FAO: GCSE students

whyamihere
whyamihere Posts: 7,716
edited June 2010 in The Crudcatcher
My sister's revising for hers at the moment, so I'm marking her practise papers for her. In the science papers, at least, I can give the following advice:

Read the questions, then read them again. Almost all of the answers are in the questions, if you know what you're looking for. A little bit of rudimentary knowledge and logic will get you the rest of the way.
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Comments

  • thekickingmule
    thekickingmule Posts: 7,957
    My advice: Lap up the GCSE's, A-Levels are the hardest exams you'll sit!
    It takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and succeeded.
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  • MacAndCheese
    MacAndCheese Posts: 1,944
    My advice: Lap up the GCSE's, A-Levels are the hardest exams you'll sit!

    I agree, I did a reasonably hard degree, but nothing compares to A'level Maths or Physics....but then again I worked my aris off for my degree and did bugger all in sixth form.
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  • Tartanyak
    Tartanyak Posts: 1,538
    I agree - I did 'A' level maths and physics, then a maths based degree. The maths in the 'a' level was much harder.
  • whyamihere
    whyamihere Posts: 7,716
    My advice: Lap up the GCSE's, A-Levels are the hardest exams you'll sit!
    I'd agree with that actually as well. I'm doing a physics degree, and one of the first semester modules was skills, which basically taught us methods to make all of these horrible things we'd struggled with in A levels incredibly easy. Things like dimensional analysis which mean you essentially don't need to remember any formulae... If I'd known how to do all of that during my A levels, I'd have flown through them.
  • lawman
    lawman Posts: 6,868
    My advice: Lap up the GCSE's, A-Levels are the hardest exams you'll sit!

    hence why i took "easy" subjects, such as media studies, film studies and english :D

    speaking of which i finished my A level exams yesterday :D
  • MacAndCheese
    MacAndCheese Posts: 1,944
    lawman wrote:
    My advice: Lap up the GCSE's, A-Levels are the hardest exams you'll sit!

    hence why i took "easy" subjects, such as media studies, film studies and english :D

    speaking of which i finished my A level exams yesterday :D

    Congrats dude!

    DO they actually give UCAS points for media studies anymore?? ;)
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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,666
    arent media studies and film studies just excuses to carry on living at home?
  • lawman
    lawman Posts: 6,868
    ey they do indeed :lol:

    need 240 points (so 3 C's) to study media at abersytweth, although i did apply for a place in cornwall that wanted just ..... 80 points :lol:
  • bails87
    bails87 Posts: 12,998
    lawman wrote:
    ey they do indeed :lol:

    need 240 points (so 3 C's) to study media at abersytweth, although i did apply for a place in cornwall that wanted just ..... 80 points :lol:

    Go to Aber, bloody briliant place!

    And it is ridiculous that physics and maths get the same points as media etc. Fair play to you for doing them, because it means you get to go to a decent uni. :wink: Hate the game, not the player, yo!

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  • lawman
    lawman Posts: 6,868
    arent media studies and film studies just excuses to carry on living at home?

    now lets not start another education debate here :lol:

    tbh i would have done a proper A level in journalism if i had the chance, but i didnt so media and film were the next best thing. plus as most have found out, most other subjects have made them all pull their hair out :lol:
  • joshtp
    joshtp Posts: 3,966
    thanks for that... a full day late! :lol:
    Finished my exams yesterday.... :lol:
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  • mrfmilo
    mrfmilo Posts: 2,250
    edited June 2010
    Am quite nervous about A-Level Physics, even though it is 5 years away :lol: Doing German and General Studies / possibly higher Physics early (next year), so to get those out of the way will give me less to do in college :P (sound like a right nerd, am not though :lol: )
  • snotty badger
    snotty badger Posts: 1,593
    GCSE exams are getting each year anyways :wink:

    Not like when I were a lad when they were hard as nails... looking back maybe I should of put some effort in and actually revised!! Still managed 2 B's and 5 C's though..
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  • GCSEs are a piece of piss. I guarantee I could walk into the exams now with no revision and get decent grades.

    A-Levels are a massive step up. Physics was ok but Maths is a whole different beast!

    University is much better fun! :D
  • a.palmer
    a.palmer Posts: 504
    Yeah GCSE's are stupidly easy. I don't think they are a good thing at all, as I did no work or revision for GCSE and got 1 A*, 7 A and 2 B. This made me go into 6th form with the [wrong] assumption that I could get top grades without doing anything. As such I got mediocre A levels.
  • whyamihere
    whyamihere Posts: 7,716
    A.Palmer wrote:
    Yeah GCSE's are stupidly easy. I don't think they are a good thing at all, as I did no work or revision for GCSE and got 1 A*, 7 A and 2 B. This made me go into 6th form with the [wrong] assumption that I could get top grades without doing anything. As such I got mediocre A levels.
    Pretty much the same thing happened to me. Did nothing for GCSEs, got something like 7 As, 2 Bs and 3 Cs. Went to college, got 4 As and a B in my first year (AS level), again with little work. Got to A2 level, and holy crap, what the hell happened there? I suddenly couldn't do anything, and had to spend a few years (a repeat of my A2 year plus a foundation year at uni) teaching myself how to actually do work effectively.
  • Whoa! You did A2s? Try doing the old school A-Levels, where you do nothing for two years and then panic cram for the last month before H-Hour. :shock:
  • snotty badger
    snotty badger Posts: 1,593
    Yup my grades made me think sixth form was worth ago. I lasted about 8 months and thought fuck this and got an apprenticeship as a fabby.
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  • Northwind
    Northwind Posts: 14,675
    Higher maths- sort of A levels only better- was the hardest exam I've ever done. I failed it 3 times :lol: Way harder than anything I did on my degree.
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  • snotty badger
    snotty badger Posts: 1,593
    :lol: None of the above :lol:
    A metal fabricator pal! I bash metal and stick it together basically! lol
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  • snotty badger
    snotty badger Posts: 1,593
    In theory yes- I could weld 9 pipes together. As for what it would ride like... who knows! :lol:
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  • alexj2233
    alexj2233 Posts: 381
    and one bottom bracket tubey thing
  • snotty badger
    snotty badger Posts: 1,593
    alexj2233 wrote:
    and one bottom bracket tubey thing

    Thats the one!
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  • SPIRO
    SPIRO Posts: 200
    My advice: Lap up the GCSE's, A-Levels are the hardest exams you'll sit!

    Rubbish - depending on what degree you went onto at uni :wink:
  • Not rubbish! A-Levels (the old ones anyway) were much harder than uni!
  • Luke-Dob
    Luke-Dob Posts: 121
    GCSE's = piece of cake!

    Though A-Level,s.... doesn't help when your Geography question has no relevance to the Geography at all. What has Taxing and Subsidizing got to do with it?

    Worse case, I wait 2 years, gain MORE UCAS points then apply again to Abber.
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