#I'M RE-READING THE BOOK AGAIN IN PHYSICAL COPY YOU HEAR ME??????

[rgco413]

FINALLY GOT MY VERY FIRST PHYSICAL COPY OF GOOD OMENS!! 😭💙❤️📚🐍

I've been wanting one for so long but you would not BELIEVE how hard it is to find at our local bookstores 😭

We went on a 3-day trip for my sister's birthday and I finally found a copy in the city we visited, I'VE NEVER BEEN HAPPIER

[spritecranverry]

(Spoilers for 'Babel' if u haven't read it yet and don't want those)

Hi I'm re-reading this book after my physical copy got delivered and I'm here to argue that Robin's fate is sealed the moment he chooses his name:

When Robin's mother dies, she says his name - his real name - one last time. It's only two syllables, but he'll never hear it again; Professor Lovell decides it's not worth keeping because the English tongue wouldn't be able to pronounce it. It's in this portion of the book that Kuang establishes one of the first instances of language as a means of wielding power: namely, the power to erase.

Even further, the scene where Robin chooses his 'English' name encapsulates his relationship to his identity for the rest of the book: he is simultaneously disconnected (or "un-anchored", as Kuang puts it on page 15) from his culture and 'othered' by it while living in English society, no matter how hard he tries to assimilate. Lovell makes Robin drop his own family's surname on page 12 (which we also never learn), effectively cutting him off from ever re-tracing his own ancestry and lineage. I think it's interesting to note that part of why Lovell doesn't value Robin's surname is because to the English, a name that isn't linked to status and capital is worthless.

What's even more interesting, though, is that Lovell doesn't let Robin take his last name, even after Robin realizes that he's his biological father. Instead, he forces Robin to choose a random English name. He tells him on page 10 that he has no family, and that his father is "unknown". Lovell wants Robin to remove all markers of his Asian identity from his name while simultaneously never claiming his son as his own despite his dependency on him.

This effectively places Robin in this odd liminal space where he is only allowed to participate in English society conditionally, but he also doesn't have the option to ever return to Canton because he no longer has the ability to fully reconnect there. His identity as a result morphs into this ambiguous thing that is constantly in flux relative to how white society perceives him. The choice to make him literally half white and half Asian as opposed to a fully Chinese man trying to assimilate makes this especially poignant; at no point does he have the ability to opt out of this constant state of limbo that the construct of racial identity puts him in. Robin - and perhaps Kuang did this intentionally - exists during a time when diasporic and mixed identities are still being formed and conceptualized, which means he wouldn't have much access to communities of people in similar situations. With the exception of Griffin, he's basically alone here.

It's during the scene where Robin first sets off on that ship to England that I'm reminded of what happened to the identity of enslaved Africans once they got through the Middle Passage: they and their descendants would never be able to fully re-integrate into their cultures of origin, but would also be permanently 'other' in the eyes of American society, relegating them to a constant state of place-lessness. An un-anchoring, if you will. (Obviously these are not the same, but a similar thing is happening in terms of cultural belonging and as an African American this is what came to mind. Please don't jump me 🤚🏾)

Let's circle back to the footnote on page 11 that quotes the book Robin took his name from: "I killed Cock Robin. Who saw him die?"

For the entirety of 'Babel', we see Robin struggle for the rest of his short life against the implications of his name and the circumstances that led to him choosing it, and none of it of his own volition. I think the most tragic part of Robin's story is that Lovell decided what he was supposed to be long before the book even begins. Robin's decision, then, to stray from that path renders him with (at least in his eyes) no other viable way to exist in this world in the state his father has left him in. Once he decides to stop participating in the imperialist machine, neither England nor Canton (which he has no way to return to after killing his father) has a place for him.

Long before he makes that final decision at the end of the book, Lovell subjects Robin to what I think can be interpreted as its own kind of death. He's become a ship permanently lost at sea with nothing left to anchor him and with no destination in sight. The other characters never really seem to fully understand the extent of the loss he has experienced because he is the only character other than Griffin who has been 'un-anchored' in such a specific way. Re-reading the book knowing what his fate will be, then, makes the rest of the story feel like a very slow, winding, and complicated march towards death.

TL; DR: Robin's been dead since the very beginning of 'Babel'. In fact, he's dead the very moment he becomes 'Robin', and Lovell killed him. But who saw him die?

[deoidesign]

hi, I hope you're having an awesome day! I just received the physical copy of time and time again book 1 + merch from the kickstarter and everything is incredible. the reformatted comic paneling is SO good, and re-reading the comic from the start with the added context of later story reveals is giving me many many emotions :')

the merch is also really cool, the wax seal on the envelope was so pretty that I cut the top open bc I didn't want to break the wax haha. I love that the keychain is also a bottle opener, im weak for multipurpose things. practical!!

anyway just wanted to say thank you so much for sharing your work, time and time again is an incredible story and it's so cool to have it in print. thank you!!! :D

I'm so so so glad to hear this!!!

I'm glad the package got to you safely and you're enjoying everything so far <3

Thank you for sharing with me!

And for everyone else who hasn't gotten books yet, I'm working on it! It's been slow going and I'm having some pretty major setbacks at the moment... but I'm working on it!

[fixfoxnox]

Hiya!

I want to start by saying that I read Something In The Orange at a difficult time in my life, where things seemed to keep going wrong and I was starting to lose sight of the things I enjoyed. Your writing was like a breath of fresh air amongst the chaos, and I absolutely adored reading every word. Honestly speaking, your portrayal of Roach and the other member of the 141 got me through a hard moment in time, so I want to say thank you.

Secondly, I owe my relationship with one of my best friends to your fic too. I re-read it a lot, and I recommend it to a friend, someone I didn't really know at the time but through talking to them about Something In The Orange, we've become closer friends overall. So again, you have my warmest wishes and thanks.

Thirdly I have a question for you. I am a tinkerer, so I love to create, to craft and to build various things, to do with what I love, and give said builds and crafts to the people I love too. Hence, I wanted to inquire about your views on fan-binding? Cause it would be an honour and delight to, with your permission, turn SITO into a physical book, as a birthday present for the friend mentioned above. She reads your fic almost weekly and absolutely adores it, as much as, if not even more than I do.

However, before I even start planning anything, I wanted to ask your permission first, as SITO is of course your wonderful work.

Thank you very much, and I hope you have a good day :)

You have me actually tearing up with this, like it genuinely blows my mind to hear that my writing has had such a positive impact on people. It makes me feel a lot better about my writing and helps me feel so much more motivated to keep going.

Thank you <3

As for fan-binding, I'm completely okay with it! I think its so cool and knowing that someone would have a physical copy is so cool. I'm absolutely cool with it and if you'd like, I'd love to see it once its finished and everything!

It's actually a goal of mine to eventually have a physical copy of SiTO for myself (first I have to learn to do book binding and stuff lol)

I hope everything goes well and that your friend likes the gift if you do it! Thank you for all the kind words as well <3

[witchcraftingboop]

Would you please recommend mangas?

I'm not gonna lie to you, baby, my tastes are trash. You can call me the garbage man because bish I'm swimming in that shit, scooping it all up and dragging it back to my lil apt-- or maybe the Grinch... oh well!

Anywhoville, here are the mangas I've read physical copies of since this all started back on April 13th:

Fangs by Billy B-something - BL - I like their take on modern vampires. Could do without the crazy dude randomly (coincidentally) escaping from jail

Kaiju Girl Caramelize by someone - Straight, Romcom (wtvr that is in manga genres), takes place in a high school - hilarious and I love it

SpyxFamily also by someone - Idk what genre this is honestly but it's funny and good and I love it

Sleepy Princess In The Demon Castle - I have all 20 volumes because it is just a cute lil fun lil read

So I'm A Spider, So What - Okay, does the mc grind like crazy to level up? Yes but it's also hilarious and a lovely lil isekai about how a high schooler is reborn as a weak bb spider and becomes super op and challenges gods and demon lords ... 10/10, have every volume out rn and love it

Heaven Official's Blessing (light novels) - BL, Danmei - Listen. I love these lil fucks and I love how these are written -> Currently on book 2/5 in my lil shelf, six comes out in Sept I think

Given - BL - It's an okay series. I read it all (that's out), and it is amusing while reading, but ultimately probably won't read again

Fruits Basket - grew up on it, love it

Chobits - unfortunately grew up on it (why do I not remember how sexual this shit was like jfc did that throw me for a Loop lmao)

Savior's Book Cafe Story In Another World - Isekai (of a 30yo, not a teen for once), romance -- I adore this lil series. It's a cozy lil hug in a book

Uzumaki by Junji Ito - Horror - classic, love his art style and story telling, I don't find horror manga or anime scary though so I read it more like comedy tbh

I Want To Eat Your Pancreas - Tragedy(?), Romance(?), set in high school - I went into this expecting and knowing nothing and I enjoyed it a lot

A list of BL I read and enjoyed: I Didn't Mean to Fall in Love, There Are Things I Can't Tell You(💜), Sotus vol 1, Killing Stalking (??? is it BL idk,, it's B), Midnight Rain, The Flower That Seems To Truly Dance, Loved Circus, The Snake Who Loved A Sparrow (look out for anatomy oddities), Sasaki & Miyano, Secret XXX, Therapy Game

The Witch & The Beast

A Silent Voice

Fire Force, omnibus 1 (dunno about later ones cause this is the only series I didn't just buy complete)

My next reads are gonna be the series I just bought, so Demon Slayer, Ouran Host Club (again, childhood fave), Tokyo Ghoul, Tokyo Ghoul Re, & Choujin X.

After that, the next batch'll likely be: Bofuri, Arifureta, & Overlord (all isekai - or in Bofuri's case video game life). Which I can recommend watching in the anime forms as well.

But yeah those are pretty much all the series I like that I can name off the top of my hear rn. There are definitely quite a bunch I'm forgetting, but I cannot be bothered because this lil answer has already gone on for a long time and been interrupted 4+ times by my Boss' after hours inquiries into his own goddamn schedule I'm going to beat this man with a sandal

But yeah that's it, anon, pillage through my wares as you please!

[kpopfanfictrash]

hi shanna! it's christmas time again, and you know what that means! it's time to re-read a holly jolly crisis, still my favorite fanfiction to date! while i was opening it up, i was wondering if it would be okay if i could print a physical copy of a holly jolly crisis like an actual book? it wouldn't be to sell or anything like that; i just thought it would be nice to have a physical copy of a fic that i still think abt every day <33

if not, totally understandable. but, if it is, would you like a page of acknowledgements or anything like that you see in books?

hi, anon! Thank you so much, and I'm incredibly glad to hear you enjoy A Holly, Jolly Crisis. That fic is close to my heart, as well. I have no problem with anyone printing my fics to read offline. As a matter of fact, I'm fairly certain you can save Wattpad books offline to read (much of my writing is cross-posted there). When it comes to actually binding a book though, I do have some reservations. Usually, that's a collaborative project between a writer and a binder/publisher. It's a whole art process in itself!

I'm sorry to turn you down, anon. I just have a lot of hesitation about projects involving my fics that I'm not a part of. I've run into a lot of plagiarism regarding my work, so it's hard for me to lend a large-scale stamp of approval without being involved. I do hope though, you have a lovely day/night and holiday season! Wishing you all the best.

[korrasera]

With Twilight & 50 Shades, I'm looking at my own experience. Twilight got popular around the time girls in my class were looking at Young Adult stuff for the first time and so it was a lot of their first (or an early) exposure to how adult relationships worked. We hadn't talked about healthy relationships much and 'abuse' meant physical abuse. They all thought I was a party pooper for talking about how Edward was abusive and wanted boyfriends just like him. As we got older, we learned more.(1/2)

Same thing happened with Christian Grey my senior year. Lots of girls reading those books who didn't know how BDSM worked outside those books thought Christian was a caring, considerate Dom. By that time, most of my friends were older than me and knew he was full of shit, but girls in my school definitely wanted him. I also know some people who thought certain kinks like wax worked the way they did in the books, not realizing the books were wrong (or failed to describe equipment) got hurt (2/2).

I'm still not seeing how that's the result of those books.

For one thing, you get exposed to adult relationships long before middle school and high school. Little kids are taught that being a normal adult means finding a partner who isn't the same gender as you, getting married, and having kids, something they can absorb before kindergarten. That first exposure comes from the adults in a child's life, and then they continue to absorb more and more of it as time goes on, both from adults and from the media that reinforces that messaging.

This play a part in how the perpetrators of abuse were frequently abused themselves, meaning that they're repeating behavior that they were taught as children. I personally think that's a far stronger influence than any book when it comes to teaching children unhealthy interpersonal relationships.

And also? When you say 'some people', does that mean you actually know specific people who were injured attempting to engage in wax play, or that you heard that it happened to someone in your peer group? Because hearing that it happened to people isn't really the same thing as knowing that it actually happened to someone you know who can relate their experience to you. Unfortunately, it's really easy for us to sway one another by saying 'some people', just like it is to say things like 'most people think' and the like. It's a concept called anonymous authority and it's also known by a much less flattering term, weasel words, because it tends to lend weight to what we're saying when we don't have the direct evidence to support our conclusions.

Plus, with friends in the BDSM community, it's not exactly unusual to find out that people get hurt trying to learn how to do that. It's not exactly an incredibly safe practice and it takes adults some time to learn how to do it safely, so again I'm not sure that the book would really be the origin point for that kind of problem.

One thing that I am reminded of are the spate of videos I saw, probably 10 years ago or more, where teenagers and young adults would re-create extreme wrestling stunts in backyards, using folding tables and the like. Just the dumbest stunts and the kind of stuff that would clearly injure you. But they weren't copying a book. Or fiction, really. They were copying the behaviors of real wrestlers who, even if the story of wrestling is fake, still engage in a lot of dangerous stunt work for entertainment.

And the thing is, there were people that wanted to ban wrestling when I was a kid. I'm sure there still are, they just don't get any attention anymore because we've moved on from that debate because I think people get that wrestling isn't normalizing backyard extreme sports violence and that injuries that occur as a result thereof have more to do with children not being taught safety than any kind of media influence.

[sleepylixie]

I have nowhere enough money to buy books I got them from my uncle lol. I'm not sure if it's just because it's how I read all the time now but I really like reading on my phone. I feel like I've heard of that extra book? I never thought about reading it for some reason, weird. Ooooooh I'll be back to ask what you thought owo. Sorry if you like acotar but I read that first book and it was Not It for me. I'll probably be on a wait list again, sigh. I'll read it when I can though! A fantasy series I actually finished hm. YES I can talk about the Raven Cycle 😊. Best boy noah from the first book faded out of existence that was so sad. The ending......... Um. It happened 😂. I'm so glad I could read the series in a month bc waiting for that last book would have been trasssssh.

I life physical copies, but I’m not partial hehe- any written medium works just fine for me pffft xD The Fork, the witch and the worm is like, a collections of short stories in and around Alagesia (idk if I spelled it right) from different points of time. Really interesting- if I remember right, Eragon appears there hehe. Feel free to lmk once you read it!! :D

Omg, Raven cycle has been on my readlist for AGES, I just keep putting it off idek why!? I will definitely get to it asap now that I have a solid go-ahead :D

Okay, I need to talk about ACOTAR, I have way too many thoughts. (Any fantasy series fans out here might wanna skip out on this if you like to pick fights. It’s gonna be a big long rant.)

I fucking adored ACOTAR, tbh- the entire series, to be very honest. For the first 3 re-reads. Around that point I started noticing some oddities in the text and the characters that I just couldn’t ignore.

<ALLUSIONS TO SPOILERS BELOW>

It all seemed lowkey... insensitive. The way the Illyrians were consistently portrayed as tan/dark and permanently alluding them to nothing more than female-hating, war-mongering barbarians who needed to be kept under control. 

And don’t get me started on Rhys- that dude was a prince Charming in my eyes until this one post on Instagram just opened my eyes to every red flag in his character I’d just conveniently ignored because OH, he was saving Feyre from the bastard Tamlin and was helping her out of the traumatic spiral she was falling through. But that guy is fucking unpredictable. A lowkey sociopath. I won’t go into the details coz that would straight up be spoilers, but sweet book anon, there’s so much wrong about Rhys and his entire character that I can’t stomach reading that series ever again. Everything about him only looks good with heavily rose-tinted glasses. Take those off and he’s bound to look like the monster I’m fairly sure SJM didn’t intend to make him look like-

And please, don’t get me started on the way Nesta Archeron’s trauma is dealt with. I think that entire series of events was what put me off the series as a whole. She’s painted as a reclusive villain who rejects her poor sisters’ advances and has to be sent to REFORM. WHERE? To the said barBARIANS’ CAMP. 

<SPOILER ALLUSIONS COMPLETE.>

SJM Really fucked up with the nuances she wittingly or unwittingly left behind with the entire series as a whole. So, lovely anon, you did the right thing by throwing the book down your readlist. :// If you do get through it at some point and have different opinions, Please do let me know! 

I’m absolutely open to opinions (This entire rant has been a bit of a peek into my own) and would love to hear yours. :) 

[natalia-km]

Firstly congrats on your fantastic gcse results you should be really proud 😄🙌🏽 As I'm sitting my exams the coming year ( 😭 ) just wanted to ask if you have revision tips for me in regards to the main subjects ( i.e. Maths, English etc ) Please and thank you 😊

Thank you so much!

I’m more than happy to give any advice any time :)

This post is very long so I’m sorry lol. If you can’y read the whole thing I also did a summary at the end. 

Maths:

 Repetition is key, start by doing some past papers given to you by your school and get used to doing three 1 ½ hour papers. Identify your weaknesses and keep practicing. Keep practicing past papers and problem solving booklets you can find online as the new types of questions are heavily based on problem solving and combining units e.g. algebra with graphs. For revision I went through my past papers and looked at the questions I got wrong and what I didn’t understand. Honestly just doing past papers in maths after learning all the units is the best way to revise. I did past papers really from the start of year 11 all the way to the exam.

Some useful websites that I used (I just wrote out the questions you do not need to print everything) 

http://justmaths.co.uk/2015/12/21/9-1-exam-questions-by-topic-higher-tier/

http://www.mathsmadeeasy.co.uk/gcsemathspapers-9-1.htm

Some content on different exam boards may vary but maths is maths and virtually the same on all exam boards. I sat Edexcel and my school offered these books that come in three. I really recommend these as say, for example, pg 51 on inverse functions in the revision books matches pg 51 in the work book. When we had spare time in class or have a spare 10 minutes it is really helpful to complete a page of fractions or something. There is also a book called past papers plus with exam questions in the exam format (if that makes any sense lol) Which is what I used the most. My copy had loads of mistakes but if you buy a new one I think it will be fixed (haha get your act together edexcel) 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/REVISE-Edexcel-Mathematics-Higher-Revision/dp/1447988094

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Revise-Edexcel-Mathematics-Revision-Workbook/dp/1292210885/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=KS8EGP0PE8821S279NYQ

https://www.amazon.co.uk/REVISE-Edexcel-Mathematics-Higher-Practice/dp/1292096314/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=H1KM6NPHSEEMHT303AVW

If you are aiming for 7/8/9 a really useful site is churchill maths, your school has to be registered and pay a license or something, which my school was, and you can access so many maths papers. I think there are 9 sets of three papers or more. They are really hard and take a while to get on their level as they have multi step problems and problem solving. These are really good as they start at the difficulty of the middle of the regular paper and go up. This is really helpful for the exam as the easy questions will seem really easy and the hard questions will not feel so bad.

When you practice every question write down the equation(s) you are going to use. You do not get a formulae sheet so you just have to learn them off by heart. Every question I did in class and homework I wrote down the relevant formulae and them slotted in the numbers and etc etc etc. By the time of the exam you’ll look at a trig question and know the cosine rule off by heart and it will make your life so much easier.

English lit.

 oh the bane of my life. I have seen each exam vary from exam board to exam board and it does vary with different books you have been given. I studied Great expectations, Macbeth, Blood brothers and conflict anthology on Edexcel, the papers will be different on AQA and OCR and if you study different texts.

A major revision tip is to read the text properly before you start studying it in class. Then I would re read it but only skim through it and properly read the main chapters that have a very important scene at around christmas time and leading up to the exams.

LEARN YOUR QUOTES. Flash cards are great, I categorised quotes by character and theme and just wrote them over and over (but that style works for me and may not work for you). ½/3 word sentences are easy to remember and are concise to slot in where you can. e.g. Macbeth is referred to as a “tyrant”. easy one word quote that you can develop.

For english the time restrictions are ridiculous. Omg it was literal hell. When you do homework like write an essay on the significance of the witches in Macbeth look at the timings you have and try doing the essay in the time. 

And to save your should learn the timings per question it will honestly save you from spending so much time on one essay and leaving none for the next questions. 

In the exam I was quite sneaky and drew the timings on my watch so I could see when I had to change question which was a life saver *prayer hands emojis*

Instead of kind of learning the whole text sub categorise the information in the questions (I know I didn’t explain that well but hear me out). For example in for Macbeth my essay question was the significance of the witches, and in Great expectations it was the importance of location. What I did was categorise Character, Theme and setting. 

I didn’t revise setting and it came up so don’t skip it. Depending on the question it will require 4 or 5 paragraphs so learn 4-5 points for each theme and character. When revising just learn a one sentence point that you can quickly recall and develop in the exam. Flash cards are reallyyyy useful in this. I used mine literally in the car going to school on the exam day.

e.g. The significance of Ambition in Macbeth.

1. Lady Macbeth’s Ambition is the driving force to kill duncan

2. Macbeth realises that ambition is futile without an heir so it leads him to murder Banquo

3. leads Lady Macbeth to her downfall

4. Macbeth murdering Macduff’s family is his ambition to kill Macduff and restore peace. 

These are very short points which can be expanded upon. :)

For the poetry there’s 15 poems. Don’t bother learning 15 I learnt 5 and got by. It is impossible to learn all 15 but read and analyse all of them in class so you get a good general idea of what they are all about and how they use structure and punctuation etc. I linked them together by theme e.g. No problem, half cast and class game all go together. In your categories learn one or two that can be compared to anything. I learnt no problem, belfast confetti, cousin kate, exposure, charge of the light brigade and what were they like. If you’re not doing this exam board or anthology collection these titles may not mean anything to you but you get the jist of it. 

For each learn the structure, rhyme scheme, imagery and punctuation so in the exam you can recall the poem you select to compare to and the main points. 

Finally for english literature learn for each essay question what is needed, some will need context (19th century fiction doesn’t) some want writer’s intention and effect on reader. but putting in context where you can will not hurt.

English language:

I found this really hard so I’m not really an expert as such. For revision learn how many paragraphs are needed for each question and practice with time limits. Practice highlighting text and picking out key information and language, structure and form. Remember to comment on all three of language structure and form for the relevant questions. I think it is really useful to read chapters of 19th century fiction to get used to the language as it’s in paper one. Honestly reading one or two chapters of a the sign of four, pride and prejudice, the woman in black or anything you can find is really helpful. 

Paper 2 i think is non-fiction, you can’t really prepare for the texts but practice planning the question is the best revision for this paper. For the long comparison question practice finding similarities and differences in language structure and theme. I did this over and over again for different combination of texts. 

For imaginative writing just practice writing an opening, one paragraph and an ending for different questions (I got examples from my teacher like write about a time you ere scared or write about a time you had to work hard for something) Learn a few really good vocal to slot in here and there but not too much so you sound like a dictionary. My favourite was Megalomaniac and I kid you not I used it in every possible place I could. 

Science (?) 

I was still on the old system and I’m not sure if it is changing for your year? Free science lessons on youtube was basically my saviour and past papers are your best friend. For biology it is just repetition of vocab and systems, I used a lot of acronyms and silly little jokes here and there. For chemistry keep practicing the maths part because that is where a lot of marks can be gained e.g. calculating moles and titration. For physics I just practiced lots of maths questions? I didn’t do too well in physics but *shrugs*

How I worked is I wrote up the lesson neatly the day after the class, before a test I would review it and during revision I condensed the information onto ¼ of an A4 page (I didn’t find flash cards big enough and hard to draw diagrams and stuff) and repeated condensing of information so it got to a pint where each type of cell had their own ¼ A4 page for themselves.

In summary:

Maths: Repetition, repetition, repetition. Write out equations for absolutely every single question you do. Past papers/specimen papers/9-1 hard questions booklets you can find online.

English lit: Learn how many points per question, examiners love a good introduction and conclusion (2 sentences will do fine) but it’s not the end of the world. Flash cards for each theme, setting and character. Learn the key context, structure and imagery of a handful of poems that can be compared to a number of different poems. Quotes, Quotes, Quotes. Shove them in where you can. One or two words quotes are ideal as you an easily embed them.

English Language: practice planning your essay answers for the longer questions (spend no longer than 3 minutes doing this) when annotating extracts don’t write out full ideas or sentences of the extract it wastes time and that sheet is not marked. Just write down a few words for a point you can use. Imaginative writing plan your answer for no longer than 5 minutes, remember to use punctuation, varied sentence length, vary sentence starters and do not be cliché e.g. and it was all a dream *pukes*. 

Science: Write down every formula you use for every calculation question e.g. moles=mass/RFM, Moles=volume x concentration in chemistry. practice past paper questions. LEARN UNITS THEY CAN GAIN A MARK. e.g. J or Hz. Acronyms are a life saver for remembering complex systems like the kidneys in biology. Silly little things help too. e.g. remembering the blood vessels in the heart I think VAVAVA  (Vena cava, right Atrium, right Ventricle, pulmonary Artery, pulmonary Vein and Aorta.) 

General: Find a system that works, for me it is just writing things over and over again. You may find the leitner system useful (link below) or mind maps. Find what works for you and don’t listen to a teacher telling you to do revision a certain way because “variation helps” which is a complete lie. Just find what works for you. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C20EvKtdJwQ

Also prioritise, subjects you do value as much can wait a day, for me German was not as important as maths so i spent more time on maths than german (as an example) but don’t completely abandon a subject because you will get stressed.

I hope this was of some use to you and maybe you can pick out a few things to help you revise. This year will be tiring but it will pay off on results day, trust me. My main tip is to just keep on top of work and get things done asap. Good luck with your exams this coming year I believe in you! 

- Natalia x