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Server Upgrades to Boost Site Performance

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Hi everyone,

I’m upgrading the server hardware and doing some server-side code optimisations over the course of the next few days which will massively improve this website’s speed and performance for users.  This may mean that there may be some occasions when certain parts of the site appear not to be accessible or seem to not work as they should.  Please bear with me while these upgrades and optimisations are completed, and hopefully your experience of using the site will be noticeably improved.

Other than just improving the general performance of the site for users, these upgrades are going to make possible the new functions of the site which I’m currently working on, which will be released in version 1.7.0 at the end of October.

Thanks for your patience everyone, and please check your emails and this blog regularly for further updates.

Best wishes,

M. Ahmed

Last week’s lesson recordings now available in the private forums!

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Hi everyone,

Just so you know, the recordings of the live scheduled lessons from this week are now available for registered members to view in the private user forums.

At the end of each week, I’ll be posting the lesson recordings from that week to the forums to allow other students who didn’t attend the live lessons to use the recordings for their studies and revision.

Please note that the electronic learning resources for the live lessons are ONLY available to students who attended these lessons – while the recordings are made available to all registered users, you must attend the live lessons to be given access to the other resources for each lesson (PowerPoints, revision notes, whiteboard notes, worksheets, exam questions etc.)

While you will earn InvisiCoins for attending and taking part in live virtual lessons, you can also earn InvisiCoins for watching an entire video recording of a lesson (even if you didn’t attend the live lesson)! 

You can also earn more InvisiCoins if a user asks a question about one of the topics covered in a video and you respond to their question in the forum topic by writing a post – if that user finds your answer helpful and ‘likes’ your post, you earn InvisiCoins!

I hope you find these useful.  If you have any questions about any of the topics  covered in the recording of a lesson, please post your questions in the forum topic containing the video recording of that lesson, and I’ll get back to you with answers.

Please do use the coupon codes I send out each weekend to register for the live lessons on Mon-Weds of the following week – if you have already signed up for our email newsletter keep an eye on your email inbox for these coupon codes.

Have a great week everyone, and we’ll hopefully see you next week for more virtual lessons!

Best wishes,

M. Ahmed

Take the InvisiCoin Challenge!

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Hi everyone,

I’m going to be posting regular InvisiCoin challenges here for our student members to take part in.   These challenges are completely voluntary, but they are a great way to start earning InvisiCoins!

For each challenge, there is a deadline (countdown timer) for students to upload their work.  After the time is up, the entries will either be marked by a teacher OR will be posted in the private student forums for students to vote on.

As time goes on, all students in each year group will have access to a large range of the best work to use as revision and study resources, and over the course of the year they’ll cover almost every topic for each subject 🙂

There are InvisiCoin prizes for first, second and third place for each challenge.

Details of the current challenges are below, including a form for you to upload your work for the current challenges, success criteria, and IC prizes.

Good luck! 🙂

M. Ahmed

Submit your entry for any of the challenges below before the deadline!

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GCSE Physics InvisiCoin Challenge

This is a challenge to all year 9, year 10 and year 11 student members studying GCSE Physics.

Submit your entry for this challenge using the form below before the deadline.  The submission form below will close after the deadline, then all the work that was submitted will be posted in the private student forums, where students will be able to vote for the best/most useful piece of work (by pressing the ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ buttons.

The piece of work with the most ‘likes’ will win the challenge and receive first prize.

The details of this challenge are summarised in the following slides:

The Challenge:
Design a revision poster to summarise everything you know about the topic of ENERGY in GCSE physics. Try to summarise (using diagrams and condensed notes) all the key ideas, terms, processes and skills referred to in your exam board specification for this topic.
Success Criteria:
Use your exam board specification as a list of ideas and learning objectives your poster has to cover. The better the quality, depth of knowledge, clarity and coverage of the learning objectives from the specification, the higher your chances of winning InvisiCoins! Make sure you don't just copy and paste from the internet - you must only submit your own, original work (plagiarism will result in disqualification!)
InvisiCoin Prizes:
1st Place = 400 IC

2nd Place = 200 IC

3rd Place = 100 IC

GCSE Chemistry InvisiCoin Challenge

This is a challenge to all year 9, year 10 and year 11 student members studying GCSE Chemistry.

Submit your entry for this challenge using the form below before the deadline.  The submission form below will close after the deadline, then all the work that was submitted will be posted in the private student forums, where students will be able to vote for the best/most useful piece of work (by pressing the ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ buttons.

The piece of work with the most ‘likes’ will win the challenge and receive first prize.

The details of this challenge are summarised in the following slides:

The Challenge:
Design a revision poster to summarise everything you know about the topic of ORGANIC CHEMISTRY in GCSE chemistry. Try to summarise (using diagrams and condensed notes) all the key ideas, terms, processes and skills referred to in your exam board specification for this topic.
Success Criteria:
Use your exam board specification as a list of ideas and learning objectives your poster has to cover. The better the quality, depth of knowledge, clarity and coverage of the learning objectives from the specification, the higher your chances of winning InvisiCoins! Make sure you don't just copy and paste from the internet - you must only submit your own, original work (plagiarism will result in disqualification!)
InvisiCoin Prizes:
1st Place = 400 IC

2nd Place = 200 IC

3rd Place = 100 IC

GCSE Biology InvisiCoin Challenge

This is a challenge to all year 9, year 10 and year 11 student members studying GCSE Biology.

Submit your entry for this challenge using the form below before the deadline.  The submission form below will close after the deadline, then all the work that was submitted will be posted in the private student forums, where students will be able to vote for the best/most useful piece of work (by pressing the ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ buttons.

The piece of work with the most ‘likes’ will win the challenge and receive first prize.

The details of this challenge are summarised in the following slides:

The Challenge:
Design a revision poster to summarise everything you know about the topic of STRUCTURE & FUNCTION OF EUKARYOTIC ORGANELLES in GCSE Biology. Try to summarise (using diagrams and condensed notes) all the key ideas, terms, processes and skills referred to in your exam board specification for this topic.
Success Criteria:
Use your exam board specification as a list of ideas and learning objectives your poster has to cover. The better the quality, depth of knowledge, clarity and coverage of the learning objectives from the specification, the higher your chances of winning InvisiCoins! Make sure you don't just copy and paste from the internet - you must only submit your own, original work (plagiarism will result in disqualification!)
InvisiCoin Prizes:
1st Place = 400 IC

2nd Place = 200 IC

3rd Place = 100 IC

AS Biology InvisiCoin Challenge

This is a challenge to all year 12 and 13 student members studying AS/A2 Biology.

Submit your entry for this challenge using the form below before the deadline.  The submission form below will close after the deadline, then all the work that was submitted will be posted in the private student forums, where students will be able to vote for the best/most useful piece of work (by pressing the ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ buttons.

The piece of work with the most ‘likes’ will win the challenge and receive first prize.

The details of this challenge are summarised in the following slides:

The Challenge:
Write an essay on the following topic: Cells are easy to distinguish by their shape. How are the shapes of cells related to their function? (Total 25 marks)
Essay Question
Success Criteria:
You should write your essay in continuous prose. Your essay will be marked for its scientific accuracy. It will also be marked for your selection of relevant material from different parts of your exam board specification and for the quality of your written communication. The maximum number of marks that can be awarded for Scientific Content is 16, for Breadth of knowledge is 3, for Relevance is 3, and for QWC is 3 - this makes a total of 25 marks available for this essay.
Marking Criteria
InvisiCoin Prizes:
1st Place = 400 IC

2nd Place = 200 IC

3rd Place = 100 IC

AS Chemistry InvisiCoin Challenge

This is a challenge to all year 12 and 13 student members studying AS/A2 Chemistry.

Submit your entry for this challenge using the form below before the deadline.  The submission form below will close after the deadline, then all the work that was submitted will be marked.

The student with the highest mark will receive 1st place, the second highest will receive second, etc.  In case of a tie, an admin will review the two entries and make a decision based on quality of answers, clarity, neatness, depth etc.

The details of this challenge are summarised in the following slides:

The Challenge:
Answer the attached exam questions - you can do so by annotating the pages using your own pdf editor, or you can submit your answers in the form of a word doc, etc. The exam questions are all about ATOMIC STRUCTURE, ISOTOPES and ELECTRONIC CONFIGURATION
Exam Questions
Success Criteria:
Your answers to the exam questions will be marked according to the mark scheme, which will be made available to students via the private forums after the deadline for submissions has passed. These are real exam questions, and will be marked in exactly the way a real examiner would mark them. The examiner's report will also be made available to students via the private member forums after the winners are chosen.
InvisiCoin Prizes:
1st Place = 400 IC

2nd Place = 200 IC

3rd Place = 100 IC

A2 Biology InvisiCoin Challenge

This is a challenge to all year 12 and 13 student members studying AS/A2 Biology.

Submit your entry for this challenge using the form below before the deadline.  The submission form below will close after the deadline, then all the work that was submitted will be posted in the private student forums, where students will be able to vote for the best/most useful piece of work (by pressing the ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ buttons.

The piece of work with the most ‘likes’ will win the challenge and receive first prize.

The details of this challenge are summarised in the following slides:

The details of this challenge are summarised in the following slides:

The Challenge:
Write an essay on the following topic: Describe and explain the resting membrane potential and the action potential in terms of the transport of ions through the cell surface membrane of a neurone (Total 25 marks)
Success Criteria:
You should write your essay in continuous prose. Your essay will be marked for its scientific accuracy. It will also be marked for your selection of relevant material from different parts of your exam board specification and for the quality of your written communication. The maximum number of marks that can be awarded for Scientific Content is 16, for Breadth of knowledge is 3, for Relevance is 3, and for QWC is 3 - this makes a total of 25 marks available for this essay.
InvisiCoin Prizes:
1st Place = 400 IC

2nd Place = 200 IC

3rd Place = 100 IC