Exams, Reading, and Summer!

Hello guys,
apologies for not posting anything in such a long long time. I recently finished my IGCSE's and I needed to study really hard for those. So I didn't have time (or rather I didn't make time) to blog. Anyway I'm back now and it's my summer so I will be reading loads and loads and I will also be watching loads of movies! I'll definitely be posting lots of book reviews so I'm really excited about that.

Now, as you can see from the title of this post there are three things I really want to talk about. First let's get the boring exam stuff over with. Honestly I am feeling exam fatigue. My first exam was the Edexel Art exam that started wayyy back in  march the coursework took 6 weeks and the exam was on the 14th of April  (it's really sad that I have to go check my calendar to see when this was because I forgot) and my last exam was economics which was last week! That is a long time to study for and write the exams for. Understandably I am all worn out. I really don't want to do anything now as all my energy went into writing for so long. Typing used to seem like second nature to me now it feels really strange and I keep making silly mistakes.

 Regardless I am really tired of exams and I am so so happy that they are over. I calculated how many hours of exams I had and it rounded up to around 56 (inclusive of the time spent for Art coursework.) That is a lot of time; most of which maths, science, ICT and english took up. ICT required 7 hours of exams, English needs 8 (my school makes us do both Literature and First language english,) Maths requires 5 hours and Science needs 3. Oh and I forgot about Art (10 + approximately 12 for coursework.) My friends think I'm really weird for calculating all of this but I feel like I need to know how much work I put into this. Anyway advice for other people taking their exams sometime soon:

1. Manage your time well and stick to the limits you set (otherwise you will not finish writing and will have a huge issue)
2. keep writing no matter what. Just never stop. 
3. to help with the proficiency of #2 make a plan before you start so that you know what you are talking about
4. Do practice papers because often the questions (or at least the type of questions) are repeated
5. Try not to drink too much water because:

• you will need to pee
• you might spill it all over your work

Topic #2: Reading!

Now this is something fun that we can talk about! It's summer and what's better than to sit by the beach or pool with a good book? well to the dismay of some, it's now compulsory in my school to read during the summer. Some people (like myself) think that it's absurd that others would not read during the summer. Uh hello when else will I get time to do nothing and roll around like a cat yet still look like I'm doing something smart? My school has found some very interesting information about how reading in the summer helps your intellectual development and how it helps people to diversify their interests and what not. In light of this they decided to force us students to read 4 books, one of the school's choice and three of our own choices. They also expect us to answer questions on these novels and want to see evidence that we have read them. Personally I don't mind because it is not extra work for me, I read loads during the summer and I wanted to post reviews of them anyway. But I don't think that forcing students to spend their free time after several exhausting exams reading a novel they might not like (the school set one.) And maybe the do not like to read or really don't have time for it? 

If you are trying to get people to enjoy and sustain reading then you should let them find their own book at their own pace. I believe that everybody is a reader, and if you currently don't think you are, that just means that you haven't found the right book. There is always one book that will change the way you think or that will interest you so much that you will pick up another book. Finding this book is difficult, I am really lucky I was always interested in fantasy stories that made me start reading (mainly because they were so wonderful and magical and more interesting than my life.)  Everyone has the capability to love reading, they just need time. 

Last topic! SUMMER! 

IM SO HAPPY THIS DAY HAS COME! YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE HOW HAPPY I AM. There are so many things I want to do this summer that I don't think there will be enough time to do everything! If you are bored or don't have anything to do during summer here is a list of things to do. This is from Rookie Magazine (thanks to my friend for showing this to me it sounds really fun.) Seriously do these guys it looks amazing! Things to do halfway through summer. If that doesn't work out I have a reading list to check out for this summer on Goodreads (become my friends guys!) Summer 2014 reading list. There are also so many movies coming out this summer:

And there is my Summer 2014 playlist to jam to : Summer 2014 playlist online version <- for people who don't have spotify on their computers. Then there is the browser version below:

  

That's it guys, thank you so much for reading my super long post that probably did not affect you in many ways, but yeah. Its summer so lets enjoy it!