The Road Map

The approach is based on motivation and interests. The free WordPress account will enable the student to create a portfolio to show progress and demonstrate as evidence in future personal statements and interviews.

The generic road-map is shown in Figure 1 below.

Introduction to the investigation

Now imagine your role as a detective, the clues are in Step 1 and Step 2. Step 1 is to know yourself, and Step 2 is to understand where your academic levels are in comparison with the National Curriculum. Your interests combined with the subject that you need to work on can dictate the direction of your future posts. Step 3 is to start your investigation about the aspirations you have or hobbies that you like. The job of BEST is to motivate and maintain relevance to the National Curriculum. The objective is to improve the grades through doing the things you are interested in.

What to investigate?

The number of possibilities for interests and aspirations is too many to systemise, so we have to start with subjects of the curriculum or the King’s Scholarship, broadly categorise into Maths, Sciences, and English (comprehension and writing). Therefore, a three-prong approach – Future posts will be in the following categories. Make sure you assign the categories correctly.

1. Writing and Reading – Creative writing, persuasive writing, book reviews. See the episode on writing preview: what to expect.
   • Subcategories – History, Geography, General papers.
2. Fundamentals of Sciences – Science is based on observations from our senses (sight, smell, sound, and feel) and working scientifically with our minds. I will dissect the contents of a science paper to identify the fundamentals.
   • Subcategories – Physics, Chemistry and Biology.
   • The post updates should be in an expository style.
3. Mathematics – based on the questions from the past papers.

How to investigate?

Writing is about starting and continually practising. Write about topics of interest, find out more about what you like and you might also find out more about yourself.

Reading books – A book review can identify the key features of the book. The summary of the story, the main characters, the twist, and the resolution of the story. – A book review template will be available. (link)

Daily routine – start making small changes to your routine to ensure you are studying as efficiently as possible. Do you structure your class notes so anything you don’t understand, you can readily ask your teachers within 48 hours? Is the information on your notes readily retrievable? Is your handwriting neat?

Go to places of knowledge – Libraries, Museums and Art Galleries. If you are short on ideas, get some fresh air and go to places of knowledge. Grab a camera and take pictures of exciting exhibits and write about them. What aspect of the exhibit caught your eye? What do you want to find out more about?

Sciences are focused on the Scientific approach. Good practice (such as controlling other variables, repeating measurements, etc.) and attention to detail (knowing what to look for) will go a long way to being successful in Physics, Chemistry and Biology. I will look to break down the divide to show that all three disciplines complement each other. – Link to the Scientific Approach

Mathematics relies on some repetition practice. King’s Scholarship exam questions are readily available to practise. I briefly described the papers in Episodes 6 and 7.

In summary

Try and give it a go. First you can use a word-processor and copy and paste into WordPress if your prefer. Or use pen and paper. If you are stuck. Then, just wait for my weekly updates and we can define some topics based on the King’s Scholarship questions. Add a link to my post to send me a notification to follow up.

Remember to create your list of categories so your posts are organised.

1. Mathematics
2. Physics
3. Chemistry
4. Biology
5. Writing
6. Reading
7. History
8. Geography
9. General.