A Levels, Sixth Form and Miracles

Monday, August 12, 2013

A Levels, Sixth Form and Miracles | My Story

Okay, so, remember that 'Surviving Secondary School' post I did yesterday? Well, this is a follow on, however this is documenting the two years I spent in sixth form (or college depending on what you decided to do) doing my A Levels. I will be discussing my experiences, all the ups and all the downs, because if I didn't, half of this blog post would be a lie! A Levels are not plain sailing, nor are they impossibly difficult to cope with, you just have to know how to deal with the added stress and pressure, and obviously, study hard!

My aim here is to tell you my story and all the mistakes I made along the way, I also discuss where I am today and what I had to do to get here! Although I am not including hints and tips in this post, you can take what you like from it, whether you see anything that has happened to you, or don't want to happen to you, then take my successes and also mistakes literally, and imagine what YOU would do in that situation! This post is not here to scare you future A Level students out there who may be going on to do A Levels this September, but I do hope in some small way, that you take something from it, what ever that something may be :) Enjoy!

Year 12 (2011-2012)

So this year, I must admit, was probably one of the worst years I had ever spent at school. Don't get me wrong, your experience may well be the total opposite, so don't let me scare away! Often what year 12s assume they can do when they come up is doss around, and again I have to admit, I didn't use all of my frees to revise or study, purely because this was a new experience! After spending 5 years wearing uniform, not being able to have your phone or wear makeup, I was finally able to do it! Looking back on my first year of A Levels now, after completing them and subsequently leaving compulsory education altogether, I wish that I HAD used those frees, but instead, we used that time to talk with friends, play games and taking pictures, some of which are below :)

Sorry Sophie ;)

Hannah working hard, evidently unlike myself ;) (above)

And one free, I even snuck off into town to catch a glimpse of the Queen, William and Kate when they visited our city with my friend Matt! It was too good to miss soooo I kind of skived, woopsie! (below)

Right at this point, you are probably thinking 'well, you deserved to not do well', well in actual fact, I worked extremely hard when I was at school, I studied a lot. This was around the first half of year 12, skipping frees and skiving for an hour (during a free, I didn't miss any lessons due to skiving and I only ever did it that once, promise ^_^ ), by the second half of the year, exams were getting much closer, I had already done a round of January exams and the results were not fantastic. I also found it extremely difficult to get my head around biology, no matter how hard I revised Biology, the information just wasn't going in, this resulted in me failing every single biology exam I ever sat!

I am not ashamed of this, I know in my heart I worked hard and it wasn't working. Subjects such as Maths or Science were too precise, I couldn't remember lots of different pieces of information, only a few pieces that I could elaborate on or add to. This is when I discovered that my true talent was essay writing, I went on and did History, English Literature and Philosophy and Ethics obviously while persisting with Biology as it was only my first year still and you couldn't drop a subject until you entered year 13.

So by this point, you are now thinking 'well that's okay then, you are good at writing essays, you did essay based subjects instead, everything must have come good in the end', well, not exactly. There are different ways to write an essay in every essay subject. There is a certain way to write a Philosophy essay, another way to write a History essay or a geography essay, its all different. English Literature was fine, I wasn't doing too bad, I got a C for my exam, not great but I didn't fail, I failed my first Philosophy and Ethics exam, but re took it and again, I didn't fail, but History was a different ball game! I was not back to square one! I had no clue how to structure the essay, it didn't matter how many times my teachers tried to drill it into my head, but I just couldn't do it. This meant that by the end of year 12, I had 2 AS levels! I had failed History with a U and the same with Biology!

So, 'what do I do now'? Everything was all up in the air! 'Do I stay and retake the year? Do I carry on and retake just year 12 history? Do I switch colleges?'. I had no idea what to do, I wasn't prepared for it! Due to my English coursework I got an overall grade D which to be honest, broke my heart more than failing History as I had worked so hard and put in so much effort, I only got a C in Philosophy and Ethics, but it wasn't a D.

So yes, results day 2012 was not a good day and everything looked bleak for my future, I felt as though I had let everyone down, It was such an awful feeling, I was sick to the stomach every single time I thought about it, and I still feel the same typing this out a year later, but I kept on thinking about a fresh start next year and I made a vow to work even harder next year!

Year 13 (2012-2013)

Okay, so I now had a fresh start with History, my Philosophy and Ethics result wasn't bad so it wasn't completely the end of the world, but this first half of the new year included stress with English. My teachers had already predicted my overall grade as a D. They told me not to apply to any top universities and even tried to persuade me to do a different course (as I wanted to do English at university)! This made me so upset and also extremely angry that my teachers had just lost faith in me and my abilities. They had already written me off! Telling me that if I wasn't a A grade standard, I wasn't going to get an A in my exam! So the start of year 13 was not going very well at all! My hopes and dreams had been dashed the very first day I returned back to school! Because of this, I then started feeling very unhappy, I cant remember a time, looking back, where I wouldn't sit and cry every night because of what my teachers had told me, to me it sounded like they were saying 'you are no good at English, don't bother pursuing it and we are not helping you get the result you want, we know you'd like a C, but we don't really care'. Yes, it sounds extreme but that's just what it sounded like to me! I had very little support and felt like I was on my own the majority of the time.

The idea that they had already predicted my failure made me furious so at that point I decided to prove them wrong! Not once did I go to them for help, I did the homework, got it back and it would have Cs plastered on it or Ds written all over it, meanwhile, I had read every single guide that there was, did all of my practice essays at home without showing them to my teachers and marked them all on my own. So by the time my January exams rolled around, I was ready to kick this exam paper's ass! That's exactly what I did, I got an A in that paper and my teachers could hardly believe it! This was the first time in my school life where I actually felt happy enough with my result to cry.

Around this time, I also was given an offer from a university to do English Language and Creative Writing, so there was another chance to prove my teachers wrong!

I also managed to get an A on my Ethics paper from last year so all I needed to do was do well in these exams, however I sat it in January and only came out with a C, which I was happy with, but I would have liked a B!

Life was now all good again! I was getting As and Bs in History practice papers, I was really passionate about my English coursework and I worked damn hard for Philosophy and Ethics. I sat my exams in June of this year and am now awaiting my results (I am collecting them THIS Thursday!) something I will keep you all posted on.

Anyway, so May came, and in turn we had to leave school! Leavers day was rather emotional but also very funny! Our teachers did sketch shows, we all dressed up in our old uniform, we were given leavers hoodies and we all signed each others shirts! It was so much fun! We had a liturgy an I got an award for helping out with a school musical we did in February! I will insert some photos for you to see of our leavers day here.... :)

So now, there was only one more thing to do...PROM!

Year 13 Prom (2013)

Okay so year 13 prom isn't nearly as glamorous as year 11 prom. Year 13 prom was a lot more formal and slightly more relaxed in the 'getting ready' process! We had such an amazing time! With music, and pretty awesome food, including some alcohol (as we are now of the legal drinking age here in the UK) we were all happy as Larry! (scroll for photos)