exams and college - what did you study?
 

Hey everyone, My A level exams have started, sociology tomorrow, and I just wondered what everyone else had studied?
I'm pretty worried about mine but im revising ok, lets just hope it all gets done for tomorrow :)

Do you have any particularly good or bad exam memories? I went into my history one the other wednesday, felt terrified at the first two but think I did alright. The last one was horrible, I almost wanted to just write, 'i didnt study these topics' and walk out lol. It was bad. My last lot shouldnt be too terrible though.

Re: exams and college - what did you study?
 

Re: exams and college - what did you study?
 

My revision is already giving me a headache but it has to be done :D no pain no gain :D

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Good luck with the exams blazey. Hope you get the results your after :D

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Thanks, I need B grades. Hopefully I'll get the grades but i'll find out on results day because i should get the acceptance/rejection letter to uni then

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Since you asked (I don't want to be accused of bragging or needing to be "brought down a peg":rolleyes:), after graduating from high school, I studied Animal Sciences throughout my 4 years of college. I then earned a Bachelor of Science degree.

I take it that over there, you take a final exam for all your studies? In our senior year of high school, students must past the SATs which test them in English, Math, History, and the Sciences. You must pass these to get your high school diploma. The better you score the more colleges/universities will accept you.

Brian

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I'm at college right now studying history, sociology, law and fine art. I'm in the last lot of exams process, get results on 16th of august and the letter which tells me whether I have or havent gotten into uni. I need two B grades and to go on a 4 week course on the summer to be accepted. Going to study law full time at uni.

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I hope you do well Blazey with your exams...all you can do is your best.

I left school at 15 and had to go out to work.....my family needed the income.
But I did return to study when i was 26 (just a few years ago)and did my nurse training. It was three years of hard slog, working on the wards and studying as well. I was one of the oldest students in my group and studied ALL the way through my three years...but in the last month before my finals I chucked all my text books into a suitcase and put them on top of the wardrobe......I figured that what I didn't know by then I would NEVER learn in the last month.
I came top in the Hospital finals and passed my finals the following month.....it was one of the best things I ever did.

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good luck for your exams, hope you get the results you wanted

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First of all, good luck. A levels are not easy but you seem to have your "head screwed on" so I'm sure you'll do well. ;)

It's far too many years ago than I want to admit to that I took mine at college - French and English, I passed in French and got a Distinction in English (that was how long ago it was) - but 25 years ago I took 2 more, Psychology and Sociology, at night school and somehow I managed to get B and A, respectively. I did OK because I was really interested in both subjects and, keep it quiet, but I failed Maths O Level at school because I couldn't ever get to grips with algebra. :(

I'm the first to admit I don't know how you survive the pressure of doing 4 or 5 A levels at once. It's a helluva lot to get through but it will be worth it in the end.

Don't forget to let us know, when your results come through. :)

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I'll make sure i will post about my success or failure, whatever the result.

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Blazey treat your successes well, but the only way we learn anything is by revisiting our 'failures'.......you never ever critique your successes.....only your perceived failures.

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Re: exams and college - what did you study?
 

yeh the best way to add to that is its normally mandatory these days to study maths, english, science, a language and religious education if your at a secondary school. Also Physical education has to be participated in.
Then they normally get you to pick between a technology; food tech, wood tech or electronics
Then you get a choice of the other subjects:
PE (taken as a gcse)
music
art
history
geography
a possible extra language so french/german/spanish etc
statistics
business
law
health and social

Theres quite a lot of gcse options at school these days, there is at the one I went to anyway.

10 is normally the average amount of gcses u take. I got 4 B's and 6 C's. My options where food tech, music and art. The language I did was french.
I liked school but I would never go back now.

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When I was at school I took 10 O levels, In them days you only normally took 9 but I managed to scam my way out of PE to do a prototype O level in Electronics.

At college I took the usual 4 (3 chosen + General Studies) , I took Maths, Physics and Computer Studies.

I must admit that up to and including A levels I never revised for any exam, I'm lucky that I have (or certainly used to) a photographic memory. In exams I would read teh Q and then sort of 'play back' teh lesson quickly in my head.


At Uni I specialised into Applied Mathematics and Computation, In the first year i had to take Pure Maths, Applied Maths and one other, I wanted to do pyschology but the forced me to do Physics, I got 95% in Pure, 97% in Applied and 26% in Physics (Oops!) I hated Physics.............

Due to them deciding to decoratre the Uni there were no resits that summer so I was being forced to wait a year. I thought about just bumming around the SU for a year but in the end decided I wanted some cash in my pocket so I dropped out and started in the real world i.e. work.

Since then I've taken a few exams and never had to revise for any of them. (Catering and IT qualifications)

Ian

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I wish I had a photographic memory but i'd probably run out of memory, I cant afford to upgrade the memory card :(

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Ah, what you need is heuristic archiving,

i.e. it learns what crap it can discard after 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year and finally 1 lifetime :D(Yes, this is a point at re-incarnation, I'd love to be 'regressed' to see ifthere was something before.)

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i think i honestly just have too many theories and names to remember but im going to finish my cup of tea and head off to college so I can check up with my friends and test eachother etc.

sociology theory and methods exam and sociology religion resit to try to get a higher grade :) wish me luck lol :banlama:

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One of the worst things you can do before an exam is test each other, you end up doubting your knowledge.

Get there and have a laugh at something completely un exam related, a fresh mind is far better at recalling stuff than one thats been battered for teh last 2 hours.

Liewise, if you hit that blank spot halfway through give it a max of 5 mins then move on, you can always come back when the knowledge pops back in your head(Just think how often by not thinking about something the answer comes to you, your brain is brill at multitasking and the sub concious is far more powerful than the concious mind)

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You really think so? We all test eachother and have last minute chat and revision before an exam. Saying that Im not a stressy person about exams and I work better under pressure so its not a problem for me. Exam days are great :D

I'm not too worried, if i dont get the grades I can always do a foundation and if I do well I'll go to uni. I can always try something new aswell. Its not the end of the world.

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Finished my AS exams on monday. Took Eng Lang, Psychology, Law and Computing. Next year carrying on Psyc, Law and Computing at A level and picking up ICT at AS instead of carrying on Eng Lang.

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Blazey that is a very good philosophy.....not getting your grades is definitely not the end of the world...sometimes it is tbe beginning of it.

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Absolutely Margaret

If I had finished my degree I would probably be teaching now instead life has thrown numerous 'opportunities' at me and its got me to where I am today(which I'm very happy with BTW).

Life is not about the number of qualifications or letters after your name, its about being happy at what you do and being content with your lot.

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Entwisi...you never said a truer word.
I worked with a young man.....a doctor, his family had a strong tradition in medicine and had encouraged him to follow a medical career......he was a good doctor but was desperately unhappy....all he wanted to do was be a Postman. He gave up his medical career and went to spend 3 months in France thinking of how to tell his parents... in the end it didn't matter because he didn't have to tell his parents...he was killed in a motor bike accident. How sad is that?

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My doctoral comprehensives ... particularly the specialist section on medieaval lit. It seems that the guy that set it was interested in the Icelandic Sagas ... I knew Beowulf almost by heart, but all that work meant sfa. I do believe that exams test little but memory, and how one reacts under stress. Good luck, and I hope you don't need it.

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I'd agree Eric but they also test your aptitude in certain areas, e.g. maths would test your logic capablility, You Lit would be more to do with memory/language skills, Science subjects tend to test your openness to ideas and accuracy.

Most of this has been superceeded by pyschometric testing in companies.

Our brains are all wired differently and these test show our internal makeup. e.g I'm hopeless at foreign languages, and I mean hopeless, no matter how hard I try it just doesn't go in, similarly with art, ask me to draw something from scratch I've more chance of living till I'm 1000. ask me to copy a drawing though and I'm really good at it. I can't explain why this is and no amount of effort makes a difference.

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Also tests how fast you can write. In my law exam I could have written down the entire course, however answering the quesitosn within the time limit is near impossible, you need to *know* what they want and exactly how much they want it.

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Funnily enough I had an argument about this with someone the other day and it took me ages to explain that you cant say every single detail you know in an exam.
Theres no point writing everything you know if you dont understand how to apply it properly.

Anyway the sociology exams were ok, the 12mark religion question was unpredictably difficult, neither of my revision guides had enough of an answer for a 12 mark question so I just filled in gaps lol.
Theory and methods paper was a dream come true, couldnt have asked for a nicer exam paper.

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I agree. Know what the sob wants and give it to him. Jump thru enough hoops and you are home free ... wherever home is and whatever free is. But it does help to have a sticky memory ... mine is, tho' it is not always under control, I know the name of Cuthbert Collingwood's dog and the first name of Generaloberst Heinrici, but I forgot my partner's birthday. S**t!

A good belt of fine liquor just before an exam might help ... it relaxes something or other in the brain or the mind or the bladder.;)

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Oh, and avoid contact with classmates; don't get into the testing thing with them. If they seem better informed than you, you will go into a debilitating funk ... if they seem less informed, then you may become overconfident.

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there are a lot of divs posting on ere, do they think we would really click on the links??

silly sods

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just click teh report button mods will delete them fast enough

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I quite enjoy exams myself but I must admit that these ones im going through now have been pretty stressful because they count for so much.
Im not as stressed as some people get though, just slightly nervous.

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The question that seems to pleading for an answer is not "What did you study?", but "Why did you study?" ... other than to clear a meaningless hurdle.

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Good look to you blazey i hope you have done well with your exam,s and you pass with good grade,s

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Re: exams and college - what did you study?
 

You can make another thread on that if you like, thats a bit deep and doesnt answer my question lol in a simple enough way for me to just find out about people and what they're interested (or in some cases not interested) in.

I study because I enjoy learning. I could probably study anything and enjoy it to some extent. But I made the thread to see what other people study or have studied. Knowing what the chose to study helps you know a bit more about them without having to pry too deep.

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And thanks I think ive done alright. Just one left to do now on wednesday.

Oh and another reason I enjoy studying is the variation of people you meet. I enjoy that the most I think. I hate to be leaving college now.

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Re: exams and college - what did you study?
 

One thing I learned whilst I was taking my o'levels (GCSE's by another name) was that the teachers and head teacher wasn't allowed to look at your paper unless you left the room before the end of the exam - apparently that gave them the right to look.

I discovered this because I was taking my history exam which I hated with a vengeance - I rarely look back - anyway, I hadn't studied, wasn't interested and couldn't be bothered. After about an hour of jotting down daft answers - the best one that I remember was that a Manifesto was the name of the Roxy Music LP, absolutely nothing to do with the industrial revolution - I decided to leave the exam room. Cue, headteacher hauling me into her office and reading out some of my answers to me - I think she thought I'd lost my mind.

I did get 10 o'levels though so didn't do too badly - just hated history!

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I never had an interest in history and took it at A level. Havent had the results back yet but lets just say I made up my own version of Tariff Reform. I expect a nice smiley U. :D

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I do believe that the two questions are inseperable. It's a "medium is the message" thing:confused:

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Re: exams and college - what did you study?
 

I left school with 8 'O' Levels and have to admit to a rather minimalistic approach when it came to revision..:D My dad bugged me to go to college, so I told him that I'd applied. I had to admit at the end of August that I hadn't applied, I couldn't get out of school quick enough and was damned if I was going to college..

I had a couple of shop and office jobs for a couple of years and did voluntary work with elderly mentally ill patients at Accy Vic. I started my nurse training at 19 and sailed through. I did no revision and was up the Peppermint Place the night before the finals. I figured that I had found something that I was interested in and that if I didn't know it by the finals, I never would.

A Midwifery Diploma came next, I swotted like mad for this one, it was an extremely difficult course to do in just 18 months with greater attention to detail on Anatomy, Physiology and autonomous practice.

I have done clinical teaching qualifications and a BSc since. I went to Uni as a mature student and hated every minute of it, but I have to admit that I learned a lot.

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Revision? What's that then? :D

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I must say it'd be hard to study law without going over the cases because theres too much to always keep in your head.

Other subjects there isnt actually time to get through the full syllabus and be taught it properly, u get told it then your expected to learn it yourself, which gives you the choice of alot of homework during the year or a few days revision before an exam :)

My friend wants to be a midwife, she's been rejected from every uni she's applied to. Apparently they've tightened it up quite alot. She wanted to be a vet at first but wasnt getting the grades, so she thought being a midwife would be easier to achieve. Clearly not though.

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There is no need to remember all the things you have remembered for a law exam because by the time your qualified you'll have text books and paperwork for guidance anyway.

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And a secretary .... but my lawyer (who is also my daughter) tells me that all the little things that you poudned into your memory in law school help you think on your feet in a trial.

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I had to leave school as soon as I was 15 Mum and Dad wouldnt let me stay till I was 16. Had to go out an earn a living.
My only qualification I have is my N.V.Q 3 in care.

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Dag Anne, you've lived with Mick for how long? I believe that's gotta qualify you for something substantial. :p But seriously, managing a house and children and other work . . . I hate to think that some folks don't think that counts for much.

Like's been said, a degree in life, through real life struggles and challenges blows the water out of most degrees (IMHO). Cindy chose to help out with her family's bakery instead of going to college. I believe so much of at least American society puts too much emphasis on what degree you have or where is it from. I'm sure she feels that she missed out on getting a college degree but she has more than made up for that with life experiences and her current job as office manager.

Brian

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i too left school at 15yrs old, no college then for me straight out to work .........& qualified in life's expeireinces.

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I studied City and guilds Performing arts for a year (dance,music,drama,production techniques,arts administration,media studies and english) I had loads of fun, the class originally had 30 people on it,but through money/family troubles,folk realising it wasn't a doss after all,etc etc it got whittled down to 10 people! we got a lot more done,I made great friends,and I came out with a credit mark,so good times.

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Blackburn College for me - 1 year doing art, second year media studies, then went to Sheffield Hallam Uni. Dropped out after about 8 months. Then spent a couple of years gaining life experience. Then went back to Uni at Salford studying media production.

Best years were spent doing media at Blackburn College. Great days :)

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I'm definatly going to be doing law now, I don't know why I had an urge to change. The thing about art is, if I fail at law, I can still always do art. You dont get to fail at art and then do law. Once you've took that gap after college its too late to go back to law.

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Well Brian my mum in-law reckons I deserve a bloomin medal for putting up with him for all these years lol.

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Aye Anne, you should write the Queen and get a Victorious Cross! LOL:D:p(as Cindy should get the Congressional Medal of Honor for having to deal with me these past 30 years!)

Brian

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Feeling rather pleased with My-self. Got to work yesterday and got my certificate for passing my level two in dementia.