I'M STUDYING - YAY

So I totally fixed the whole not studying problem. How? By simply sleeping more. I realised that if I got just enough sleep and gave up my FB time, I would become more effcient is terms of study.

And so far it's working great! I know I haven't updated here, in a while, but that's because, naturally there is a lot going on.

So I graduated. - FINALLY. Ceremony was beautiful! I got a few clips of it on camera if you guys want to see that, you can click right here!

A Word Of Advice:
If your still struggling to focus, make your self a picture/poster telling yourself what do you want to do after the summer? You need to give yourself something to look forward to, some kind of achievement or award for doing all your studies and passing ALL your exams. Not something like a holiday (because let's face it, you'll start daydreaming about how much fun that will be and next thing you know, 3 hours have passed by)

The exams a re extremely close now, but not close enough to give up and do nothing. There's still plenty of time! Start tomorrow if you haven't started yet. Send out a kindly written text to all friends and family members and BOY/GIRLFRIEND, explaining that your exams are soon, so please don't ask to hang out, to do anything or call to check on you unless they are bringing food, in which case the food can and should be left at your study/bedroom door.

Don't worry, they will understand, just ask them kindly to cooperate. As for the friends/boy/girlfriend they will survive 3 weeks without you and you will too. Do this for yourself! Try and get a grade your proud to say outloud. If you're not proud to you got 120 points, then do something about it!

1. Do exam paper questions.
2. Research online.
3. Don't learn it off. Understand it.
4. Ask smart/nerdy friends to explain it to you.
5. Set up study sessions w/ nerdy friends where you can ask questions. BUT NO CHATTING.
6. The more you practice the more confident you will feel. 
7. Trust yourself and your first instinct to be the correct answer.
8. Don't over think the question.
9. Doing a science subject? Learn your experiments +  draw your diagrams.
10. I know it's hard to start something your not sure off, but trust me once you start it, it gets easier to do it again.

Also for English poetry here is useful website that contains a huge glossary of poetic terms you may need to reference to. Poetic Glossary

Have a look through that list and learn off at least 5 poetic terms that you can use in your poetry questions. Go for the short simple terms that you do find in the poetry that you've studied, eg: Alliteration, Pun, Metaphor, Onomatopoeia & Rhapsody.

 I'll try and post some tips on french tomorrow! Bye for now, be safe and be studying. (:

I CAN'T STUDY!

Lately I've been finding it increasingly difficult to study and focus.

This video sort of explains it all. Thanks for watching guys! (:

 

Top World Influential News

So for preparation on English paper one, I've been researching top world influential news of 2010-2012.
 English paper one is accordingly suppose to be a general reflection of current event in the world. Since the paper is made up sometime around November, my guesses is that it will reflect an influential news report of 2010. But just to be sure I'm of course researching news events of 2011!

Why am I bothering doing this? Let's say that one of the texts is about the 'Eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull' and the part B of that text is to write some sort of diary entry explaining how you felt surviving your first earthquake. Before I researched it, I knew very little of earthquakes so that is a definite question that I couldn't have possibly rambled on about.

Get my drift? I don't want to have to skip out on a lovely question because I didn't posses sufficient information to back me up. Basically you can't talk about something you don't understand. Well you can try, but you'll probably look stupid. LOL

Here are some ideas of what to do little research about:

• Extreme Weather
• Economy
• Politics/Corrupt Politics
• Morality vs Science
• Scientific Break Through
• Obama/Queen's visit to Ireland
• Top influential news
  

Here are some links that may be helpful:

• www.google.com
• top 10 influential news stories of 2010-2011
• 2011 A Year In Review
• www.ScienceDaily.com

Hope this helps! :)

And The Result is...

At first when my teacher place the exam in front of me I was like...

There was too numbers, one on top of the other. I wasn't sure which one was my over all percentage and since  hence wasn't sure if I passed or not! 

"Did I pass?" I asked my teacher? 

Then I was like...

Thank God, It was the second number! I passed! I was so happy that I almost cried. But my friends talked some sense into me! LOL

The 6 in 306 was so tight to the 0 that I thought Maybe I got 30% in the shock of it all! I got 51%. I'm really really happy with that! I've gone up 3 grades! And only 4% away from a C! 

I'm really really happy! This brings my overall Pre score to 410! Only need another 40 points to get my desired course! (:

Looks like those maths grinds are paying off! 

On a separate note...

My new youtube channel has now reached 15 subscribers and just over 1,000 views! I think that is something to be excited for!

Thank you to all who have supported this new channel. And in case you wanna check out what this is all about, you can visit it here : http://www.youtube.com/user/SuperAgathaSantos?ob=0&feature=results_main

The Indecisive Moment

Sitting here alone at my desk, thinking over and over again about a million and one things.

Simultaneously trying to decide on what to do for my exams, what if I failed my maths pre-exam, what if I miraculously wake motivated and refreshed on the morning of each exam and succeed and obtain over 400 points? What If I get biomedical engineering and get bored half way through September? What if its nothing that I thought it would be? What if the course is nothing but maths and few graph?

Boy oh boy! That is A LOT of  'what if's'.

At this point tonight, I cannot stop worrying and thinking about tomorrow. Remember a while back when I mentioned doing my second math pre and I was all happy, thinking perhaps, just maybe, I actually did well for once? (Find that post here)Yesterday we received a little feedback from the exams. According to our maths teacher, paper one was "atrocious". Now if your memory and my memory serves us well, I believe I thought that I did better in paper one than paper two. 

Now what the heck does that mean in relation to my exam ?

So far two of my classmates have been told that they failed. I don't want to be the third.

I've spoken to my mom about this and she said that all I need to do, is when I receive the exam, sit down with my teacher and see my good points and weak points and figure out what I need to focus on. But can that actually be done successfully, baring in mind that tomorrow is the tenth, exactly 30 days before maths paper two.

Can I dedicate more time to maths? I'm already doing 10 hours of maths class every week plus study. Although this week I've been seriously slacking on study. 

I don't know. All I know is my brainwaves are far too active for this time of night. I would love to get some sleep in and relax since I spent the entire day in Kilarney, doing the biology field trip. I feel like my entire universe is pending the maths result tomorrow. Oh and did I mention that I have an economics pre this friday? Oh the stress. I think I might convert this negative energy into some kick-ass studying energy. Start studying now - now that will get me right to sleep!

During the biology field trip, I stopped for a quick pose with my favorite net.

Pass or fail, I might just cry when given the result.

Pass or fail, I won't give up. 

Too True For My Linking!

Saw this today on facebook!

September: 600 points easily, put the head down be grand.
Christmas: ah in fairness 600 was very ambitious, 540 is probably more of my league.
After Mocks: shit. Slight overestimation. The mocks only test ya shur...450 be grand, don't want med anymore anyway.
April: Points have to go down this year for sure...300 be fine.
May: i'll literally be happy with 10.

I think at some point or other we all feel this way! Fair play to whoever had the balls to post it. But you know what? It's graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand. 

Just don't overload yourself with everything that's left to study and be covered. Oh and give written permission to your best friend at school, to give you a good smack across the face when or if you panic and start freaking the beans. 

Don't wanna get smacked in the face? Then don't freak out.  You did what you did and you didn't do what you didn't do. No point in driving yourself and your friends insane now. Do your best on the day and prepare for each day. You've thirty days left. You made it through the orals, you'll survive this. :)

One Month Left...

Do you know what date today is? That's right! It's the 6th of May 2012

At this time, one month from today we will be done English paper one and be studding like crazy for english paper two!

It's scary to think that, that is all the time we have left. So to make matter worse, specially if your anxious for your exams, I've prepared a countdown!

Don't freak out and over drive yourself! Relax you have 30 days until your first exam. That is plenty of time to get your act together and learn something off!

If your like me and have spent plenty of time planning and planning and drawing and designing study timetables after timetables, what I advise you to do is, spend a good hour tomorrow looking through your English exam paper and see what is it they are asking for. Of course you can't check for the last thirty years of exam papers so narrow it down. I'll be checking every three/four years.

Ask yourself:

• Do I know the five types of languages and their feature? 
• Do I know the logical sequence of events in Hamlet? 
• Do I know at least two themes in Hamlet? 
• Do I know how to write a letter/report/short story ?
• Do I know at least FOUR poets? 
• What's my novel about again? 
• How do I link the novel to the play and movie? 

Tomorrow is the day to answer those questions! At least for me, I will try and answer those questions! 

It might be better to be able to answer a little bit about everything rather than only having one answer prepared! 

And make posters! I'll do my best to take pictures of my wall of education tomorrow and share with you guys! 

The exam is coming whether we like it or not! It will occur whether we're there or not, so we may as well give it a shot! What's the worse that could happen?  "Show up and try" - That's all I can do and that is what i will do! My motto for the exams! :)

HPAT Results & Maths Pre!

It's Wednesday and thank God for that! Meaning for me, only one more day of school! (Yup, I've got Friday off!)

HPAT Score

I got 141. Yeah I'll admit I wasn't too pleased with that!  I was hoping for a minimum of 150. But I guess that's just how the cookie crumbles! I guess there's always next year! 

Maths Pre

Today was so intense! I had to do a paper one in the morning, one hour break, and then paper two. 

It sucked that it was so intense, but I'm really happy I did it.
I mean the layout of the leaving cert. is sort of the same; exam, break, exam. So I guess this was a good preparation for it. 

As for the exam itself, I'd like to say that I did well and it went great but I guess we won't know for sure until I get the result. IT's strange because whenever I think I did bad in an exam, I usually succeed in it and visa-verse. SO I'm not sure what that entail for this exam. I'm happy with it. I knew what I was doing for the majority of the question (well at least I think I knew what I was doing), only two part C's gave me a slight mind-fuck. 

In regard to paper two. WHAT THE BLOODY FRUIT was that! The first question of section A, could not do it at all! IT was suppose to be simple probability but I was just like - WHAT?

I also ended up spending like >15mins drawing a scatter plot diagram, having another 1 full question and a half of section B to be completed. 

At that point I didn't believe I would have enough time to complete paper two. Low and behold, my teacher announced that we had 20 minutes remaining, just as I started the last question.

Whether I was on an adrenaline rush and felt fantastic or whether I was just trying to put something down for the last five parts of the last question, I don't know. All I know is that I managed to finish the exam with five minutes remaining.I felt at the time, that the trigonometry questions were a breeze. 

I'll have a good laugh to myself if I get all the trigonometry questions wrong after thinking it was a breeze. 

Special thanks to our maths teacher, Nolan, who supplied the class with delicious lollipops as we approached the end of the exam. 

As for tonight, if I attempt to look at a maths book, I may just trow up. 

Brain is melting. Need to smooth it out with a little bit of 'The Big Band Theory', which is actually about to start. Gotta go!  

#Also received CAO letter today for my statement of course choices and stuff. But that's another post!