#edexcel sucks

[solumsblog]

Edexcel can I please ask what the FUCK was that maths paper for higher

I’m on my way to get 35 carrots and 45 tomatoes and I will shove them so far up the exam boards arse I stg

[hieoeo]

i found maths p2 surprisingly easy. except for the last question. wtf was that.

[bassia-bassensis]

It's that time of the year again! Where everytime I hold anything other than a textbook I get filled with immense gut eating guilt.

[wyrmswears]

Wait ur british right? What maths are you reviding (if that's OK to ask

yup i am british! tomorrow i have my second core-pure paper for further maths a-level (edexcel) which im revising for (along with my third and final psych paper) :'D

thats awesome totally-not-soul-sucking topics such as:

complex numbers

series

volumes of revolution

matrices

vectors (& 3d planes)

hyperbolic functions

polar coordinates

differential equations

so much damn integration

[origami-butterfly]

No show results button, because everyone would click it, as all the exam boards suck.

Poll for the worst one here

[hotteoki]

It's starting earlier than yours bc it's igcses (exams)

The bio was horrid today, literally ignored the whole syllabus and tested TWO topics (not even exaggerating)

Like gee thanks Cambridge for caring about the beating my mental health took while painstakingly memorizing all your shit 🤡

I hope yours is better honey, good luck🤢

ohh u do cambridge i do edexcel thats probs y

that sucks tho wtf thats so unfair :/ fuck igcse!!!!!!!!!!

mine starts on 16th 🙏🏻

[taraolssons]

why the fuck are more than half my exams at 4:30 pm?? who decided that was a normal time for a 2 hour exam???

[zulasdubu]

BY THE WAY. GUESS WHO PASSED HER GCSES? THIS GIRL! SMASHED THEM HAHA! 

[silkylious]

omg you take igcse's?! can i pleasee have some tips on how to stidy and what subs to take? im gonna start next year and im nervous haha 😅

Hiii, of course you can!! This is all based on general experience but as a general rule of thumb these are some basics:

1. Do your research:

I'm assuming you're in grade 9 rn so you really have to take this time and the beginning of next year to plan for what subjects to take. This is all based on 3 things I'd say. The first and most important being college requirements; go online and research what requirements are needed for whatever faculty/major you wanna take in college. Especially when deciding which AL's to take. For example where I live rn and for most countries they require 6 OL's and 1-3 AL's but back home in Egypt 8 OL's are required. Colleges there also require either one AL subject pertaining to the major or 2 As subjects, one of em pertaining to the major. So for example rn I'm taking biology As and I'm finishing it in May/June, so I can either complete biology AL's or take another As subject (like maths or chemistry). And this is all dependent on what the universities require, for med school you need to take AL/As biology. The second thing is your own preference of course; while making sure to adhere to the base requirements, take your own future into account, what do you wanna be? The third and last is appealing to your strengths; obviously you're gonna have to take some sciences as mandatory subjects but make sure to lean in to your strengths when you have the choice (mostly with extra subs). Absolutely do not take a subject purely bc your friends are taking it or someone said it's easy (*coughs* accounting- 🤡)

2. Distribute carefully:

Some subjects are harder than others, leave the ones you struggle with for your second year, get done with as many OL's as you can in your first year, leave AL's to your second and third year. Again, adhere to your strengths. I suck fuck at biology, that's why I left it for junior year, and took 5 OL's in freshman year (now you're gonna be able to take more than that, I take 2 curriculums so I have to balance things out) which were Arabic, English, maths, chemistry and accounting, leaving me with physics, biology and 1 extra sub (bc Egypt requirements suck) in my junior year. Another thing to note is that you might not have the freedom to take subs in your first year, each school policy is different, so construct a plan that is easiest for you to commit to and that can assure you get the best results!

3. Find good online resources:

I took biology OL in oct/nov of this year and it was all self-study. No tutor, no nothing. Ask around, join groups, gather material. I found these amazing fucking notes that saved my ass and I got a 9!! (A*) so look around and get resources, from notes to classified papers (basically past paper questions but ordered by topic, they're super neat to study from and test yourself when you're still going through the syllabus) there's also some great explanations on YouTube! Oh and definitely answer as many past papers as you can before the exam, you need to learn how the questions are gonna be like in your final

4. Choose the right exam board for you:

Where I live there are currently 3 exam boards that people usually take. CIE, Edexcel and Oxford. Idk much about Oxford so I won't talk about that but as for Edexcel and CIE, there are tiny differences. Dw all of them are accepted and credible in universities. CIE generally has harsher material, but is a bit more lenient when it comes to marking. Edexcel is vise versa. Don't be afraid to mix and match! I took all my OL's as CIE but that was also due to school policy restrictions. I'd say take language arts and maths in CIE and the sciences in Edexcel for OL's generally but again research about each syllabus and do what you're most comfortable with! As for AL's Edexcel is way easier tbh, it's still gonna rock your shit but at least it's easier than CIE, less course work too.

5. Don't panic:

If you feel like the exam was hard, don't panic! It most likely is hard for other people too, and since igcse's are based on a curve system, your grade will be assigned relative to everyone else's performance. So as long as you did your best don't worry, move on and focus on your next challenge. Take each exam session one hurdle at a time, don't fret over exams in May/June when you're not done with Oct/Nov. And if your grade isn't as desired, don't freak out! You can always retake it! And you have the right to choose the highest mark between your original exam and your retake(s). Lord knows I fucking bombed my paper 4 biology exam and I still got an A* so just relax! And if your grade is like one off from the grade boundary of your desired mark, you can ask for a remark!

Hope this helped, lovely! Take care and good luck!! <33

[sillyroyalty]

Okay first of all screw ofequal and edexcel A levels. Honestly the education system is really trash.

Wilted Sunflower

“Hey...” Hajime slipped through the spaces between the walls of the halls, crouching next to where you were sitting curled up and hugging your knees.

As he settled beside you silence sunk and weighed down almost in a crushing sense.

You lifted your head and looked at Hajime with vacant eyes,forcing yourself to smile.

“Hey Hajime,”you sighed,” sorry for dragging you with me for nothing” you continued,” turns out I’m a failure after all, huh?”

Your voice cracked at the end and you quickly sucked in a deep breath and swallowed the sob threatening to escape. The overwhelming dread of the uncertainty of your future, your crushed dreams and pride stung your heart.

Everything you worked for, trying your best to remain positive despite all of the misfortunes that came your way, seemed to shatter right before your eyes. As you tried to find an optimistic approach you felt like a stupid sunflower, smiling in a polluted world .You felt like you were trapped in a nightmare.

Hajime gazed down at you sadly before bringing you into his arms. Pulling you close and stoking your hair, “I’m sorry that you didn’t end up getting the results you hoped for...it’s really unfortunate,”

Hajime ranted “You worked harder than anyone I know and it’s unfair you got screwed over like that!”

You made no attempts to respond, everything had stopped for you, your mind was blank,frozen and afraid.

“This whole year was completely out of it, you didn’t even get a chance to do the exam despite studying so hard for it.””I’ve seen the effort you put into your work, it’s admirable and those jerks who made the decision to give you a low grade probably suck ass” he continued with a hint to anger lacing his voice before stopping himself. “Sorry, I got a bit carried away there” he chuckled earning a small laugh from you.

He lifted your head and placed his forehead on yours, “ you’re one of the strongest and smartest people I know...don’t let the world put out your light”

You reluctantly nodded. There was no telling how long you were going to take to stand up again. But you trusted that good awaited you in the end.

[neptunium134]

OKAY SO TIME FOR ANOTHER ONE OF NEPTUNIUM’S RANTS ABOUT HOW GOD-AWFUL THE UK IS

READY?

OKAY, HERE WE GO!

Tonight’s theme; languages.

So in the UK you probably won’t be exposed to many languages other than English, especially in a school environment, before Yr7 (age 12-ish). Unless, of course, you lived in a multi-cultural area where other languages were frequent.

Sufficient to say, in my medium-sized town about an hour via car from London, we didn’t have that many multi-cultural communities. The only example I can think of is my friend Red, who was 1/8th Thai.

I’m 1/4 Irish (which you can really tell by my skin tone), and I’ve just started taking Irish classes since I never actually learned any Irish. My nan came over in the late 1940s, and it’s likely any Irish she spoke would’ve been stamped out when she started working. So me, being the 2002 baby I am, has to learn effectively my own language off the internet because the country my nan came to work in saw even being Irish as a sin. Literally.

Anyway, enough sob story, let’s talk schools.

Like I said, the first time most kids will come into contact with other languages is Yr7. My primary school did do French classes in Yrs4 and 5, but in Yr6 they were swapped for ICT.

Which meant I forgot a lot of French and had to re-learn it in Yr7. The issue there being, by that stage, kids don’t really care that much. Even in my Yr11 German class, my teacher found it hard to engage most of us.

I think the main issue is we don’t start early enough, and we don’t prioritise it. If we started earlier, Yr3 or Yr4 time, it would be easier to teach Yr7-11 kids.

It’s because English is one of the most widely-spoken languages in the world we think we can go anywhere and speak English and the people will understand us. Okay, yes, maybe this is true. But why? Why is it that I could go to somewhere like Belgium, or Argentina, or India and be able to hold a fluent conversation in English with a local?

Education.

They learn English so they can talk to English-speaking people, whether they’re from an English-speaking country or not.

Us English-speaking countries? Ya speak English, we ain’t teachin’ ya Spanish.

Fuck that.

I’m going to be brutally honest and say I hated both French and German at school. I despised it. German sort of slid between Maths and Physics on my hate scale of lessons, and anyone who knows me knows I hated Maths with a passion.

So yes, I hated languages in school.

What’s this you ask? “But, Neptunium, you just said you’re learning Irish, and you’ve mentioned learning Dutch and Navajo before, how come you’re doing that?”

Simple answer; I want to travel, and I want to be able to talk to locals in their language.

Longer answer; I have a love/hate relationship with learning languages. I love doing it, but I’m not a natural language learner by any means. Which sounds strange seeing as I am literally a Linguist.

But I put my hatred of French and German on the school system. I never got to learn German, just what my teacher could power through in a 3-year course, and what EDEXCEL wanted me to learn.

Fuck asking for directions, know how to say “My next lesson is Art at 11.00″. YEAH GREAT FOR WHEN I NEED TO GET TO A FUCKING HOSPITAL EDEXCEL

My German Exchange partner, apart from being the single most amazing person I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting (love ya, hun!) has some of the best English I’ve ever heard, and I’ve been speaking it for almost 18 years.

She started learning English maybe a year earlier than I did German (Yr7 for me), but she said she went to a school that spoke English. IN GERMANY.

Do we have schools that speak German in England? Not as far as I’m aware.

And that’s our problem. As a country, we don’t seem to care about other languages and we certainly don’t seem to care about learning them.

Okay, so on to the thing that sparked the idea for this rant.

Because of the online classes, I’ve had to put up a sign on my door telling my family I’m in a lesson so not to disturb me.

I’ve decided to write the sign in Dutch, as part of my learning. (YOU PROUD OF ME SCHOOL? I’M CONTINUING MY LEARNING, FUCK YOU!)

I think it’s a great idea, I learnt how to say the phrases “Please do not disturb” and “lesson in progress” as well as the names for history and media in Dutch, and it means my family have to look it up to understand it, therefore learning and giving me a few extra minutes while they Google it.

So far, it works. I haven’t been interrupted once during my lessons.

“So what’s the issue, Neptunium? If it works, why are you ranting?”

I’m so glad you ask, dear reader, because, you see, today at around 3pm (I know the time cuz I’d just finished some history work and was going downstairs for ‘hometime’ since I’d technically finished the day) and I was watching Unnus Annus on my laptop.

So my dad comes over to me and says “You might want to run that sign of yours through Google Translate because none of us have any clue what it means”

And at the time I just sat there like an idiot.

Five minutes later, I’d properly digested it and was FUMING.

What I should’ve said was “Well, duh, you can’t understand it. Don’t you think that was kinda the point? For you to look it up and learn on your own? I know what it says, and if you wanna know what it says you should fucking Google it yourself seeing as that sign was meant for you guys in the first place.”

But I didn’t, which is why I’m ranting on Tumblr.

Basically, the UK sucks as teaching languages which leads to situations like this.

This concludes the first instalment of Neptunium Rants.

[coffeetreesandhoneybees]

A-levels!

Hi everybody! I’ve been very dead on this account recently, and I’m sure you all understand. Exams are tough, but I finished today! Here’s just a little post I wanted to make about my time doing A-levels at Sixth Form in the UK for any year 11s or anyone who wants to know a bit more from someone with the benefit of hindsight. 

My Subjects

I began my 2 years doing five subjects - Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Music and AS Maths. I knew I was a scientist from GCSEs and I couldn’t bear to leave music behind, so I was lucky enough to know straight away what I was going to pick. My school also allowed us the option to take AS maths as a fifth subject, but after about 2 weeks I ended up dropping this as I knew my heart wasn’t in it - I was just taking it because I could. And you know what? There’s no shame in taking a subject to see what it’s like, then dropping it. After this, I kept all my others because I felt that I could keep up with them and enjoyed them all. I’m so glad I did - don’t feel like you have to drop down to three if you don’t want to, but on the flip side, if you really feel like one of your subjects isn’t working out for you, don’t feel guilty about dropping!

Studying

I don’t know about other places, but my school certainly turned up the pressure when we started each new year. They would constantly tell us that we needed to be putting minimum 5 hours per subject extra per week at home or during frees, but realistically, this is not always sustainable. Especially if you’re still doing four or five subjects. You need to learn pretty quickly to prioritise, and put out fires as they crop up. And relax! You are not a work machine, and I promise your teachers will understand if you miss one or two pieces of homework occasionally. However if you’re like me and have one teacher who’s really totally unforgiving, the only thing you can do is prioritise work for this teacher. It’s likely that their method of teaching revolves around using the fear factor to make you learn things, and, as much as it sucks, in my experience it does tend to work if you just get on with it. Hang in there - a lot of the time it can feel quite overbearing, but I promise it’s temporary, and if you stick it out, more often than not it will pay off. Just do your best and that’s all anyone can ask :)

Universities

UCAS is a terrifying word at the start of year 12, and people will be chucking the term “personal statement” around a lot too. The important things here is to, maybe counter-intuitively, take a step back from academia and think about you, and what you want to get out of your studying career. If you are passionate about a particular subject already, like I was, great. Find that as a degree, or a degree in that field, and talk about why you love it. If you’re not so sure, the deadlines probably feel really intimidating. There’s a lot of choice, but in this case, why not try picking a university before you pick a subject. A guy came to our school and advised us to make a list of all the qualities our dream uni has, and there is probably one in the uk (or abroad!) that fits the bill. Once you’ve found one, think about the courses it has to offer, and if one takes your fancy. But having said all that, here’s a tip - there is more to life that higher education !! Square peg in a round hole - if you don’t think uni is your thing, don’t force it to be!

Other Commitments

Ok, I won’t brag, but it’s fair to say I know a good deal about signing up for extra-curricular commitments. Firstly, as an A-level musician, a lot of my time was spent in the music department, helping out with clubs, school productions, even starting my own ensemble, for which I did all the arranging. The key thing about this though is that it didn’t feel like a chore, because I really loved music and enjoyed helping out, so even though I spent so much of my own time doing these things, my fondest sixth-form memories are in that department. Point being, extra-curriculars aren’t just things to put on your personal statement and then ditch - if you find something you’re really passionate about, you’re winning. Outside of music, I taught myself Japanese and took JLPT N4, took an EPQ and became deputy head girl. All of these things also took considerable chunks of time out of my week, but again, I enjoyed them. Ok, the EPQ was a tough slog with all the editing and researching that went in, but I’m so glad I did it. (Let me know if you guys want a post on research reports or my EPQ experience as well :P)

Exams

Across my four subjects I had 10 exams - 3 for each science, and 1 for music. Music was mostly coursework (performing and composing), which is why there was only one. Exams season is obviously a stressful time, but what I found really helpful was that your teachers are there to help you and if you approach them, they will, 9 times out of 10, go out of their way to do so. Ok, there may be some stinky teachers who won’t be so helpful, but even if they don’t teach you, approach your head of department, or a teacher your friend recommends. Having a good teacher who you can count on to help you really relieves the stress, and makes working through past papers and stuff much more productive, as you don’t have to wind yourself up for hours over 1 really tough question. With regards to actual exams - it’s a total gamble what’s going to be on the paper, so if you’re on those forums that tell you what’s going to be on it, forget it. Exam boards like OCR and Edexcel love to throw curveballs, so you’re better off not psyching yourself out over it. You’re going to get some rough ones - I had one today. And it feels pretty terrible at first. But I promise you won’t be the only person who found it rough, even if your friends didn’t. If you’ve put in the work and you’ve done your best, that’s fine. You are not a failure for skipping questions or running out of time.

And I will leave this very long post there! Hopefully this was a bit informative?? Just wanted to share some of my experiences. Well done to all my fellow Yr 13 on making it through, enjoy the rest of our very long summer! (Also if anyone else sat the OCR Chemistry Paper 3 and wants to talk about how stinky it was with me hit up my inbox lol)

CTandHB :)

[the-artofstudying]

monday 22nd may 2019- spanish listening and reading [higher] EDEXCEL

okay so the listening in my opinion was weirdly fine, usually i suck at listening but it was actually okay, and so was the translation. the reading however i found SO difficult, so hopefully my writing and speaking will bring me up

what i think got: im hoping for a 7 tbh but i think i got a 6 in this one

———

physics paper 1 [triple] AQA

oof this was AWFUL the whole thing was literally P1 and there was like a few questions on the other topics but that was about it. there was one 6 marker and i swear it was like 90% maths

what i think i got: oof i hope i’ve got a 6 upwards really but i think i’ve got a 4/5 which i’m not mad about but i would like it to be higher. hopefully paper 2 will go a lot better

[mathematicool]

Hi, I'm currently a year 13 student studying Mathd, Further Maths and Business on Edexcel. I've applied and been accepted to do MMaths at Uni in September. Right now I'm just really struggling to find the motivation to put the work in and some modues(S2 for example), I just don't know how to revise. Any tips? Thank you! Congrats on your first assessment grade, too! X

Hi, 

Thank you!

I answered a similar question relating to motivation which you can find here: link. 

Around this time last year I was starting S2 revision. I first went over the material (my notes for S2 can be found here: link but they’re for AQA so I don’t know how much help they’ll be but they can give you an indication as to how I liked to organise my notes), and then just attempted past papers. There isn’t much you can do for S2 other than attempt questions tbh. When I attempted the past papers, I made a table for my raw marks, the UMS, my grades and the topics I lost most marks on/struggled with most. This allowed me to see which papers I’d need to redo closer to exam time, and which topics I’d need to focus my attention on. Also, here: link, is a list of resources that can help you with Maths and Further Maths. 

I find that actually beginning the revision is the toughest. Give yourself a little pep talk and just force yourself to start revising. Get into a regular habit (maybe one paper every few days, and in between do questions from a textbook or papers from other exam boards). It’ll become easier to revise the more regularly you study. 

Think about the looooooooong summer you have ahead of you!! It’ll be so much more fun if you put in the work now so that your exams go as smoothly as possible. You don’t wanna be like me not enjoying your summer because you’re fretting over your exam results so much. I learned from that mistake and I’m now doing a lot better in terms of motivation and starting revision at university! 

Find a buddy to study with. Go to the library with them so that you aren’t distracted at home. Find a Maths buddy. It’ll make your life so much easier and studying more bearable, trust me. Studying by yourself sucks, especially with maths.

Hope that helps. Good luck with A levels!!

[kaiitae]

@taeminleigh no no i understand!! things have been a mess here too im so,,,LOST in life oh god. my first round of exams ends 18th may and i dont have anything for a while after it so we could skype within the week that follows it if youre free too!! ;-; najjs afterwards im bombarded with exams that dont end until the 21st of june this is Hell 😫😫

[productivityprintables]

How to study for A-Levels

I haven’t finished my a-levels yet, but from all the years I’ve been studying (both igcses and as levels), I’ve developed some tips and tricks that I’ve found extremely useful when it comes to tackling edexcel (or whatever exam board you take 😂)

1. Study topic by topic Ideally it should be done before study leave, or if you’re procrastinating like me, I’d do it in the morning (afternoon is for pastpapers). Anyway, the main idea is to know your stuff well before doing pastpapers. Do like ½ chapters per subject every day - read the textbook, make your own notes, use flashcards / whatever that helps with memorising stuff.

2. Pastpapers I usually have a list / excel file to record all the pps I’ve done / have to do. You can also add a few column to keep track of the marks you got for individual paper and the grade for that year so you’d have a rough idea of what you’ll get for the real exam or if you’re improving. Remember to mark questions that you don’t know / got wrong, and in a notebook, write the question and the correct answer to it. I’ve mentioned this tip a lot already because it’s honestly a huge lifesaver!

Subject specific tips: 1. Maths/further maths: good luck buddy - I’m constanly questioning my subject choice since I started a-levels 😂 

C1234 - from what I remember, integration and double angle are the toughest thing, so make sure you understand how to tackle these questions (if not, youtube) and practise a lot of questions

M123 - (mechanics causes headaches) draw clear diagrams, make sure all the forces are labled correctly and keep a clear head. And practise of course

S12 - oh god I suck at stats. Practise and make sure you’re using the right values from the tables (use ruler)

D1 - practise A LOT. D1 is easy to understand and a lot of people underestimated it and ended up screwing up the exam bc not enougj practises

2. Physics: I watches a lot of youtube videos for physics - it helps with understanding it. Memorise the definitions, and I’m pretty sure you’ll find out that there are standard ways to answer specific questions, so memorise that as well.

3. Chemistry: TONS OF STUFF TO REMEMBER! (That’s why I hate it) I used the Anki App to help memorising chem stuff last year - it uses a specific algorithm to solidify your memory (i think idk tbh google for yourself) not sure if it helps but you could try it out 😂 flashcards helps, and also try teaching to others. You can try writing it out repeatedly and making tables (esp for organic chem equations shit) as well. And pastpapers.

In my opinion public exams is not really a test for your knowlege, it’s more like a test for how well you handle stress, or as I like to say, if you have ‘inner peace’ (#kungfupanda) sooooo whatever you do, remember to take breaks and chill