#so I'm starting to work in print format (A4)

[euphreana]

hii! i was wondering what formatting you use to post your comics here? they look great!

Thanks! Formatting... that's a very vague word. 😅 If you're talking about image size and dimensions, I do my Infinity Train comics at 1920x[panel height] 300dpi and the Nimona ones at A4 size (plus print bleed) 350dpi, exported at 1920x2714.

Does that answer your question at all?

[hms-tardimpala]

Ficbinding: A Complete Kingdom by Komodobits

The fic: SPN, Castiel/Dean Winchester, 85k

This fic had me staying up until 2am to read, it swept me up and flattened me. It's so well-written, so faithful to the characters, so well constructed that all you can do is strap in and enjoy the ride and hope you're not sobbing by the end (a vain hope). It's such a good story, period, that I think it can be enjoyed by non-SPN people. Mind the tags. Summary:

The sea; it swallows me. It comes up to my knees and it swallows me. The boys owe Jody a few dozen favours, and so when her niece goes missing near an old fishing village on the coast of Maine, Dean, Sam, and a newly human Castiel agree to take the case on. They settle into an old abandoned lighthouse-keepers' cottage, and slowly the tide comes in. (post-s8)

The bind: I'm so proud of this one, guys. I tried new things, pretty much everything worked, and I learned new skills!

Let's start with the colors. The story is sea-themed and stormy, so I chose black, dark blue and silver for the cover and light grey and light blue for the headbands and bookmark. I meant to use white for the headbands, but discovered I don't have white ones. It's the first time I do an overlap of fabrics and it turned out awesome. The silver stripe is a simple gift wrapper ribbon.

Typesetting:

The title font is so cool, with a droplet effect. For the part titles I chose a kind of blurry, hazy font because this story is about perception of reality and the loss of it. The chapter titles of the first part are solid, then they're altered in the following parts, to symbolize a slipping grasp on reality as time goes on.

I put headers and bottom-of-page numbers this time, which forced me to figure new things out in LibreOffice and do some maths 💪

The image of a lighthouse also changes in the three parts of the story. If you've read this fic, you know why.

Little wave as a divider.

Making the book:

I hadn't made a big book (printed at the A5 format) in a while and it felt amazing going back to that. It stretched my maths muscles. It's relaxing to do a book and not have to fight for every millimeter, like with small books. It's a more forgiving format.

Trimming went amazingly this time, I'm finding my footing slowly.

I had to sandpaper the edges to color them silver. I don't mind working with sandpaper, but it's quite brutal on the book, and wouldn't do it every time.

The edge painting was made with a silver marker, so I knew it wouldn't be perfect, but it looks good enough and doesn't peel away.

My corners are improving! They look almost perfectly square.

In reaction to the last bind I made, I augmented the overhang (still don't know if that's the word) between the edge of the covers and the edge of the textblock. From 3mm to 5mm. I'm very happy with this, it looks much better!

It's rare that I'm disappointed in a fabric, so I'll highlight here that I don't like this endpaper. It's pretty, but it's a sort of glossy magazine paper that didn't react to glue so well.

Overall, I love this book and this story deeply. I think it may be my best work technically so far.

Fonts: Rained (title), Moonrising (author name), Louis George Cafe (text), Brightness, Brightness Book and Brightness inverted (chapter titles), Snorter (part titles). Materials: 2mm grey board, 80g/m² ivory Clairfontaine A4 paper, synthetic ribbon and headbands (found on amazon), black and blue cloth and endpaper from Schmedt, silver non-textile ribbon (bought in craft store).

Feel free to ask me more about materialsand fonts (or whatever), it won’t bother me at all to tell you what I used, but I’m too lazy rn to write it in this post that’s long enough already.

[cy-lindric]

Hi! I love your historical pants. Did you use an existing pattern, or did you draft your own? And if so... Do you sell patterns at all? I'd love to make myself a pair but I haven't learned enough to make my own patterns yet

Hello ! I got this question a lot so I hope you won't mind if I use it as a springboard to make a general public reply about it ! For reference, I started sewing a year and a half ago. I don't have any formal training and started from zero, so I kind of just rely on enthusiasm and trial and error.

For most of my projects, I use a mix of patterns and draping. I mostly do men's clothing and the patterns I find don't always match my body type exactly, so I rarely get to use them as is. I'm fairly tall and narrow so usually the smaller men's sizes are a good base, but not all patterns include sizes small enough, and there's still much to fix for me in terms of chest length, leg length, thighs, etc. That'll be something to keep in mind if you're smaller or more hourglass shaped for instance.

For the fall front trousers, it was kind of an impulse project, so I didn't work from a book and I bought a pdf pattern from Laughing Moon Mercantile. It was very useful to construct the front, which is quite complex by my second-year-of-sewing standards, but it only came in fairly big sizes so there was a lot of alterations to do pretty much everywhere else. Also worth noting is that the pdf is made for an A0 format, and although you can print it at home on a mosaic of A4 paper using Acrobat, it's impossible to select which "tile" section of the A0 page you want to print. The pdf pattern contains many options and printing everything to get just the pieces I needed was just too wasteful to do. Instead, I printed only the pattern pieces from the first page, and drafted/copied the missing pieces from other pages myself directly on pattern paper. If you're willing to go through the printing and resizing hassle, it's a great pattern with very clear and exhaustive informations on construction and options for both historical and modern notions.

I picked that one because I wanted to do trousers specifically and it matched my needs best with many options to potentially combine, but if you're looking to do shorter breeches or just want to use it for the fall front, patterns are fairly easy to find on etsy or elsewhere. I like Reconstructing History because their smallest men's size works great for me and they cover a huge range of eras and styles. Unfortunately the instructions don't contain as many diagrams and are sometimes a bit more difficult to follow. I almost never buy paper patterns so I can't recommend any. When it comes to actual historical garments that aren't like, halloween costumes, I find it very difficult to encounter paper patterns and I only find what I'm looking for in books or pdf patterns. I find that both is best where you're a beginner ; the book gives great insight, and the pdf is a good base to work off. I'm still fairly new so I only have a few books (some of them physical, a lot of them pdfs, because they're expensive and sometimes out of print) but they're great classics and they help me a lot :

The Cut of Men's Clothes, 1600-1900 by Nora Waugh 17th Century Men's Dress Patterns by Braun, Costiglio, North, Thornton and Tiramani The Medieval Tailor's Assistant: Common Garments 1100-1480 by Sarah Thursfield Patterns of Fashion - Books 3 and 4 by Janet Arnold

Sorry this was so long ! If you're a beginner reading this, keep in mind I just threw myself at this with no prior experience quite recently and I'm having a lot of fun so go for it and don't be afraid to make mistakes and start over ! Good luck :)

[aley-nag]

Bumpy road, pretty result

Whoaaaa. This one...

The next fanfiction I bound was Cinder and Smoke by @thelittleblackfox. I lover their work to pieces. They write incredible thought out Stucky!AU's with a lot of fantasy aspects or really good scifi and I wanted badly to do one of their fics, but waited til I was a little happier with my results and could make a pretty cover. We decided together on this one and I started formatting... And then I stopped for a long while because Word is the devil.

Cinder & Smoke is a western!AU and just about the most romantic thing I've ever read. It has yearning and a little angst and a very distinct vibe that feels like Fernweh and wilderness and change. Go read it!

I worked on it between June and December 23 and Christmas was the only reason I finished it this quickly, but I did not want to leave it unfinished for the turn of the year.

Sadly I don't have a lot of pictures, but when I'm finished with my copy I'll post some more.

Now we'll come to the journey it was to finish this!

It started out rather uncomplicated, because I thought I had gotten the hang of formatting and then, when I tried adjusting the font and overall look of the text body Word kept killing the italics. And I googled and tried and experimented and I just couldn't get it to stop. I was so frustrated, oh god. It put me off a little and I had to leave it for a while. When I came back around to it I found a slightly butchered solution, that works though so I won't question it. After that formatting went smoother and I was able to bind it. I used paper from that same supplier that fucked up my paper order for the covers from the notebooks. But only after I had it printed I noticed that it was cut crooked and wouldn't cleanly fold in half. I despaired a little, said fuck it and hoped it wouldn't be to noticeable. I think it's alright.

Binding went really well and I think that's the cleanliest job I did to this date.

Did the endbands by hand to match the color scheme I was aiming for. Because of the title I wanted to invoke fire and used primarily black and red for the coloring.

Then came the cover. First of all, don't use black bookcloth. You will see every. single. mistake. Also dust and glitter... I brushed this thing so often, you wouldn't believe it.

And I tried different vinyl. I couldn't find the right shade of red I wanted, it's a little hard to source it around here so I went an entirely different route and used golden glitter vinyl. What I didn't know until after I plotted the design: The glitter has texture. I couldn't see a single cut-line. I had to keep the picture open to work along the edges and not rip the letters. Still lost all of the i-points 😭

The flower was pretty easy though. Glueing it on was also quite hard because it just wouldn't hold and I got glitter everywhere. Which let to more brushing but I'm afraid mailing it destroyed all that work :D

Anyway. I am sooo happy with how it turned out I instantly forgot about all annoyances and was able to mail it before the end of the year and that was a really satisfying last project, so all is well :)

This was also the first time I had the idea of choosing a little icon for the author's penname because most of the time I don't have enough space for the entire name. I reworked all of the other books to accomodate that.

Binding Details

Body Text: Garamond, 11

Half Title/Chapter Heading: Gold Lines Trial, 20

Full Title: Carnivalee Freakshow, 48

Word Count: 57.197

Pages: 232

Paper: publishing paper A4, 90g, 1,5x volume (from the retailer from hell :/)

[howtobeaconartist]

Can someone pleeeeease let artists know that it's so incredibly frustrating when I buy prints and they're in weird sizes?

It hard to find frames for them.

I've got prints that are 15cm x 21cm (6"x8.2"). Juuuust oversized where I need to get a frame up with a matte.

But then I've got another poster that's 19.6cm x 28cm (7.8"x11"). Like, I can get a frame that fits, of course because it's undersized A4. But damnit it's got an ugly gap which doesn't feel right.

Please please please! I bought these things to be on display but my walls are bare because I need to spend several hours to find a solution and fit them right.

Please just stick to the international A4 A3 A2 format, or the photo size formats 6"x8", 8"x10" etc.

I want to support people, but I'm left with buyers regret when I need to problem solve purchases and don't want to "just tack it to the wall, it'll be fine".

Kiriska: This is an understandable frustration!

I've had plenty of customers ask me what sizes prints are prior to purchasing -- a totally fair thing to do if you know you want to frame it. Size has been a deal-breaker for some people.

That said, for perspective, it's often more affordable for artists to print at other sizes. For example, in the US, letter (8.5"x11") and tabloid (11"x17") are both extremely common print sizes in Artist Alley, but while frames of these sizes exist, they aren't common.

Artists still prefer these sizes though because these are sizes that are easy to print at at office supply stores or personal printers, which is what many have access to when starting out. If anything, the infuriating thing is that standard printer paper sizes are not the same as standard photo sizes.

8"x10" is close to 8.5"x11" but requires trimming, which is either extra work or extra cost.

Depending on the convention, the demographics may skew younger. If that's the case, a majority of attendees won't intend to frame their print purchases. They are being pinned or taped to dorm room walls, etc. The art is meant to be affordable -- for both the artist and the buyer. ($10 prints are pretty rare at most pop-up art fairs and farmer's market-type settings, because standard size giclee prints probably cost double that to print.)

Still, I agree -- artists should strive for more standard sizes when possible, especially if they're going to shows with an older demographic of people who are more likely to want to frame things.

That said, I've been wanting to transition my 8.5"x11" prints to 8"x10" for years and still haven't gotten around to it because all of my packaging supplies are for the former, and putting prints of the latter size in oversized packaging looks Bad, but stock levels of packaging and prints never line up that I'm not gonna be stuck with some mismatch... at some point I'm sure I'm just gonna have some prints in one size and some in the other, but that sounds like a nightmare...

[diezmil10000]

hi 👋 you can call me diez or chisi

i am from spain and i like to draw lesbians. this is my main blog, if you're only here for my art and not for my reblogs you can follow my art-only blog!!

(FAQ under the cut)

what software and brushes do you use?

i work on ibisPaint X and Krita on a Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite. i use a lot of different brushes for lineart but mostly these ones:

are your commissions open?

i will never do commissions, but thank you for your interest.

will you someday sell your art through an online shop / convention?

no, but feel free to print my stuff in good quality paper if you want to hang it on your wall.

how can i financially support you?

i have no need for that right now. please give your money to other artists or organizations.

can i repost your art / use it for edits?

i don't encourage it, but i don't mind. asking for permission and linking back to any of my social media would be appreciated too ♡ just don't use it for commercial purposes (sell merch, use as streaming layouts, etc)

how do you do X part of your drawing?

i recommend checking my speedpaints if you're curious, the name of the videos is the day i finished that drawing in YYMMDD format (as in, year-month-day). i also made a tag for my art thoughts, but if you still have a question feel free to send me an ask and i'll try my best to explain it!!

where did you learn anatomy?

i used to watch a lot of proko and sycra videos (on youtube), and also do gesture/figure drawings from photo references and k-pop dance practice videos.

when / why did you start drawing?

i started taking it seriously when i was 15. seeing lesbian fanart was what caused my gay awakening and i felt like there wasn't enough of it, so i decided to get better.

do you do traditional art?

i kind of dislike it, actually. i have filled over 1000 A4 sheets and 7 sketchbooks over the years, but it's all quick doodles to practise or warm up. when i bought a tablet i could carry around i stopped drawing traditionally as often, but i still find myself drawing in my sketchbook from time to time when i want to sketch midlessly or get better at something.

do you draw nsfw art?

very rarely, but i only show it to my friends. i do consume a lot of nsfw content tho, just not in public 👍

how do you keep yourself motivated?

a combination of drawing only what i like and a strong desire of seeing more lesbian art. that's why i mostly make fanart and almost never participate in art trades or make art gifts. i also don't want to make a career out of drawing.

have you gone to art school?

i have a college degree in graphic design, but it has almost no correlation with the kind of art i share online. before that i never studied art academically.

are you seriously a furry?

yes.

are you seriously a communist?

you call me a communist, socialist, leftist– i just want people to be happy and i heavily oppose capitalism on its fundamentals.

are you an anti or a pro shipper?

i am neither, i don't care about this.

are you aware that you follow someone who did something problematic?

i mostly follow other artists, so if i've been following someone problematic for a long time it probably isn't that deep for me to unfollow them.

do you have any ocs?

plenty! but i don't like to talk about them in public

can i be your friend / talk regularly with you?

i don't like to talk to strangers, but if i'm following you feel free to interact with me at any time~

what's the name of your cat?

yonyon ! she's a female cat but i treat her by any and all gendered terms

why have you disabled your DMs, story replies and sometimes comments?

because i dislike interacting with fandoms, especially big ones. i draw for myself and for the lesbians with niche interests, so i don't want to read weird comments, block overly friendly DMs or watch strangers have a public debate about my moral standards. i'm very thankful towards all of you who love my art tho, even if i can't read all of your positive thoughts!! also, there are plenty of ways to contact me, they're just not in plain sight 💋

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hello lovely! Hope you're doing alright <3

I'm back with my little project, which I have already finished, but took so long to gather myself to share. Anyway!

The last time I updated I figured out how to format and edit the fic into a printable version, and so, one by one, I printed out the stories in the folds of four A4's (folded in half).

Together, I got 8 "parts" of the folded A4's, which I then started to very chaotically put together. Because who in this world even needs a plan.

I researched a bit and sewed them together. I don't have a certain link (I used several tbh) but you can easily find lots of tutorials on pinterest or youtube by searching book binding.

After that I went to struggle with a cover, because I didn't want anything soft nor wanted to glue it together.

I used a cardboard of sorts and after cutting it to the right size I covered it with simple tan paper.

In the end I found a pretty decent video on 'secret belgian bookbinding' which I adjusted to myself by using it to sew together the cover.

Then I sewed it to the text block by the stitches. And then realised the cover was inside-out. After desk-facing several times and some days of delaying, I re-sewed it together and here it is!

I'm really proud of it. In the end all the struggles came out to be a good teaching and I'm not at all opposed to trying it again sometime soon.

As for the stories I included - it wasn't really easy choosing, but I took some of my favourites which were short enough for my first time, and generally as fluffy as possible, because a) I just love fluff, b) I'd like to take this little book when I need comfort and c) angst usually takes time to build and resolve and I did look for the ones not-that-long.

I'm talking so much, let's just jump into the works! :

Coup de Foudre by prettysailorsoldier (6446 words)

The Guy In 221B by victorian_sextache (3970 words)

You're On The Air by prettysailorsoldier (20616 words) (ok, this one was not 'not long' but I had to include it)

Paper Hearts by testosterone_tea (4156 words)

Domestic Breakfast Bliss by prettysailorsoldier (602 words)

Crossing Paths by prettysailorsoldier (5346 words)

Yeah, it's a bit a lot of prettysailorsoldier, but I'm absolutely in love and just couldn't help it.

Thanks for somewhat following me through this little adventure! All the love and best wishes <3

(referencing this post)

Hey Lovely!!

OMG this is SO SO COOL!! Thank you so much for sharing this!!! i'm always so jeally that y'all are all so talented. What a beautiful way to immortalize your favourite stories!!

I love love love this. It's so fantastic. Thank you so much for the update!!

[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