Musings of a Perfectionist

Hey...so I know that I haven't written anything for ages  and I'm sorry, but in my defence, I haven't been doing anything but sleeping and schoolwork, and also I simply have not been motivated to write a post. Still need to set a little reminder that pops up once a fortnight or so and tells me to publish something. I may get round to that before Christmas. So today's post is inspired by the end of term/the school year and also by the fact that I was messaged by someone asking about the IB - yes, this post is a post about my experiences doing the IB (for the first year, remember) so buckle in and get ready to have the answers to any questions that you didn't even know that you had. Also, if you're nearing the time that you have to start deciding where you want to go after GCSEs or you're starting the IB in September (covid-19 permitting) I would actually recommend reading this - I know that I would have loved to be able to hear the thoughts of someone actuall...

Hey everyone! I've been thrown a bit by the new Blogger update - it looks fancy and actually like something that belongs in this decade (or even the 2010s... shock horror) but it's weird . I'm really hoping that my formatting isn't messed with but sorry if it is. (Edited note: the picture uploading was always pretty bad but now it's worse?!? I didn't realise that this was possible but just go with it.) I've been doing some crafts recently - something to do with all of this free time (around lessons) I'm having all of a sudden - and thought that I'd use my blog to share some of it, as and when I complete it. Especially if I write it up as CAS, along with this blog.  The most recent thing that I've done is a little cross stitch (as can be seen below) of some owls in a tree. I did it because we had to do something that was new and that was a challenge for Rangers and I had been putting it off for ages because I didn't think that I'd be any g...

Hey! I'm really very sorry that I have not written a post for ages (yet again, sigh) but, as you may have noticed, the world has gone a little crazy at the moment and we're all trying to adjust. :) Note: you know the song "Ring a Ring a Roses" is actually about the Black Death? I remember when I realised this I was horrified and couldn't work out why they had made this song about death, but now, looking at the internet, I understand. Humans cope with situations through gallows humour- whether that be songs, jokes, memes. It may be morbid, but I think that it is also very interesting and one of those "aw, I love humans" things. School ended on Friday (but two of my four lessons were cancelled so I ended on the high that was Higher Mathematics, also known as confusion) although the week had been spent with broken up lessons as teachers weren't there and half of my year left (so we were down to the grand total of about 30 students) which felt so wei...

Hello to all, and I hope that wherever you are you have not been too affected by bad weather. It's actually quite nice where I am at the moment, although it was raining a lot earlier as I was DRIVING- but I did not stall, or crash, or skim the curb, or anything. So yay. First of all, some small things about IB to make you smile. One : I seem to spend half my life filing work away (go ahead and laugh- we're not told this when signing up to do IB). Two : only whilst studying history can you find yourself writing a report to Lenin advising him to seize power and kickstart the Bolshevik Revolution (the report is, of course, signed Comrade Hagger). Three : we did ToK in Maths (how is maths linked to all the different subjects that you can study at school, dance for example?) and Maths in ToK (is mathematics discovered or invented?) Another story from yesterday (not to do with school) which I'm only really writing because I like being dramatic and also I'm hoping my dear ...

Good afternoon, all, and what a finely cold day it is! I am actually fairly surprised that I can type this well as I have not been able to feel my hands for about 2 hours now (although I did spend those two hours making flashcards for Physics, so there may be something there about what physics does to someone...). News about NaNo: I wrote 5494 words yesterday (woah) and I am now back on track! I will fall behind once again this week, most likely, but I know now that I can do it. :) I am very happy about this (don't know if you could tell). So here is a thing that I wrote a few days ago about doing IB compared to doing A-Levels (but it's not the thing that the IB teachers tell you about how IB is better because it makes you more well-rounded and stuff). The thing that I have noticed about the difference between my A-Level doing friends and me (the IB person) is that they are so easily throwing around what grades they are getting and what they need to get. You can see why: ...

Evening all! Happy Day 12 of NaNo- I'm only about 1000 words out of my goal, so it's going surprisingly well so far. I do have assessment week next week at school, however, so I guess that we'll see how that goes. I have had a truly exciting today- if you are considering doing IB, this will definitely be a part of your life as well, so pay attention (and pay attention anyway, because I lead a very interesting life, obviously). Today, I did a Group 4 Project Day. If you have no idea what this is, I will inform you: when doing IB, there are six groups, and you choose a subject from each (apart from Group 6, where you can either choose a subject or do another Group 2/3/4). Group 4 is Sciences, so maybe you can guess what sorts of things I did today? You're correct, I stood outside in the cold and the rain! For about an hour. What we had to do was plan and carry out a simple experiment on this massive field near(ish) our school. We were put into groups so that there w...

I have just had 2000 views, so thank you- subscribe if you haven't, and we'll see how fast I can get to 3000! But, anyway, good evening, and happy valentine's day (even if I don't really acknowledge it). Do you get the Doctor Who reference? It's me, again, if you can still remember me...it's been ages since I last wrote something. Truth be told, I simply haven't had anything to write about, and every time I do open up a new post, I end up closing it down again. It's becoming a bit of an issue, really. But today, something pretty major happened in my life, something that will be crucial to my future. My first Sixth Form Interview *cough* sorry, Guidance Meeting. It's called a Guidance Meeting, but it is actually an interview, trust me. She was lovely and all, and we got to ask questions at the end, but it was definitely an interview. Basically, I was asked about my choices, why I wanted to do particular courses, any plans for the future...

Hi everyone- I'm back! I'm so sorry that I haven't been published a post for ages, but I have an exciting one (at least I think it's exciting) planned for Sunday (so keep an eye out) but it needs a bit of research and careful planning, so that's why I'm not doing it now. Also because I'm doing English Literature revision (poetry) and I need to focus on that. So, what's new with me? Well, as I stated in the title, I feel like this blog has an element of informing people about Sixth Forms/Year 11 (at the moment, at least), and I wish to add to this. Remember my post about visiting two different Sixth Forms (if not, I have you covered:  first post  and second post )? Well, after a long process of applying to the grand total of two colleges (including writing a personal statement (ugh)) I have a 'guidance meeting' soon with one of them (still waiting to hear back from the other one). A guidance meeting is NOT an interview (apparently) and...

Good evening, folks. Today was an eventful day in all areas, linking back to two previous posts-  Geography Fieldwork  and  visiting a Sixth Form . Also, as I'm writing this, my cat is trying to sit on my laptop, so some of this may make no sense. Let's start with the Geography Trip, shall we? Basically, we went to London to research the effectiveness of cycling schemes (hint: not too effective). We had to tally up modes of transport and (the best bit), we had to ask the public questions about their use of the cycles. We ended up getting told that we couldn't talk to people where we were talking to them, which was strange and also funny at the same time. Then we went to the Olympic Park (one of our many case studies is about it) and had a very very quick look around, before we went back home. (I slept on the way back. I'm pretty sure I'm secretly a cat- I woke up when we were about 15 minutes from school, told myself to stay awake, then went to sleep again...

Hi all! I'm back! Did you miss me? Did you miss the email pinging into your inbox, did you miss reading my (obviously hilarious) words scrawled out across the screen? Who am I kidding, of course you did. Anyway, I got back a few days ago (go and read my holiday posts if you haven't already- link is  here ) and I am so tired. To be honest though, people keep asking if I am jetlagged, and the real answer is that I am so used to always feeling tired during the day and awake at night that I haven't noticed any difference. But today I wish to tell you all about the brilliant experience that I had of visiting Parkside Sixth Form College! Basically, I have decided to do the IB next year (instead of A-Levels) and that leaves two schools in the area: Parkside and Impington. The Open Day for Impington is next week (keep an eye out for that post- or, better yet, subscribe! Please!) but the one for Parkside was today, and let me tell you this: it's really hard to work ...

Hi all, as promised, this is my latest 'Values and Experiences Day' updates. Fun all around, as per usual, although parts of this were slightly more useful than normal, so I can't be mean about the whole day. We started off listening to a talk about Apprenticeships, which was interesting, although I couldn't see the board properly and there is no way that I'm doing an Apprenticeship. Then we split into groups to listen to three different talks about different Sixth Form options. My first talk was about A-Levels, and the guy talking made it sound so boring (he had a cool tie though). The second talk was about the International Baccalaureate, which I actually want to do (because yes, I already know what I want to do) and the lady was very enthusiastic, which was nice. The third and final talk was about Vocational Subjects (which is basically just CRC) and the only highlight was when one of my friend's sisters came up in the video a few times as someone w...