The Checklist Writer Archive - Mock Exam and Why do it early?
*My blog The Checklist Writer will eventually be shut down because I don't see a point in it anymore. I used it to discuss how I was doing before my A Level exams, but I never got round to properly writing on it because...I was...revising. As a result, this blog will hold the archive of all those posts, so that I can go on and perhaps delete the original without any regrets.
Mock Exam
From today, there are thirty-four days until my first A Level exam. And today happened to be a stats and mechanics mock. Not to fear - there are fifty days until that exam - but I can't say I was completely unscathed afterwards. I'll definitely be writing a blogpost on weather after fluffing a large data set question over on All Over 2a.
It could have gone worse, though, that's for sure. It's easy to forget that these exams are often harder because the people writing them probably want you to be as annoyed as possible. And it can only end up being good in the long run. At least, that's what every teacher says.
I already had a pure mock a week back, and it went much better, except I didn't finish in time. And that's another thing I don't like about mocks - they're supposed to be demos of the actual thing, but the pressure of time comes at the cost of not getting all the questions done as needed. Personally, when I do practice papers, I don't worry about timed conditions too much as I want to get the questions right in the first place. And that's especially since the exam questions need more thinking than a standard textbook question. But in a few weeks time, that won't matter.
It's easy to mock mock exams, but sometimes they're the thing you need in life. Won't stop me from being annoyed at them.
Why do it early?
Sometimes, schools decide to have students sit their A Level Maths exams a year early. These are some reasons why I've persisted with that:
The Decision module that I'll be doing next year looks interesting, perhaps could get me into computer science. That's no guarantee, of course, but it could be beneficial.
The school thinks we could benefit from getting a grade this year. Maybe it would make our personal statements look better. Whether they will or not depends on the exams starting in thirty-three days.
I want to study further maths, and that requires doing A Level Maths a year early.
I think I'm capable enough of doing these exams, but that will require plenty more revision.
My teacher said we should be proud that we're the first Year 12 students to sit an A Level Maths exam. I don't feel particularly proud, rather a bit nervous, but it shouldn't be that bad, should it?