OMG! OH NOZ! It's teh SATs! (oh, and GCSEs)

[omega329]

So, now the Key stage 3 SATs have started here in Britain, how are people getting on with them?
I'm not really that bothered, I'll probably do the worst on the english one.
(the amount of times I've gone over the 2 tempest scenes in lessons is just stupid, were meant to know what happens in them, not the script word for word!)
Anyone else doing them?

Feel free to post about GCSEs as well.

[eLhabib]

uhm WHAT?
didn't understand a word you were saying, sorry :paperbag

[Lance]

The odd/funny/expected thing about SATs is they are a completely unreliable predictor of relative excellence in one's scholastic career.

[Mobius]

Oh, no this is no way related to the SATs in America, you take these when you are 14, just used to see how well you are doing then. The english one was always the worst.

Nowerdays, im stressing over the A-Levels. What fun...

[omega329]

/mobius
I agree, I just did the english writing one today and I hated it...
good luck with A-levels, which subjects are you taking?

Lance still has a point though, for example, the reading comprehension test only really tests how good you are at explaining things, not how good you actually are at understanding what's being read.

[Hellfire_WZ]

Good luck to everyone taking exams in the next month or so. I work as a teaching assistant so I can understand the stress some of you are going through.

[omega329]

Just finished my last test today, one of the external ajudicators looked like a bad guy from raiders of the lost ark!
http://www.listentome.net/raiderstoht.gif
(no offence meant)

[Lance]

The guy with the folding coat-hanger?

[mdhay]

Just finished my last test today, one of the external ajudicators looked like a bad guy from raiders of the lost ark!


:clap
SAT's? more like
Stupid And Tiring.

[omega329]

The guy with the folding coat-hanger?

I think that was Colonel Dietrich, I'm on about the guy who has the staff height thingy burnt into his hand, (well, half of it anyway)

Just remembered! There was also a lady of the large persuasion wearing brown trousers and top! All we need now is a guy with a whip!

/mdhay
I don't find sats that tiring. A bit of peace and quiet, time for inner reflection, can really put you in a better mood.

Although being in a sports hall with 200+ other pupils can seem really weird (and warm) sometimes. The synchronised opening of all the reading booklets on one test sounded quite awesome...

[mdhay]

The revision side is, however.

[omega329]

To be honest, I never bother to revise, I really should, but the last few years I've been getting high marks and it's causing me to "cruise".

[mdhay]

Only thing that annoys me is the one on the tempest. We (9OL1) spent at least 8 weeks revising most of the play, annotating the texts, only to get something completely irrelevant.

[omega329]

Same here, we probably spent six months on the two scenes, only to find out that the script was there for us and we should have spent more time practising "Point Evidence Explanation" or whatever that other name was...

[Lance]

I was talking about the Nazi interrogator, Major Toht, who also happens to be the one with the imprint burned into his hand.

[omega329]

Ah yes, that's the one. I was getting my nazis mixed up.

EDIT: "I was getting my nazis mixed up" has got to be one of the few things that I thought I would never see on this site...

[Lance]

Perhaps you need to review/revise history; many Nazis had quite distinct personalities. Himmler, the romantic would-be knight of the middle ages; Goering, the bon vivant; Goebbels, the intellectual theorist; Hitler, the insecure avenger.

[omega329]

Oh, sorry, I didn't make myself clear, by saying that I was getting my nazis mixed up, I was merely speaking about the film. I am fully aware that there were nazis with wildly different personalities. However, the sterotypical image potrayed in the film seems to show almost identical personalties, making it harder to distinguish between them.

[Lance]

You seem to have assumed that I was being more serious than I actually was.

[omega329]

Yes, it appears so, I had no idea about who you were talking about. I was trying to appear clever and failed spectaculary.
:frown:
It happpens quite often to me...

[P52Smith]

Omega329, where are you in Britain
are you South, North or where
I am in year 10 and our year 9s have just vacated our school hall to allow us to take our 'year 10 tests' before the GCSE's (and some after). Some of us are also taking French a year early and most are taking a Tech subject as well, most of those who aren't taking Tech are doing an Engineering (or metalwork) double award next year, the rest aren't doing Tech at all, just another language.

[omega329]

West midlands, a little town called "Redditch" just south of birmingham.

[swift killer]

Oh the joys of BTEC National!!! :D

I dont get exams, just striaght design coursework

[omega329]

Right, I'm really annoyed now, one of the GCSEs I wanted to do (3D design) has been canelled due to the fact that there has only been 4 applicants for it. I've now got to choose another one.:brickwall

[mdhay]

Aw naw!

That sucks man. :-

[omega329]

Yeah? I've been left with all the shitty options like:

Health and Social care
Child Development (babysitting with exams)
French (I have nothing against the country/people I just hate the lesson)
GCSE P.E. (utter rubbish for me apart from the one term of swimming)
Asdan (-link- (http://www.asdan.org.uk/) read between the lines...)
Geography
Sociology
Art (Probably the only one I might take, I enjoy it, I'm pretty good at it, but I can't paint ;))

EDIT: woo! I'm a phantom pilot!

Obligatory: This is SPARTAAAAA!!! (300th post)

[swift killer]

ouch, those are some shitty choices, avoid spazdan, its for people who are well...... dumb.

[omega329]

I'd agree with that post, just I didn't want to offend anyone...

[mdhay]

EDIT: woo! I'm a phantom pilot!

So am I! About 297 posts ago!

Seriously though, be glad you don't have to do dance. I think I would rather fly an Icaras into the Sun before I see myself do that.

[omega329]

Oh I do, dance is compulsory at our school in year 9...
We have a class of 20, about 10 of them either "forget" their kit, or have a so-called medical problem.
No problem for me, I enjoy it, I banished my self doubt when I did play of "bugsy malone" and played knuckles:rock
Although I did have to kill myself with a spurge gun, and dance the "bad guys" dance in front of the whole school.

[mdhay]

Compulsory at my school, but I skive to revise.

[omega329]

revise for what? the SATs are over.
congratulations, extreme pilot;)

[mdhay]

:g

I revise for the ICT GCSE I'm doing. I also do any homework that is too big to do at home.

[omega329]

I kinda fell out with the school system admins when I proposed that during the school holidays, the computers could be used as a renderfarm...
It was the part that involved indigo having to be installed and running the computers 24/7 for 2 weeks that kinda turned them against me. Still, 150x1Ghz+ computers would have been awesome...
I'll try and pick up a few if they're being thrown out, I'd need one hell of a router though...

[Lance]

.
This thread is showing the signs of becoming a generalised personal chat between omega329 and mdhay; if that's what you want to do, please switch to PMs
.

[omega329]

Sorry, got carried away.

So, how do people think they got on in the SATs?

[mdhay]

Very well actually.

[P52Smith]

Mine were last year,

Maths Level 8
Science Level 7
English Level 6 (just)

Most of my GCSEs are next year but I'm doing French 'fast track' ie. a year early. I did my Speaking exam today. Most of our year are doing a Tech subject this year (1 year early) a few are doing a second language (we have to do at least one at BSB) but 35 of us are doing Engineering over 2 years. It is designed for 4 hours every week for 2 years but we were doing only 2 hours every week for 1 year, suprise suprise we were looking to fail, so we are doing 2 hours every week for 2 years (still half the time)

I'm in Dorset Omega329 BTW in reply to your earlier post.

BSB is Bournemouth School for Boys (Selective grammar school with language college status)

[rdmx]

Would someone in the UK(or anybody else knowledgeable about it) mind explaining to me how this 'GCSE' stuff works?
Thanks in advance.

[omega329]

GCSEs are the final (compulsory) school examinations you take in Britain, these begin at the start of year 10 with the examinations taking place in year 11. However, you can choose which ones you take along with the "core" subjects, these core subjects are english, maths, science, RE and IT (I'm not so sure about IT, it's compulsory at our school though). You are then allowed to choose other GCSEs, most schools allow 3-4 other ones to go with your core options. There also exists a second course you can take known as a BTEC, these focus more on coursework and the majoritory do not have an exam to be marked on at the end. A BTEC is usually worth 2 GCSEs. GCSE examinations can be taken a year early, so that you can focus more on the other GCSEs in your second year of doing them.
GCSE= General Certificate of Secondary Education

Hope that helps 8)

[Lance]

RE? Resident Evil is compulsory?

Who knew that boarding schools would have evil residents? :D

[P52Smith]

RE stands for Religious Education


At our school we have to do:
English Language and English Literature
Biology, Chemistry, Physics
RS (Religious Studies (I say Really Stupid))
Geography/History (we choose one)
French/German/Spanish
1 of 3 Techs/Engineering/2nd language

And we choose 2 more such as:
Economics/Business studies
History/Geography
French/German/Spanish
Italian/Japanese
PE
Music GCSE/Music AS level (for really good musicians to make a head start with their A level)
Latin

We can only choose 1 per line and only 2 in total
There is never normally a problem with choosing subjects but this year, due to the way timetabling is organised, the few people that wanted to do Latin + Music, could only do one of those and had to choose another subject.

What about anyone else?

[omega329]

@Lance
You know, some days I just can't be bothered to explain what Religeous Education is...

Really? our school is much more complacent at the GCSEs, they let the students choose whatever and organise the timetable so that the most students get the subjects they want.

[Lance]

I'm not sure I'd understand it anyway. ;)

[P52Smith]

My options were:
History and Spanish from the cumpolsory section
Music GCSE and French from the options

We also do 2 hours of PE per 2 weeks but get no award, in all other years it is 4 hours per 2 weeks, only year 10 has 2 hours per 2 weeks

[rdmx]

Thanks for that omega - why on earth is RE compulsory? I'd assume it would be about religious awareness right?

[mdhay]

Because RE teachers are obsessed with blaring thier biased, shitty religious crap in our ears.

[omega329]

Yeah, religeous awareness and all that stuff (probably somthing to do with the london bombings I guess)...

BTW, I have an atheist RE teacher, so no "biased, shitty religious crap" for me, 'tis awesome...

Oh, there is another RE teacher called Mr Dudman or "Dudders" or "Captain Fabulous" who says that Marlyn Manson is a god (jokingly of course). :g

[Lance]

Marilyn Manson is just as much a god as anyone else. I know because I saw him in person and he was crucified on a cross made of televisions. Pretty cool. So were the quad stilts later in the concert. [Mechanical Animals tour.]