GCSEs 2008

[madmusician]

How was question 12 a gift. I had no idea about Berlin Blockade nor could I write enough about the seven year plan - so I just did question 11.

OK, the Berlin Blockade was stretching it a bit for 7 marks, but let's have a look at the rest of it.

Question a) i) Iron Curtain speech: I could do enough for 3 marks easily
Question a) ii) Truman Doctrine: I could do enough for 5 marks
Question a) iii) Marshall Plan: Ditto, these bits are the bits I know best
Question a) iv) Berlin Blockade: This was the one that I wasn't so sure on, but I included the airlift and hopefully got 4 or 5 out of 7

Question b) i) I chose Reagan and Afghanistan: I'm hoping for 7-8/10 on this, we never did the end properly, but I reckon that I waffled enough for some marks.
Question b) ii) This was easily the best essay, because you could write about how tensions grew and then rescinded, going into d?tente etc.

I never did the end of the war properly, and IIRC the other essay was on that, so Question 12 was the best one for me, though I appreciate that everyone's different!

 

[manee]

OK, the Berlin Blockade was stretching it a bit for 7 marks, but let's have a look at the rest of it.

Question a) i) Iron Curtain speech: I could do enough for 3 marks easily
Question a) ii) Truman Doctrine: I could do enough for 5 marks
Question a) iii) Marshall Plan: Ditto, these bits are the bits I know best
Question a) iv) Berlin Blockade: This was the one that I wasn't so sure on, but I included the airlift and hopefully got 4 or 5 out of 7

Question b) i) I chose Reagan and Afghanistan: I'm hoping for 7-8/10 on this, we never did the end properly, but I reckon that I waffled enough for some marks.
Question b) ii) This was easily the best essay, because you could write about how tensions grew and then rescinded, going into d?tente etc.

I never did the end of the war properly, and IIRC the other essay was on that, so Question 12 was the best one for me, though I appreciate that everyone's different!

What grade are you going for?

 

[madmusician]

What grade are you going for?

A* hopefully, although an A may be slightly more realistic. Does that not sound like enough marks to be picking up for you? At least we have the (IMO) easier paper next Wednesday to up the grade a little...

 

[manee]

A* hopefully, although an A may be slightly more realistic. Does that not sound like enough marks to be picking up for you? At least we have the (IMO) easier paper next Wednesday to up the grade a little...

Sourcework is easy, but I have not covered the material in a little while. I was going for the clear A* and so hesitated at a point which I could not completely pick up. My 93% in coursework will help pick up the marks from any deficiencies in Paper 1 though.

 

[madmusician]

Sourcework is easy, but I have not covered the material in a little while. I was going for the clear A* and so hesitated at a point which I could not completely pick up. My 93% in coursework will help pick up the marks from any deficiencies in Paper 1 though.

I don't know the precise percentage, but my coursework is (I believe) of similar standard to yours, so I'm hoping for that to pull me through too.

 

[PhilD123]

I think it really was easy, all 6 maths papers have been easy!

Only did 2 papers, probably different exam board.

As for English, I did it in January and already have an A*
</gloat>

<gloat>me too, only an A though</gloat>

People who didn't sit it in November or who didn't get a C re-took it this morning, and they had that question about the old women and how green the Earth is.

History exam , the Germany questions were good, the full marks one in particular, I knew each point, so was pleased with. However, the Medicine paper, had a question on that was really difficult to answer, "Why Jenner's vaccine had little impact on treatments for infectious diseases in the 19th century?" As far as I knew, it didn't, so had to try to think up some reasons.

Then, on the last question, it's a choice out of 3 of which to answer, we were told one would be Ancient times (Egyptians, Romans, Greeks), one would be on Hospitals and Training, and one would be one more modern times (renaissance onwards). We were told that the best one was Ancient times, but definitely not to do hospitals and training. Anyway, I get to it, and the first one is only a question about how Muslim practice changed during the early middle ages. A topic we had not covered, and it seems the subject had changed from "Ancient times" to "Ancient times and early middle ages". Therefore, I only had the realistic option of doing question 3, which was about the renaissance, a time we had covered a little bit but not extensively, so I had to put about things that they didn't have at this time that would have improved surgery.

 

[DPRA]

Only did 2 papers, probably different exam board.

Oh. Well, we did 2 20 minute ones, then 2 30 minute ones, and then 2 1 hour ones.

What board was yours with? We did the maths modular I think.

 

[PhilD123]

2 2 hour paper's, OCR.

Had Geography, French Reading and French Listening today. Geography was quite fair, that was ok. French was ok, Reading was harder than Listening which was a surprise.

Only 5 more to go...

 

[Leicester Fox]

you lucky ******* I have 8 although 1 is a retake so it's my own fault.

 

[DPRA]

2 2 hour paper's, OCR.

Had Geography, French Reading and French Listening today. Geography was quite fair, that was ok. French was ok, Reading was harder than Listening which was a surprise.

Only 5 more to go...

Ah thats why. We do our maths with Edexcel.

 

[Leicester Fox]

Just did English, thought I did well, the only worry would be that when writing about someone I admire (did Diego Corralles by the way, he's a boxer and i decided it's best to do someone who they've never heard of. Or someone worthy of admiration like Nelson Mandela, had to avoid the temptation to go for Ronaldo ) I got a bit carried away with writing how awesome he was and forgot to use the correct techniques.

 

[Sureshot]

I described my dream world. Just let the imagination take over. Rather than have to think about writing to inform, explain.

 

[PhilD123]

had to avoid the temptation to go for Ronaldo

Without wishing to talk about football, that might have to change in a couple of days:

Wasn't there a question about describing a dream world or writing a letter to the education minister, or something like that?

EDIT: Ahh, Sureshots just answered my question!

 

[Sureshot]

Yeh, 4 choices I think.

Describe dream world, writing letter to education minister, writing about a celebrity you admire. The last one was describe and explain, can't remember what the question was though.

 

[PhilD123]

Got an additional maths exam today, it's not a GCSE but I'll say about it in here. FSMQ (equivalent to an AS Level) but it's so hard, and 30 marks for an E even, so I don't think I'll even get that. I am wondering what to do for 2 hours during the exam. Wish I hadn't done it to be honest, it was too late to pull out by the time I wanted to.