6 Down, 5 To Go

If you have been, or are currently a year 11 in Britain, you'll know my current pain. It's mock season people, and this storm has brought about some casualties.

My mocks started on Tuesday, my timetable graced with eleven different subjects which I was not in the slightest prepared for.

Note 1: Revise and Prepare, You'll Thank Me Later

When they hand you the timetable a good 6 weeks in advance, you honestly believe that you have all the time in the world, but seriously, you should be revising long before that green paper is in your hand, a lesson I will be putting into practice come exam season. If I haven't, feel free to shoot me, because I'll probably already be dead.

Of course, my exam plight was not aided by the fact that, for the last couple of weeks I have been caught in the twisted grip of a bug. I spent an entire weekend where I should have been revising, and also spending some time with my sister, who was up for the weekend, curled up on a sofa feeling absolutely miserable. I've only managed to absolutely improvise my way through a week of exams whilst alternating ibuprofen and paracetamol (I owe any passing results to whoever invented those things).

Note 2: Make Sure You've Done Everything You Need to Do

Paracetamol does not last for four hours, it wears off after about three, so that dose you took at half seven will not last you through a 1 hour 45 English exam an hour and a half later (apparently). I had to quite literally stop writing for a second on Wednesday morning because of a stomach cramp that quite literally sucker punched me in the gut. So remember any medication you need to take, any last minute preparations that you think might bring you luck, anything that will help you feel at ease prior to an exam.

Note 3: Much as You Want To, Don't Leave the Questions with the Most Marks for Last

Imagine if you run out of time; that twelve marker that you didn't fully flesh out may be the difference between grades, whereas that four marker that you did because it was easy, that can be left till last.

Note 4: Case Studies are Important

You don't realise until you see an exam paper, but in Geography, having information from a case study committed to memory is seriously important. Which is why, following the absolute Titanic turn my exam yesterday took, I will be creating a mind map for every single case study that I have studied in the last three years, with impacts, figures, and everything.

Note 5: Remember the Writing Portion for English Language

I didn't personally do this, but after seeing the utter despair on a friend's face after he realised that he hadn't done the writing portion, I think it's worth mentioning.

Note 6: In the Same Vein, Do the Questions you're Supposed To

My history teacher will continue to tell the story of the girl in her class a while back, A* student, who saw a question in reference to the Tsardom of Russia (or something like that) and answered that. However, because that wasn't one of the topics the school was registered to answer, she didn't get any marks for it.

Another of my friends actually, purely for a laugh as I believe, decided to answer a question in English upon Journey into the Void, a book he has not read or studied, but because you get an extract for a portion of the question, he answered it using the extract. Whilst our teacher refuses to mark it, I'm still highly interested in the grade he would have got for it. So know which questions/topics you need to answer, and stick to them, highlight them, whatever, just don't go answering shit willy-nilly.

So, good luck to everybody in your mocks/getting results/surviving until Christmas. Please try and remember that, while a bad grade on a mock feels like the end of the world, it doesn't define you, and it never will.