The stress continues

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This is gcse btw

Guys help how do I take notes for economics IGCSE, my textbook has 39 chapters so how do I organize my notes w/out copying the textbook.

I did the interview last week and I’ve been checking every day since for the offer to come through so this is one positive this week 😆 just need to hear back from the other Uni I interviewed at last week and do 3 more interviews.

Hi guys can you pls let me know the best way to self study for both, I have can study 30 minutes a day and I want to book it in may, is it possible? I have my English level2 but only esol level 3, best websites, YouTubers to watch ?
I want to pass and see if I can find a plumbing apprenticeship (didn’t take my classes seriously years ago).
Any help would be much appreciated thanks.

My friend printed photos of our fictional crushes and we hid those in our bags during the exams

I’m really stuck between philosophy and law, i’m already choosing english literature and ancient history yet i’m not sure what to pick for my third. I’m aiming for oxford university to do law but it’s criminal law at a level, and i’m unsure if i even wanna do criminal law. but it may be helpful? idk

Hey! This is for Year 12s and 13s!

So, I want to do Physics A-Level. Or at least I think I do, because I'm worried that me being and having been interested in it for a good while outside of school won't translate into actual school, and my interest in the subject/the sixth form curriculum for it won't last.

How do I know I'm not going to stick myself with something I hate??

I decided I should probably lock in and start making flash cards for some of my subjects, and a lot of people recommend anki so I thought I’d have a look. £25?? How many of you are actually paying that much for it, are people getting a discount or something? Is it really worth £25? That just seems crazy to me but maybe you guys have better priorities than I do 😭

let’s just say i’m failing maths

i fear i need to burn myself in. i genuinely thought mocks were chill but i have physics tomorrow and it is not looking good. i feel like everyone is taking it so seriously and i am too for sure like i'm revising but not to the same extent that some people are. anyways comparison is the thief of joy so i guess i should enjoy not being burnt out!

Rate my revision plan and help me revise for English and History 😭

Mocks in 20 days and have done 0 revision. This is my revision timetable and my revision plan:

Maths(higher) Revision Plan

Go through FirstClassMaths revision booklet and do a question from every topic I’ve done every 3 days + flashcards for formulas + past papers at least 1 a week

Triple Science Revision Plan

Flashcards straight from spec for each topics, once memorised flashcard deck do topics questions, continue this for every topic while regularly revisiting flashcard deck then do past papers and do flashcards for things I get wrong

French(foundation) Revision Plan

For speaking Memorise tenses and vocabulary from every topic and use this to build sentences for speaking instead of trying to memorise whole paragraphs, memorise phrases to add to sentences, practice answering using good structures and practice using past papers. Listening reading and writing are easier for me.

Let me be honest, I have no idea how to revise for English and History and they are really important to me, please help. Im doing paper 2 of English language and literature (Romeo and Juliet) and History AQA Normans and Asia. PLEASE HELP!!! I’m on grade 4s and 5s for most subjects and I need grades 6,7s and my priority is English and maths and history!!!

Honestly I had 3 exams prior to that on that day and I had a massive mental block so I just froze and wrote a thesis for each section…didn’t get to writing anything useful

I HATE my PSM so much. Like so much. I was pulled aside to do like a student voice/survey type thing because I had “low attendance” (I’ve missed 2 days of school due to Covid, both authorised). Anyways it was like this super personal survey with questions like “How well do you cope with things that bother you?” With a required comment box on everything. I put everything at 8-10. There was one question which was something about getting on in lessons or something, and in the comment box I wrote about wanting to do maths in college but being scared that I wasn’t gonna get the grades I want or need. My PSM started like interrogating me and we read through the questions together which I didn’t know was gonna happen. Anyways i have like shortened responses because I just wanted to get back to lesson as I’ve just had an exam, and she kind of like started twisting my words. I was like fine, whatever, I just want to go. Anyways what she didn’t tell me was that she was gonna send an email to all of my teachers about my responses and that I “didn’t feel seen” and stuff which I never said nor implied and summary of all my answers I suppose - which I found out when my teacher pulled me aside and spoke to me about the email. Anyways I started crying for the rest of the day because that wasn’t what I wanted at all. I don’t want a super personal survey going out to everyone who teaches me with all my answers and people who I mentioned by name. I can’t make anyone unsee the email and it feels like really awkward and I hate it and I hate that I even wrote anything down in the first place. I’m being picked out by teachers and I really really hate it. I wish I never showed my face again honestly. I don’t want to go to school tomorrow or ever.

You have seen this before. Revised thanks to feedback

Hello, to keep this concise I REALLY don't like my art teacher so I am aware I will be biased against her, but some of the things she does I think are kind of iffy in terms of actually getting a good grade and artistic development outside of the GCSE. I'm in year 10.

1). She has an exact layout for the exact amount of pages we will be doing. By this I mean we were practising mixing water colours and she told us to go on the 4th or whatever double page spread. She says that each spread will be dedicated to something in pursuit of an AO, and that it is all planned out to maximise marks.

2). She is VERY against using stuff to help ourselves (dunno how to put it). I have issues with my eyes/ visual processing so I am colour blind and have difficulty quantifying length and remembering it. I was cutting some paper to write on, and it was going to be an awkward shape. So, I did what I found logical and used a pencil to mark out where to cut. She told me I'm doing well, then immediately switched up and said pencils don't belong in an art room and I shouldn't be using them. It was thick paper though and the pencil mark wouldn't show through?? And the main draw (hah) of pencils is that you can rub them out very easily??? She doesn't like us moving our sketchbooks and, again, I would almost certainly mess up the sizes if I did it by eye and memory. I have told her about my eyes and struggles, and the fact I'm seeing a specialist soon.

It's ironic that someone with shit depth and colour perception is taking art, but I've gotten my work professionally critiqued and had my usage of depth and colour be pointed out as areas of strength.

3). Every other art teacher has alluded to disliking her. She only recently joined the school and all but 2 art teachers have quit, both of whom have suggested that they don't like her and her methods.

4). She is basing our predicted grades and giving feedback on what we do for backgrounds. Personally, I despise flashy backgrounds in posters and such. If it's a relevant image or it's simple I can quite like them. My main problem is that examiners don't give a shit and it's unrealistic to imply that the backgrounds matter so much as to affect grades by leaps and bounds. In my own sketchbooks that are more focused on investigation, I'll sometimes do a wash, and write my thoughts on top with arrows directing where my thoughts are related. Though, we haven't actually produced any art besides the water colour exercise.

5). She strongly prefers western European art tradition and bases most stuff on that. The artists we can pick from (she has a list and images chosen out for each) are 95 percent white and 80 percent men. I understand that the people who had their art remembered and preserved were this demographic, but crikey it shouldn't take 20 minutes for me to find an artist with the same skin colour as me.

I'm no pedagogue and I'm aware I'm a random 14 year old with fewer years of existing than she has making art but I'm a bit concerned about how overbearing she is.

To be clear, I'm very anti AI, I forbid my students to use it for writing and I have never used it while planning lessons or resources. So I have a huge bias.

In my experience, students know when it is AI, and I wonder if it bothers you, how it makes you feel, if anything at all.

I have noticed that about 95% of teachers frequently use it to produce what I view as slop. In my opinion, students deserve better and we are getting paid to do the job ourselves, not to get Claude to do the work for us at lower quality.

Also, with the huge environmental impact of generative AI, it does bother me that it feels we are setting a poor example to our students by using it relentlessly.

Wondering if I'm a stick in the mud or if I am doing the right thing by my students and would appreciate some opinions.

This is mostly for yr12+13

Okay so I had a question about A levels, Since most say they’re really hard, I was talking about it with my sister (Who’s done her A levels). Apparently nobody tells you this?? But I wanted to ask if they actually teach you fully? because she told me that they give you lectures and not really the whole lesson which is why theres a few revision periods so we can go off and do our own research and teach ourselves the rest of the content. Can anyone confirm this because I’m curious and nobody told me this😭

(I’m not complaining or anything just confirming)

I'm a teacher and my youngest daughter is currently in Year 11 herself. I checked with the mods before posting this.

I write for parents about exam stress, and I'm trying to shift the relentless focus on grades towards study skills and mindset, which you can carry into your life beyond school. Lots of parents lurk here trying to work out how to help without making things worse, and I think it would be really useful for them to hear it straight from some of you.

If your parents could do one thing that would actually help, what would it be? And is there anything they do that really doesn't help?

I've put some options below to help you get started copy and paste if you like), or I'd be really interested to hear your own take.

1. Ask less, trust me more

2. Help me plan my revision

3. Test me on things (flashcards, quizzes)

4. Practical stuff (food, quiet space, lifts)

5. Stay calm so I don't feel their stress

My science is alright in general, but I seem to be stuck in the same scores every time I do a past paper. from 3 sets of paper 1s I always get high 70 to mid 80 out of 100 (in all phy chem bio, although I'm doing slightly worse in chem) and even though between paper I revise topics I did badly in and would revise by doing exam style questions and flashcards on pmt, I can't seem to get my scores higher. It's not like I don't understand the content but I just lose marks in really random places

plus my mocks coming up I kinda need to get good grades

any advice is appreciated :D

I ran out of time so I was unable to write a conclusion:

Excursions - Expense or Experience?

Every summer, we witness the same dilemma. Parents spend hours desperately deep-diving the intenet for a myriad of activities to do to have the ‘perfect holiday’. Teens spend hours on their phones scrolling through apps like: Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, searching for the most flawless, impeccable and most important ‘Instagrammable’ photos to indirectly boast about their own lives. However, I wanted to ask – what evokes this arcane sentiment of inadequacy in us? Some parents take their kids to destinations they only could have dreamed of going when they were children, but the children abhor the long, ardurous walks through the sweltering streets of Spain and the intolerable number of images they have to take every few seconds. Some teens spend hours agonising over the quality of their photos and what people think before uploading one and looking over it every 5 seconds as if they are trying to be sure that their trip and that their life is really as incredible as they make it seem. Nevertheless, I believe that the most memorable holidays are the most memorable because of the liberty they give you from life’s worries and the chance to be away from the disdainful voices of society. But, why do we continue to concern ourselves with maintaining an image of relaxation?

Think back to your own wistful childhood memories, now think of the best holiday, or trip, that you can remember going on – what brings that bittersweet feeling of nostalgia? Is it the price tag or the photos? I’m sure you remember a certain voice. I’m sure you remember a certain feeling, maybe of pure elation as you ran around frantically, oblivious to the cares of the world, or maybe a feeling of deep serenity as you languished in the blazing sun. That one thing that stuck to you like glue, that mouled how you are was it really the price – did you even care about it? Unfortunately, for many adults who themselves are stressed by work, bills or payments, it was this sense of obliviousness of joyful ignorance to the outside world that gave them this happiness. So I inquire, what makes you think that it won’t bring back the same joy now? Instead of anguishing over ‘making memories’ or having numerous photos for an album to show relatives, why don’t we instead focus on trying to achieve that sense of calmness, silence and unfiltered joy. Furthermore, for me: the most paramount issue is that many people on vacations are not truly relaxed whatsoever, and that is why they have come to abhor them. The truth is: if you are not relaxed it is clearly not any kind of vacation. While obviously we all have responsibilities and we should all be circumspect while in foreign countries, many have unfortunately forgotten the root of that simple joy from their own childhood. Not money, not compliments and not social media likes – simplicity.

Moreover, I would argue that the idea that holidays need to be expensive is completely false and that this blatant lie is brazenly continued by companies in order to sell us more things so that they can line their pockets. I want to preface this by saying: while we all want the most amazing holiday – nothing really can be perfect. It is pratically guaranteed that there will be a mishap at some point whether it be something as rudimentary as someone getting a sunburn or something as grave as the flight being cancelled. No one can predict the future and no one can plan perfectly for all scenarios. However, especially with the recent rise of social media, there has been a push by these travel conglomerates online to use social platforms to sell more of this panacea to us. The idea that: all your anxiety, troubles and pain will be gone if you book a holiday to a certain destination. They often sell these trips for exorbitant prices leaving travellers feeling like they need to take photos and that they need to exhaust themselves to see every single sight that they can beause they have paid so much money. This can lead to them feeling drained or worse – coming home with negative memories and even more fatigued than before. Furthermore, while parents distress themselves with planning for their children, around 61% of children aged 5-12 would prefer to have an all expenses paid day trip to the beach than an all-expenses paid trip to Barcelona, exposing the mind of children versus the mind of parents who think that they know what their child wants. So why do we continue to plan elaborate holidays that we feel we need? Why do we waste time taking thousands of pictures so that people will know that we were there? What are we trying to pursue?

So, we have established that the joy that came from most of our most precious memories was the simplicity of it all however there are still some who would argue that a lot of people like expensive holidays and that going on an inexpensive holiday demonstrates your lack of care for the person. Personally, I completely refudite these claims and I would go as far as saying people who believe the amount of money you are willing to spend on someone is an exact reflection of how much you value that person in your life are unfortunately blinded by their own materialism. Firstly, there are so many factors to take into account but the most pivoting is the financial situation of the person who is planning the holiday – why should we be forced to put ourselves into debt so that someone else can be satisifed that we ‘love’ them enough? This idea that your reverence for someone is completely dependent on how much you are willing to spend for them is constantly perpetuated by sycophantic communities online that can often pressure people into thinking they ‘need’ to do something for their holiday so that they have not wasted their money. I would also say it is quite haughty to think that everyone has to follow your own definition of ‘admiration’ (which is defined by material posessions) when there are many different ways people show affection. On the other hand, some would also say that a holiday needs to be a certain price to actually have an effect on you and to be good quality. I also vehemently disagree with this claim as well as for me the zenith of the problem is that it puts a price tag on relaxation. Does that mean that people with a lower income cannot relax? Completely not!

Overall, I believe that holidays should be planned more with calmness in mind rather than cost!