Starting A-Levels in September: how to prepare?
Many of you may have just finished GCSE’s and will be moving onto A-Levels in the summer! The idea of starting sixth form and doing A-Levels can be a bit scary so I thought I’d share some tips and ideas of what you can do over the summer to help you prepare.
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Many of you will have just sat your GCSE’s, finished year 11 and are now waiting for your results and to enrol in sixth form. You’ve probably heard people talk about the big jump from GCSE to A-Levels, and are wondering how true that is, and how you can cope with it. In this post I’ll talk about my experience from GCSE to A-Level and how I coped with the changes.
As a quick bit of background, I sat 29 GCSE exams and gained 12 GCSE’s (11A* and 1A), and moved onto A-Levels in Biology, Chemistry and Maths. I was aiming to do medicine (and am now starting in September!!) so I knew I needed to get a minimum of 3A’s at A-Level, so I knew I was going to have to work hard. I achieved 3A*'s in the end and I definitely think the habits in this post played a big role in that. After a full day at school/sixth form, it can be hard to start studying or revising when you return home, which makes it frustrating if you know you have things to get done! Here are my tips to be productive even after you have worked hard all day:
1. Take a break when you return home from school to take your mind off studying for a while. If you can, try and avoid going on your phone and do something more active that is more likely to boost your energy and lift your spirits. This may be something like going for a walk, listening to some music, or walking your dog. I'd typically take 30-60 minutes off before I started working again, any longer and I'd find it more difficult to get back into studying mode again. However, if you feel motivated when you get home, take advantage of this and get things done straight away. This way, you can finish earlier for the evening which is a great opportunity to give yourself some self-care, e.g. taking a bubble bath, watching a film or just getting an early night. Revision can seem daunting when you're approaching exam season and it's only natural to have a bit of a panic and think "how am I ever going to revise everything in time?!". It's good to get into certain habits when it comes to revision so you don't feel to panicky and you are confident in yourself and feeling prepared when the exams are approaching.
1. Make a list of all the topics for each subject- you could do this from a contents page of a text book or directly from the specification. But BE SPECIFIC! It's so much easier to break each topic down as much as possible. For example in AS Biology, the overall topic is 'Biological Molecules', but I would break this down into 'Proteins', 'Lipids', 'Carbohydrates' etc. This really helps you to keep track of exactly what you have revised. Although the initial thought of writing down every topic may be overwhelming in itself, as you begin to work through it and tick more things off, the idea of revision should start to become less scary your list will keep getting shorter. Just make sure you do this in time for your exam and have time to cover everything! As a guide, in my A2 exams in June, I made big topic lists in February as a tracker to tick of everything that I was confident in. It can become frustrating when you have made yourself a revision timetable and are trying to stick to it, and then teachers keep giving you homework to do in addition to that! Here are my tips to balance them with each other but still maximise your productivity:
1. Realise that homework is a form of revision. Your teachers want you to do well and wouldn't aimlessly set tasks for you to do, so you should realise that both are beneficial tasks! Make sure you have a good attitude to homework as well as revision and don't just skim over it, I'm sure at least one aspect of the homework will be beneficial to you long term! Exam season can be a tricky time because, you want to do your absolute best in exams, but not to the compromise of your well-being! Having done my GCSE and AS exams, by the time it came to my final A-Level exams, I felt I was better at revising for longer periods of time without feeling overwhelmed and burned out. Here are some tips that I think helped me throughout the year, but particularly in the May/June before my exams:
1. Have a plan but also schedule in breaks- and plan what to do in your break! We all know that breaks are important when revising so you don't 'overwork' yourself and to give your brain a rest, but it's important to make sure a break is really a break. Before I became more aware and mindful of this, during my breaks I would be waiting for the break to finish. I would mindlessly check my phone and grab a quick drink, but I'd often feel a sense of guilt and not be relaxing at all! I've found that planning breaks not only helps me to enjoy my break more, but also to study more productively both before and after my break. I thought I’d make this post as I know that a lot of us experience bad exams, whether it is GCSE, A-Level or uni exams, I think everyone can feel disheartened in this situation!
After I have done an exam that didn’t go as well as I’d hoped, these are the things I tend to do: 1. Remind myself of how much effort I have put in and that I have done my BEST- if you start to blame yourself for your performance in the exam, it will knock your self confidence for future exams, you need to have confidence in your own ability! 2. Although it’s easy to do and I’m also guilty of this, try not to keep thinking about the bad questions- I know they’re the ones that stick in your head, but think about all the small markers (usually towards the start of the paper!) that you are confident in! Structuring a full day of revision is important to ensure that you work productively and don't waste any time thinking "now what should I revise?"!
1. Make a to do list! If I’m revising on a weekend I’ll have a pretty long to do list to do over both days, I often use my text books and the specification to make my revision to do lists💛 2. I don’t tend to work to timetables, but occasionally I will in holidays to help structure my day ✨ timetables can be good but can make you rush tasks if you’re running behind. Since the start of 2018 I have planned so much and it has helped me to become SO much more organised and productive so I thought I’d share some tips with you all! This is what helps me, everyone works with different methods but hopefully it can give some of you inspiration.
1. Use to-do lists rather than timed revision slots, I find that I work more efficiently and finish the tasks to the best I can. For example, if I had a half an hour slot to do a task, I could either rush it (meaning it’s not to the best of my ability) or that if I finish it early, I would waste the extra time ✨ Even if you know you need to study to get good grades and reach your goal, it is hard to maintain motivation all of the time. Here are some tips that helped me to stay motivation during my A-Levels:
1. Write down your long term goal and the steps you need to do in order to get there. You could draw this out like a ladder, with different steps (I got this idea from @lydia.studies). If you are younger and not sure what grades you need etc, maybe look at uni websites to get ideas of this 💛 |
AuthorI am a 19 year old aspiring doctor and I am currently studying at medical school, after completing my A-Levels in Biology, Chemistry and Maths. I created this blog to share my study tips and techniques and advice on applying to university, as well as some health and lifestyle posts, too. I hope you find them useful! Jasmine x ArchivesCategories |