Good Luck In GCSEs

Conor said:
I did my French "speaking" ;) examination yesterday.  It went quite well.
What about your's Silky? :mellow:

Did mine on Wednesday.  Actually, it was drastically easier than I had anticipated.  I got a roleplay on babysitting, which one of my friends had done (and he complained at not knowing that babysitting in French was 'faire du babysitting), so that went very well.  The presentation went brilliant, but I had to cut out so much to stick to the time limit.  Oral went well (shut up Mav....), although I had to improvise a bit for the last question.  All in all, it went pretty well.  Right now, I'm wasting my study leave time on these forums (well, I tend to take Fridays off <_<)...
 
Update

Update

I did my additional maths paper 1 on tuesday and my paper 2 today.

Everbody else came out of the centre saying how difficult the exams were but I thought they were quite easy, which is worrying :unsure:  Only time will tell ;)

How did they go for you Silky?  We have done the same papers (I think) so tell us how you got on :)
 
Re: Update

Conor said:
Update

I did my additional maths paper 1 on tuesday and my paper 2 today.

Everbody else came out of the centre saying how difficult the exams were but I thought they were quite easy, which is worrying :unsure:  Only time will tell ;)

How did they go for you Silky?  We have done the same papers (I think) so tell us how you got on :)

Yes, there are no tiers for Add Maths (presumably because anyone who would be doing Foundation is not going to be going near the subject anyway!), so we did the same papers.  I thought the pure paper (for the rest of you, that's essentially any topic that doesn't involve forces, fiddly diagrams or juggling statistics) was nice and easy, but that was as I expected.  The mechanics/statistics paper was undoubtedly harder, but still pretty straightforward.  It was more hard in the 'Crap-I-have-5-minutes-left-in-which-to-redo-an-entire-page-of-working' way ;)

Tomorrow is English Literature and Latin (Paper 1).
English Lit will be hell.  40 mins per essay (plus planning), 3 essays-One on 'Of Mice and Men' by Steinbeck (actually quite a nice, thematic novel), J.B. Priestley's 'An Inspector Calls' as Drama (CONTEXT!  SOCIALISM!  MORAL RESPONSIBILITY!) and post-1914 poetry (remember kids, say what you like, as long as you back it up!).  Even still, the range of questions they can ask and the short space of time in which to write them will leave my brain and my hand completely crippled for.....

....Latin.  Actually, one of my better subjects.  I got some last minute grinding of basic knowledge in yesterday and today, and think I know my grammar and word list well enough to get most of the translation/comprehension passage right.  Set text question is on Caesar's Campaign in Britian, 55 B.C.  My classmates seemed to have trouble getting to grips with this, but I myself found it quite straightforward and methodical.  I rather like his detached style (although he uses ablative absolutes and the Latin 'let's use a personal pronoun instead of 'men'' so often you really want to slap him...if he weren't dead for the best part of 2 millenia  :-[), so I'm hoping that I'll do well enough in that.  We also have some random background knowledge questions on the founding, expansion and provinical government of Rome's Imperium, but I don't think that'll be a problem.  R.E. on Wednesday as well...have I revised?  Ummmm....no... *runs off to cram* :(
 
Re: Update

Silky said:
....Latin.  Actually, one of my better subjects.  I got some last minute grinding of basic knowledge in yesterday and today, and think I know my grammar and word list well enough to get most of the translation/comprehension passage right.  Set text question is on Caesar's Campaign in Britian, 55 B.C.  My classmates seemed to have trouble getting to grips with this, but I myself found it quite straightforward and methodical.  I rather like his detached style (although he uses ablative absolutes and the Latin 'let's use a personal pronoun instead of 'men'' so often you really want to slap him...if he weren't dead for the best part of 2 millenia  :-[), so I'm hoping that I'll do well enough in that.  We also have some random background knowledge questions on the founding, expansion and provinical government of Rome's Imperium, but I don't think that'll be a problem.
You're right about Caesar - his prose is about as straightforward as it comes.

My set text for tomorrow's Ancient Greek exam is Homer's Iliad Book 1. Unfortunately my attendance for Greek this year was somewhere between 5 and 10% of lectures, so due to nobody's fault but mine I'm probably going to fail tomorrow's exam. :(
 
Silky said:
Yes, there are no tiers for Add Maths (presumably because anyone who would be doing Foundation is not going to be going near the subject anyway!), so we did the same papers.  I thought the pure paper (for the rest of you, that's essentially any topic that doesn't involve forces, fiddly diagrams or juggling statistics) was nice and easy, but that was as I expected.  The mechanics/statistics paper was undoubtedly harder, but still pretty straightforward.  It was more hard in the 'Crap-I-have-5-minutes-left-in-which-to-redo-an-entire-page-of-working' way ;)

Tomorrow is English Literature and Latin (Paper 1).
English Lit will be hell.  40 mins per essay (plus planning), 3 essays-One on 'Of Mice and Men' by Steinbeck (actually quite a nice, thematic novel), J.B. Priestley's 'An Inspector Calls' as Drama (CONTEXT!  SOCIALISM!  MORAL RESPONSIBILITY!) and post-1914 poetry (remember kids, say what you like, as long as you back it up!).  Even still, the range of questions they can ask and the short space of time in which to write them will leave my brain and my hand completely crippled for.....<Conor states latin is a poohy subject>
I have Eng lit and ICT tomorrow... if you are doing ICT aswell, it must be a different course (or else i'll scan in the paper for you :p)
For English Lit, I study "An Inspector Calls" and the post-1914 poetry also.
I do "Roll of Thunder... Hear My Cry" by Mildred D Taylor instead of "Of Mice and Men" which is good in a way because I won't have a whining Mustaine in my head when i'm trying to do my exams :p
 
Conor said:
I have Eng lit and ICT tomorrow... if you are doing ICT aswell, it must be a different course (or else i'll scan in the paper for you :p)
For English Lit, I study "An Inspector Calls" and the post-1914 poetry also.
I do "Roll of Thunder... Hear My Cry" by Mildred D Taylor instead of "Of Mice and Men" which is good in a way because I won't have a whining Mustaine in my head when i'm trying to do my exams :p

I haven't heard that song...but I wish I had done Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' instead, so I could hum Maiden to myself! :p

Well, in the exam situation, things went reasonably well today.  I wrote 9.75 sides overall for English Lit., so I think I showed myself well in that, although the questions weren't great.  In case you're wondering, Conor, I went for the Sheila question in An Inspector Calls and the 'Compare An Advancement of Learning with another poem dealing with a significant experience' question in Post-1914 poetry.  I compared it with Roe-Deer (which I think worked quite well.  For those who don't know, they both deal with nature, specifically a certain creature.  Heaney's poem ('An Advancement...') deals with growing up, while Roe-Deer harkens back to a time when man and beast were closer...they played off each other quite well, methinks :) )

In Latin, it was (as expected) finished by everyone in the first hour, out of a two hour paper.  *Yawn*
The momentum translation/comprehension was easy enough, most of the answers I couldn't figure out right off I managed to infer from the context of the sentence etc. etc.
Caesar was ridiculously easy and straightforward.  For anyone who's read his account of the 55 B.C. invasion, our passages were 'British Chiefs Take Advantage of the Confusion' and 'Chariot-Fighting' (one of my favourites).  They were mainly translation/comprehension questions, with some general opinion/background questions.
Background was a bit hit-and-miss.  Most questions I knew right off (for example, we had to name Africa and Macedonia as provinces on a map); the only question I know I got wrong was one about St. Paul.  It asked 'Why had St. Paul been sent to Rome', and as this had only been mentioned in passing in our textbook I never bothered learning it (I know, I know, I'm a Christian and a Classicist and therefore should have known it, but still.... :rolleyes:)

Well, R.E. tomorrow.  And I think I may scrape a good mark, since I can actually remember most of the stuff!
Later
Silky
 
Silky said:
Well, in the exam situation, things went reasonably well today.  I wrote 9.75 sides overall for English Lit., so I think I showed myself well in that, although the questions weren't great.  In case you're wondering, Conor, I went for the Sheila question in An Inspector Calls and the 'Compare An Advancement of Learning with another poem dealing with a significant experience' question in Post-1914 poetry.  I compared it with Roe-Deer (which I think worked quite well.  For those who don't know, they both deal with nature, specifically a certain creature.  Heaney's poem ('An Advancement...') deals with growing up, while Roe-Deer harkens back to a time when man and beast were closer...they played off each other quite well, methinks :) )
Meh, I did the opposites of you... Mr and Mrs Birling for "An Inspector Calls" and "Afternoons" compared with "The Road Not Taken" in the post-1914 poetry.

For "Roll of Thunder..." I did a nice little question about violence :angry:

Overall about 10 pages... the same as you Silky.


The ICT paper was damned easy except for one question nobody had ever heard of before... only worth 2 marks from a total of 160 so it hopefully won't matter.

I do a different RE paper from you for obvious reasons and quite frankly I don't care what grade I get.  Seeing as my coursework went OK, no revision will land me a decent grade but nothing to worry about. ;)
 
Good stuff.  Little update today, as I only had one exam.  R.E. was very straightforward, although quite long and involved a lot of writing.  I think I got my point across well, although I quite often wasn't sure how the examiner would react if I indicated that I am a Christian, so in trying to write in a neutral viewpoint I came across as some kind of Christian-atheist amalgamation.  I'm not sure how well that will go down.... :rolleyes:
 
Silky said:
Good stuff.  Little update today, as I only had one exam.  R.E. was very straightforward, although quite long and involved a lot of writing.  I think I got my point across well, although I quite often wasn't sure how the examiner would react if I indicated that I am a Christian, so in trying to write in a neutral viewpoint I came across as some kind of Christian-atheist amalgamation.  I'm not sure how well that will go down.... :rolleyes:
So long as you back up your argument, it doesn't matter what you say really.  Unless you actively insult religion.

RE was a doddle for me aswell... paper 2 on Friday though... it should be harder than today's but I think I've done enough to get me a grade :mellow:
 
Wednesday - Physics (paper 2)
Thursday - Chemistry (paper 2)

Triple Award Science you see, it's a bollox :p
 
Conor said:
Wednesday - Physics (paper 2)
Thursday - Chemistry (paper 2)

Triple Award Science you see, it's a bollox :p

Shattered for you, Conor.  But don't you do a different board as well?
 
CEA for the sciences...

I hope you enjoy your extended Summer break Silky.  Don't waste it like I probably will :p
 
Conor said:
CEA for the sciences...

I hope you enjoy your extended Summer break Silky.  Don't waste it like I probably will :p

I intend to do lots of stuff.  Picking up guitar, mastering Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique (which is quite a feat, I can tell you) and doing things for my Silver Duke of Ed.  But I will end up spending most of my time on the computer (like I didn't during 'study' leave :-[).  Good luck to you in your last 2 exams, Conor.
 
Silky said:
I intend to do lots of stuff.  Picking up guitar, mastering Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique (which is quite a feat, I can tell you) and doing things for my Silver Duke of Ed.  But I will end up spending most of my time on the computer (like I didn't during 'study' leave :-[).  Good luck to you in your last 2 exams, Conor.
Are you mad?! You've got to inhale as much beer and cigarettes as possible in the little time you have! Enjoy yourself! :yey:
 
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