My Predictions For Game Of Thrones Season 5

For the uninitiated Game Of Thrones is sans-hyperbole the greatest TV show on earth. Every year we get treated to 10 movie quality episodes of pure awesomeness,  packed with spectacular visual effects, a grade A cast that was clearly picked from the top of the pile and all of the intrigue, political back stabbings, sex and gore you could want in a TV show. To put it bluntly there’s nothing even remotely close to its scale or budget on television right now....and now it's late March, so you know what that means? OMG NEW SEASON OF GAME OF THRONES IS ON THE WAY! While I was a late bloomer and only started seriously watching the show when the fourth season hit (I binge watched seasons 1-3 over the course of a week) me and many other people all over the world had to endure the excruciatingly long 10 month wait in full before we could hear that sweet, sweet theme playing on our TV's again. We're not quite there yet but in just two more weeks we'll finally be able to get our Thrones fix. To help ease the pain I've composed a list of everything I expect will happen in the new season, mostly for my self-enjoyment but also to shout I TOLD YOU SO when all of these wind up becoming true: 

1) Theon is finally going to break free from Ramsay:

After two seasons of enduring both physical and mental torture I think it's finally time for Theon to grow a backbone and get the hell away from the Boltons. I mean what else can you do with him at this point? The guy is broken at this point and once you've had your dick chopped off there's no way it can possibly get worse for a man. He's basically the writer's punching bag. I think we're all a bit tired of it at this point as there's only so much torturing we can endure before it feels exploitative, not to mention it makes narrative sense for him to come to senses and either escape and/or turn on Ramsay at some point. I mean why are we following this character if he's just going to remain Ramsay's b*tch? What purpose does he serve to the overall story? Theon is going to snap at some point this season and grow a pair of balls for once (lol). Well...unless they somehow come up with new ways for Ramsay Snow to f*ck with him for another 10 episodes. 

2) Say goodbye to a bunch of supporting characters:

This is a given for pretty much any season but I'm going to place my bets: Jorah, Brienne and Bronn. I think all three of them have run out of places to go. Bronn is a badass, silver tongued rogue who will either marry the princess he was going on about to Tyrion last season or perish saving Jaime (SPOILERS: Bronn and Jaime are going to Dorne to get Myrcella Baratheon). He's a fun character but aside from Jerome Flynn's scene stealing portrayal where else could we go with Bronn after season 5? Then we have Ser Jorah, Daenerys friend zoned adviser who was exiled at the end of season 4. Again an idiot can figure out this goes only two ways: he either a) gets back with Daenerys and they fall in love or b) dies heroically saving her, 'redeeming' himself for spying on her back in season 1. Considering Dany has already made it pretty clear that she's royally pissed off with him I don't see option a) happening any time soon, plus she's already got generic good looking guy number #84 to hook up with. With all that in mind Jorah is pretty much confirmed to die this season. Unless he hooks up with Tyrion...now that would be badass. As for Brienne what else do we do with her? She's a walking tank with a duty to fufill but unless she hooks up with Sansa or goes on the hunt for Arya (again) there's no reason to keep her or Podrick around. Overall I can see the show culling a lot of supporting characters that in the grand scheme of things don't add much to overall conflict of the show. The cast is like 200 strong at this point and with Dorne being introduced someone has got to hit the chopping block this season. Also don't count on the books as a guide, executive producers Benioff and Weiss have warned us that they'll be killing characters off this season that (as of now) aren't dead yet in the books. 

This isn't looking good...

3) Sh*ts going down in Meereen:

The trailers so far have been putting a lot of emphasis on a big conflict in Meereen, so I think it's safe to say things won't be going rosy for Dany in Essos. Considering the film-worthy shot of the golden statue being dragged down the temple (something I can't see Dany doing) a war between the slave masters and Daenerys army seems inevitable. Although I wonder who the people in the golden masks are? We see a brief shot of them in the trailer cornering Daenerys, Jorah, Missandei, Greyworm and generic good looking guy No #84 in the middle of a gladiator pit. What possible motive could these guys have? Either way I see episode 9 being a BIG battle in Meereen, possibly ending in Daenerys leaving Meereen behind. The gladiator pit scene would also make for a great send-off for Jorah, holding back the fighters while Daenerys escapes maybe? Oh, and there's NO WAY those dragons are going to be locked up for long. Meereen is going to be a big steaming mess at the end of the season, I guarantee it. 

4) Tyrion and Daenerys are going to team up:

The trailers have been teasing this pretty hard so I'd be surprised if this didn't actually happen. For a long time now the characters on the show have been drifting further and further away from each other, but Tyrion going to Essos means a collision course with Daenerys is inevitable and could perhaps signal the start of characters converging on each other again. I mean why else would he go to Essos? We've been waiting a long time now for Daenerys to get into contact with someone from Westeros as she sometimes feels separate from the rest of the goings on, but with Tyrion? This is perfect. It'll be one hell of a team up, basically putting two of the shows flagship characters together in the same place. The best moments of the show is when they pair-up opposing characters with one another and watch the sparks fly (Brienne and Podrick, pretty much anyone with Arya, Jon and Stannis...) so this is the thing I'm most excited for as the potential is enormous. I can literally hear millions of fans (myself included) squeeing in delight the second this happens. As for how she'll react to Tyrion, I'm guessing they'll become instant best mates. Tyrion is a charming guy and there is a vacant adviser spot left by Jorah. Tyrion and Daenerys taking on the rest of Westeros? F*CK YEAH GO TEAM DANY! 

Somebody is going over to the dark side of the force...

5) Sansa's going on a revenge killstreak:

When a character starts wearing black you know they mean business. All signs point to Sansa hardening this season and going all 'dark sansa' on the people who wronged the Starks. Think of her as being Arya mark II, just being less stabby stabby and more persuading Littlefinger with her womanly wiles to f*ck guys over. This is of course what we all wanted to see, it's just a shame we've had to wait until season 5 to finally see it. If I were to take a guess as to her plans I expect she'll end up meeting the Bolton's (there's a shot of her in the Winterfell crypts in the trailer, and we know that's where the Boltons are going) and coming into contact with Theon, possibly persuading him to come to his senses. 

6) The Tyrells claim all the power:

Poor Lannisters. In season 4 they basically imploded on themselves and without Tywin Lannister on their side I think the days of them ruling over the Seven Kingdoms is over. Meanwhile the Tyrells have been quietly plotting away since season 2 and they're the clear victor after successfully plotting Joffrey's death (with the bonus knock-off effect of Tywin hitting the bucket later down the road) and now Cersei is the only one standing in their way to prevent them from total ownership over the crown. We know Tommen will be marrying Margaery this season so no matter how much Cersei disapproves the Tyrells are slowly grasping the crown through Margaery's influence on the king. The next step would be to obviously take out Cersei but I have a feeling she'll do that for them, if not out of her own stupidity then through her ties with Jaime. Sudden shifts of power is another one of the most satisfying things about the show (it's all part of the intrigue), and I think we're about to see another one as far the Tyrells are concerned. Unless Stannis gets in on the act of course, but it's far to early for that to happen again.

What happened to these guys again? This was like three seasons ago!

7) More White Walkers!

Considering we see them at least once every season this isn't much of a stretch but everytime they show up we get to see and know more about them. After five years of build-up I think it's finally time to see the Ice zombies take up the offensive or at least attack SOMETHING to keep their presence known. Maybe we'll see them attacking the wall or a wilding settlement? With a wilding army under his command Stannis could potentially be the one to seek them out but that seems way too risky and a bit premature considering we're only on the fifth season. This show's endgame is definitely going to involve the White Walkers in some form or another but the longer it goes on the less important these guys appear. The show has to acknowledge this massive zombie army sooner or later and I think season 5 is where the sh*t might start hitting the fan up in the north. 

8) Stannis is taking on the Freys/Boltons:

With Stannis in control of the Wall and the Wildlings under his command there's nowhere to go but down and that means running into the Boltons. Considering the Boltons are allied with the Lannisters I don't see them letting Stannis pass through so conflict is inevitable. Hmm...Stannis the Mannis vs Ramsay  'dick chopper' Snow? That would be an epic fight. There's no way we're making it through season 5 without this at least being elaborated on, the Boltons are going to find out about Stannis talking control of the wall and they won't be happy about it. Question is: will Stannis choose to focus his efforts on stopping the White Walkers or will he just go back to conquering? I imagine it'll be Jon's job to deal with those icy bastards leaving Stannis room to take the north. If seasons 3 and 4 were about him plotting his comeback then season 5 is ideally were we start to see him actually do stuff other than participating in satanic rituals and appealing to a loan from a bank. 

9) Dorne is going to become a major player:

Another emphasis this year is on Dorne ruled by the Martells, Oberyns family. The Martells have so far barely been touched upon but they must be pissed with Oberyns death so expect that to change. From my understanding they're a fairy big player in the seven kingdoms so pissing them off is NOT a good idea. The Martells have also got Mrycella Baratheon which is considerable leverage against Cersei. This seems to be why Cersei is sending Jaime and Bronn to Dorne, to get their daughter back and cease any control the Martells have over her. Also if Oberyn is any indication, these guys are badasses AND they're very quick to form grudges. So watch out kings landing, the Martells are on your ass and they're thirsty for blood. Mark my words they're going to do something vicious and I wouldn't want to be a Lannister when that happens. 

Who will it be this time? 

10) You know who will get stabbed.....a lot:

I was already spoiled on this and it's EXTREMELY likely this particular event will occur towards the end of season, possibly a cliffhanger at the end of episode 10. It's one of the last 'big' moments left from the books that we now about (we run out of books after this point) so they'd be crazy not to include it. So yeah, this isn't so much a prediction as a certainty. I for one cannot wait to see fan outcry online afterwards, like all great Thrones' deaths you'll never see this one coming and further solidifies that none of the characters on this show are safe. Valar Morghulis mutherf*ckers. 

While a lot of these are obvious based on stuff we know from the trailer and foreknowledge from the books keep this in mind: unlike other seasons of the show season 5 seems be going severely of course based on what we know from the books (not to mention several murmurings on WTF? going around on the web from book readers). A lot of these changes have presumably been made to streamline the fat wad of pages in books 4 and 5 that ultimately have no impact on the major plot lines and thus keep the focus on the primary characters that we all know and love. This coupled with the fact that a lot of the character's have caught up with their book counterparts early or gone wildly off point basically means that anything is fair game at this point, which is super exciting as a Thrones fan because for once we have no idea  what's coming. Buckle up guys, the wait is almost over.   

Next Gen Games (PS4)

2013 was the year I left my tired 360 behind and adopted a PS4. With a new generation of consoles on our doorstep a lot of console gamers like me couldn't wait to see the vast array of improvements a next-gen game could bring in 2014. With increased horsepower and memory we would surely be witness to a new gaming renaissance, one where developers wouldn't be shackled by how many characters they can put on screen or lower the texture resolutions just so the game wouldn't explode frying the memory chips of our outdated hardware. Unfortunately it was mostly a year of waiting, filled with delays as titles were pushed to 2015 and over-hyped AAA games that failed to deliver on their pre-release hype. Good games take time to make, apparently. Hmmph. Still we're now finally starting to unwrap the potential of the next gen consoles so I thought it would be a cool idea to summarize my thoughts on all of the big games that came out last year on the PS4.

Watch Dogs was quite fun during the time I spent with it but has since soured in my memory. While the core gameplay was indeed a lot of fun and the use of the different hacking techniques were interesting all that sticks out in my mind is the lackluster open world, cardboard cut-out protagonist, overhyped/lackluster visuals and a mediocre plot. Ultimately it's a game that shows potential for a sequel but isn't really worth playing again, I like to think it's more of a proof of concept. The one thing the game excels at is it's level design, I loved the way every situation could be tackled in a variety of different ways. Some areas don't even require you to be present, your phone hacking skills (fun if a bit impossible in real life) can do all the work for you. At a touch of a button you can literally plunge half of the city into darkness. The third person gun combat was also a delight, but again in light of more recent games Watch Dogs pales in comparison. It's a shame really, this could have been so much more. The pre-release hype over the game was also unfounded, it looks good but is nowhere near the spectacular E3 demo we got two years ago. Gone are the weather effects and lighting that made everything pop, I get the impression they bit off more than they could chew. And that's without mentioning the drab and dull depiction of Chicago, the game is steeped in gray. Give me some color Ubisoft! Watch Dogs is fun for a while but very forgettable. 6,5/10

The Last Of Us: Remastered is not a next-gen game per-say, it's an upgraded version of a game that was originally released on the PS3 one year ago. With the texture upgrades and smooth conversion to 60fps the differences between the two versions are night and day: the PS4 version is essentially the blu-ray to the PS3's DVD. Visuals aside, The Last Of Us is an amazing game that EVERYONE should play. It's 15 hour campaign is a road trip that chronicles Ellie and Joel through an apocalyptic America on their quest to find a cure for the zombie plague (or in this case, a fungii that infects the brain and turns people into zombies). Both leads are immensely awesome: Joel is an interesting protagonist because he is about as anti-hero as you can get. You sympathize with him thanks to the amazingly sad prologue but when the game skips 20 years into the future the game outright tells you he has done some f*cked up sh*t on the way to survival. Point being there's more to him than the stereotypical video game grizzled male and actor Troy Baker does a wonderful job of making Joel seem as real as possible. The real star of the show though? Ellie. She's hands down one of the best characters you'll encounter in a video-game. Think of her as the coolest, most badass 14-year-old you could ever come across and she fits the bill. Far away from a damsel in distress Ashley Johnson completely owns the role and does such a perfect job of capturing every inflection of her personality. She's every bit Joel's equal, even if he is the one doing most of the heavy lifting. Or shooting, in this case. Amazing performances and believable dialogue is not the only home-run this game has up it's sleeve however, the gameplay is tense as hell. Resources are limited and enemies can very easily one shot you if you're not careful on higher difficulties, so this isn't a game you can just casually play. Add to that some brutal death animations and the terrifying Clickers (infected that can detect you only via sound) and you've got a gaming experience that will leave you on the edge of your seat. It's not next-gen but a buttery smooth framerate and crisp visuals fool you into thinking it is: 8,5/10
 

Destiny is another game that I had fun with while playing but the moment I stopped to catch a breath it's numerous flaws become immediately apparent. It's a perfectly fine shooter that can get pretty addicting once you start seeing the level-up meter start ticking and the numerous strikes and raids are exceptionally fun so there's no denying it satisfies on a pure shoot-em-up scale. Unfortunately it has delusions of being an MMO and falls flat on its arse for failing to deliver enough content to keep us all going for longer than a couple of weeks. To stop you from reaching the level cap and getting all the cool gear too quickly it makes it incredibly tedious and grindy for you to level up, so progress is severely stunted after a while. What's the point in leveling up this gun if it's going to take me 20 hours of re-doing the same zone over and over looking for random material spawns? The effort far outweighs the reward so I put this game down and never came back to it after a month. Another baffling failure is that it DOESN'T HAVE A STORY. Outside of a few cut-scenes you have literally no idea what the hell is going on for most of the time, its quite frankly insulting as a player. Destiny is a pretty looking game though, some of the environments are flat out gorgeous, but there just isn't enough of it. Like Watch Dogs Destiny is another over-hyped game that failed to live up to the high expectations we gave it. 7/10

Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare is, simply put, another Call Of Duty. This time you've got jet packs and future tech that adds a few interesting mechanics to the mix but ultimately it feels a bit like Black Ops 2 2.0. The six hour campaign is a mixed bag, the missions themselves are hit and miss and the story itself is pretty cliche the further you get into it even with Kevin Spacey playing the bad guy. Like most COD's the strength of Advanced Warfare lies in it's multiplayer and I'm happy to report that if you're fan of COD then this game will fit you like a glove. It's faster, snappier and all your favorite game modes return. As far as next-gen improvements go there isn't much here except for the graphical upgrade, it all looks REALLY pretty. Overall I'm satisfied with the game even if it hardly reinvents the wheel. If you like COD though you knew that already. 7,5/10

The strength of the Assassin's Creed series has for me always relied on the setting, everything else is secondary to the stunning recreations of historical cities that they manage to pull out of a hat year after year. Assassins Creed: Unity doesn't disappoint in that regard: revolutionary Paris is quite frankly MIND BLOWING in it's scope and beauty. Feel like taking a tour of Notre Dame or strolling through Versailles? Be my guest, 17th century Paris has been rendered in stunning detail and feels like a living, breathing city thanks to the enormous amount of NPC's walking around and going about their daily lives. The world building here is so good it almost completely negates the less polished aspects of the game like the buggy AI or sub par framerate. Everything about Unity feels next-gen, it's just a shame they haven't ironed out the kinks yet. Overall this is a step forward for the series, it's just disappointing the once again so-so story can't live up to the breathtaking vistas and productions values. Paris is so gorgeous though, I can't wait to see Victorian London next year: 8/10

You could argue that out of all the AAA games released over the holiday season (AC: Unity, COD: Modern Warfare, Far Cry 4...) Dragon Age stands tall for not only aiming high with its ambitions but also for how it offers an uncompromising RPG experience with Skyrim-esque open worlds and quality storytelling. Bioware has clearly put all of its cards on the table for this one, essentially saying 'That's all I got!' and dropping the mic. The sheer enormity of content in this game is staggering, my semi-completionist playthrough finished at around 117 hours to give you an idea of how much time you can pore into the world of Thedas. A lot of it is optional of course, you can cruise through the main story in around 30 hours without even glimpsing the vast open world areas but you'll be missing out on a good 70% of what makes this game a triumph: lush rainforests, deserts, cities, snowcapped mountains, bogs, hills of lush countryside...just endless amounts of things to do and explore that in true Skyrim fashion have NOTHING to do with the main plot at all but are there if you want to explore. The sheer scale of these areas is daunting but it does an excellent job of immersing you in the world and the lore. 

Past Dragon Age games have only hinted at what lies beyond your field of view and were largely story focused affairs, Inquisition tears away the background curtain and lets you see everything for yourself. It's very much the whole 'See that mountain in the distance? You can go there!' idea and succeeds in making Thedas a living, breathing world. It's also incredibly pretty, the visual upgrade has left my mouth wide open on quite a few occasions admiring the lush landscape on display. The world is teeming with detail and personality, enough credit cannot be given to the level designers and artists who have brought the world to life. The campaign is also first rate stuff: while it may suffer a lame villain and an anticlimatic ending Bioware is still great at doing what it does best: writing amazing characters. The cast of nine companions in this game are nothing short of superb, quickly subverting their deceiving first impressions. Cassandra is the classic bad-ass warrior female who is a real romantic at heart, Sera is a dumb wisecracking elf hiding her fear of pretty much everything and the stoic Blackwall is hiding his dark past ect...all of them are fleshed out and voiced incredibly well, which is as to be expected from a Bioware game. I guess what elevates Dragon Age above the other games that have come out is that it combines the quality storytelling that Bioware is known for with an excellent open world game, so whichever way it cut it you'll be getting the best of both worlds. I'm going to be a tad hyperbolic here but Inquisition is pretty much the ultimate role playing experience, it ticks every possible box I can think of. It's an epic, in every sense of the word. That's a pretty impressive achievement, god knows what their next Mass Effect is going to be like *HYPERVENTILATES*! In terms of sheer value for money and it's next-gen feel, this is another game that can't be missed: 9/10

Far Cry 4 is basically Far Cry 3,5 with slight increases in visual fidelity and a refinement to Far Cry 3's already great gameplay. Everything that made Far Cry 3 so good is back, it's the age old saying of 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'. Kyrat is an interesting locale for a game and the story, while not winning many awards, was still fun and full of memorable characters. My only real complaint is that the main bad guy is once again sidelined and barely shows up during the campaign. Pagan Min is a great villain so why is he so underutilized? There's also nothing really next gen here aside from more detailed character models and a smooth framerate, so very minor graphical and performance leaps. I'm fine with this but if they make zero graphical or mechanical improvements for Far Cry 5 then I'm going to be a bit pissed. Use that extra horsepower game developers! Anyway, it's polished open world mechanics and above average story definitely makes Far Cry 4 worth playing: 8/10

It feels appropriate to finish this list with the recently released PS4 exclusive 'The Order 1886'. Unlike the other games on this list I haven't played this one and with good reason. From what I can see the developer of 'The Order' Ready At Dawn were so obsessed with the technical side of things that they basically forgot to build a game. By all accounts this is the best looking game on the PS4 at the moment, every ounce of the console's horsepower has been optimized to give you the most detailed, cinematic experience possible. The gameplay itself however is a competent but bland 3rd person shooter that quite frankly looks lazy. A game like The Order is undeniably gorgeous but how many times are we going to play the same 3rd person based cover shooter before they start adding new mechanics? Another game I've yet to play is Shadow Of Mordor, and from what I've seen it's a true next gen experience because the nemesis system (aka the ability to randomly generate new enemies) is too taxing on old-gen systems to work and is something that can only be made possible due to current gen. However 'Mordor' is a fine looking game but it's nowhere near 'The Order' in terms of visual fidelity. Graphics are evolving at a breakneck pace but so far it seems gameplay remains rooted very much in the last generation. It's a question we have to ask ourselves: do we want better visuals or innovation/improved performance in next gen games? Is it possible to have both? We'll see what the future holds, but upcoming releases like The Witcher 3 and Batman Arkham Knight make me very excited.    

13 things I've learnt as a student

Being a student is hard, you're often between a rock and a hard place with only a stick to defend yourself against an onslaught of trials in front of you. It's difficult to even the playing field but there are precautions you can take to ensure the maximum amount of success. Here are a few of my handy tips gained after years of trial and error. A lot of blood was spilt in order to give you this information, I hope you appreciate it:   

Pace yourself in tests:

In my school lesson's last 55 minutes each (7 x 55 minute lessons per day) so if we've got a test in X then we have to be finished by the time those 55 minutes are up. Every one of those minutes count because most of the time I find I'm down to the wire with barely enough time to complete the test before the bell rings. You rarely get a chance to review what you've wrote so any spelling mistakes or dumb errors will have to stand. It's not a case of 'stop and think', it's more like 'start writing now or you're never going to finish this'. Point being: time management is essential, tests need to be completed so you've got to be a well oiled machine. Spending too long on a tricky question that requires a lot of thought just isn't worth it, MOVE ON. If you've got a watch with you (god help you if you don't) I advise to look at the time you have left and just cut your losses when you exceed a certain time limit on a question. 

Beware deceptively easy questions:

Some questions require a lot more out of you despite their deceptively short nature. For example a question like this: 'present the consequences of X on X' could be answered in a few sentences or with a few paragraphs, the key thing here being consequence(s), plural. That doesn't really define an exact amount though, does it? How many consequences do we have to present, then? 2? 5? 8? Try looking at the score to determine it's value: if the question is worth four points that might mean 4 consequences right? Unfortunately most of my teachers leave their test sheets frustratingly blank when it comes to notation, so a question could be really easy or require a lot of redaction and thought, I've no way of knowing. And seen as time is money....look I know it's difficult for teachers to gauge how long a test takes to complete (a Maths teacher can probably do an entire test in 20 minutes for example) but I'd appreciate a little indicator like (15 minutes) next to every question to give us a rough idea of how much time we should spend on it. This would be a helpful indicator of how easy the question should be to complete.

Sometimes you can't win:

Due to unfortunate scheduling you have five tests in one week, aka one per day. What do you do then? A wise answer would be to anticipate the coming onslaught of tests and start revising for everything a week in advance but this doesn't really work with me. Unless you're capable of herculean feats of memory recall it's difficult to revise and learn for all five lessons at the same time. Hard drive space in your brain is limited, there's only so much you can retain and consume before it crashes. A few weeks ago I had to  learn the entire history of the fifth french republic, grasp the inner workings of our economy, study issues in business management, get a handle on different law procedures, revise different marketing tactics employed by companies (my curriculum is very business orientated) AND speak for five minutes in German. It was insanity, the moment I finished a test of that day I had to immediately dive into revising the one for the following day, there was no time to recuperate just GO GO GO! By the end of the week my head resembled this:

Pictured: my head

And you know what? Despite working my ass off I failed dramatically in three out of those five tests, ultimately due to stretching myself a bit too thin. I've gotten over it, if anything it's spurred me to try harder next time but It's a well known fact that life is unfair and sometimes despite your best efforts you're not rewarded for doing your best. My conscience is clean, I did do my utmost and there's nothing I could have down about it. In a no-win situation you can only cut your losses and move on.

You're not going to be good at everything:

I used to think that hard work was all that was required to get a good score. The higher up in education I get though the more I realize that that isn't exactly true. For example after years of fighting, I've finally decided to give up all hope being good at Maths. I know what you're probably thinking: 'No way Tim! Maths is easy, you just need to get your head round it!' You could be right, but there comes a point when you just have to accept the fact that some lessons you're just never going to succeed in no matter how hard you try (see also: Philosophy, Sport). Which brings me to my next point... 

You're not as good as you think you are: 

Back in College I was getting some seriously good marks, I was top of the class in four out of nine subjects and either really good or just 'good' in most of the rest. That's quite a feat, it's something I proud myself with considering I'm English and still to this day can't speak French 100% fluently. Suffice to say all these great results went to my head a little bit, thinking that I was obviously more intelligent than everyone else. Then Lycee hit and I realized that I'm not top of the class at all, that my tried and true method of 'working hard' doesn't automatically guarantee good results and if anything, there are a lot of people better than me at pretty much everything...well everything except English of course. What I'm trying to say is that no matter how good you think you are there's always someone better than you out there and it's unwise to look down on other people just because at first glance they appear uninteresting and simple. It's good to be humble and not underestimate other people based on their appearances. That doesn't mean you can't get better however...    

Learn from your mistakes:

Here's what you can do to get better, and unfortunately this is all related to trial and error. That week of test driven craziness that I endured? I've got another one of those just after the October holidays (NOTE: this blog was written a while back) and I plan on coming back with a vengeance. It helps that I have two weeks of holiday to prepare but now I know the modus operandi of my new Teachers I can anticipate the next phase of tests: in Management you don't have to know everything off by heart, you can mostly get by thanks to the various documents presented in the test and extrapolate a logical solution from that. Marketing however? More than half the points are down to reciting pure definitions and precisely worded protocol we've viewed in class. Explaining the same thing but with your own words aren't going to cut it (we only knew this AFTER we got the test results back of course, hence the low scores for everyone in the class). Next time around I'll prioritize Marketing over Management then, lesson learnt. Other mistakes such as not understanding the meaning of a question or misinterpreting one of the documents are specific to every test, you can only vow to read them a little more thoroughly next time to make sure you haven't missed everything. But be careful you're not to busy focusing on improving what you got wrong last time to think about what you got right, that's another mistake that I've encountered. Eventually you'll cover some ground but until then it's trial by fire, good luck.

I wish we had tests like these. Americans get it easy...

Treat every test like it's the most important thing in the world:

Don't look up at the colossal mountain in front of you, focus on the rock in front of you, because without it you're going to fall. The french education system isn't based on letters like A or B+, it's all to do with numbers and averages. The average of all your tests in a lesson will be compiled into a score out of 20. My goal is to get the highest numerical value possible in every lesson in order to maximize my overall score, which will greatly help my chances of passing the Baccalaureate at the end of the year. At the end of the day that score is what matters, regardless of everything that might influence it like easier teachers, spaced out tests etc...I'd like to think of it as a video game, every level is a mini-boss in itself, allowing you to proceed to the next stage of the game. Every test is important, you can get 20/20 in the first two tests but fail in the third one? Your average is going to plummet down. I recommend you prioritize lessons that are 'valued' more. Maths has a x4 multiplier for example, so my score in Maths is worth 2x more than my score in Sport, which has a multiplier of x2. It's in my interest then to be better at Maths than Sport. 

Revision isn't everything:

Now don't get me wrong revision is a useful tool when it comes to grabbing those crucial extra points in tests, but there is only so much you can gain from that. You can recite every single definition off by heart and still fall on your arse, tests require a lot more out of you than just regurgitating parrot fashion everything you've seen in class. It's more about taking what you've learnt and applying it to a certain context, then analysing the crap out of it which takes a lot of thought. Philosophy tests terrify me for example as there's little you can do in terms of preparation, you either understand the meaning behind the text you're given or you don't. If you don't...well then you're simply screwed so have fun with that. It's helpful if you redo a few of the applications you've done in class a few times to get a sense of how good you are to gauge what the lesson demands of you. Also make sure to listen in Class, if a notion is explained extremely well by a teacher then sometimes you don't need to learn it off by heart, you've already 'got it' just by doing the passive act of paying attention.

When revising, learn the important stuff first:

Self explanatory really. When revising for tests I find it's often better to read EVERYTHING at first to distinguish the major acts of each chapter. Once you've defined a rough outline of the essentials, it's best to type it all out onto the computer. Having everything on one page is much easier than scrambling for several disorganised papers so you can frantically look things over before a test. Most lessons have an insane amount of stuff to learn so it's bad luck if you happen to have two tests on the same day. It's impossible to learn everything so at you should least make sure you know the main stuff off by heart so you won't be caught out during the test. At the very least the basics should be covered. 

The bane of my life (meaning: the agent of ruin or woe).

Work harder on your worst subjects:

I'm having difficulty with quite a few subjects at the moment. I manage to maintain a decent score in all three of these however because I make sure to work extra-hard on them whenever a new test comes smashing through the wall. It's another system of prioritization, albeit one that's a necessity if I want to come out of it unscathed: if I don't understand a notion we skimmed over in Philosophy then I've always got Mr. Google to back me up. Maths requires vigorous study of everything we've done and trying to replicate that by re-doing exercises is crucial. German is quite simply pure revision, I'm only going to know a word if I learn it right?  

Write everything down:

This is vital. If you're revising for a test based on on stuff you did in class three weeks ago it's best to have EVERYTHING that the teacher has said written down, anything that might impact your understanding of the lesson or the test. Key words don't work, a few weeks later they're just going to look like assorted scribbles that aren't tangibly useful. This can be hard though, especially when it comes to teachers that talk a mile a minute and don't use the whiteboard at all. If this is the case I'd recommend writing as much as possible by abbreviating your words. Basically write in text talk: it easy 2 writ like dis nd faster. Revising for a test with missing information is not a good start so make sure you've got it all jotted down.  

Nope. Just.....nope.

Adapt to your teachers:

Here's the worst thing about being a student: your level of success in any lesson is determined by how well you get on with your teacher. I know, your level of success depends largely on something that is out of your hands, sucks right?Certain teachers are harder than others: last year I was getting 17 in German but now I'm averaging 14, the teacher is demanding more from us than the teacher I had last year so therefore an increase in difficultly equals a lower score. To get back to where you were however requires upping your game, which generally means more work outside of lessons and extra revision in my case. Teachers can f*ck you over and if you draw the short straw and get stuck in a class with a tougher teacher, you're just going to have to cope with it. I'm starting to learn this the hard way this year, let's just say the last history test was significantly easier in another class than it was in mine, so my class is averaging lower than the other one. That doesn't necessarily mean my class isn't working hard enough, it just means we've been dealt a teacher that gives harder tests. 

When looking to the future, focus on your strengths:

When you're a teenager it's hard figuring out what you want to do later on in life. If you don't have much of an idea about what job or curriculum you want to take it comes down to looking at yourself and figuring out what you're good at. With me I quickly found out that it was obvious, I'm great at languages: my highest scores for this trimester have been in German and English and they've both been significantly higher than the class average. It's a no-brainer then that I'm pursuing a career in languages. I think you'll find that your strengths are also tied to what you're most passionate about, if you're good at something it's often because you're really into that particular subject. In my case it's talking profusely about things that I love, like Doctor Who, and there are some very strong parallels with teaching. Either way I think it's rare for your passions to not be tied up with your strengths. It's also good to think about what separates you from everyone else, what can you do that no one else can? Again for me it's easy, I'm bilingual. For everyone else though? That might be tougher to pinpoint...     

Pictured: Life

Conclusion:

To sum it all up: being a student (and life in general) is like attempting to juggle several dozen balls in the air without dropping any of them. It's extremely hard to keep all of them in check and requires a finely tuned method which is unique to everyone and gained mostly by experience. Most of the time we fail, sometimes sacrifices have to be made, sometimes you can't win every battle and most of the time you're scrambling to keep up but that's all part of the game. It's simultaneously stressful and exhilarating, but the rush you get from succeeding is enough to keep me going and tempts me to try harder. Basically you'll just have learn to deal with it and try to find a method to any of this madness.

Doctor Who: Last Christmas

God, can you believe that this is the tenth Doctor Who Christmas special? We've had TEN episodes of Doctor Who dedicated to Christmas, surely they've exhausted pretty much everything the show can say or do with the subject matter outside of I dunno, actually including Santa Clause himself? Oh wait...

Yep, the rather ominous sounding 'Last Christmas' actually includes Father Christmas himself in a major supporting role so I was skeptical from the off as there's quite literally a million and one ways this could have gone wrong. Thankfully (let's get this out of the way first) they didn't make him a cringe-worthy caricature at all, I'd even say Nick Frost's performance is one of favorite things about the episode. As for 'Last Christmas' itself it's a solid outing that's mired by unoriginal ideas and poor SFX. To quote writer Steven Moffat: 'This is the weirdest thing I've written!' 

The biggest downfall to 'Last Christmas' is that a lot of it's ideas have been done to death. Here the plagiarism is so blatant even the characters point it out. Look, just because you admit it's plagiarism doesn't make it okay! I mean look at this, it reads like a mish mash of five different movie plots: The episode takes place in a isolated Antarctic base (aka 'Thing From Another World') wherein a group of scientists are being attacked by dream crabs (aka facehuggers from 'Alien') that latch onto their victims faces and induce a dream state to hide the fact that they're slowly digesting your brain matter. Oh, and Father Christmas shows up and saves the day (aka 'Miracle On 34th Street'). Suffice to say if you've seen the enormously popular Christopher Nolan movie 'Inception' then you know EXACTLY what's going on here, right down to the dreams within dreams and aged-up characters. This episode is two things that I don't normally associate Doctor Who with: unoriginal and predictable. As a seasoned sci-fi fan this really took me out of the episode, I could see every twist coming. The fact that it's all over the place tonally didn't help either, Alien facehuggers and Santa Clause cracking jokes about his sleigh being bigger on the inside felt awesomely fun at first but the episode then wants to shove a few tearjerker scenes into the mix as well that don't really fit. 'Last Christmas' is a bit weird structurally, it decides to wrap up the core storyline of Clara getting over Danny's death half way through and then relies on it's series of twists to sustain itself for the second half. It felt weird, like it was playing for time. The Doctor himself thought everything was wrapped up and then....it just decides to keep on going? Um...Ok? The dream within a dream thing was neat but then you decide to do the same twist again? I just don't think it was needed and once again: INCEPTION.

Acknowledging you're copying something doesn't excuse you, Moffat.

Just like 'Into The Dalek' the special effects towards the end were so godawful it took me out of the scene completely. In theory the sleigh scene should have been delightful but in reality the Google Maps background really took the wind out of it. Yes Doctor, suuure you're flying the sleigh. The big emotional gut punch was also devoid of any emotions as old Clara looked like a muppet and Jenna Coleman didn't even bother to change her voice. Doctor Who, if you can't do old age make-up right then why do you keep slathering it over EVERY. SINGLE. CHARACTER?! I can't even....it's embarrassing, just stop.

All of this makes it seem like I hated the episode but in hindsight the special is undeniably fun. Two characters in particular really stood out: Shona and Santa. HOLY SH*T, I loved Shona. It was kind of ridiculous how much she stood out from the supporting cast, everything from the dancing to her love of all things geeky screamed fan favorite right from the start. Actress Faye Marsay did a tremendous job of embodying that character with likability.The only downfall of Clara staying for Series 9 is that we might not get Shona as a companion, because had things gone another way (Jenna Coleman changed her mind during production so they had to rewrite a few scripts) I am 100% certain Moffat was building her up to companion material. It's a shame she didn't get any meaty scenes with Capaldi because OHMYGOD that needed to happen! Look all I'm saying is that you either bring her back right now Moffat, or we riot. As for the big man himself I don't think it could have turned out better. Nick Frost was fantastic at balancing a very delicate line between the Santa we know and the somewhat blokey joe at the local pub who did nothing but poke fun at how absurd everything in this episode was. I also must applaud Moffat for writing him in in a way that made sense in the 'canon' of the show while also bringing to light everything that character represents. The episode makes a very good point *SPOILERS*: Santa doesn't have to be real to save them, in fact you can draw a lot of parallels between Santa and the Doctor himself, which is why Doctor Who is an oddly perfect fit for Christmas Day. 'Robot In Sherwood' also echoed this theme, they're both figures/icons that can inspire people to do good regardless of them being the product of fiction (you can also apply this theme to Danny, he saved Clara in a very real way even though he was just a figment of her imagination at the time). That's kind of inspiring, and that's without the nuanced performance Frost gave and the funny banter between him and Shona that made the episode. 

Just kiss already!

Santa and Shona brought the fun but this was still Capaldi and Coleman's episode. What else can be said here? Capaldi plays the Doctor slightly warmer here, he's become more of a lovable grump than an outright bastard. Kudos to Capaldi for the delivery on 'SHUT UP SANTA!' Clara also had some important scenes, Danny coming back seemed pure cry bait but again it was somewhat offset by one moment in particular: the explanation of the title 'Last Christmas' was really depressing because of how much it hit home, and his solution for Clara to only miss him for five concentrated minutes every day was lovely. It was another sad goodbye, albeit one we didn't really need. As for old Clara it was even more depressing to find out that she never got over Danny or the Doctor, even if she traveled the world as a teacher she never apparently never found happiness with someone else. Thanks Doctor Who, why don't you keep rubbing these unhappy endings into our happiness deprived skulls? Oh wait, none of that was real? So Clara's staying for another season?!! *REJOICES* I'm so happy she's staying, the duo between Capaldi and Coleman literally improves the show's quality by exactly 20%. I'd glad she didn't go via old age, they've already done that with past almost-companions and Amy and Rory. Funny how this feels like the THIRD possible exit we've had for the Clara this year, who knows how they're going to wrap up her storyline in Series 9 but it won't be due to her 1) getting mad at the Doctor, 2) dying of old age or 3) being abandoned by the Doctor as he goes to find Gallifrey. So that leaves what, just death outright? Hmmm...we'll see. All I know is that Jenna Coleman is an incredibly talented actress and I'm happy that this isn't the last we've seen of Clara. 

Positives:

+ Shona was awesome
+ Santa was awesome
+ Danny's speech to Clara about 'Last Christmas'
+ The Doctor and Santa bickering
+ Loved the Santa message 
+ Very weird episode
+ Clara didn't leave

Negatives:

- A ton of unoriginal ideas slapped together
- Blatant Aliens knock-off
- Potentially no more Shona
- Poor CGI, makeup effects

Overall Score: 7/10

So that's it then, Series 8 has officially wrapped up. Overall I think this has been an unusually strong season for the show. Outside of 'Into The Dalek' and 'In The Forest Of The Night' the episodes have ranged from good to great, and 'Listen' is one of my favorite episodes of the show ever. Capaldi makes for a wonderful Doctor and the dynamic between him and Jenna Coleman has been dynamite. Most importantly it was clear from the outset that the show-runners actually had an idea of where the show the going this time around, they made sure not to repeat the mistakes of Series 7b by focusing on character development and making every story count (I felt like series 8 was quite frankly just written better). With all that in mind I anticipate Series 9 eagerly and can't wait to see where Capaldi's Doctor goes next.