I wrote this page when I was 11 (2001) and at St Bede's Prep School in Eastbourne. I will leave this page on as it may be of interest.
On this page are some of the things that I find easy and some of the things that I find hard.
13 things that I find easy - Not in any order
- organising
- being logical
- Maths
- Science
- Typing
- remembering facts
- computers
- website design
- microsoft word
- microsoft excel
- microsoft access
- working on my own
- problem solving
Things that I find hard
- Spelling
- I am really bad at this although I can learn a spelling list. I usually learn how to spell words by looking for some sort of pattern in the way the letters are arranged. Some of these ways are on the spelling page. I realised one day that I do not learn to spell the words in the same way as most people. I spend ages looking for these patterns, and then I get a good mark in the test and then it all seems to go out of my head and I forget to use the right spelling when I normally write and I go back to my usual 'how I think it sounds' spelling. I don't know why this is because I can usually remember facts and other things well.
- Reading
- I can read but not as well as I would like. I find it very difficult to read books but I use a charity called 'Listening Books' and it is brilliant.
-
I find it very difficult to read my work back to myself
- I am not good at reading aloud
- Comprehensions
- If somebody reads me the passage I can do them fine but otherwise I spend most of the time trying to understand the passage rather than answering the questions.
- Saying new words or sounds
- I find it difficult as I do not seem to learn the sounds as quickly as other people. I often say them wrong. When I started School I had a Statement of Special Educational Needs as I couldn't be understood at all!
- Listening rather than writing
- I actually find mental maths much harder than written maths. I also find that if someone spells a short word to me I just cannot understand what it is but if I see the same word written down I can read it quite easily. That is unless it is a very difficult word that I couldn't read anyway. I find it really strange that I actually find it easier in these cases when it is written down but if it was a story book then I find it much easier when it is read to me. Does anyone else find this?
- Writing and presentation
- As I use an Apple ibook nearly all the time so this is good but if I was to use a pen it is very bad. Also there are so many spelling mistakes that they cannot read it and they say it is untidy. Also my words float above the line. At my first school my maths book was always my most untidy book because we were always told to rule off at the end of the day and I ruled of in such a way that I am showing on this picture as I cannot explain. I certainly did not waste any paper but it was always 'untidy'.
- Words
- I do not use many interesting words in my essays as I try and use words that I can spell so I do not have a very wide written vocabulary.
- I also find all these subjects very hard
- English
- Music (don't do any longer)
- Art
- French (but I have now given this up)
- Drama (don't do any longer)
Things I find Very Very Very Hard
- Latin
-
I thought that I was finding Latin OK as it was very shrutecher but now (May 2001) I find it very very very hard. Pronounciation is not supposed to matter as the Romans are all dead, but in class we have to say out the nown endings. I always seem to do it wrong as I say what they look like.
E.G. :-
- I say AE as AE, They say AE as I
- I say I as I, They say I as E
- I say E as E, They say E as A
This is one of the things I find very very very hard about Latin.
- I struggled on with Latin until I was 12 and then in September 2001 I was finally allowed to give it up! I had really tried hard but there must be better ways of spending evenings than worrying about translating strange passages about troops and city walls and enemies etc.