General Mock Tests

Theme Parks

Over the past few weeks, I have had the pleasure - and for the most part it really has been a pleasure - of visiting five of our most popular theme parks. I have looked at new attractions, tested my nerves on the big-thrill rides and waited patiently in queues. I took along my sons, aged seven and four, to see which attractions they most enjoyed.

Here are my findings. I hope they will help you decide which park best suits you and your family. Many of the rides have height restrictions, so to avoid disappointment, check details on the relevant website before you set off. With the exception of Legoland, the parks have cafés and restaurants that sell very run-of-the-mill fast food, so I have recommended picnic spots where appropriate.

Alton Towers

Alton Towers is Britain's only proper theme park resort in the Disney mould. The park is set in attractive, expansive grounds around a ruined neo-Gothic mansion and there are two hotels and a water park.

Best for

A weekend break for all ages

What's new?

In an effort to improve its appeal to families with young children, the park has opened a high-quality aquarium, Sharkbait Reef by Sea Life. Also new is Cloud Cuckoo Land, which includes an impressive indoor soft play area and a rather average musical show.

Thumbs up

The park's big draws are its daredevil, state-of-the-art roller-coasters which are genuine thrill rides. Those brave enough to tackle On Air are suspended under the track and "fly" face down. Rita has a terrifying high-speed launch. Oblivion is a sadistic, sheer drop into a black hole while Nemesis is said to be "The World's Most Intense Ride Experience" - it's not, but it is still a blast

There is excellent entertainment here for all the family. The amazingly elaborate Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ride is a highlight, ending with a simulated ride in a glass elevator. And if you are prepared to get absolutely soaked, Battle Galleons (basically a water pistol fight on a grand scale) is great fun.

Best for small children

Old MacDonald's Farmyard - much more charming than Cloud Cuckoo Land.

Thumbs down

Given the high cost of admission, there are too many funfair stalls charging several pounds a go.

Tips

Plan your day carefully: given the size of the park, you don't want to find yourself zigzagging from one side to the other.

Even on term-time weekdays, waits for the big rides can be more than half an hour, so consider investing in

"FastTrack" tickets. There are various options: FastTrack Scream, for instance, allows you one ride each on Air, Nemesis and Oblivion for £8.

Buy tickets in advance at www.altontowers.com Not only are they cheaper, but (new this year), you get access to some major rides an hour before the regular opening time.

Alton Towers' enjoyable, Disneyesque hotels are a monorail ride from the park's entrance, and attached to a top-notch, Caribbean-themed and mostly indoor water park. Packages with theme-park entry include the early ride time privileges mentioned above.

Best picnic spots: either on the lawns in front of the mansion, or in the tranquil landscaped gardens.

0870 520 4060; www.altontowers.com Day tickets bought at the park: adults and over-11s, £36; ages 4-11,

£27; family of four, £100.

Top 6 Art Exhibitions

Don't miss out on the best London exhibitions! Catch one of these great London exhibitions as chosen by our editorial team. For more London exhibitions see our London Arts Guide.

A Anish Kapoor: Turning the World Upside Down

World-renowned sculptor Anish Kapoor once again creates a sensational London exhibition - this time in the open spaces of Kensington Gardens. Kapoor's series of imposing stainless-steel mirrored sculptures are gathered together for the first time in London, reflecting the luscious surrounds of the Royal Park. Until 13 Mar.

B Pioneering Painters: The Glasgow Boys 1880-1900

The Glasgow Boys were a loose-knit group of painters who caused a stir in the late 19th-century art world with their experimental and ambitious work. Pioneering Painters is the first Glasgow Boys exhibition in London for more than 40 years, and includes more than 80 paintings. Until 23 Jan.

C Journey Through the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead

Explore ancient Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife in a fascinating new exhibition at the British Museum. Journey Through the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead displays 3,500 year-old artefacts and documents including spells, haunting images and rituals that helped to prepare the dead for the afterlife. Until 6 Mar.

D GSK Contemporary - Aware: Art Fashion Identity

GSK Contemporary takes over the Royal Academy's 6 Burlington Gardens building for the third year running, showcasing the work of 30 artists. This year the exhibition has a fashion theme, looking at how artists and designers use clothing to reveal elements of our identity. Until 30 Jan.

E Veolia Photographer of the Year

See a stunning collection of images from the natural world as the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition returns to London. The winner, runner-up and commended photograph in each category are on display at the Natural History Museum. Photos are of underwater scenes to urban wildlife. Until 11 Mar.

F The Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has laid more than 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall for this year's annual Unilever Series. Past commissions have included Doris Salcedo's crack in the floor, Louise Bourgeois' giant spider sculpture and C

Leisure Time Trends

Forget about city breaks or whizzing off for a long weekend in the sun. Learning, it seems, is the new travel and everyone is racing back to school to crack a new skill.

No longer is it considered enough to come home with a winter tan or memories of great restaurant meals, you need to be able to make your own bread or fillet your own fish.

Pottering around craft galleries won’t wash - the smart new souvenirs are your very own handcrafted pots, willow garden ornaments or stained glass lampshades.

Some of the motivation comes from the recession. With money tight and jobs insecure, our weekends need to feel worthwhile, industrious and focused. There’s been a huge resurgence of interest in home crafts, cookery and gardening as we find pleasure in growing and making our own.

There’s never been a better time to be a domestic goddess or a garden god (or vice versa). With the environment also on people’s minds, courses that can turn us into good lifers (yes, even with a small back garden) are hugely popular. Learn the basics of keeping hens, bees, even pigs. Start your own allotment; build a wood-burning stove; make your own biodiesel - in fact, why not go the whole hog and build your own straw-bale house?

A weekend is the perfect amount of time for a course. It’s not too large a commitment of time or cash and not too embarrassing or gruesome if you discover, very swiftly, that your dream of being the next Cath Kidston or Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is pie in the sky. Some courses run from Friday to Sunday, while others last for just a day and many give the impetus to try out a new hobby or skill. Some might even provide a springboard for a new business opportunity.

Carron York who, along with husband Tony, runs pig-keeping courses in Wiltshire, says that lots of people are now keeping pigs, not just as a hobby, but as an extra source of income. “One woman keeps rare-breed pigs to help put her daughters through school,” she says. “Others just come along and fall in love.”

Above all, weekend courses are great fun. They provide the opportunity to meet like-minded people and are often held in stunning or unusual locations. Some are residential (from country-house hotels to DIY camping in a muddy field); others will require you to make your own accommodation arrangements. Not all these courses are run regularly, so check the websites to find the next date. Some will put on extra weekends if there is enough interest, so ask if a suitable date isn’t available. Many only take small groups and book up quickly, so don’t delay.

The following weekends offer something for everyone. We’ve tracked down 50 courses throughout the UK, catering for a wide variety of ages and interests. Happy learning!

LEISURE TIME IN AMERICA

A As most Americans will tell you if you can stop them long enough to ask, working people in the United States are as busy as ever. Sure, technology and competition are boosting the economy; but nearly everyone thinks they have increased the demands on people at home and in the workplace. But is the overworked American a creature of myth?

B A pair of economists have looked closely at how Americans actually spend their time. Mark Aguiar, at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and Erik Hurst, at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business constructed four different measures of leisure. The narrowest includes only activities that nearly everyone considers relaxing or fun; the broadest counts anything that is not related to a paying job, housework or errands as "leisure". No matter how the two economists slice the data, Americans seem to have much more free time than before.

C Over the past four decades, depending on which of their measures one uses, the amount of time that working-age Americans are devoting to leisure activities has risen by 4-8 hours a week. For somebody working 40 hours a week, that is equivalent to 5-10 weeks of extra holiday a year. Nearly every category of American has more spare time: single or married, with or without children, both men and women. Americans may put in longer hours at the office than other countries, but that is because average hours in the workplace in other rich countries have dropped sharply.

D How then have Messrs Aguiar and Hurst uncovered a more relaxed America, where leisure has actually increased? It is partly to do with the definition of work, and partly to do with the data they base their research upon. Most American labor studies rely on well-known official surveys, such as those collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Census Bureau, that concentrate on paid work. These are good at gleaning trends in factories and offices, but they give only a murky impression of how Americans use the rest of their time. Messrs Aguiar and Hurst think that the hours spent at your employer's are too narrow a definition of work. Americans also spend lots of time shopping, cooking, running errands and keeping house. These chores are among the main reasons why people say they are so overstretched, especially working women with children.

E However, Messrs Aguiar and Hurst show that Americans actually spend much less time doing them than they did 40 years ago. There has been a revolution in the household economy. Appliances, home delivery, the internet, 24-hour shopping, and more varied and affordable domestic services have increased flexibility and freed up people's time.

F The data for Messrs Aguiar and Hurst's study comes from time-use diaries that American social scientists have been collecting methodically, once a decade, since 1965. These diaries ask people to give detailed information on everything they did the day before, and for how long they did it. The beauty of such surveys, which are also collected in Australia and many European countries, is that they cover the whole day, not just the time at work, and they also have a built-in accuracy check, since they must always account for every hour of the day.

G Do the numbers add up? One thing missing in Messrs Aguiar's and Hurst's work is that they have deliberately ignored the biggest leisure-gainers in the population, the growing number of retired folk. The two economists excluded anyone who has reached 65 years old, as well as anyone under that age who retired early. So America's true leisure boom is even bigger than their estimate.

H The biggest theoretical problem with time diaries is "multi-tasking". Do you measure the time you spend cleaning your house while listening to portable music as "leisure" or "work"? This problem may be exaggerated: usually people seem to combine two work activities, using a laptop computer on a plane, or two leisure ones, watching television and doing something else. The two economists counted many combinations of work and leisure, such as reading a novel while commuting or goofing off on the internet at the office, as time spent working.

I Is all this leisure a good thing? Some part-time workers might well wish they had less leisure and more income. For most Americans, however, the leisure dividend appears to be a bonus. Using average hourly wages after tax, Steven Davis, a colleague of Mr Hurst's, reckons that the national value of five extra hours of leisure per week is $570 billion, or $3,300 per worker, every year.