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"I know Pi to 10 decimal places..."

[URL]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4644103.stm[/URL]

This guy knows it to 83,431 decimal places!

Hmmmmm, I can think of a few more productive things to do with my life other than try to beat him...

Absolutely right, its definitely best to go for the highest grades, but I mean that you shouldn't push yourself further. Get the job done, but don't put yourself under too much pressure or go for too much. If you can get an A, great, go for it, but many people I knew weren't happy with that and would work non-stop to try and get percentages as close to 100% as possible. I'm not expressing this very well, but you probably know what I'm talking about.

I plan to go to uni, but I'd like something decent to fall back on. If I decide that Uni isn't for me then at least I hav some decent grades to get me somewhere in life. I also have a few penpals around the world that I'll visit soon. If I end up moving to the states or oz then at least I have something under my belt when I get back.

But my main goal is to push myself into Uni and be the best dentist I can be. That sounds weird...

That's a good point about the potential burning out. When you get near finishing your A-levels, you realize that it no longer matters what you got in your GCSEs and the same applies as you go on through your degree. If you plan to stop at a certain level, then obviously do your best at that stage, but if you're going on to a new level, then its best to pace yourself a little (but obviously don't just sit back and do nothing).

I can drop a subject, but I plan to keep all four. I have an arch rival in most of my lessons and that keeps me going. We were on a residential at Swansea Uni last week and everything we did - we competed against each other. Bowling, activities, sport - we both want the best from our years at school. She'll have 3 A2 qualifications whereas I'll have 4. I beat her on that too. I just hope I don't burn out!

Do you plan to carry on all four of your A-levels next year, or do you just carry on three? I finished before the A1, A2 system came in, so I've never quite understood all that. You're right though about maths A-level. Its not a massive step from GCSE and just seems to make sense. I think its because you are allowed to focus on specific things more closely rather than trying to think about absolutely everything. The GCSE covers such a broad range of info that its difficult to link everything in the same way.

Maths here is coming along okay thanks though. I have at least a couple of years left yet, so quite a way to go, but its good fun and very interesting now.

Good luck in the AS-levels!

Thanks. I have six courses to apply for on the UCAS form. I'm taking Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Maths. Awaiting my AS-results now. I think Physics and Biology will be fine but this years Maths and Chem were a real royal pain. I must say maths at A-level is so much easier than GCSE.

How is your maths course coming along?

Ah, Bristol is very nice and certainly top quality. Dental school has got to be a tough challenge though, Bristol is very highly regarded in the world of medicine. Your other three choices are good backups though. Do you still have to pick two - a first and second choice once you have offers, or do you get to put down all four these days?

I'm at Bath uni at the mo, studying a little maths which is why I was interested in what you were saying about pi earlier - it wasn't one I'd seen before.

Good luck with the applications though, I hope you achieve the grades you need!

I'm heading for Bristol (hopefully) to go to its Dental School. Not too far from here (Yate). Failing that - Cardiff, Birmingham and then Manchester. If I don't get into any of their Dental Schools I'll try for Partical Physics or Marine Biology at Swanswea. You?

Eeek! Minitab! Evil! I had to do a little bit of that in my first year and never really became comfortable with it. For things like integration, the best package for a numerical method easily available at most maths departments would be Matlab. I'm using it right now in fact - have a program running in the background so that I can convince myself I'm actually working.

UWE isn't too far from here though (Bath), do you plan to go there for uni, or are you heading elsewhere?

University of West Of England.

I'm not sure exactly how it was done, but we used this program called minitab (free trial at [URL]http://estore.e-academy.com/index.cfm?loc=main[/URL]) I think thats how we did it. I was trying to integrate on excel - wouldn't let me. I guess you'll need to use the trapezium rule.

I think the limits would be from 0 to 1, taking that the random numbers were from 0 to 1.