The Exams Thread

[FoxesAreBlue]

I remember when I was going into Guthlaxton it was a choice of GCSE P.E., Sports Leadership Award and just bog standard "Core PE" (no qualification)

I wanted to do sports leader but my teacher at Abington said no - do Core (I was crap at PE but still loved it, I was just shot at football!).

I'd love to see him now and show him what I've become despite his lack of support.

[Wymsey]

 Good luck to those still involved. 

[Dylan]

26th is a heavy shift! Most people I know finish in the next week or so. 

 

Yeah, pretty sure I'm the last person in my college to finish... cos I do Further Maths and have to take STEP paper which are the last exams -_-

 

I have come to the conclusion further maths is a little bit too hard. Such is life. 

 

You in first or second year of it?

[Dylan]

Same, a lot better at science and letters. Maths really is my weakest subject.

Yes I'm going on to sixth form. I'm not sure what I should take. Definitely taking History (one of my best subjects), maybe bio and chem or maths and physics. I'm still not sure about that 4th subject. I'm considering PE because I really enjoy it. I'm just going to wait for my results and decide from there.

 

Thanks man, I need the luck. Seriously haven't done enough revision yet. Been hooked on grid 2 -.-

Good luck to you as well. Hopefully you get the grades you want.

 

Be sure to put the work in from the start if you're taking A Level History... I absolutely annihilated History at GCSE level, was the only A-Level I knew I'd do at the end of my GCSEs... Got to A-Levels, got quite lazy and couldn't put the work in, and ended up dropping it at the end of the first year.  Not saying this to discourage you, it's a brill subject to learn and I wish I'd put the work in!

[Xen]

Yeah, pretty sure I'm the last person in my college to finish... cos I do Further Maths and have to take STEP paper which are the last exams -_-

 

 

 

You're doing STEP? Impressive.. A few of my course mates had to do that last year - sounds very tough from what they've told me - good luck

 

I take it that since you're doing STEP you're going to Uni next year.. What course're you doing and where have you applied? 

[Dylan]

You're doing STEP? Impressive.. A few of my course mates had to do that last year - sounds very tough from what they've told me - good luck

 

I take it that since you're doing STEP you're going to Uni next year.. What course're you doing and where have you applied? 

 

I'm doing it, but I'm absolutely struggling at it, be very lucky to get what I need in it.

 

Applied for Mathematics.  Firmed Imperial (which want the STEP), and insured Bristol.  Didn't think my Uni choices through as I should have, which I'm quite annoyed at.

 

From that I assume you must be studying something related to Mathematics somewhere?

[Danno]

What would people say the best way of revising maths for them is? I'm not sure whether doing a few past paper questions tonight would be alright.

[ScouseFox]

Yeah, pretty sure I'm the last person in my college to finish... cos I do Further Maths and have to take STEP paper which are the last exams -_-

 

 

You in first or second year of it?

 

Unlucky! It'll all be worth it come the 26th though mate. 

 

I've done the whole course (AS and A2) in one year, the module that post was about was the Mechanics 2, canny get my head round some of that shit. Had the exam this morning, didn't go great but didn't expect it to. The other 4 modules I've done so far I felt went pretty well so hopefully one blip out of 5 won't hurt the overall grade too much. One more left now, FP2. The big one. Solid week of revision, get that done with and life is much better. Few parties and nights out then going away a week after I finish. Oooo yehhh. 

[Dylan]

What would people say the best way of revising maths for them is? I'm not sure whether doing a few past paper questions tonight would be alright.

Personally, past papers are the best. Most maths papers will be the similar to past papers, just with different numbers etc. No better practice that past questions imo

[Dylan]

Unlucky! It'll all be worth it come the 26th though mate.

I've done the whole course (AS and A2) in one year, the module that post was about was the Mechanics 2, canny get my head round some of that shit. Had the exam this morning, didn't go great but didn't expect it to. The other 4 modules I've done so far I felt went pretty well so hopefully one blip out of 5 won't hurt the overall grade too much. One more left now, FP2. The big one. Solid week of revision, get that done with and life is much better. Few parties and nights out then going away a week after I finish. Oooo yehhh.

Yeah can not wait for the 26th, getting absolutely hammered the Saturday after it!

Oh, what modules do you do (and what exam board)?

I did C1-C4 and S1 and M1 for my Mathematics A-Level.

And this year did, FP1, S2 and M2 in Jan... And doing M3 (did it this morn), FP2 and FP3: which will be my Further Maths A-Level.

All on Edexcel.

[ScouseFox]

We do AQA for normal maths and OCR for further. Did the same 6 maths modules, got an A. The cores are pretty easy if you "get" them, they're all pretty similar. S1 and M1 were ok as well. 

 

For further we've done D1, FP1 and Numerical Methods as AS modules and FP2, M2 and S2 for the second half. So pretty similar to yourself. D1 and NM are superbly easy, need to use those marks to boost the final grade because M2 and possibly FP2 might bring it down a bit. S2 is just S1 with more complicated words in it . The thought of an FP3 makes me feel a bit ill though, good luck with that haha! 

[Dylan]

Oh yeah, I found S2 easier than S1 tbh!

Don't mind the way we do it tbf, we have 5 A2 modules for the Further so easier to get an A* this way I think.

[Swarles Barkley]

Same here. Which STEP paper you doing. Im staying safe and sticking with step 1 for maths at warwick. Need 92 in my fp2 to get that a* star though!

[Xen]

I'm doing it, but I'm absolutely struggling at it, be very lucky to get what I need in it.

 

Applied for Mathematics.  Firmed Imperial (which want the STEP), and insured Bristol.  Didn't think my Uni choices through as I should have, which I'm quite annoyed at.

 

From that I assume you must be studying something related to Mathematics somewhere?

Nice. Good luck If you don't get in/change your mind, you could always try clearing. I'm at Lboro (finishing first year soon) and I'd initially applied to CompSci, but changed my mind over the summer and switched to Maths the day the course started. With the new fees it's put a lot of people off, so there's more opportunity to make late decisions should you wish.

 

I did Maths and FM at the same time, rather than A2 maths in 1 year then A2 FM like some people. Both AQA, got an A* and a B. Modules I ended up doing (which were reshuffled to get me the A* so I have no idea about which were FM/Core apart from the obvious) were:

C1, C2, C3, C4, D1, D2, S1, M1, FP1, FP2, FP3, FP4.

 

Pure maths was tough, but it's helped a LOT this year. I'm just a bit behind most people when it comes to stats modules, but that's not too bad - especially with Calculus and Linear Algebra being the main two.

 

I've got an exam in Sequences & Series tomorrow and then a Numbers exam the tuesday after, then I'm done.

[Dylan]

Same here. Which STEP paper you doing. Im staying safe and sticking with step 1 for maths at warwick. Need 92 in my fp2 to get that a* star though!

 

Doing all 3.  Need a Grade 2 in either STEP II or STEP III.  Not very confident at all.  How you finding STEP questions, I'm struggling!

 

I need an 83 UMS in any of my 3 summer modules (M3, FP2, FP3).  Had M3 today, gonna have a look at the unofficial MS tomorrow, but hopefully done enough today to get the A*.  That said, trying not to get complacent for FP2 and FP3.

 

Which exam board you with?

[Dylan]

Nice. Good luck If you don't get in/change your mind, you could always try clearing. I'm at Lboro (finishing first year soon) and I'd initially applied to CompSci, but changed my mind over the summer and switched to Maths the day the course started. With the new fees it's put a lot of people off, so there's more opportunity to make late decisions should you wish.

 

I did Maths and FM at the same time, rather than A2 maths in 1 year then A2 FM like some people. Both AQA, got an A* and a B. Modules I ended up doing (which were reshuffled to get me the A* so I have no idea about which were FM/Core apart from the obvious) were:

C1, C2, C3, C4, D1, D2, S1, M1, FP1, FP2, FP3, FP4.

 

Pure maths was tough, but it's helped a LOT this year. I'm just a bit behind most people when it comes to stats modules, but that's not too bad - especially with Calculus and Linear Algebra being the main two.

 

I've got an exam in Sequences & Series tomorrow and then a Numbers exam the tuesday after, then I'm done.

 

To be fair, I'd be ecstatic at getting into Imperial, but pretty sure the STEP part of my offer will do me.  Quite wounding knowing I could potentially get 3 A*'s on Results Day and still be disappointed!

 

I don't think I'd get any Uni's I want through clearing.  If I could re-do my UCAS I'd have applied at UCL, which I could've put as my insurance and I'd be in a perfect position right now.

 

Wow, what's in FP4- that sounds horrible!  Surprised you're school didn't make you do S2, it's piss easy.

[Xen]

To be fair, I'd be ecstatic at getting into Imperial, but pretty sure the STEP part of my offer will do me.  Quite wounding knowing I could potentially get 3 A*'s on Results Day and still be disappointed!

 

I don't think I'd get any Uni's I want through clearing.  If I could re-do my UCAS I'd have applied at UCL, which I could've put as my insurance and I'd be in a perfect position right now.

 

Wow, what's in FP4- that sounds horrible!  Surprised you're school didn't make you do S2, it's piss easy.

 

You never know. At this point last year I thought I'd completely messed up my A2s but ended up coming out with A*AABB, more than enough for an ABB offer haha. If this year is anything like last year (it's hard to tell) then there may just be spaces open even at top uni's like UCL, so you never know.

Edit: Oh, I should mention that I know quite a few people who still got into their respective Uni's despite missing out by a grade or 2, so even if things go badly you still stand a chance!

 

FP4 isn't horrible at all! One of the nicest modules actually! We sat FP1, S1 and D2 for AS further maths, then FP4 in January before FP2 and FP£ in June. It's fairly standalone (and I think only AQA offer it) and it's basically Linear Algebra. So dealing with Matrices and linear transformations. Pretty much all the methods we were taught in A2 though have since become irrelevant, and there's just a couple of much easier methods that do everything.

 

We only had 2 people in our FM class for A2 (there were 7 sitting the AS, but one guy failed and the rest we're the year above) and we were both going to do  courses that were more pure-maths based (CS for me and Maths for him) so S2 wasn't nearly as relevant as FP4/D2

[Dylan]

You never know. At this point last year I thought I'd completely messed up my A2s but ended up coming out with A*AABB, more than enough for an ABB offer haha. If this year is anything like last year (it's hard to tell) then there may just be spaces open even at top uni's like UCL, so you never know.

Edit: Oh, I should mention that I know quite a few people who still got into their respective Uni's despite missing out by a grade or 2, so even if things go badly you still stand a chance!

 

FP4 isn't horrible at all! One of the nicest modules actually! We sat FP1, S1 and D2 for AS further maths, then FP4 in January before FP2 and FP£ in June. It's fairly standalone (and I think only AQA offer it) and it's basically Linear Algebra. So dealing with Matrices and linear transformations. Pretty much all the methods we were taught in A2 though have since become irrelevant, and there's just a couple of much easier methods that do everything.

 

We only had 2 people in our FM class for A2 (there were 7 sitting the AS, but one guy failed and the rest we're the year above) and we were both going to do  courses that were more pure-maths based (CS for me and Maths for him) so S2 wasn't nearly as relevant as FP4/D2

 

Oh fair enough, we don't get a choice in the units we take.  

 

Hmm true, that's what I'm hoping for tbh.  But from what I've researched and heard, places like Imperial don't usually let you in if you fail to meet your offer

 

If I miss out, I'll probably ring up places like UCL to see if there's any spaces left, on either Maths or Economics (or mixed), you never know, hopefully get lucky!  Would love to go London now; so many away days!

[Swarles Barkley]

Doing all 3. Need a Grade 2 in either STEP II or STEP III. Not very confident at all. How you finding STEP questions, I'm struggling!

I need an 83 UMS in any of my 3 summer modules (M3, FP2, FP3). Had M3 today, gonna have a look at the unofficial MS tomorrow, but hopefully done enough today to get the A*. That said, trying not to get complacent for FP2 and FP3.

Which exam board you with?

Mei. Im also struggling with step but im focussing entirely on getting a* in fp2/fp3. I should be very close so hopefully warwick wont mind a couple of marks short. STEP is ridiculously hard, cant believe your 2 and 3. Step 1 is bad enough!

[Dylan]

Mei. Im also struggling with step but im focussing entirely on getting a* in fp2/fp3. I should be very close so hopefully warwick wont mind a couple of marks short. STEP is ridiculously hard, cant believe your 2 and 3. Step 1 is bad enough!

It'd take a massive fvck up for me not to get an A* now... I'm just praying that Imperial let me in even if I miss out on STEP cos I can't see me succeeding in that!

Warwick's very good too, your offer A* A* A plus a 2 in any STEP? My mates firmed there too, also worrying about making the STEP offer. Make sure you get the A* and they might ease up on the STEP.

[Danno]

Did Maths today. Wasnt bad apart from the last few questions.

Human Geography tomorrow then Maths Calc and RS friday. Then 12 weeks off:)

[Danno]

BTW anyone who did Edexcel maths higher on Tuesday I've found the answers and working:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/qx6rrxf48f3yl7f/13%20June%201H%20Solutions%20v2.pdf?token_hash=AAFPUtUcrW0qgHLNuJnh-3o9xqBKodS-yIaOp5q8zzKgYg&dl=1

[Swarles Barkley]

Did anyone do edexcel c3 yesterday. The amount of uproar on the difficulty of the paper has been mad, with artciles in the times, facebook pages created etc

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=226484&d=1371166583

Im on a different board so i wouldn know much about the difficulty, but it might Affect other boards

[leicester_singh]

I'm finished. Let the worrying for results day begin.

[lavrentis]

Did anyone do edexcel c3 yesterday. The amount of uproar on the difficulty of the paper has been mad, with artciles in the times, facebook pages created etc

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=226484&d=1371166583

Im on a different board so i wouldn know much about the difficulty, but it might Affect other boards

 

Heard it was rock hard. Don't envy anyone that took it.