Exam Update: 1 to go!

Today was my biggest day; History Paper 3 and Design Technology Papers 1 & 2. Thankfully, I've survived, and with only a few scratches.

But let's talk about the exams I can bitch about.

Nothing to complain about English Paper 2 at all. There was a great poetry question on how and why poets make words, phrases and lines memorable to the reader, which was just talking about literary features in all the most meaningful words, lines and phrases in the poems we'd studied. I studied quite a few poems by each poet we studied - Hopkins, Thomas, Harwood and Herbet - but only ended up basing my commentary around Spring, God's Grandeur, Lion's Bride, and Welsh History. I was really happy with it, and overall it made up for the frustration of Paper 1.

Speaking of frustrating papers...History Paper 2 was not supposed to be a problem. It's based around 6 topics - of which we cover 4 - so having revised 4 of these topics (causes of WW1, rise of Mussolini, League of Nations and causes of the Cold War), I should have a good chance of getting two questions that I can answer, right?

Wrong. Looks Prac exams can be deceiving.

All the prac exams we've looked at for History (from 2001 until May 07) have been straightforward in being able to choose a question we could write a half-way decent essay on.

And then there's November 07. A new breed of Paper 2 is born. It's tough. It's a bitch. And it's unforgiving.

Of all the questions on the paper, I wasn't really happy with answering any of them. There was no League of Nations question at all, there was no simple WW1 question, the Cold War question went up to 1953 for goodness sake, which it's never done before and we only cover up to 1950, more or less, plus the question on Mussolini was about to what extent was ideology significant in his rise to power; not that he had much of an ideology.

Now I know a paper is not supposed to be easy but it's supposed to be doable! I can appreciate a challenge but not something I can't do. And it wasn't for lack of study.

I ended up choosing the questions on Cold War and Mussolini, which I think might have been OK essays. But everyone agreed that it was an unnecessarily difficult paper.

Paper 1, on the other hand, was really good. It was on Stalin's rise to power, which is one of my better topics. I also wrote the longest mini-essay I've ever written, which is a good sign.

Last hurrahs:

• Last dinner (spent with all the year 12 girls in my house)
• Last assembly
• Last supper (no, not like that!)

I'll miss this place. I can't believe I'm leaving. I think I might cry soon.

x
Just a girl