Second Year Is Over - I Managed To Reach My Goal Of Straight Firsts And I’m Super Proud Of Myself!

Kinetics took me forever to understand but it is an aesthetic

26/09/18 - 15/100 days of productivity - studying with a full-on cold :(

Happy Wednesday guys! I had a full day of lessons today. The routine is pretty much the same as Tuesday (and, as you’ll find out, Thursdays and Fridays too). Anyway, this is what my Wednesday looked like :)

06:45-07:20 Up, washed, dressed and out the house

07:35-08:00 Commute to school

08:00 German quizlets in the sixth form work room

08:30-08:50 Form time with my lovely bio teacher! Fun times

08:50-09:50 Chemistry ft a fun rant from my teacher (not really it scared me even though it wasn’t aimed at me!) about how we are all deluded if we think we are going to succeed by putting such little effort into things

09:55-12:25 Double German! (With a half an hour break in between, don’t panic). Half was spent studying Der Vorleser, the other half on grammar

12:30-13:30 French with my favourite teacher. I did a listening assessment and... not much else to be fair 😂

13:30-14:00 Lunch/ form competitions. I represented my form in skittle sorting with one hand. I won my heat but came in third overall so far. The rest of the forms play tomorrow. We are out of the running for the form prize but I did get the bag of skittles haha

14:00-15:00 Biology - the topic was regulating gene expression on the transcriptional level and I LOVED IT. What an amazing way to end the day!

15:40 Arrived home to chill out. Honestly I feel awful so I decided to take a break.

17:00 Tea time :)

17:30-20:00 Maths revision before I move on to A2 stats (ew)

20:00-21:00 A cup of tea for me... plus some Vick’s Vapour rub and paracetamol haha

Night all! I might do another of these when I’m not ill so you can really see my life - this is nothing compared to how I normally work. Yes it’s a lot but I have to plough through.

To all exam-takers

Gentle reminder that however much of a shitstorm your exams are, they do not tell you shit about yourself really. All they do is tell you how good you were at conforming to a mark scheme on that particular day. 0% doesn’t mean someone is stupid and 100% doesn’t necessarily mean someone is smart.

Of course try your best and revise and do what you can to maximise your success. But if it doesn’t go your way, know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and as long as you end up doing what you want to do, nobody gives a fuck if you don’t get straight A’s or whatever ❤️

To lost dreams...

From 5 years old, I was dead set on being a writer. I have always been interested in language and was rewarded with a great sense of satisfaction when the nuances of words resonated in my head. It didn’t matter to me that I have aphantasia because I didn’t know it existed. (It’s like a play in my head where the actors are playing behind a closed curtain - and I’m the wrong side of it.) All I knew is that each word was unique even in the face of its synonyms, and I felt those differences coursing through my very own neurones. I still do!

I was the child who, instead of going out to play, curled up in the corner and took herself to a world of her own invention through the means of the written word. I saw sheets of paper more than I saw the sun and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Who cares if I’d have to be the starving artist for a while? Who cares that I’d likely have been hit by more rejections than acceptances?

And then secondary school started. English became more about regurgitating someone else’s analyses in essays than being creative. People used to look at me as if to say, “A writer? What a waste of a brain.” My mind became aware of its blindness and I became severely depressed - and I stopped writing altogether. I am scared to admit that my mind fights to find words sometimes. I am even more afraid to admit that I have nothing about which to write at all anymore.

My five-year-old self would be so disappointed... she sacrificed her imagination - the greatest part of herself - to the hands of an education system that moulds us into depressed conformists.

Work experience!

So a bit of background: a charity called The Talent Tap approached my school last academic year for the first time ever and said they were looking to fund 2 weeks worth of work experience in London (and around it, in my case) for disadvantaged state school kids, would anyone like to apply?

I decided to put my name forward for interview, got in, and now you’re all caught up!

What a ride these 2 weeks have been. I spent week 1 at a biotech lab in Cambridge, where I actually got to do loads of lab work as well as meet people from all around the company.

Back in London for the weekend, there was a public speaking workshop on Saturday. I hate public speaking but I decided to put my all into it despite that. (And put my all in I did - my punishment for ultimately winning “best speech of the day” was to speak at the final drinks celebration on Thursday 18th July 2019.)

Week 2 was at a property investment management firm in London. We did a marketing project there... and while I quickly learned marketing really isn’t my thing, we did have a ton of guest speakers in - including a patent attorney or two, who piqued my interest.

My speech at the final celebration went amazingly (tip: wine helps) and I was congratulated by many of the businesspeople there. I was scared, but I tried my best to be brave. I was actually the only first year on the programme to win an award for being one of the best ambassadors for the scheme.

I am now working to secure placements for next year - one being with an IP law firm. Bring it on!

Hi aus Deutschland!🤗

Und hallo zurück aus England! :)

Omg 😍😍😍

✨ DECAFFS 10K GIVEAWAY ✨

to celebrate hitting 10,000 followers, i’ve decided to a little giveaway for you all to say thank you!

there a few little rules for you to enter:

✨ make sure you’re following me

✨ make sure you’re following my studygram

✨make sure you reblog this post (likes don’t count)

i’m giving away some gorgeous stationery items (see bottom of post for some pictures):

✨ zebra midliners - pastel colours

✨ van gogh washi tape

✨ days of the week washi tape

✨ floral planner stickers

✨ travel planner stickers

✨ small notebook with personal note from me

click to read terms and conditions of the giveaway and for pictures of the items to be won.

Keep reading

17/09/18 - 6/100 days of productivity

Good morning all! I’ve just arrived at sixth form and I’m making chemistry notes and clearing up any homework I have left until my first lesson starts at 2pm (I have 4 free periods).

11-14/10/18 - 29-32 days of productivity

Three-in-one

Sorry for not posting in a while - I’ve been inundated with stuff these past few days! These days I’ve been focusing on stats and mechanics, and have covered all of normal distribution, probability, regression and correlation. At the minute, I am finishing off some homework - this is chemistry. We are doing rates of reactions and the Arrhenius equation, so that means LOTS of graphs.

I hate them.

I’m making progress with that textbook of genes (which is even heavier than it looks, btw) and have been predicted 5 A*s on my UCAS application, which has now been submitted. I can’t wait!

Easter break has arrived!

Uni has worked me very hard this week, but the highlight was definitely being introduced to organometallics. These are some notes on bonding models of pi-acceptor ligands!

Coming up next week: revision for summer exams begins! My aim is to beat my Christmas exam marks - let’s do this!