Being at Sixth Form or College is obviously beneficial for numerous reasons but there isn’t a lot of information about being at best, an average student.
At High School, you’re babied. There’s a huge support system, set revision times and teachers that are often readily available. And like most students, I fell into the invisible trap of abusing the readily available help. And like many, I didn’t revise as much as I should of but I still left with C’s and above in all my GCSE’s.
I cockily entered Sixth Form with the same attitude and boy, did I get a slap in the face.
When you enter Sixth Form or College, there isn’t a lot of prep. You’ll get told it’s harder at College and that’s pretty much it. There isn’t a training regime or any kind of taster events. You just submit your UCAS application, which you probably received help with, and sit back and wait for a couple of conditional offers.
It’s not very difficult to get into college. What is difficult is getting out with decent grades that hold the power to get you into university. It’s like trying to defeat an enemy in a boss battle after a couple of mini games.
You can ask yourself why it’s difficult but secretly, you know the answer is utter laziness. I recently received my results for the first year and although I passed 3 of my 4 A-Levels, two of these passes were E’s. I find myself having to do four large pieces of coursework in the space of a couple of months. That’s difficult to do if you’re in the habit of procrastinating.
So, what can you take away from my ramblings? I can think of 5 key points.
1. Don’t underestimate A-Levels.
2. Procrastination = Bad Grades.
3. Make sacrifices.
4. High Schools baby us.
5. Build up experience while studying.
This post was written by Katie Whelan using our Create an article for South Leeds Life page.
Image by CollegeDegrees360 used under license.