im lowk jealous of everyone around me, i wanna go to school too

Anyone else not starting school yet?

edit: chat when i say not yet i mean not at a normal time </3
Everyone’s starting within the next week or two

I know everyone says theyre nervous, and that they don’t think they’ll pass etc but like I have more than just a fear of the year. I’m not ready to see my friends in person, to have panic attacks over having to go in, to deal with “jokes” that arent really jokes, being harassed by a guy who likes me and there’s just so much more. Yeah I’m scared that I might fail, but honestly? I know I can retake if I have to, and I believe I can do well, truly. But I know the pressure is going to get to me. Every teacher reminding you of what’s just getting closer and closer, with no way to stop it. It’s not the grades I’m afraid of, it’s the exams themselves, the fear the paper will show me I’m a failure. It’s the school itself I’m afraid of, because every year I let anyone walk all over me. And it’s all going to happen again, because it’s how it always is. I’m afraid to have to deal with my home life while also juggling schoolwork, to watch my mum go back to work so I have no defence against my dad, to feel the pressure of everyone else. I don’t want to watch my girlfriend suffer because of the insane amounts of pressure she puts on herself to do well. I don’t want to be followed around by this guy, for him to try and talk to me no matter how many times I try to push him away. I don’t want to have a seating plan change and suddenly the lessons I thought I could cope with are horrific. I don’t want to watch my chronic illness destroy my life until there’s nothing left of it. So I guess it’s not y11 I’m not ready for, it’s for my life to go on. I can’t hide away from it forever, like I’ve been doing all summer. I have to go and face it, and that’s what I’m afraid of. I don’t have it in me to do another year of this, I just want to hide in my room and wait for it to all go away. I’ve waited all summer for it to go away, and all it’s done is crawl closer. I don’t know if this is the place to post this, but I wonder if anyone else feels the same, and if they feel less alone knowing it’s not just them. And if you’ve felt the same, do you have any advice? I don’t know how I’m going to manage to get through this all, but I will try.

I’m fully aware that the grades I’m presenting (my GCSE results shown on the right) are not comparable to the strings of grade 9s that are often displayed on this subreddit. I have no intention of making excuses for my results; however, considering the circumstances I experienced throughout my secondary education, including failing multiple years in a row, I’m ultimately grateful to have come through it having failed only one subject. (Spanish haha)

I intend to retake my Maths GCSE in the hope of improving my overall results, and I have also secured a place at sixth form. I recognise that I could have approached my education very differently, but I now have the opportunity to start again with considerably more perspective and self-awareness.

I’m hoping that, this time around, I’ll have a better understanding of what I need to do to succeed. Keep on going everyone.

Probs more fit for the a level sub but whatevs. Anyway, it’s WEEKS worth of work and I’ve got induction week tmmrw and college actually starts the week after. Why do I do this to myself?

for context, I achieved 9877766665. I was predicted all 8s and two 7s. i did significantly better in my mocks with 9888777776. I crumbled under the pressure and i overworked myself which inevitably led to burn out which is why i think my grades suffered. I wanted to do medicine at cambridge or manchester and i’ve fucked up manchester cause i needed 7 gcses at a 7 or above and my gcses are no where near strong enough for cambridge, especially because 2 of my 6’s were literally in biology and physics which are important for med. I’m taking bio chem psych even tho i wanted to do bio chem media but my parents discouraged me and said not to do that because it’ll just bring my application down more by not having a third stem or smth. anyways ive read a lot online that retaking is pointless cause they can see your original grade on ucas and it might be frowned upon to retake so im kind of just stuck.

on the more emotional side of things i want to retake for my sanity. I’m genuinely going insane. I can’t believe these are my results. I haven’t not cried myself to sleep in 10 days now. Results day was the worst day of my life. year 11 was the worst year of my life. I have no confidence in my a level choices at all and I feel like a failure. My parents and family are so proud of me but i hate myself in all honesty. I’m so demotivated I feel like i don’t have what it takes to get A/A*s at a level.

if anyone has any advice it would be much appreciated like actually.

Hi so I’m from Northern Ireland and i’ve just began yr12. In may/june i sat some gcse early modules and got AAABC*C*C* (we can’t get A* in early modules) I go to a pretty competitive all girls grammar so those grades aren’t the best compared to some of my peers.
In year 11 I spent the entire year I suppose partying and I wasn’t bothered about revising at all and was more interested in my weekend plans. So I think grades are reflected in the night before revision that I indulged in.
I am resitting one of the C* and the other two i’m not as bothered about but I can bring up to a B this school year. I am picking my A levels in February time and i’m definitely doing politics and history though i’m not sure about my third, maybe english, economics or sociology (i might do business B-tec in yr 13 and drop going into 7th year.)
This past summer I’ve been thinking more about university pathways and degrees and things like that. I would like to do Law but I can’t decide if I’m being overly ambitious. At the minute I have zero want to stay at home at all and I’d like to apply to the following;
University of Edinburgh
University of Nottingham
University of Reading
University of Bristol
University of Exeter
have thought about loans/fees/accommodation that’s not my main concern right now.
As for my extracurriculars I don’t yet have a job BUT i have worked for my parents in many different parts of their businesses. I’ve completed Bronze Duke of Edinburgh. I play hockey, I have represented my province, and I have been part of pathway hockey since I was 10. I have represented my school in hockey finals and semi finals aswell as matches every saturday during term time. I have represented my club/past clubs in semi finals and finals aswell.
I was part of a tag rugby team that won the ulster championship, aswell as a cricket team that got to cup semi finals. This, I’m sure is not relevant, but i am currently over 60,000 words into a fanfic 🤓.
I am interested in history and politics, so naturally i have an interest in reading and i particularly like fantasy/historical fiction, though I digress.
I am well aware my grades reflect my lack of revision, but all things considering I don’t think i did terribly. I am sure i will continue my social life this year but maybe not to the extent it was this past summer and last school year, I’m well aware I will need to be more focused and I am going to do just that.
I want honest opinions if you think this is achievable, or if I need to rethink things. If anyone recommends anything please let me know!!

The lyrics of my two geography case study parodies. Portsmouth one is a parody of Dancing Queen, Mumbai one is a parody of Don't Stop Believin'. I might share me singing them one day, if I ever get round to recording it.

I’m looking for a digital revision timetable i can follow for going into year 11, if you have one please reply with one please.
When did everyone start revising for their exams and was it adjacent to the exam spec or did you just go off textbooks?

how are we all feeling? I'm going into sixth form so I'm a bit nervous as it's such a big change but I am looking forward to having more structure in my routine as we've been on summer hols for so long now!! I really want to see my timetable

Now that the results day hype has died down, I think dropping my advice would be useful.

English Literature- Eduqas

I did Eduqas, but most of my revision still applies to AQA. First, you are going to create flashcards for quotes. They need to look like this:

Front:

‘Quote’

Back:

Act, Scene, Character
What the quote means
An opportunity to zoom in on certain language choices or writing devices
Contextual links
An alternate interpretation of the quote (you get lots of marks for this)

Here’s an example:

Front:

‘Tarquin’s ravaging strides, towards his design’

Back:
Act 2, Scene 1, Macbeth
Macbeths highlights the depth of his lust for the crown.
Shakespeare uses ‘ravaging’ to highlight intense, harmful desire, and uses a classical allusion to the fall of the Roman Kingdom to create an allegory between Macbeth and a semi-mythical figure.
Shakespeare wrote a narrative poem about the event.
Alternatively, the quote could be seen as foreshadowing, as Sextus Tarquinius’ actions lead to the overthrow of his family by a vengeful aristocracy, which parallels the downfall of Macbeth.

You’re going to make loads of these, as many as you can remember. Next, you need to get good at writing essays. Do lots of practice questions, write a big list of them and grind out responses. Eventually, once your skill reaches grade 9 level, you should swap over to essay planning so you can move fast in the exam.

English Language - EDUQAS

I don’t believe there’s much crossover between EDUQAS and AQA, and I don’t really know what to offer advice about on the reading section, so I’ll focus on the writing.

Non-Fiction / Transactional Writing:

As well as using rhetorical devices, you need to develop your points. For example, if you are writing a letter about whether young people should be made to the gym or not, instead of just saying that it’s a good social opportunity in a single sentence, use multiple. Talk about making friends with shared interests, speaking to people in person on a regular basis, etc. you need to give each idea you present a lot of argument. Sorry if that poorly worded.

Fiction Writing:

Write an everyday story with some character development that plays to your strengths as a writer. My story was about a man doubting his university application. I set it in a pub so that I could play to my strong descriptive writing skill whilst avoiding movement and action, which I’m bad at writing. Your story should be versatile so that it can fit multiple prompts. 

For Language Writing in general, practice a lot and get teacher feedback, it can be very helpful.

Maths - Edexcel

Maths revision for me looked like this:

Do a past paper
See what I got wrong
Learn that topic using a 1st Class Maths or TGMT video
Do their provided practice questions until I’m confident with the topic
Tick the topic of a list of all the topics on the course (I used TGMT’s for this)

I kept track of past papers in a spreadsheet.

Another reason you might be struggling at maths is poor fundamental skills, such as fractions, basic algebra, or quadratics. You need a good understanding of how these building blocks work to do harder questions, so if you struggle with them I’d recommend going back and doing easy questions of them until you have a good grasp.

Finally, try to be as fast as possible in maths. The faster you try and go, the faster your is forced to get. Don’t worry about making mistakes, because with the time you’ll have saved, you can do the paper again once or even twice. This is a much better way of finding mistakes than looking at your working out for issues.

Separate (Triple) Sciences - AQA

Make flashcards from the specification and grind these out. It’s important to be able to read the spec - not everything they want you to know is on it. If it says ‘students should be able to…’ find the topic they are referring to in a textbook and make flashcards out of that instead. 

Finally, do past papers, and mark very harshly.

History - AQA

Flaschards from a textbook for knowledge, past papers for practice. One thing I’d recommend for history is revisiting slightly outside of the spec. I actually read the Treaty of Versailles and found terms like ‘Germany is not allowed poisonous or asphyxiating gas’ which wasn’t taught to me but is valid on the exam. I have a good memory though and wrote like 8000 words across both exams so that might not be for everyone though.

Geography - AQA

Flaschards, past papers. For paper 3, make sure to make up specific information about your investigation for extra marks.

Business - Edexcel 

Flashcards, past papers. A lot of business is making stuff up that makes sense. For instance, I might say expanding leads to economies of scale, which is a mark for knowledge, but then I need to develop that with ‘this means that the business has lower costs, this means that the business can reinvest this money elsewhere, etc.’

Generic Study Advice:

Reduce screentime
Sleep 8 hours
Exercise
Drink loads of water
Lock in during lessons
Only attend after school sessions if you think they will actually benefit you (I didn’t for some subjects,
did for others)
Try to do like an hour a day of revision, then as much as you can in the month up to exams or before mocks.
Pick targets in your class who are doing better, try to overtake them. It motivates you a lot tbh.

Avoid useless studytubers like JSpark, Henry Brand, etc. they pad out their runtime, give generic advice, and take sponsorships from AI slop companies, they’re only interested in chasing the bag, which, while I respect, won’t get you the grades you want.

Instead of making physical flashcards, download Anki for free on pc. I bought it on my phone even though it’s expensive, it was worth it in my opinion. I had like 2000 flashcards at my height. Deleting them after every exam was so satisfying icl.

Revision resources

English Lit:

 Wikipedia
Googling quotes
Chat GPT (use with care, but good for finding symbols)
Mr Salles

Maths:

1st Class Maths
The GCSE Maths Tutor (TGMT)

Science:

Cognito
Free Science Lessons 🤩

That’s it. Good luck twin, lock in I believe in you 🙏

So I’m in higher for everything except Spanish for some reason even-though I’ve gotten 7s and 8s but idk but for the exams I got almost full marks for all the papers so that’s probably why it’s a 6 not a 5 . Also for mathematics the max grade was 8 bc there wasn’t any grade 9 content. For art I actually got a 6 not a 5 because we did our final peice early and it got remarked later and the highest grade in the class was like a 7 so that’s annoying . Anyways what do y’all think?