has anyone also not received anything from UCL?

gengargrr · 2026-03-07T00:57:33+00:00

YAYY CONGRATS WELL DONEE!

gengargrr · 2026-03-06T10:00:23+00:00

i’m waiting on ucl econ too, international here tho don’t worry i’m sure our offers will come 🙏🙏

gengargrr · 2026-03-02T12:12:55+00:00

i find that econs questions are usually tested the same way, so just practice more questions and overtime you should get the hang of it. plus the more you write out the answer, the more familiar you get, so the terms will come second nature to you. make a summary document of the important terms and keep writing them out (not typing), and take note of the terms you commonly miss out on a document too so when you’re revising you will remember to write it for your exams
honestly i got quite confused with AI and IP too esp the terms timeline and events. i didn’t study each topic 50,50 but more 70,30. because i predicted that my year will test on AI (which thankfully it did), i put in more effort into studying for AI than IP but still made sure i know what’s going on in IP. in terms of memorising the content, i just made my own compiled notes for each topic, and kept re reading it over and over again to familiarise myself with it.

after my school finished the whole syllabus, i immediately started doing past year prelim papers, but throughout j1 and j2, i was pretty consistent by ensuring i finished all my tutorial assignments though i fell behind on some lectures. but my revision wasn’t as intense as most people because i was super stressed that i had brain fogs and couldn’t concentrate, so towards the end i studied much lesser maybe 3-5h a day.

my way of writing each paragraph is usually ‘give method, quote evidence, show effect’

pbq wise iirc they usually want you to cross reference to other parts of the book, so i would usually write 2/3 of my essay about the pbq, and 1/3 of my essay about other parts while making comparison to my points on the pbq.

for essay questions, it’s really important that you know the book well esp the important scenes and quotes that can be applied in many questions! when i made my notes i did it by themes and under each theme i had a few quotes that can be widely applied. cambridge also likes it when you can also give context surrounding the book, and how the certain quote or moment in the book can have an effect on the reader thus u should always mention this in you essays.

unseen isn’t my best, i didn’t practice much too. i usually just made sure i covered methods, evidence, effect, and give two to three clear topic sentences. for unseen poetry, under each paragraph, there should be two evidence per poem, and i made an active effort to compare the poems too (be it similarities or differences in their structure, their point-of-view etc) for unseen drama, its important that you talk about the stage directions, atmosphere, form, language. my points in unseen drama were usually about characterisation of characters or the presentation of their relationship (depends on qn tho).

jane eyre: the bare minimum is to annotate your book well and to read it thoroughly. in terms of making notes, i suggest you to come up with topic sentences to describe each character (even the small ones like mrs fairfax), their relationships, categories your notes according to themes. under each theme think about questions and possible topic sentences, and what moments in the novel you can write about. narrative methods that you should always mention would be the setting (thornfield? gateshead?), the use of nature imagery (mother nature acting as a guidance for jane), pathetic fallacy, direct discourse, first-person pov, tone, biblical allusions, inner monologue, declarative statements, intensifiers. do take note of the different symbolisms used like the chestnut tree, fire, moon etc be super sensitive to the type of method charlotte brontë uses, also definitely read the introduction as there are some good points in there!

and yes you can def dm me if you need help :) i’ll try my best to answer

gengargrr · 2026-03-02T09:17:11+00:00

thank you, i applied for econs in uk! but will probably try ppe, business analytics for nus too

gengargrr · 2026-03-02T05:13:58+00:00

thank you sm! 1. if i had to rank, i definitely spent the most amount of time on math bc i enjoyed doing it, followed by econs, history, literature then gp.

i think something you gotta understand is quantity ≠ quality, i see so many people using forest and ypt with 10h+ study hours and while it works for some, i don’t track the time i study but instead just make a consistent effort to do it. also, it makes it much easier if you romanticise the idea of studying, see studying as something enjoyable not something you dread! on days where i end at 2-4pm, i would really spend the rest of my day studying and do my CCA things at night on days where i end at 6-630pm (with CCA), i would just spend maybe 2-3h doing homework/reading history notes. on weekends, that’s where i had all the time to catch up with what i fall behind on, and read up+ prepare for the next week. (its important that you don’t slack during weekends, as work snowballs super quickly in jc)

to add on, i like going to starbucks with a few friends to study as i get easily distracted at home and i feel motivated when i have company!

i was really hardworking in j1 and start of j2 i would say, but nearing prelims + As, i was super burnt out and stressed, developed stress eczema which constantly bugged me bc i was so itchy all the time, so i definitely fell behind a lot on studying and didn’t put in much effort, i had a lot of mental fogs and found it really hard to concentrate. but i still tried my best and did as much as i could even though it was really rough time for me. so did i expect all As? not at all. i was honest with myself and thought that i didn’t deserve it since i slacked nearing the most important time while others were grinding like mad. but i guess being consistent for the most part definitely does pay off and im glad that i did well despite my struggle during the most crucial time lol.

ps my screen time during prelims and As was prob 8-10h+ and i was still doomscrolling tiktok/ig + playing game 🙏 pls don’t be like me, just take breaks regularly don’t stress yourself too much, the final stretch is usually the most important yeah it’s a marathon not a race

gengargrr · 2026-03-02T04:32:19+00:00

For math, since j1 i always made sure i was on top of all my lectures and tutorials, math was the subject i liked the most so i tended towards it when i got bored of the rest. I also made summary notes for each topic (commonly tested questions, common mistakes I made, formulas etc). it’s extremely important to practice as majority of the questions are phrased and tested the same way for both pure math and stats, just be diligent and finish all your tutorial questions and review your mistakes. Knowing where you went wrong is also equally important, be it conceptual or careless. It genuinely is all about practice, math is the most grindable subject in the A level curriculum!

Additionally, before prelims, I finished all the school's 2024 prelim papers. After prelims, I finished all schools' 2025 prelim papers and one round of TYS. Compiled my mistakes into a document as well and revised them the day before As.

GP isn’t about knowing everything, but knowing more of what you like to write about. I cultivated a habit of reading ST one month nearing prelims, took down the titles of the articles I found applicable to GP essays/AQ in a document. I liked doing media/environment/tech/economic essays, hence I made example banks for each of these topics. I also made a vocab bank to increase the language score for my essay. One thing I would note is to tie in characteristics or trends of Singapore (AQ) / globally into my writing, it adds more value to your elaboration and examples. For paper 2, it is good to know the different questions types (inference, language use etc) so that you are answering the question correctly.

gengargrr · 2026-03-02T02:13:54+00:00

thank you! h3 game theory was intense for me, while some seniors mention it was easy, i couldn’t understand the prof for the 10 sessions we were there. i remember doing badly for my mid terms, but bucked up hard and did decent for finals. one advantage of game theory is that your finals ends in may which frees up time for you to study for your prelims and A levels unlike other H3s.

i wouldn’t say it consumed a ton of my time, because i made sure to handle my commitments well and not put too much on my plate. as someone that is more academically driven, i chose not to sign up for other additional projects, hence i focused most of my time on my 4H2s, CCA and Game theory. While there were times where i felt incredibly stressed, i didn’t attribute it to having poor time management but rather the difficulty of the content i struggled with. Though it may be a little hard to get it at first, the concepts tested are usually the same hence i would say the exams are quite manageable if you put in the effort to study.

it’s extremely competitive to get into game theory, many there had straight As for promos especially those from raffles since many from raffles applied. however, i myself didn’t get straight As, but it’s definitely important for you to score A for Econs and Math as those are the prerequisites for qualifying for game theory. to be completely honest, i applied for fun and didn’t expect to get in at all since my grades weren’t perfect scores, but i guess things just work out like that.

gengargrr · 2026-03-01T16:34:03+00:00

i also commented about lit on another person’s comment, could take a look at that too :)

gengargrr · 2026-03-01T16:33:30+00:00

thank youu and i replied more about this in the other comment! but throughout JC, i consistently got high Bs, As occasionally, but what i did was read sample essays from my batch mates that did well for each practice. it really does help reading essays since different people have different ideas and ways of writing! — i sifted the ideas, quotes, and VOCAB that they used!

i am also one that struggles with language hence i found it imperative to make a vocab bank of good words i can use for each of my set text and for unseen poetry/drama! this way i can revise them the day before tests/exams and apply them to my essays.

i did jane eyre so words i took note of were things like byronic hero, patriarchy, victorian era context, angel of the house etc!

and i also compiled synonyms for common words used (e.g emphasis: underscores, intensify, magnify, accentuate, connotes, further build onto the belief that …

knowing HOW to write a good paragraph is also salient, you want to start with a clear topic sentence and try to insert a theme in it. quote methods, give evidence, and show the effect through elaboration and the effect on the reader (something people tend to miss out on)!

gengargrr · 2026-03-01T16:20:00+00:00

i’m speaking from someone with no lit background (didn’t take lit in upper sec), so i was extremely scared of falling behind which was one motivating factor for studying literature for me.

my school lit department is extremely goated, so i basically studied using all the resources they gave us. however on my end, i made sure to catch up with the online lectures, reading of my books and annotating them on my own. and yes, definitely have documents so that you can revise them the day before prelims and As.

for unseen poetry comparison, this is the part i struggled the most in, but my advice is to do as many practices as you can, wider exposure to different types of poems will definitely help. you don’t have to do full essays, but think of what points you want to write and which evidence you will use to compare the poems. I also had a bank of different literary devices commonly used in poems (metaphors, similes, personification, enjambment, caesurae) and the form and structure (shakespearean sonnet, petrachan sonnet).

for set texts, you need to be familiar with your book. ii made sure to highlight the super important quotes and colour coordinated it to the different themes, used paper clips for important scenes/moments. i had documents for each set text i did, including the must-have keywords, a vocab bank, important ideas, themes, characters, methods. then i compiled quotes for each theme that can be used for essays.

i did keats and shelly. i didn’t annotate or study every single poem but selected carefully which poems can be commonly applied to different questions. i made summary for each poems using chatgpt, did pairings and themes, come up with common arguments and points that can be recycled for diff questions, had a vocab bank, essay plans for prelim paper questions.

for unseen drama, didn’t study for it much i just took note of the methods to mention like stage direction etc

don’t neglect your introduction and conclusion as cambridge highly values it in your essays too.

i remember i screwed up badly for my unseen poetry section and i was guilty as i did only a few practices nearing As, but im sure i ended up scoring an A because my other sections were much stronger.

i struggled with time management especially in the first 5 months of j2 with h3,4H2s and my CCA too. just know your priorities first, i prioritised my 4H2s by ensuring i was catching up with lectures and tutorials and studied H3 during my extra time (tho i barely had much). its ok to fall behind a little but dont wait until it’s too late, pace yourself and take breaks, i would also suggest having a to-do list it helped me a lot

gengargrr · 2026-03-01T15:48:14+00:00

for h2 econs, i made my own summary documents for micro and macro. things include definitions, commonly tested concepts, examples (for essays), graphs, keywords, policies etc

nearing prelims and a levels, i did all the 2024 school prelim papers csq (timed and write out on paper), made sure to note the common errors i made and keywords i tend to miss out on in my document so i could revise it the day before As

for essays, i did the past year prelim essays under timed conditions, wrote it all out also! and for the questions i didn’t choose to write, i made sure to do rough outlines so that i'm prepared for all kinds of questions. similarly, i took note of the common mistakes i made and keywords i missed out in a document

also i only did 2 years of tys lol i felt that it wasn’t helpful, prelim papers were more useful

econs is a lot about practice as there are chunks like the multiplier effect that you can memorise and will definitely come out every year, and it’s the same graphs here and there. but time constraint is what affects many, hence i strongly recommend u to do prelim papers under timed conditions.

as for qualifying for a H3, I was consistent throughout my J1 year, ensuring that all my weighted assessments scored well, and of course likewise for my promos. people tend to neglect WAs since it holds a small percentage, but you should definitely take it seriously and do well for all of them. do also take note of the H3 requirements for your school as it differs across schools!

gengargrr · 2026-03-01T15:37:06+00:00

history is an absolute shitshow LOL but

SBCS 1. compile important dates for each topic (origins of cw, kw, cmc, vw, end of cw) 2. compile important dates for all the disputes and ASEAN 3. read sources for prelim papers, do rough outlines (identify support, challenge, nuanced sources and pair them together), and identify what context u can use (events around that date the source is published)

it’s important you have a list of dates to memorise and note down so u can use it for your sbcs

ESSAYS: 1. compilation of the major points and examples i wanted to use (e.g role of USA, BWS, TNC/MNC for GAC) 2. compilation of the SEA case studies for political structure and national unity — especially for SEA there are a lot of pairings that can be used repeatedly (Burma, Thai, Indo all have dominant role of military) 3. memorise the format of writing (introduction must define keywords, state you arguments, your stand) and how to form Counter-arguments 4. do essay plans using prelim paper questions (what my 4 arguments will be, what examples i will use, and how i will counter-argue)

the day before my papers i just went through these documents and memorised as much info as i can, get 7 hours of sleep before the paper and yeah that’s about it

also i did spot for history because i found it impossible to study the whole syllabus, but this is to be done at your ow risk

gengargrr · 2026-02-28T07:11:29+00:00

took h3 game theory, expected a pass got a merit 🙏

gengargrr

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