Thursday 20 December 2018

How to succeed: A guide to Sixth Form


20th December 2018

Sixth form for me, was a mixture of struggling for motivation and struggling to balance friendships, relationships, work and exams - looking back it’s understandable that I often couldn’t find enough motivation to cover everything I was contending with.
Sixth form is arguably the most important two years of your life so far, it’s the bridge between GCSEs and University - a bridge that can effectively change your life and career path, and a bridge that is extremely long and often difficult to walk.
With your sixth form years also come adult responsibility

The constant juggle: 5 main aspects to Sixth Form
I may also write about these individual aspects in more detail in the future, the blogs for these will be linked below when completed.
  • Relationships
  • Friendships
  • Part time jobs
  • Family and expectations
  • Study  

Relationships

Obviously at sixth form, we’re at an age where we may become more interested in other people in a romantic way, most people would say to avoid forming relationships with people as they can distract from studies and are likely to break down at university anyway. HOWEVER, I’m someone who has been in a relationship with my current partner since the start of sixth form and although it has been messy at times, I’ve managed to ensure my studies are a priority and having a constant best friend by my side to support me has often made stressful times easier - I would say it’s entirely down to the individual whether exploring relationships are worthwhile at sixth form, but remember to never let it effect your studies, if the relationship is meant to be, it will last through busy or distant periods.

Friendships 
Sixth form is probably the first place you’ll be surrounded by new people since starting secondary school at year 7. It’s a great opportunity to make new friends and see how well your old friendships can last through the change - a lil like university. Although, all this change can inevitably lead to new friendships problems and 'drama'. This is almost unavoidable and I experienced this first hand in both my first and last year at sixth form. People lead you to believe that after GCSEs everyone acts responsibly and grows up - this is incorrect! I'm yet to find out if we grow up at University yet!

Part time jobs
As you grow up, there's more things available to you, right? Going out with friends, parties, new fashions, learning to drive, mobile phones. Unfortunately we live in an economic based society meaning we need MONEY to do a lot of these new things and anyone who says getting a part time job in order to achieve these things will affect your studies negatively - ignore them. Yes, doing 40 hours a week and 3 A Levels is not recommended but I small Saturday job can't do anything other than good. Earning your own money gives you independence - you no longer have to rely on your parents to provide everything for you. It gives you a chance to save for University, a car, driving lessons - all things that will cost A LOT of money. Earning your own money teaches you valuable money management skills that will obviously help you everyday at University. No matter how small your part time job is, you will also have a work based reference for your CV, something future employers for you dream job will look at very positively - you have experience working in a professional environment, not just school!

Family and Expectations
This is a topic I am dealing with currently and have done throughout sixth form... family having way too high expectations. This can either be regarding grades, what universities you're applying to or what your plans are after sixth form. Your family will 99% of the time have some idea of what they think you'll do but you have to remember that whatever you choose to do has to be 100% your choice and something you're happy with. Your mum expects you to apply for a high flying degree but you're not too sure? Don't do it, at the end of the day it is you that has to complete the degree, go to that University, get those grades and if any of that makes you unhappy, just don't.

Study
Obviously a big part of sixth form is the actual studying of your A Levels. It's important to stay on top of your studies from the start. From my experience I've found it is best to make the revision resources early on, while you're learning the topic so that when it comes to revising, you have something to start with immediately. I plan on writing another post in more detail about studying and my tips for specific subjects so stay tuned for that!

This is my first blog post for the study section of my blog, I plan to also upload my A Level/Uni story in the next week - please feel free to comment any constructive feedback or tips! A x

No comments:

Post a Comment