#because that's all that was getting me through gcse english lit

[wings-of-flying]

right, well as the drama begins, i'm off to bed

[journey-to-the-attic]

re-reading the minecraft chapter for the billionth time (it's my favourite....) and maybe i've been doing too much english lit lately but please tell me if it's deliberate symbolism in the scene where ik finds satan on the iceberg.

let me explain. ik struggling to climb up the iceberg represents all the setbacks she encounters through the year, like getting attacked or her own hangups, but she keeps climbing to get to where satan is at the top, which is her determination to offer kindness even though it gets her hurt. and then she slips and loses her progress, which foreshadows the moment when her relationship with the others is sort of 'reset' when they lose their memories later, but satan pulls her up, which is like the brothers reaching for her rather than the other way around, and bringing her up to the top (to the family). also symbolic since satan is the only brother who remembers at first.

please tell me i'm right because this is destroying me??

unfortunately i didn't do that deliberately, but this is an absolutely valid analysis of the scene! i won't pretend to be an eng lit expert (it's been so long since i did the gcse), but i really like your interpretation - crazy the sort of things that fall into place without you noticing during the process...

[jgracie]

Does your school require you to take 4 a levels? Because most university courses only require 3 at most so doing 4 is extra work and might not be worth it. I did 4 a levels and even though two were maths and further maths so there wasn’t as much content as 4 separate subjects, even just timetabling a 4th a level meant I had a lot less 3 periods than my friends doing 3 and hence had to do a lot more work outside of school hours so I would consider that when choosing options.

Also practicals aren’t really as bad as they sound. You don’t need the actual practical to work you just need to prove you have the skills to theoretically do it correctly and usually you can redo them as many times as needed until you pass them.

I know coursework sounds more stressful but sometimes it’s nice to go into an exam knowing that you’ve at least got some of the grade sorted but it honestly completely depends what kind of person you are.

If you want any more advice just lmk and I’m happy to DM you or anything. I did Maths, FM, chemistry and eng lit a levels and have just finished my first year of a chem degree so I’ve made it out the other side of a levels and survived so whilst my advice may not be great I have lived the experience 🫡🫡

no they don’t!! my school says minimum 3 maximum 4 :) i just chose to do 4 because i’m extra like that and as someone who currently does 9 gcses and wishes she did 10 the idea of dropping to a third of the subjects i do rn is frightening for me even tho it’s probably the right thing to do w the workload 😭😭

i don’t plan to do stem because i’ve never been interested but i fear if i don’t have at least one science in my little subject roster i’ll lose it idk maybe it’s cz i do triple rn i’m a little attached LMAOOO 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 i already had to choose between maths and english lit because the idiot who made the blocks at my school decided to put them in the same block 🤬 acc so mad ab this because i love maths it’s the one stem subject i enjoy doing but eng lit is more important i fear😣 i think i may start out w 4 and then drop bio if i feel like the workload is too much!!!

and omg the fact that i don’t have to get the practicals right is SOOOO relieving omg because they stress me out sm 😭 this yr one of my friends in the year above was telling me ab how all the ppl who sat the physics as practical walked out shaking and crying cz it was so hard and ever since then that’s been weighing on my mind even tho physics is the last subject on earth i’d ever take because my hatred for it is truly astronomical 😬

and lowk ur right ab the coursework thing cz i have a friend who does the same exam board as me for eng lit but her school made them do coursework instead of paper 2 and idk i was living vicariously through the fact that she had one less paper to sit 😭😭😭 my issue w coursework is i don’t trust myself to not get lazy w it at some point 😣

THANK U SOOO MUCH 😭 ur acc the sweetest ever i love love love u and will def let u know / update u when i start y12 in september!!! ur subject choices r so impressive im acc in awe 🙏🏼 CONGRATULATIONS ON FINISHING UR FIRST YEAR IN UNI!!! that’s so so amazing u should be sooo proud of urself fr :)

[samnelsonwrites]

Chapter 2: A Mundane Monday Morning

Monday mornings always begin the same way: I drag myself out of bed, get some coffee, and begin the dreaded walk to school. The scenery, the people, and the music I listen to at full volume is always the same. I meet Jamie at the school's main entrance; god, I despise this place. I always wonder why I didn't switch for 6th Form. I attend Viridis Grammar, a Co-Ed school full of students who have no chance of passing any exams, let alone attending university. I'm not smart in the least; I didn't get any grades higher than a B in my GCSEs, and yet I'm the smartest person here. It really just goes to show how dumb students are.

My friends and I are deemed "nerds" since we are not screwing up classes. We've all been friends since year 7 and we're extremely close. We haven't allowed anyone new into our friend group because we know it will ruin our dynamic. Tori is the eccentric one among us, and she is where the energy is. If she's around me a lot, my introverted self finds her a little socially draining. Imogen, I believe, is the "trendy" one among us. She has always been up to date on the latest trends and is constantly criticising our sense of fashion; it was irritating initially, but now we all roll our eyes at her when she starts being "influencer Immi," as we call her. She’s the token straight friend. Max is Imogen's boyfriend; I'm not quite certain how they hooked up since Max is the quiet, nose-in-a-book type of guy and Imogen is quite the contrary. Max doesn't say much, but when he does, it's usually with a witty remark. And then there's Jamie, my boyfriend. I feel like he's the only one who truly understands me, but I still feel alone. We've been dating for a year and a half, and I think it's safe to say things are going swimmingly. Jamie is the coolest person in our group; he is the lead vocalist and guitarist in a band called "Purely Purple," so named because all of the instruments in the band are purple. I am a huge fan of the band and go to every concert they perform at. One of their YouTube videos has received over 16K views. I imagine them becoming well-known one day.

“How y’doing?” Greets Jamie.

“Couldn’t be better” I replied sarcastically. Jamie grinned at me as if my comment was hilarious. He leaned in and brushed his lips against mine—instant butterflies. You would have thought that I would have gotten used to the idea of Jamie kissing me but no, I haven’t, I feel as if we are still in the “Honeymoon Phrase” as Imogen likes to call it. 

Imogen and Max walked through the gates, clearly arguing, as they frequently do. Argue one minute, then fall hopelessly in love the next. It's as if they're an elderly couple. Absolutely adorable. 

"Are you okay?" "Fine," Max grunted as he aggressively pushed past me.

"What in the world happened this time?" Jamie asked.

"It's just about how Max doesn't pay enough attention to me," Imogen responded.

"Oh my God, Imogen, he lavishes you with attention; quit bitching!" I sigh.

"I'd like for us to be like you guys." She directed her finger at us. "You guys can't stay away from each other for long."

"Immi, different people express affection in various ways, but we just like PDA," Jamie explained.

"Yeah, I don't think Max wants to engage in PDA." I agree.

The school bell rang at 8.30 a.m., indicating the start of classes. Jamie and I are heading to English lit.

"Ah, Twelfth Night, the gayest play ever," I said.

"Viola is obviously struggling with gender dysphoria," Jamie explained.

Viola would be someone I frequently associate with. I definitely have gender dysphoria, just like Viola. I really want to tell Jamie about my gender fluidity, yet I'm not sure how. I guess I need to find the right moment. 

"Hey, Jamie?" "How did you realise you were non-binary?" I ask.

"I suppose I've always known to some extent. I've always associated more with men than a woman, but I wasn't sure I was entirely a man."

"Huh, did you have a lightbulb moment or was it a gradual process?"

"I actually realised I'm not cis about 2 years ago, then came out to you a few months later, what's the sudden interest?"

Shit, do I have to come out now? Or no? Why am I asking this, did I completely screw up? "I don't think through my questions." Oh, I was just wondering" Is that a sufficient excuse? Will they buy it?

"All right," they said.

For the remainder of the English lesson, we sat in complete silence. I was replaying the conversation we just had in my head, cringing at how I handled it. After what felt like the lengthiest lesson ever, the bell finally rang at 9.30 a.m. 

"What are you going to do after school?" Jamie inquired.

"I'm not sure, probably curled in blankets in front of the TV, watching His Dark Materials or something."

"So nothing,"

"Sums it up"

"Would you want to come to mine? We could watch His Dark Materials together?"

"Sure. At 4, I'll meet you at the gates." I grinned.

Mundane Monday isn't so mundane after all now I'm going to Jamie's after school. Although I can see how the evening will play out. I predict we will watch about 10 minutes of His Dark Materials before Jamie does something so incredibly hot that my immense attraction to him will overpower all of my senses and we will start necking it. It's a tradition.

The remainder of the day dragged on. I was very excited about the evening. I attempted to finish all of my schoolwork at lunch and failed terribly since Tori was telling me about a band she really wants to see, The Ark.  I enjoy The Ark, but I wouldn't want to go to one of their gigs since the fans are so intense. When one of the guys, I believe it was Rowan, had a girlfriend, a jealous fan hurled a brick at his head. A bit mental, most of them are screaming teenagers who have nothing better to do than fantasise about shagging one of the members. Don't blame them, Jimmy Kaga Ricci is a snack. 

[btsvsmysanity]

OK so I've seen a lot of people talking about how "BTS isn't the same" after Permission to Dance got released yesterday. Now, I wasn't going to open my proverbial mouth about this but I write fanfic and readers have gotten friendly with me on twitter so I'm waiting for someone to ask me at some point. What I'm going to say here, I won’t be able to say to them because it's an account for my writing and there's a level of pseudo-professionalism I keep up. So basically this is me getting it all out so I can be like "Oh yeah, I love it" when it eventually gets brought up (honestly, I hate twitter so much, I just wanted to write my angsty fanfic in peace without people wanting Namjin smut and not taking no for an answer)

Okay, I'm just going to say it, I don't really like Permission to Dance and you know what, I'm okay with that. I also don't like BTS Cypher 1 (from 2013), I don't like Where You From (2014) or Moving On (2015). Plus a couple of others. That's fine because I don't expect myself to like all of their songs, it's just not going to happen.

In terms of an apparent decline in quality for BTS;

I haven’t been so excited for an album to come out that I barely sleep and then listened to it non-stop for the whole of the first day since Map of the Soul: 7. Don’t get me wrong, there are songs I adore on BE (Looking at you, Blue & Grey) but unfortunately neither Dynamite or Life Goes On was among them. I also struggled with BE because it tended towards the mellow side and while BTS' slower and ballad-type songs end up being among my favourites, they take me longer to get into, especially without some up-tempo songs to carry me through the album on my first run through.

However, I don’t blame that on the quality of the music. Aside from the things I've explained above, the thing that really hooked me on BTS at the start was getting into the theories so obviously the albums with an overarching "plot" pull me in more. And some of it is just down to personal preference. I mean, of all of BTS albums, there are 2 albums where I never skip any song (for those interested, they are: HYYH 2 and MoS: Persona) because some songs I just don't like, and some songs it just depends on my mood and sometimes I'm just stuck in my ways (Sorry, Kookie but 2! 3! will always be the fansong for me as much as I enjoy Magic Shop). And you know which albums I always say are my favourites? Dark and Wild and LY: Tear. Because I know I won't ever like every song they put out but I love 90%+ of it so BTS still own my soul.

Now, on the topic of them releasing English language songs.

I mean, they can say what they want- they're doing it to get better sales in America which is a whole other issue that I'm not qualified to dissect.

Do I like them? As I've already said, I'm not keen on Dynamite or Permission to Dance. But that’s because (and Butter is included in this), they just don't feel like BTS songs.

When Dynamite came out, I felt bad about that and so I had an idea and looked up the people credited with writing/producing the song. You know who wasn’t on there? The in-house BigHit production team (other than pdogg for "recording engineering") or a single BTS member. It's 1am so I'm not checking now but I'm sad and I've read a lot of the production credits for BTS songs and you know who's always on there? The rapline. Because they write their own verses, at the very least. That's why they don't feel like BTS to me, because BTS just singing the song isn't enough. And speaking of the rapline writing their lyrics, that brings me very nicely to my second point...

The lyrics aren't great. I mean, compared to other English language pop songs, they're amazing but compared to BTS' Korean lyrics? They don't hold a candle to the poetry and the word play they achieve in their Korean lyrics. People that I know have heard these English language songs and said to me something along the lines of "Why do you rave about their lyrics? They're pretty basic" and it makes me want to scream because they're not wrong but also, I wrote a mini-essay once on the lyrics of Spring Day because they're so beautiful and meaningful. I feel like it's almost dumbing down BTS and I'm there, trying to explain to non-ARMY about all these nuances and messages in their music. And it's not like you can't be poetic in English, I have awful memories of doing my English lit GCSE that say otherwise, the writers just need to try harder.

I know what some people might say, they're releasing these upbeat songs to break into the market better then they might release something more meaningful. To that I say: you can do both and BTS have before. The song that comes into my mind is Baepsae. That song slaps (THEY CALL ME (CALL ME) BAEPSAE... sorry) but they still managed to talk about the unfair expectations on younger generations who don't have the advantages of the older ones. And to me, that's BTS, music with a message. I know so many ARMY love BTS for that. We've all seen stories of how BTS have saved people's lives. I've been in some very dark places mentally and it was BTS that pulled me out of it by telling me the dawn right before the sun rises is the darkest and that loving myself is harder than loving others. That's the BTS I fell in love with. Not meaningless pop that, while I enjoy it because I am a basic bitch who loves a good beat, I can get from a hundred other artists.

I don't really know where I was going with this but to wrap up:

If you like Permission to Dance, all power to you, my friend. Life is short so go enjoy the song, sing it in the shower, whatever, be free.

If you don’t like it, that's also fine. And if you're like I was with Dynamite, wondering why you're not feeling it because this is BTS, you're supposed to love it, maybe some of what I've said will resonate with you and you can figure out your own reasons why.

I look forward to BTS' next Korean album but until then, I'm going to keep enjoying the hundreds of songs I love by them

[klavierpanda]

Just got part way through a video trying to explain why English lit is 'the most important subject'. Sure I agree that there's value in critically evaluating media, however, the way it's currently structured doesn't actually allow for that, in the same way that the current way maths is taught doesn't allow for the actual development of skills (I think everyone should be taught how to understand statistics even just at a basic level, that way it would be a lot harder for people to pull figures out of their arse).

My experience with English Literature GCSE was pretty awful, sure I did learn how to be critical to some extent but most of it actually came after I'd completely finished it. This isn't going to be a wholly universal experience because I'm sure a lot of people had lovely teachers, but mine gaslight into making me think I was going to fail, and honestly I don't think I've fully worked through that. All I learnt was how to rote learn preplanned essays so that I was likely to be able to answer all the questions in the exams.

I'd like to stress once again that this isn't just a problem with English lit, and my reaction to the video is blown up because of my trauma. The problem lies in how it's taught, how pretty much all subjects are taught. I'm not the first person to point this out.

It's a lot easier for me to talk about maths because being at university, it's quite clear how much better it is here than in secondary. There is almost definitely people who were traumatised by the way Maths is taught for GCSE, I know there is a sentiment of elitism in maths (and all of academia) at all levels of 'if you don't understand it's your fault'. Most of what you're taught isn't applicable to most of life, so it fails to be generally useful. And if you're interested in maths, the way it's taught isn't a true reflection of what maths it's actually like, heck even A Levels fall short of this.

Critically evaluating media is an invaluable skill that we should all be taught how to do at some level, but English Literature shouldn't be the only way we do that. A lot of what I've learnt is actually from listening to other people talk about philosophical concepts, movies, books, TV shows, and none of it has ever been framed through the same lense that English literature is taught at school.

I get that the goal of English lit is to piece together a view of a text by looking at the fine details and how those interact with the rest of the text but I was never taught how to do that, and I can't be the only one who feels that way either.

[bluescreening]

Practical GCSE Advice

Tips From A New Year 12 Who Somehow Got All 9s

Don’t worry, I’m not becoming a studyblr. I’m writing this on results day as a sort of farewell to GCSEs and to impart some “wisdom” upon the youngsters before I move on to A-levels. I’m going to keep this to specific, practical things you can do to improve, none of that vague nonsense. Subject-specific tips for maths, geography, triple science, language, literature, graphic comms and comp sci under the fold because this is too bloody long already.

General Tips:

Don’t go revision crazy. People will always emphasize revision, but so long as you’re revising effectively (see below) you’re safe to start revising about a month before mocks, and two months before your final exams. In terms of a revision schedule during those months, I worked with one or two hours per day, with a free day on Friday and Sunday. 

Use apps to stay organised. Put your school timetable and exam dates in your calendar of choice with appropriate reminders and colour coding. To keep track of homework and revision, use Adapt - you can put in your GCSEs and it tracks which topics you have covered and how many times, as well as allowing you to input homework and your school timetable. During study time use Forest (free on Android) to lock yourself out of your phone for a certain amount of time.

Pay attention to lessons from the start. From the beginning of Year 10 every lesson is a GCSE lesson, and everything you learn could come up in an exam. Follow along with your teacher, make the best notes you can, do the work and understand the concepts as early as you can. You’ll thank yourself in a year as you watch the rest of your class wonder what a ribosome is when revision time comes.

Revise effectively. Use Adapt or a textbook to keep track of your confidence level on every topic, so when you’re revising you can focus on the ones you don’t understand whatsoever. Also, don’t just read stuff when revising. You have to train your brain to retrieve the information. Memorise vocabulary and basic facts using flashcards, then answer exam questions. Lots and lots of exam questions.

Use your teachers. They want you to succeed because it reflects well on them! If you don’t understand something after a lesson, pop back at break or lunch, or shoot them an email and they will help. Don’t just bank on it not showing up in the test because Sod’s Law dictates that it will. After Christmas in Year 11 they will often start revision sessions or intervention. Attend them for any subjects you’re even slightly shaky on. They’ll boost your grade like nothing else, even if it does take up some of your chill out time.

Buy textbooks and study materials through school. If your school offers you textbooks and workbooks it’s likely that will be the best deal for them, since they’re purchased in bulk. Grab all you can in Year 10 and talk to the school if you can’t afford many - they may be willing to help. If you know any higher-level teachers see if they have any sample study materials from CGP and the like. My English teacher gave me a lovely set of sample CGP Macbeth flashcards that would have proved really useful.

Make flashcards at the end of every topic. Stay on top of them. You want a term on one side and a definition on the other, or a quote and analysis etc. If you don’t like endless bits of card floating around use Quizlet - you might not even need to make them yourself as many people have shared GCSE flashcards there.

And finally - don’t forget you’re a human! Humans need regular sleep, healthy food including breakfasts, hydration, fun and social time. Make time in your day to take care of yourself. Your brain works better when you’re healthy so often an extra hour of sleep will do more for your grade than an extra hour of revision. Hanging out with your friends and keeping up with your hobbies reduces stress. 

Feel free to ask me any questions you may have about any of this stuff, or if you just need advice I’m here too! I’ve done it before, I can help you out.

Subject Specific Tips:

Edexcel Maths:

Use CorbettMaths. All the time. If you haven’t done every one of his worksheets at least once you’re not grinding hard enough. Jk, but seriously this guy used to teach me in real life and he’s awesome. He makes flashcard packs, videos on every aspect of GCSE maths, daily challenges, textbook exercises, practice exam questions... literally everything you could ever need.

Practice everything until you’re sick of it, and then do ten more questions.

You’ll need to memorise some trig identities. Don’t memorise them as a table, that’s hard. Memorise them as these triangles, sketch them out in an exam and work it out on the spot. Easy.

AQA Geography:

Don’t goof off during your fieldwork. Don’t make the same mistake as me. If I ever had to do the fieldwork paper I would not have got a 9. Even though it’s a field trip, even though you’re with your friends, this will directly impact your GCSEs and you need to treat it like an exam.

Memorise vocabulary then move onto exam questions. Geography is very formulaic and exam questions repeat themselves - take advantage of that.

Memorise. Your. Case. Studies.

AQA Biology, Chemistry and Physics:

A l l  h a i l  f r e e s c i e n c e l e s s o n s .

Practice those reading comprehension questions where you’re presented with information and have to answer questions about them. A surprising amount of people get overwhelmed because they haven’t revised it. You can’t! You have to read and understand it within the exam.

Memorise your bloody equations for physics or you will fail. Use Quizlet, learn them all by the end of year 10 even if you don’t know what they’re about yet, practice using them.

Buy the CGP workbooks and complete them! Make sure to buy the answers too, because CGP are scammers.

AQA English Language and Literature:

Identify 10-20 brief quotes from each piece of literature so you have a few for each character and theme. They can overlap! Also, memorise the author’s intentions for each one. With poems (for those of you who have to do them... I’m not salty, I promise) ask your teacher to recommend 5 that match up with the most themes and memorise 3 quotes from each. Remember to analyse the rest of the poems too - any of them could come up so it’s good to have an understanding.

Memorise structures for every question. The examiners will tell you not to use structures. Shut up, I got all 9s. Structures are the best way for slow writers to ensure they get everything they need to in. TETAAC (topic, evidence, terminology, analysis, alternative interpretation, context) works for lit essays and can be modified for every other question. Work out how many paragraphs you can write in 40 minutes and take that into account when planning. Once the plan is done it’s just a matter of making it sound frilly. English: hacked. My normal plan for a lit essay is a one-sentence thesis statement for an intro, 3xTETAAC paragraphs and a conclusion which reiterates everything but better.

Don’t worry if your grade is terrifyingly low to begin with. That’s just how English rolls. You’ll slowly develop the skills you need and start to make 3 or 4 grades of progress throughout year 11.

OCR Art and Design - Graphic Communication:

Think long and hard about whether you want to do graphics or fine art, if your school offers both. Graphics is designing logos, fine art is whatever you want. I should have taken fine art in retrospect.

Make as much work as possible from the very start, even if you haven’t decided on your portfolio project yet. Everything, and I mean everything, can be shoehorned. If you make a lot of work you have some leeway and can leave out your early stuff so your overall portfolio looks better.

Annotate as you go and store all your thoughts digitally. Even if you have no clue what you’re supposed to write in annotations, put down your thought process. It’s easy to tidy up something you wrote a year ago, but it’s really hard to stare at a letter F made out of newspaper and remember where on earth you were going with it.

To make enough work you will need to stay after school often and give up a lot of lunch times. That’s just how it goes. At least with the right crew it can be fun - the combo of my friends and the very chaotic art teachers at my school made my Thursday graphics sessions something to look forward to.

OCR Computer Science:

Use Quizlet flashcards to memorise terms. Being able to correctly define terms is half the battle, literally. You’ll basically get an instant 9 on the first paper if you memorise every term defined in the textbook. Luckily, someone beautiful and generous by the name of sporkified (wink wink) on Quizlet has created two sets with everything you need to know for the entire qualification.

Practice programming in your chosen language before your programming project starts. Learn to do everything mentioned in the textbook and try it out on a sample project. Many will tell you to not bother about the programming project, it doesn’t matter. That’s true to some extent, but excelling in the programming project can tip you up a grade as well as making the algorithm questions on paper 2 easier for you.

Take part in Cyber Discovery. Give it a Google, sign up. It’s really hard if you have no practical computer experience but doing it gave me a real edge with paper 2 which is where you want to focus your energy as it’s weighted more. Also it’s fun.

[peachblossomstudy]

(just in case anyone hasn’t seen my other posts - because of coronavirus i didn’t get to do my actual exam, but my final grade was a nine and i got a nine in my mock)

english lit was one of my favourite subjects at gcse, which probably had something to do with how great my teacher was! as far as books go, i did pride and prejudice, a taste of honey, romeo and juliet and the love and relationships anthology. english is a bit of a tricky subject to revise for, so i thought i’d share my tips for each part of the course.

novel (pride and prejudice) and shakespeare (romeo and juliet):

my revision for the novel and shakespeare play was pretty similar, so i thought i’d just include it all in one section.

quote banks - in lessons we’d go through the text and pick out quotes to do with a certain character/theme, and i’d then transfer them into quizlet in order to learn them. i normally condensed the large set of quotes into the most important/ones with the best analysis points so that i didn’t have to learn that many.

theme mind maps - something i started doing closer to when the actual exams would have been was theme mind maps. i picked a theme and then brain dumped all my ideas, quotes and contextual information onto a page to test how much i already knew about the theme. after blurting from memory, i filled in the gaps from my exercise book.

practice essays/paragraphs - although doing proper essays is long and boring, its a really important revision technique that helps you get used to the exam timing and format, as well as exercising your analytical thinking skills. i liked to do one or two paragraphs at a time, usually about a specific theme or topic.

practice specific questions - the practice questions we were set in class were usually quite broad, but in the exam they’re almost always distressingly specific, so something that really helped me was making sure all the practice questions i was writing about or annotating for were as specific as possible.

annotate with intent - instead of always doing full on practice questions, i picked questions and texts to annotate. always annotate your texts with regard to the question, rather than just identifying techniques.

modern play (a taste of honey):

learning quotes - as with pride and prejudice i used quizlet to learn quotes, and separated my sets by character. i tried to sift through the quotes and find the most useful ones instead of learning every single quote i highlighted.

to be honest i didn’t really get that much time to revise a taste of honey because of the global situation, but my best advice for the modern play is to always comment on the playwright’s intention - everything is in the play for a reason, so as well as talking about what/how something makes the audience feel, talk about why the playwright has chosen to include that.

poetry (love and relationships anthology):

quotes - i know i’m sounding a bit like a broken record, but quizlet was absolutely my best friend when it came to learning quotes! again, i picked through the quotes to find the most useful and memorable ones.

poem summaries - one of the biggest things i did was make an a4 summary page for each of the poems. on the sheet i’d have sections for key ideas, structure and imagery, where i’d condense my notes from my annotated copy into concise bullet points. on the rest of the page i’d write out  quotes, then add analysis around them from memory, before adding in anything i’d forgotten from my annotated copy.

essay plans - doing this honestly saved my life! in my revision time before my mock i wrote myself a practice question that could relate to each poem, then planned out the essay i would have written for it. i actually ended up setting myself the question that was the one on the mock, which worked out pretty well!! 

i hope this was useful, and good luck to all the new year 10s and 11s 💕

[jawnkeets]

How are you so clever??? I’m new to your blog and I’ve been looking at your posts (not in a stalkery way but because they’re so cool) and you seem super intelligent! Like you always reference things I’ve never heard of and use fancy words and it’s just really awesome. How did you get so clever? Do you read a lot or are you just naturally clever? If it’s from reading then what books would you recommend to someone who’s interested in literature and also broadening their general knowledge? Thanks

awwww. well thanks for the lovely ask!! this is way too much detail bc i’m procrastinating work but

i read a ton as a kid, mostly horror books - i was obsessed with the supernatural, and especially vampires, and the idea of things changing into other things (in a magical way, but also stories where characters develop and end up very different, tales of betrayal etc). my favourite series when i was little was the spiderwick chronicles, followed a little later by the saga of darren shan. i didn’t read any classic literature at all though, as i’d decided i hated it for some reason. as a kid i always prided myself on my creativity/ imagination rather than my intelligence (it’s a distinction i’d always drawn and still do after a fashion), but i was and have always been obsessive, and also used to sit and play memory games for hours, too; i remember one where i’d have a list of cards and i’d put one down, say what it was, turn it over, add another one, say what the previous one and this one was, turn them over, and continue until i couldn’t remember every single card in order, and then i’d start again. i wrote a lot, especially poetry, and used a thesaurus often because i loved words. i had a very very vivid imagination and refused to live in the real world until the age of about 11 or 12. then from 14 onwards i read almost nothing (apart from like idk two of the hunger games books) until i was 17, when i finally started reading classic literature, triggered by the great gatsby, which changed my attitude to learning completely. until then i’d despised secondary school partly because of the way learning was presented (i got good grades at gcse but went through the syllabus and exams mechanically with little genuine love) and partly for… other reasons, and had almost given up on taking academics seriously. but i got very lucky and had an incredible english teacher throughout sixth form, who encouraged me to take risks and break from methodical, formulaic writing. at the end of the first essay i had to do for him i still remember that he wrote ‘literature is for you. now and always. carry on.’ at the bottom, and that changed my life. he also introduced me to philip larkin and romantic poetry outside of class. after that, i was gripped by the desire to read and discover as much about the humanities as i could, make links between works, discover new ones, recover the feeling that i was possessed by after finishing gatsby. tumblr genuinely helped with art, literature quotes, and making it all seem accessible, e.g. seeing text posts making jokes about shakespeare, keats, etc helped to demystify a bit. yes, dark academia, i’m also looking at you for making learning seem exciting, but tentatively and with narrowed eyes. general knowledge-wise, it helped me to begin to break down the barriers between ‘subjects’ at school (even if you’ve left school, it’s pretty branded into our brains); they’re sometimes very fuzzy and even arbitrary, and to separate into strictly-defined categories like this is not the only way learning can or should happen.

a work that i thoroughly recommend to everyone who asks where to start is letters to a young poet by rainer maria rilke. he relates so perfectly this idea that the first step is to let yourself be filled with how amazing and vast the world is, and how much there is to read, listen to, and see. that’s not something you can learn from reading, and it’s not something you can be taught by anyone (unless being inspired by someone counts). it’s instrumentally important because it will drive you, but i also think it’s inseparable from understanding (and to me, it is understanding, just understanding without the right words yet). this is the highlight, and it was the mantra stuck up on my wall at 17 when i decided i wanted to learn, and learn seriously:

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

i was relatively articulate before i started reading the classics/ reading widely, but not exceptionally articulate. here’s an example of two essay openings - one i wrote when i was 16, and one i wrote during my first term at university (2 years apart):

i’d say that since then my essays have probably improved by a similar proportion, as i’m as embarrassed to read the second as i was the first when i wrote the second, and the typos r annoying me (am too embarrassed to post recent writing :’( - doesn’t count if over a year and a half ago, hence posting the second :p). obviously, then, this isn’t natural intelligence (everyone has to get knowledge, big words, etc from somewhere, right?), this is natural receptivity and willingness to learn, which i genuinely believe anyone can gain at any point, coupled with A LOT of reading the opinions of others (i.e. literary criticism and theory), and reading literature from many different periods to discover how language is moulded by individual poets and by ‘eras’ more widely. but this is also synthesising everything i absorb into a personal vision (this is the hill i will die on soz i don’t think theory should be ‘objective’ like what does that even mean). you can and should put yourself into it!

in terms of what to read - if you like the rilke (really hope you do!!) then depending on what you like about it, you can search from there. try some of rilke’s poetry. or if you like that ineffable feeling it brings, try the romantics (keats’ ‘ode to a nightingale’ and blake’s songs of innocence and experience are good to start with!), or larkin’s ‘high windows’ and ‘the mower’. also try shakespeare’s hamlet, because that is INCREDIBLE (watching it is always easier, and the more shakespeare you watch/ read the easier it gets! andrew scott’s hamlet is the best imo). from there it’s a question of asking what you liked about what you just read (time period/ vibe/ themes/ subject/ style of writing) and finding things similar - often google works and i made use of it a lot to start with, tumblr too, otherwise ask people who you know (on the internet/ teachers/ friends etc). this is a personal journey, especially to begin with, i think (you have to jump in somewhere), and there’s no one who can give you a list of books to read in the order best for you, because - annoyingly, i know - that’s something it’s best if each individual works out through trial and error, and part of the fun in truth. there are western canon lists out there, e.g., which contain some fabulous works, but have very obvious problems. 

a really really rough chronological development of english lit: beowulf, any of the canterbury tales, hamlet, paradise lost, pope’s satire, romantic poetry, victorian novels (e.g. david copperfield, jane eyre), the waste land, waiting for godot (it would also help to read the iliad, the aeneid, and metamorphoses too, and as much of the bible as you can, especially genesis, exodus, isaiah, job, and the gospels, but genesis and the gospels first if ur stuck/ overwhelmed). this is the lightest of pencil sketches, but if they’re works that go some way towards defining each ‘era’ or ‘period’, then it becomes a little easier to search for works branching off from these that are influenced by or chafe against them. you can always come back to me if you’re struggling with what to look for next :+) also, i have a list of my poetry favs, if you want to check that out (it includes the stuff mentioned in the previous paragraph, as well as others).

hope this helps (?!) ❤️

[myhoneststudyblr]

what a levels did you take and how hard are they? do you enjoy them?

hi anon! i'm still actually taking my a levels - i'm coming up to the end of my first year studying them. 

i take:

English lit

German 

History

i enjoy all of these a levels so much but i kinda knew that i would before i chose them because these were consistently my favourite subjects and i was good at all of them. 

as to how hard they are? well, that is a bit more tricky to answer.

the short answer is that all a levels are hard. there is not really an ‘easy’ choice to make but they are all hard in different ways. i personally do not find my subjects hard - i’d say they are intellectually challenging in that i have to think and i can’t just turn up at the lesson and get full marks but i wouldn’t say that they are so hard that i’m struggling and can’t cope. 

please note here however that these have always been subjects that have come very naturally to me and that my experiences are not shared by everyone.

that said, i’d like to give the main things that people find ‘hard’ for each of the subjects:

English - English at a level is very different to GCSE. usually at GCSE you are studying a book and a play and some poems. at a level you study all of those (plus a few more books) but you are also studying the literature aspect much more heavily so you are looking a lot at context for the author and the time it was written, other novels and pieces of work in the same genre, all the different critical interpretations. basically, it is no longer enough to just know the book/play/poems and its language, you have to know all that other stuff too. the essays often reflect this a lot more as well so the essays seem really different to what you are used to at first

German (can be applied to all the languages) - so obviously, the language and grammar gets more complicated but this is expected. what is probably more difficult is the amount of ‘background’ knowledge they expect you to have. essentially, at a level you are looking more widely at the culture and country and there are many more in-depth topics that you do. for example, you often need to have a basic knowledge of the history of the country (for german, this often is from about 1918 to now), the societal trends of the country (eg family, youth culture, digital media), politics in the country (or multiple countries if numerous speak the language) and lots of other areas. this means that you could end up having to spend some time on a topic that you find really difficult/do not enjoy (for me this is art and architecture)

History - this is something that is difficult about history through pretty much all levels of studying history. THERE IS SO MUCH CONTENT. honestly, there is so so much of it - my history notes are the longest and most extensive of all of my subjects by *a lot* and it can be quite hard to get your head around all of the new content and learn it all. however, after a while, things start to make sens and as long as you keep on top of your notes, it’s not actually that big of a jump up from GCSE because many of the skills (eg essays and source analysis) and types of content are very similar

i really hope this was helpful and if you have any other questions about a levels or how to choose what you should choose your subjects feel free to send me another ask or message me! also: even though i study these, essentially ALL my friends study science subjects so i have a lot of knowledge about these and could easily find the stuff out for you if you have any questions about these subjects!

as always, if anyone else has any comments or advice, feel free to comment! <3

[moniire]

All the classic author asks pls!!!

Okay, I didn’t imagine that someone would reply so quickly, but I suppose I have the time.

Mary Shelley: Were you a goth, prep, nerd, or jock in school?

I’m a nerd, as far as I’m aware. I have a little bit of goth in me, I suppose, but that part rarely rears its head in public.

Zora Neale Hurston: Do you write in your free time? If so, then what do you write?

I don’t write a lot as I’m incredibly fussy and I find it hard to come up with plots or make my writing flow. I do write some drabble occasionally, in the form of very short stories, but they rarely have an actual plot. It would be my dream to actually be able to finish a proper short story.

J.D. Salinger: What was the last movie you watched?

I’m pretty sure it was North by Northwest, but I don’t remember exactly.

Alice Walker: What was the first “adult” book you ever read?

The first properly graphic book I read was, I believe, A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. I was 13 at the time.

Bram Stoker: Do you prefer suspenseful horror movies, gore, or jump scares?

I absolutely hate jumpscares. If you send me anything with jumpscares I will probably cry. But I immensely enjoy suspense and gore has never really phased me (apart from stuff with eyes). Many of my favourite shows and movies have a good mix of them. 

Oscar Wilde: What book have you read more than once?

Oh, hundreds of them. My favourite re-reads are probably the Howl series by Diana Wynne Jones. Childhood classics!

Beatrix Potter: Do you like reading inside or outside?

I’d say inside usually, but it honestly depends on the weather and location. A sunny bench in a quiet park? Sure, I’d go for it. But a rainy, crowded street? Perhaps not.

Ann Radcliffe: What’s something you’re known for among your friends or family?

There are a few things. Firstly, I’d say my height is a big one, at least on my mother’s side of the family. I’m really tall for my age - 6’ or thereabouts - and taller than everyone on my mother’s side. My grandparents on my father’s side have actually been measuring the family’s heights against a wall since the early 2000s. Seeing the progression is pretty cool.

Among my friends, I’d say either my speech patterns or my ability to remember little tidbits of information that I’ve been told years ago. Despite coming from an area with a very distinct, “non-posh” accent, I speak a lot of the time with an enunciated, stereotypically British accent. When I get angry or excited, I tend to speak with a slight Irish accent, and the list goes on. No idea where I picked this up, but it’s apparently very humorous. The latter is a bit of an inside joke, as normally my memory is quite bad. However, I occasionally come out with bits of information that people have no memory of telling me. There have luckily been only a few awkward situations due to this.

Lord Byron: What’s a negative quality that you can admit to having?

I’m very insensitive at times and have had multiple friends call me out on statements that I meant as jokes or constructive criticism, but they found incredibly hurtful. 

Edna St. Vincent Millay: Do you have a favourite poem or one you can recite?

La Belle Dame Sans Merci by Keats, The Orange by Wendy Cope, How Do I Love Thee (Sonnet 43) by Elizabeth Browning and When You Are Old by Yeats are the ones that spring to mind.

The ones I can recite are La Belle Dame, Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy and most of the Relationships Anthology for GCSE English Lit. 

Jane Austen: Have you ever fallen in love?

That one’s difficult. I fall in love every day with places and things and experiences. With books and artworks and music. 

But I presume this means people. And honestly, I don’t know. I thought I was in love once, with a boy whom I met through a friend. He was beautiful and talented, but what stood out was that he could talk. I was sick of people who seemed to have no wider perspective or opinions, or, if they did, kept it firmly under lock and key. But he would always find a new topic to talk about, without me even needing to start a conversation. Art installations at our local gallery, religious ideology, politics, music. And it was wonderful. 

I spoke with him for maybe 30 minutes a month at most, with the rare exception of protests or marches, but they were bright and intriguing and he made me feel like I’d swallowed a star every time I saw him.

But alas, it came to an end as all good things do. We drifted and, since he didn’t seem to text, we stopped speaking almost altogether.

But was I in love? I still don’t know

Langston Hughes: If you could be part of a literary era, which one?

I feel like this is predictable but the Romantic/Gothic era (1780s - 1830s) because, whilst I’ll admit that women’s rights most definitely were non-existent, it has to be my favourite one literary-wise

Emily Dickinson: What’s the last book you were reading?

Blackhearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken. I wanted something quick and nostalgic for a change.

John William Polidori: What was the last book you finished?

See above answer

Stendhal: Have you ever hid a book you were reading because you were embarrassed? 

When I originally read the ASOIAF series, I, of course, had to read it in school as well, because I wasn’t switching books for school and for home and I obviously needed something to read at lunch. Scared of getting judged by peers or getting the book confiscated by teachers, I hid it in the dust jacket of another book. I can’t remember which, but, surprisingly, it worked.

Charles Dickens: What book are you currently reading?

E. H. Gombrich’s A Little History of the World. Again, written for children, but one I immensely enjoy and very informative on a wide variety of countries. 

Thomas Hardy: Are you a city or country person?

I want to say a mix of both. I love the city I live in and its bustle and shops and life, but I also love the countryside with its greenery and cosy intimacy. I do hate the insects though.

Virginia Woolf: What book has been on your TBR longer than a year?

Pride & Prejudice. I just haven’t gotten around to it, though I’m sure I will soon.

And finally…

Edith Wharton: What’s your favourite season for reading?

Winter, easily. Curling up to read is hard if you’re all sweaty and can’t concentrate on the words because of it. Winter gives me an excuse to pile on the jumpers and blankets, heat up the hot chocolate and just read. Plus, winter often means visits to Ireland to see my grandparents, who have the cosiest living room ever, which doubles as my all-time favourite reading environment. 

That was quite a task. I might have gone off on one in some of these, but I hope this answers it all nicely.

[all-good-things-dot-dot-dot]

All Good Things… Can’t Draw, Won’t Draw!

#Blog #Bloggerstribe #AllGoodThings…

20th June 2020

Hello, Chaps and Chapettes,

Welcome to another edition of “Scaramouche gripes about a part of his life rather than gives us a healthy dose of advice. Why do we even follow this again?” I’m just kidding.

Nobody’s following this. :P

(Img: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16668795/ )

What I’d like to talk about today is some of the hobbies I’ve attempted to kick off of the ground and why they haven’t worked out thus far, but also why that’s okay. As it was the main hobby that I thought would go somewhere, I’m mostly going to focus on art, but I’ll also touch on attempts to play a musical instrument, attempts to get fit by running, and anything else I can think of that I am currently doing far less off.

Art is my biggest bug to bear with as I still return to it sometimes. I do love drawing and creating pieces that I want to share. I suppose the sharing part is the problem.

You see, ever since I was little I loved to draw, paint, and basically do anything creative. When I was still in primary school, I’d start to trace images of Thomas the Tank Engine characters, soon perfecting them so that I could draw them without the need to trace. This skill became transferred to attempting other cartoon characters, and at one point I was drawing South Park characters and selling them to friends for 50p per character. They loved them and that made me feel good. If I’d kept up that little hobby-enterprise, I might be more successful at it than I feel now.

Skip ahead a bit and I got great marks for art at a GCSE level (that’s where Secondary school ends in the UK) thus decided to try for my Art A-levels, alongside English Lit and Lang. However, something changed for me in this year and among many things, the idea of seeing through an Art A-Level was sullied by a disagreement I had with my teachers about how the class was leading me away from a desire to build my skill and into experimental and revolutionary art practices. I got a good grade for AS-level but did not pursue and complete the A-Level in the following year.

(Img: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/3503385/ )

Despite this, I still wanted to do something with my drawing and painting interests. I decided to draw and write a comic about some characters myself and friends from the furry fandom created called ‘Furlives’. It was my attempt at creating a funny, sometimes introvertly sexual story around my passions. I made it unprofitable by creating a furry version of Doctor Who and later attempted to revive it with a new story with new characters, this time called ‘FurFiction’. However, as I posted these in my galleries on FurAffinity and DeviantArt, I became disillusioned by the realization that few people were watching or liking what I posted. I did other pieces for people but never charged as I was losing faith in my abilities, comparing them to others, and finding myself lacking.

What seemed to be the real nail in the coffin came one Christmas when I was about twenty years old. I decided to offer to draw and paint bespoke commissions for colleagues in the call center office I worked in at the time. I charged a very small price so that I could earn some money to pay for Christmas gifts. I did pieces during this time that I was actually proud of, including painting a dog belonging to a woman to give to her terminally ill husband. This is still my favorite of all my works.

(Img: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/949085/ )

Unfortunately, it all came to a halt when I gave another commission to a different woman in the office. I went back to my desk and started to work when I saw them come in. I watched them go to the desk, look at the picture, and give it a blank stare. After a few minutes, they came over to me, waited for me to finish my call, and then gave me some rather blunt feedback.

They didn’t like the picture. They felt I hadn’t drawn the people from the photo correctly, the image I’d drawn looked nothing like them, and they didn’t want it. This, looking back, was fair feedback, yet they did this in front of all the colleagues surrounding me. There were no walls or barricades blocking what she said, so I was left feeling embarrassed and apologized, let her keep the picture which I’d also framed and did not charge her anything.

This act stuck with me like a blade between the shoulders of what I’d enjoyed ever since I was a kid. Now, every attempt to lift a pencil or paintbrush was marred by this, and the lack of likes or interest in anything I did share drove it deeper. In the end, I had to step away, because art became an albatross around my neck.

This has seemingly had an impact on most things I attempt to do, not just art. If I try to do something just for myself, I usually enjoy it. However, when I start to share it and I see no views or feedback that is critical of what I am working on, I feel foolish for falling into the trap of trying again. Additionally, if the ability to learn to get better takes too long, it often trips me up or can stunt my attempts to keep going as best as I can.

So why is this okay? Why should I feel that there’s something to gain from this?

For one, it’s made me realize that, with anything, you should not expect positive reviews. If you get them, great. If anyone even remotely glances at what you’ve done, brilliant! But DO NOT RELY ON IT. If you draw, write, play, whatever, for the sake of someone else’s applause, the lack of it will drive you insane.

(Img: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16481674/ )

And if you get it, no matter whether it is one person saying “I like this” or a full standing ovation, appreciate the heck out of that. So many people chase their whole lives and never get it. Some get disillusioned by the lack of it. Some hurt themselves over it. If your audience is kind enough to tell you that you’re doing a good job, make them feel like you are happy about it. Definitely don’t take them for granted, you never know when they’ll turn on you.

Lastly, don’t give up. If you’re an audience of one, then at least you’re entertaining yourself. You’ve got a good thing in the fact that you have something you can focus on and enjoy, many do not even have that. Love it, believe in it, and let it be what it is. Sometimes, you don’t really get to see what it will become, as we have learned from people like Van Gogh and Emily Dickinson.

You never know what you’ve got, so stick at it. It might be what people will be talking about for centuries to come.

Stay safe, stay happy.    

All good things, Love, Scaramouche. X

[strawberryybird]

What do you think Sothis thinks of Byleth siding with Edelgard? Or plainly, what she thinks of Edelgard's cause? I'd like to think she's understanding enough to realize Edelgard really only has a problem with Seiros and her choking authority for the past 100's of year. Sorry, I've only ever played the CF route so maybe she talks about it. But i feel she may be a bit understanding as she saved byleth at garreg mach and let her reunite with the Black Eagles.

Oho that is a QUESTION !!I’ll have a go at answering but a lot of this is going to be my interpretationof the canon rather than smushing two separate things together as is my usualstyle.. this’ll be interesting.

this isn’t exactly meta because there’s so little detail of canon but yes i’m very aware i’m a hypocrite . i am nothing in this world if not a hypocrite lmao (that and i took this less into fandom and more into the remnants of my education in eng lit so . warning for that)

Ok this got Long andreally fucking zesty I am so sorry about this. Uh. Disclaimer time: these are my conclusions and my conclusions alone. I’m notsaying I’m objectively right or correct. I’m very much approaching this from anEnglish Lit-ish point of view because that’s just how I look at a lot of media.I’m not asserting my opinions or conclusions as the only viable to interpretthis media, and if anything I say offends you then I am sorry, it was not myintention but I acknowledge that I have hurt you. This is not the exhaustivelist of my thoughts on the whole thing, there’s a lot more depth and detail I didn’tgo in to.

Ok idea time:

This comes off a lot moreblunt/academically aggressive than I mean it to, but that’s just my writingstyle.

I think the first thing toconsider is how far Byleth and Sothis are considered separate entities. Theidea of Byleth and Sothis (literal god) not being ‘whole’ people (characters,but u get what I mean) in their own right gets a little zesty for tumblr dotcom, but it’s a really important theme to the whole arc of Byleth’s characterin CF, especially because it mirrors a theme of CF’s route itself of ‘humansdon’t need divine intervention of any kind to thrive, and in fact divinepresence hinders humanity.” (or at least, that’s edelgard’s party line and herprevailing supports it).

If we (and I do) considerByleth and Sothis inherently interwined then we can make the wrap-up conclusionthat Sothis does/can support edelgard’s choice because reasons not limited to1) Byleth brought Sothis along for the ride & Byleth’s opinion overrides thatof a literal god because of the theme above. 2) Sothis supported Edelgard’scause and influenced Byleth to side with Edie (here ignoring the player choicemechanic as a pure gameplay option). 3) Byleth’s opinion IS Sothis’ opinion,they cannot be separated and Byelth is a literal voice of god. (very interestingas the PC, but that’s a tangent).

I’m personally a fan ofrational 1) because of how it fits with the ‘humans vs gods’ theme (a theme I’mnot going into right now because OH GOOD HELL there’s a lot to unpack there andit’s not limited to CF, which this post is.)

But then we have toconsider if/and to what extent Sothis makes and asserts judgements on the worldoutside Byleth’s brain. And that’s where it gets sticky.

I don’t have the time,energy or patience to go back through the canon to see what kind of judgementsand opinions Sothis makes about the world, but as I remember it she doesincreasingly react to Byleth’s emotional state and internal thoughts/judgementsand actions. As I remember it, Sothis interacts a lot more with Byleth than shedoes with the outside world. (of course, I may be imagining this all, sosuspend ur disbelief of my analysis for a second)

I like to draw the conclusionthat Sothis would, in fact, support Byleth’s choice to support Edelgard becausewhatever choice Byleth makes is the one they support (again, ignoring playerchoice as pure gameplay mechanic alone and no impact on the making of a story).So, Sothis would agree with Byleth’s choice, because Byleth made the rightchoice in their opinion.

However we can defenestratethe above if we say (and again idk how much it’s supported in canon) thatSothis very much has her own opinions and judgements and does Not agree withByleth’s actions.

Even with the firstchapter when she suspended time because Byleth got axe’d. she didn’t agree withthe choice & called Byleth less than a child, but she Did support thechoice by allowing Byleth to do it again. (altho that was pure Byleth choice,with Sothis in tow. As I see it, anyway.) Either way, Sothis enabled Byleth to makethe choice to save Edelgard.

(I’m so bad with arguingthe opposite side.)

It’s entirely possibleSothis didn’t like Byleth’s choice to join the anti-dragon-god insurgentmilitia. Even if she doesn’t remember Seiros as her daughter, or much of herlife at all, her reaction to ‘Rhea’s’ song at least hinted that Sothis hadaffection and emotions about it all. (I really don’t remember honestly).

But if we say Sothis didn’twant Byleth to side with Edelgard, that just leads me to think how littleautonomy Sothis has as a character. And that is a WHOLE other debate because I thoughtabout character autonomy (in an academic sense) for 5 years straight – 2 yearsgcse with Cathy Morland and Northanger Abbey & 3 years of English Lit ALevel and all the shit I thought about through the years alongside. That’s adifferent post to this one!!!

Back on track.

I’m only just at thebattle of eagle and lion in my deers playthrough, and I’ve only completed CF,so I don’t know if Sothis expresses opinions on Edelgard’s actions outside herroute & honestly I don’t remember it if she did within CF. so I can’t give acanon supported answer there.

As for my own opinion onthe whole thing.. I like my thematicly-themed conclusion that as Byleth becomesless emotionless and more ‘human’ living at Garreg Mach, their opinions becomemore and more there at all, and more prominent, and they start having opinionsat all. And Sothis’/ the crest stone’s influence falls more and more by thewayside as Byleth becomes “human”* with their own emotions and all. By the timeByleth gets to the Holy Temple, it’s only Sothis’ power that remains, not heropinions.

* ”Human” in quotes todenote a) Byleth is a character, b) your definition of humanity may differ and Idon’t wish to make any comments on what humanity means in a real and/orphilosophical sense. For the purposes of this post, I’m generalising anddismissing massively.

It makes the confrontationof the immaculate one very clear cut in the human vs gods theme, which doesn’tbother me much, but adding in Sothis’ opinions to the mix, especially if wemuddy the waters with Sothis supporting Edelgard’s goals, is a really bloodyinteresting idea.

This is mostly headcanonand because I like interesting and convoluted things to think about (if y’all couldn’t tell). But I do reallylike the idea that Sothis supports Edelgard’s cause.

There’s a lot that itcould throw up, like who’s aligned as the villain and who’s right, who has theabsolute truth and if even literal in-game god does not or cannot provide anobjective perspective, then who’s to say what’s right and what’s moral.Especially when the archbishop, who is pretty much supposed to be promoting theright and moral to the world, isn’t even human like the people she preaches to.Sothis arguably takes physical form in Byleth (‘s hair) but in a scene socharged with changed in physical form – rhea>dragon, edelgard>flameemperor, hubert>teleporting in and out of the place, byleth physicallymoving to herself on Edelgard’s side of the line… Sothis doesn’t have physicalform or even a voice. And I really, really missed her commentary in that scene. The hole she leaves behind her in game is massive for so many reasons.

(And all that withoutconsidering the impact of player choice mechanic on the story. That’s a kettleof fish i’m going to ignore for now because this post is long enough)

This.. was not an answerto the questions. More of a large collection of thoughts about it and what itcould mean I guess???? Hope some of that was interesting at the very least?? :)

[no1trash2003]

GCSE is an absolute, inarguable joke.

Recently, contravercy has sprung up about the usefulness of the new spec GCSE. As of June of this year, 2019, I completed my allotted gcse's. I can say with absolute certainty that the exams I partook in were a joke.

Last year, I completed 3 GCSE courses early, English lit, Physics and Biology. My school made a complete mess of this. We learned all of my two science courses within the year, with 3 different qualified teachers (all separately after they fled the school) and 5 supply teachers, none of whom knew anything about the subject. I can say without a doubt that my year was unprepared and suffered the consequences. This, along with how hard the gcse was supposed to be now, resulted in many of my peers not even showing up on the exam day after collapsing under the pressure of preconceived failure. Many of those who tried in the gcse, learning the entirety of the course in their own time in other words, did well.

In other words, it was easy. Well, at least, answering the questions was. After getting their results back many were shocked at their low grade, but as it turns out (and as many of them knew) Mark's were not given on how correct an answer was or how thought out it was. No, Mark's were given entirely based off how many key words you could shove into your 6 marker, or how much flowery bullshit you could beat your english answer with.

Just to put this into context, I didn't try in my y10 GCSE's. I knew for my science GCSE, it was entirely based off memorisation. I knew for my English GCSE I had to spell out the obvious with some pretty words sprinkled on top. I slept in class, I drew for my art GCSE, I did maths- all in my english lessons, and my science lessons which early into the year virtually became free periods.

I went into the exam apathetic. In the holidays that followed, I lost no sleep.

We didn't have a results day, so I called up the school when the y11's got their results. In English lit, I was a few Mark's off a 9, A*. In biology, a 6, B. In physics, 7, A. To put this even more into perspective, I have dyslexia, a learning disability affecting language with which I received no accommodation for in or outside of my exams. I also suffer from auditory memory gaps.

Without a doubt I can say my exams were a joke, simply because of how well I did. My friends, who studied for hours and stressed to the point of it being labelled a disorder, came back with lower grades than me.

They knew the content better than me, without a doubt. Their understanding was deep where mine was shallow. They could recite key words off by heart. They did everything they could to do well in these exams, and were evidently lied to when they were told their efforts would be rewarded.

So, if not depth of understanding or key words separated a 9 from a 6, what does? What reason am I granted the ability of easily sliding by my gcse's when they struggled?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

In the being of the year, I'd taken one look at the mark scheme and known. My results would be completely meaningless. All it took in english, was saying the book or poem i was writing about was shit, fluffing it up with worthless words, and the mark scheme shat out an 8, A*. In my Physics GCSE, all it took was maths to get that 7. I didnt know shit about anything else. In biology, much the same.

I did well because I knew how to bullshit my way through. I knew where to slap a pretty word to seem smart and I knew how to use a calculator to its fullest potential. These skills, unfortunately, have nothing to do with the supposed gcse topic and are not in the spec.

I did better because I could lie better- and no, I didnt bother cheating

How is that not a joke? HOW can something so fickle and abstract decide my future, and the future of my friends? Why does it condemn those that seek knowledge for knowledges sake, and reward those like me, who know well enough that the whole thing was a sham?

This idea was strongly reinforced when I went onto Y11.

It was filled to the brim with more of the same. Shove in some flowery words, say something is a bit shit, do some maths. This time, however, I wanted to test a theory.

What difference would trying make?

There were exams I'd have to try in, like Fine Art and maths, but the rest were just as bullshit as the last year. For example, in chemistry, we had an actual teacher for a grand total of 3 weeks, and the course spec was so basic and boring that a 3 year old could understand it- if, you know, it wasnt overloaded with pointless bullshit to the point of looking to be gibberish. It was like asking someone to memorize a dictionary, and testing them on a small specific section of it that is to be randomly selected. The results would obviously be completely random.

Its easily understood that people are simply better at some things and worse at others. Someone who is good at this randomly selected section of the spec will do better in the exam than someone with a more rounded understanding of the spec as a whole. The exam is completely and utterly the bitch of this concept.

I find nanotubes (and related fullerines) as well as maths easy. I did well in the chemistry paper. I'm good at testing for things, I did well. My friend knew everything there was to know about atoms, radiation and reactions. This was not heavily featured in the exam, so they are marked lesser. My other friend had a good understanding of the spec as a whole, but due to this couldn't answer the highest level questions with the most Mark's as their understanding was left shallow. They are marked lesser. Trying didnt make a difference, and I see that now more than ever, at least for chemistry.

In geography, I tried my best. I know that, unfortunately, my memory issues dragged me down. As sad as it is to say, my learning disability and memory issues, both diagnosed officially, held me back in the memory based exams. Fortunately, I had my understanding of the subject as a small consolation. It was secondary to the memory aspect unfortunately, and mostly answered low mark questions. How sick is it, that understanding is secondary in the face of memory. Truly, a these exams were built around memorizing a textbook. Trying didnt make a difference. In the end, I failed to memories much of anything. The things based off understanding were obvious and required little to no effort to grasp. I know I could slept those classes away, and the only difference would be a slight increase in my health. The exam, evidently, was a joke.

Now, to the main reason I wrote this long winded and obvious rant.

The English Language GCSE.

Of course I tried my hardest. In every mock bar one I got high 9's. I helped my classmates. I participated and revised and stressed. I turned up to the exams, feverish with tonsillitis. I tried my best, both for the exam and to not throw up. I littered my words with as many false pleasantries and flowery bulshit as I could. I called the basic and dull literature what it was, basic and dull, a thing discouraged by teachers despite earning me my 9s. I wrote some depressing drivel in the final question 5, making sure to put mild, professional and somewhat abstract opinions into it (again, something that gave me 9's)

I left the exam without pride. I was sure I'd done well, but the success I was meant to feel was only grief for the years I'd lost in a classroom, miserable.

Later, I would feel proud. Maybe I'd see. Maybe, hopefully, my theory was wrong- at least in regards to English language.

Then, article after article poured into my feed. One particular article on Mumsnet called the marking scheme ' a shitshow'.

So I sat down, weeks after the official end of Y11, and reviewed the markshemes we'd based the entire course on at my school.

The articles were right. It was vague jargon, and completely subjective. It called for judicious quotes, with nothing to specify what should be considered such. It called for a high and sophisticated vocabulary, and again, completely contradicted this when looking at exams from the previous year which were marked as such. It was without a doubt the most completely ambiguous thing I'd ever read, and the people marking my exam seemed to agree. Sleep deprived and stressed to fuck, the reality of it has passed my by but was now clear as day.

In the end, my hard work didnt pay off. It doesn't matter now if I get a 9 or a 3. I know theres little chance it will be a reflection of my exam. For better or worse.

My classmates seem to understand this as well as me. So, what did the GCSE's actually manage to teach us?

It taught us to accept failure. Success is a bold faced lie entirely based off luck.

Those bold enough to say hard work is rewarded have their heads shoved in the sand.

Trying made no difference.

I see, now, what was going through those peoples heads last year, when they didnt show up for the exams or classes. Hard work is not rewarded and they were going to fail from the start.

They were too honest, and clearly, the only thing valued in GCSE's is the ability to lie so well that the exam marker is also tricked. Trying at this point would be a hopeless, draining task.

All that the GCSE's gave me was problems. Now, getting up in the morning is harder than my exams ever were. I abandoned everything for those exams, like many others. I lost my health, physical and mental. I lost my personality and sense of self. I lost years of my life, that should be cherished, to dispare. These gcse's are a tortuous joke and I wish more than anything that I'd never bothered in the first place because in the end, it wouldn't have made a difference.

Now, I'm moving on to collage to do much of the same. All I see ahead of me is misery, but unfortunately, this apearese to be an unchangeable reality placed upon us as a sick twisted joke. I've accepted this, as sad as it is, but I cant stand by as people lie to themselves and others, saying GCSE's are in any way worth it outside of a number on some paper.

Education is long dead. That's what GCSE's taught me.

Update- results: english lan, 7 (gonna get remarked), lit, 8. Maths-8. Bio-6. Chem-7. Physics-7. Art-9. Computer science-7. Geo-7

[getting-through-it]

GCSE Results day!

I know it’s late but I decided to make a post about results day because I’m happy with how it went! I’ve also got some advice so stick around for that.

I got all the grades I needed to get into the sixth form I wanted to go to so that’s good (+no fails!)

I’ll post the actual grades below the cut, as well as what I expected for each subject. This is not meant as a boast or anything but just to blog my experience. I’m curious to how everyone else found Thursday (but no pressure to share grades ofc).

Summary:

(“PPE”s were what my school called mocks. We had three sets of mocks, but apparently our school can’t count.)

(The “predicted” column is what my school predicted for me, the “target” column is what I was kind of hoping for before sitting the exams and the “guess” column was what I thought I might get based on sitting the papers.)

Explanation:

The grades I needed for my 1st choice sixth form were:

7s or above in the subjects I want to do for A-Level (Maths, Music, Psychology, Spanish/ Top four listed)

At least 6 grades at a 6 or above, including English language

So, yay!

The grades I’m most shocked at are english lang & lit because they’re lower than expected but I’m not disappointed because I’m not continuing them.

I’m not surprised about getting a 9 in music because I already knew a lot of the content before starting GCSE music, but I’m still happy I got it.

I can’t believe I got 8s in psychology and maths. I struggled so much to get my grades up in those. For maths, during and before exam season, I woke up early each morning and did at least 30 mins of practice questions. It paid off, I guess! Psychology was mostly difficult because there weren’t many revision resources because we were the first year group to sit the exams (GCSE Pearson Edexcel Psychology) and all we had was like 1 sample paper.

In Spanish I’m really happy with an 8. I didn’t think it was possible to get higher than a 7 because I struggle so much with speaking and confidence, especially in a foreign language. Also, the listening paper was extremely difficult (AND the audio quality was AWFUL: I heard more crackles than words). But apparently it is!

I’ve never cared for RE. Find it mostly boring. A 6 is cool though.

Triple Science is fucking hard. So much fucking content. In the end of year 10 mocks (PPE1) I had revised mostly just for the sciences because they were so difficult, even when we went away for a week I brought my science stuff with me. I got a U in all three. In fact, in the physics paper, I got a grand total of 2 marks. Fucking hell. But y’know, I kept doing quickfire questions all year round and kept up my flashcard game and I ended up with 6-5-6 so not fucking bad.

And, finally: additional maths. When they were selecting people to take the FSMQ additional maths course in year 10 I thought I’d never be able to do this shit. Everyone else picked was smarter than me and cockier than me and always got good grades. I am so shook with the B. I can’t believe I did that well (the top grade was an A, not A*)!

Life lesson: Don’t give up. You can always do this shit. Especially for GCSEs: just push through. It will be fine.

[rycolfan]

Eldest is properly into her GCSE exam months now - today is English Lit - and I’m not sure who’s more stressed, her or me! Okay, yeah, it’s her. Anyway I’m sending all the good luck vibes her way because she’s worked so hard through a really shitty year and she deserves to get excellent results for her efforts. Whatever happens, I’m incredibly proud of her. <333 

If you have any good vibes spare, please send them her way!

Also good luck to everyone else taking exams right now. Just do your best and try not to stress too much, okay? And if you need someone to vent to, my ask box is always open. x