(15 Apr 2017, 7:28 pm)Simmy wrote Just my final university exams in May/June. Can't wait till they are over and I can resume a normal sleeping pattern! 

I sit 20 exams in total; 4 English (Edexcel); 3 Maths (Edexcel); 4 Science (AQA); 3 History (Edexcel); 2 Geography (AQA); 2 German (Edexcel); 2 Business & Economics (Edexcel). The only one I feel genuinely confident for at present is the 45-minute multiple choice Business exam that makes up 25% of the final grade.

As there is no coursework element to the two English GCSEs anymore, the final grade is entirely dependent on exam performance. I have to admit, for Literature especially, I wish there was coursework. Yes, it feels like a pain at the time you do it, but it takes some weight off your shoulders for other subjects (in my case, my four option subjects and to an extent, my two Sciences) in the lead-up to the exams. For Literature, I've studied Lord of The Flies by William Golding, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Tempest by William Shakespeare, and then 15 poems focused on Conflict. That's two novels, one play, and fifteen poems, all for which a thorough understanding is needed. It's no longer open-book, so all quotes need to be memorised. We don't know what we'll be hit with exactly, so you sort of have to draw up a shortlist of ideas for each one then collect quotes. It's pretty painful, I have to admit. That said, I do enjoy the analytical element of Literature so I intend to continue with it at A-Level. For English Language, there are two exams, one worth 96 marks, and the other worth 64 marks; the 96 mark exam is two hours in length, where you have 1 hour and 15 minutes in Section A (worth 56 marks), spent tearing two unseen non-fictional extracts apart (two 15 mark questions, one 14 mark question, one 6 mark question, then the remaining 6 marks are made up of smaller questions), topped off with a transactional writing piece in Section B worth 40 marks. The second Language exam is 1 hour and 45 minutes, with a similar set-up to the other, but only one fictional extract to analyse in Section A, worth 24 marks in total, followed by a 40 mark question on imaginative writing in Section B. To be honest, the only real issue I tend to have is the time management; we did two mocks in March using sample papers supplied by the exam board, and I ran out of time in the big one, completely missing the 14 mark question. Still somehow managed to get 69/96, which was a provisional grade 7 (roughly an old A). Fingers crossed I can pull it off. 

Maths - ugh. Where do I start... My predicted grade for this is a grade 8 (old A* pretty much). However, through no fault of my own (other than, of my own admission, not being very gifted at Maths), I am only taught as high as grade 5/6 due to my set being a mixture of students who have been entered for the higher paper and the foundation higher. That target is simply out of reach at this stage in the game, so I'm just having to grit my teeth and hope I can achieve a grade 6 (apparently a high B). In general, I find Maths is pretty poorly taught. I'm seemingly not the only one to hold that view at our place. There is an effectively unanimous opinion in my class that the Maths department is incompetent. I mean, entering some candidates for the higher paper and only teaching them about 50% of the stuff on the paper? Then having a foundation student in set one when they receive absolutely no benefit whatsoever from that higher teaching, as it isn't going to be on their exams... 

I've been entered for Core and Additional Science, so I'll receive two GCSEs. I admit that Science has never come naturally to me. I find most of the content to be pretty boring, and I have no intentions of continuing with it at A-Level. Biology is quite well taught, but then the exams confuse me as so much of the question focuses on the context of something; you kind of need to work out for yourself what is being asked of you. Chemistry, however, seems to be mostly factual recall. 50% I believe my teacher said, so if you learn the facts, you can be within reach of a B. With the 25% coursework element, as I am presumably on two A/A*s as I didn't have to redo either of mine, I think it is about 66% across the two exams for each one to achieve an A, roughly. Physics is mostly equations from what I have observed over the years, but that doesn't save it from the fact that it is mindnumblingly boring. If it was all about planets and stuff, I'd be very interested in it. But no, it's all just forces and electricity.

Onto my options subjects now. I love History, it's always been something that has fascinated me. However, my class (33 of us I think) is full of people who chose the subject because they had nothing else to choose. As a consequence, only 6 of us achieve an A or higher in the assessments we do to gauge progress. In Year 10, we had a different History teacher and did our coursework with him. We were sent in blind to be honest - no guidance on how to structure our answers in order to best answer the questions, we were just given the facts and told to apply them. My coursework is maybe on a C, if I am lucky. That said, I do enjoy the content in History. I do the American West, Impact of War on Britain, and Medicine Through Time modules. All of them interest me, but I would say Medicine the least so. Less than a month until the first exam, and we've not finished the Medicine content. It's our first History exam too - Monday 5th June. Got a week off prior to that, which should hopefully give me the time to thoroughly revise the content. At present, I'm alright with American West and Impact of War. In order to continue with History at A-Level, I need at least a B, but I would like an A. With the coursework factor in mind, I'm striving for three A*s in the exams in order to maximise my chances of securing an A. 

The three languages on offer at the end of Year 9 were German, Spanish and French. I had done French since Year 2 and was pretty fed up with it, so ruled that one out. We'd been introduced to German in Year 7, and I didn't mind it, but then it was replaced with Spanish in Year 9 to allow potential candidates to see whether or not it was for them at GCSE. I didn't have anything against it, but proceeded to choose German as I felt it would be the most valuable one to have out of the trio. Our controlled assessments are out of the way now; four in total, each worth 15% of the final grade. I managed to get 3 A*s and 1 A. In order to achieve an A, which I'm aiming for, I need roughly 60% in the two listening and reading exams. They're mostly multiple choice, so I am not too stressed for German, but staying on top of it nonetheless.

Business & Economics is fine. The content isn't too difficult. My coursework (worth 25%) received a provisional grade of an A*, so that stands me in good stead. The only real issue is the timings in the Economics exam (worth 50% of final grade), which should hopefully be rectified with a few practice past papers. Geography was my fourth option. It isn't particularly difficult, I just find a lot of it quite boring. Rivers and coastlines in particular, then tourism and population change, although the Human side of it isn't that bad. I quite enjoy the volcanoes. One dislike is the need to know fourteen case studies inside-out, but then only actually using a few of them in the exams.