A hearty New year to you all!
I realise I'm a little behind the times with this post, mainly because I spent my Christmas holidays revising for mock exams, the first of which I had at 9am on the first day back - how cruel is that?!
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| How I looked |
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| How I felt |
Anyway, I had my final mock yesterday and I thought it was a breeze, although that probably means I completely fluffed up!
So I thought I'd try and squeeze a post in between my psychology homework and my biology homework.
On the subject of school, I'm really enjoying my lessons this year, much more so than in year 12 at AS, I'm finding biology much easier, although I'm glad we finally finished Unit 4 last week - no more photosynthesis! I'm telling you, I've studied photosynthesis every year since year 4 - I'm extremely bored of it! Anyway, Unit 5 of AQA Biology is really cool - there's DNA technology and genes and the nervous system, and all the cool human stuff, much better than plants IMO!
As for psychology, there were four options for OCR, of which two must be studied: Forensic, Health, Education, Sport.
My school does Forensic (as we offer law at GCSE) and Sport (because we're a sports and technology thingy - apparently). Personally I'd prefer education over Sport, but we don't start that section until next week so I'm not going to make my mind up yet! The other unit comprises of approaches and perspectives and evaluation, but we also have a section in the exam where we have to plan our own practical study based on the criteria we're given - I really enjoy this bit, hence why I liked yesterday's exam!
And finally, OCR B History (I dropped geography - I don't like the human side and that was all A2 consisted of). This year we study British imperialism with one teacher, 3 lessons a week, and have a controlled assessment in May (a really nice exam as long as you are properly prepared!) and with the other teacher we are doing coursework 1 lesson a week - "personal study" on the significance of a topic of our own choosing. I was originally going to do Pioneering Palaeontologists, but my research told me that would be extremely difficult in the time-frame, so I chose something I am even more passionate about - Scouts. My question is: "How significant was the birth of Scouting?" I've completed my first full-draft and am now changing bits as necessary, although I am over the 3000 word limit so I need to do some cutting down. There are 6 other students in my class and their topics are: The Aztecs, Leni Riefenstahl, The French Renaissance, Something to do with Poland, and Karl Marx.
I am also doing an EPQ (Extended project qualification) for AQA, as you will know if you have read my blog before. I was originally going to do it on settlement structures and build models, but I was advised against this and have instead decided to ask "Have human needs changed, and how has this affected our lifestyle?"
I'm actually quite enjoying this, but I am panicking about getting it completed to an A grade standard, I know that I'm well ahead of my classmates as we have just been told to begin writing and to have 3000 words by the 29th January - I'm curently on 2,700 while most haven't yet begun, however, I have a tendency to write what's in my head and am then unable to work out what order I should place it in. I follow the principle of "Don't get it right, get it writ", however, I often lose motivation to then get it "right" after its been "writ". I am getting better though and I'm going to spend Saturday on my EPQ and Sunday on the bits of homework that I should be doing as I write this post.
I think that'll do for school, I spend enough time with school work as it is, without writing about it endlessly!
I'll tell you what I'm looking forward to in 2014, perhaps that will help motivate me to finish this homework...
1. Turning 18 and going to the Warner Bros studio tour with my best friend - I will buy EVERYTHING!
2.Getting my EPQ done and dusted by March 26th - more free time!
3.Having my History coursework done by Easter - more revision time!
4.Having my history exam done by the second week of May - Only two subjects left!
6. Super long summer holiday!
5. Spending a long weekend with my oldest friend camping while everyone else is at prom - my logic was this - £35 for one night I won't enjoy with a bunch of people I don't like and also have to get a dress Vs £19 for 3 days with my oldest friend doing something we both love, camping by a beautiful lake before I leave for Uni......It was a pretty easy decision really. This is also instead of spending a fortune going to Marbella or somewhere with my friends who will spend the whole week in the hotel pool. I like adventure.
7. Moving to Uni - hopefully! I'm really looking forward to packing, is that weird?
I finally watched Toy story this Christmas and it made me want to take all my toys with me to Uni! Of course, anyone that has ever seen my room will understand that that will be impossible, so I don't doubt there will be many moments like this:
I told you earlier I spent the whole of the holidays revising - that wasn't strictly true - for the days before Christmas, up until Christmas eve, I was doing homework and sorting out my stuff in the attic - having a proper clear out, I'm not yet finished though so I'm continuing with that on Sunday if I get all my work done.
I also tried my hand at some new Jewellery, and I'm really happy with how it all turned out!
I'm so proud of the snowman earrings, but they took aaaages to make, I had to have a massage after each completion because I was in agony!
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| Aren't these snowman earrings adorable! I made a pair for myself to wear on Xmas day! £4 a pair |
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| My new rubber band bracelets - £3 for top two, £2 for third one, £1 for bottom. |
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| £1 each |
Anyhoo, I think that's a pretty good round-up of everything since my last post, and I should probably get on with this biology homework - I seem to have "inherited" procrastination from my Dad. See what I did there? eh?!
Alons-Y!
