My Sixth Form Experience

Well, it's been 2 years.  I have completed my A Level courses at my local sixth form which was attached to my secondary school.   My overall experience of my two years at sixth form have been, well, interesting.

The past two years have shaped me and added to my characteristics, both negatively and positively.  I have had made some friends who will be in my life forever.  Some of my best and favourite memories have been created within the past two years.

Nevertheless I have also had some of the worst times over the past two years; my stress levels rocketed and have been the highest they've ever been, my health worsened (probably due to the stress tbh), panic attacks started to be more regular and I couldn't sleep properly.

I'm not making this post to scare the year 11's who have just finished their GCSE's and are going onto to do A Levels, but this is my honest and realistic experience with sixth form; no sugar coating just the truth.

Organisation is a major aspect of A Levels, normally I would say I am an organised person, I like my lists, timetables etc etc but after doing A Levels I can't say I'm organised at all...  I kinda just took the organisation advice from my form tutor and teachers with a pinch of salt as I thought I would be fine with it, but Jesus was I wrong.  I never wrote down my homework so I relied on my memory or one of my friends in that particular class, my folders were just messy, I would loose notes and basically be all over the place.  This started to be a real problem just 3-4 months into doing A Levels, I started stressing because I wasn't organised enough, and I was becoming overwhelmed with the amount of work people expected off me.

The amount of work that has to be put into each and everyone of my A Level subjects just astonished me, I knew it would be hard and I wasn't actually looking forward to starting the 2 year course back in September 2014 but I still underestimated it.

I would say the worst thing about my experience of doing A Levels was probably the fact I was slowly loosing interest in the subjects I used to love.  A Levels just seemed to drain all the fun and interest out of the subjects; it is just trying to remember as much as you can rather than learn and find out about things that you want.

However, needless to say there were actually positives about A Levels...

As much as I started to hate the subjects I chose to study, the relationship between the students and teachers are a lot more 'friendly' as to say, basically there is a lot of banter going on in class.  For example one of my teachers handed out lyrics to Justin Bieber's Love Yourself and put the music video on at the start of one lesson.

My friendships got a lot closer as well, as we are all going through the same experience which parents don't always understand.  We helped each other through rough times and made hilarious memories which will remain with me forever.

Overall, after the immense stress and pressure I went through I wouldn't change how I did it or what I did.  Sometimes I say to myself and friends I wish I took photography, but I'm glad I didn't because that passion would probably have died down after doing an A Level in it as well.  The friends and memories I have made within sixth form will be cherished and I definitely would not change them for the world.

I will probably do an advice for sixth form and A Levels post later on in the summer, but for now I will say A Levels will probably be the most intense 2 years of your life but the experiences and memories you make out of it will be worth it (hopefully!).

Georgie
xx