Lost the battle, win the war

Today I am going to be positive.

Even the word sounds like a mountain that needs climbing. Pos-i-tive, three whole syllables, two eyes, like the human head. The first syllable speaks of possibilities, however, and so I shall be positive. So here goes.

Revision has been going reasonably well. Over the past 2 weeks I have achieved a pretty considerable amount, so I'm starting to feel like there may be some hope for me yet. However, a few hours ago, I discovered, to my horror, a mountain of homework waiting for me, a bit like a monster under the bed. Here's what I have to do:

2 essays for English Literature:
- How does Auden tell the story in 'Musee des Beaux Arts' and
- We never step twice into the same Auden. How far do you agree?
Also for English, I have to start making notes on some potential Gatsby essays. I have no idea how to do this - we're only halfway through studying the book. However, the first Auden essay should be reasonably easy as I made sufficient, perhaps overly-pedantic notes in class before we broke up for Easter, and I have somewhat of a plan for the second one.

French:
- Listening and reading sections of a past paper
I did the reading section today. It was awful and I'm pretty sure I haven't done very well, but I did it, and that's all that matters right now. As for the listening, there was some kind of problem with it so we've been given another section to do. I'll tussle with that tomorrow I think, after work.

I also have a French essay to do, which will be a pain, but I can do it. The essays aren't so hard.

I'm also meant to write some silly 'response to a letter' for Psychology, but to put it bluntly, I can't be asked. I have no care for Psychology whatsoever, and I'm busy enough with the subjects I a) care about and b) am doing next year, so because of this, I'm going to miss my 2 hours of Psychology on Monday morning to focus on all these essays so that I can get them out of the way in order for me to be able to come straight home on Monday and revise, provided I don't get given anymore homework.

I'm sorry. My attitude probably sounds awful. I've left all this homework till the last minute and now I'm telling you all about how I can't be bothered to turn up for one of my subjects. But to be fair, I sort of floated along through the holidays, totally focused on exams and forgetting that we hadn't actually finished the courses yet. I also had this vague sense of an idea that I only had one essay to do for English Literature, and that was it. So silly me.

I have a new running route, and I love it. It's wonderful to explore new territories of the area that I live in while blasting Paramore's new album through my ears. My favourite songs so far have to be Part 2, Grow Up, Daydreaming and Now, although I also love the many Interludes too.

In terms of revision, I've been working pretty hard, and I'm proud of myself. I've finished Tennyson's poems and I'm about halfway though Kite Runner AONs. Auden I can remember pretty well, so I'll only need to briefly go over that, with particular attention to the debate questions. Gatsby is what I'll also need to focus on, although it should be more accessible than Auden. English Language, I've done the written and spoken units and did a past paper which went really well. French, I've learned 2 and a half units' worth of vocabulary so far, and I've been through the most important tenses that I'll need. Psychology, we don't talk about. So I'm happy.

There's a positive entry. I've noticed that page views have somewhat skyrocketed unless I've been remembering them wrong - if so, thank you to everyone who is reading! I'd love to hear from you guys, as sometimes it feels like I'm talking to myself, and I'm actually pretty chatty, but even if I don't hear anything thank you anyway!

In which I make too many promises

I realise that it's been more than a week since I last posted. Once again Year 11 has become even busier, and I've already found myself weighed down by homework and revision. I've decided that I'm not going to start revising for my Biology retake until October by the earliest, but a lot of teachers like us to start going over stuff now (in preparation for mocks and, ultimately, study leave in May). This is why I have my Chemistry textbook open now in front of me on page 114 - the beginnings of Additional Chemistry, where a double page spread on atomic structure grins back at me. It'll be nice to get it all in my head again. We're currently studying electrolysis about 70 pages on from that, and things are becoming pretty confusing seeing as I don't remember the basics of things like Ionic bonding.

Our teachers would like us to be studying every night but my parents and I both agree that this is not needed and will only tire me out. I get home from school at 4 o'clock on a normal day, apart from Mondays when I have French Media club (in which I get home at 5:30 or thereabouts), or Wednesdays when I have band practise and then extra French tutoring (7pm normally). Sometimes I don't get home 'till about 5 on Tuesdays because my mum has to come and pick me up from her college. After that I have to do my homework and then make myself dinner, which keeps me busy 'till about 8 or 9, when by then my mind is already starting to drift off into a secluded state of unconsciousness, so anything academic or rigorous I try to do then just fails completely. So therefore I've decided I'm going to do a little review in each subject at the weekend. Two hours per Saturday and Sunday isn't bad I don't think.

Anyways, the reason for the title of this journal post is because it's getting up to the time when I'm supposed to start choosing A-Levels (if I even make it that far!) Teachers have already started scouting round for who  they think should be doing their subject as an A-Level... and sadly they've all zoned in on me. I've now accidentally promised various teachers that I'm going to do English Language, English Literature, Drama, Biology, Maths and French for A-Level. In theory I actually only want to do three of those six. My options are: English Language, English Literature, French, History, Psychology and maybe something like Philosophy or Classical Civilisation. Hmm, A-Level options evening should be... interesting...