Luckily for some they'll have got the grades they worked hard for while others, including myself, will have been a little disappointed. All I can say is at least I have another year and resits to help me rectify the mistakes I made in this last year, unfortunately for others that just isn't the case.
I could have done a lot worse, in fact I was expecting to, as this year at college has been such a new experience and honestly, believe me and many, many others who will tell you, the jump from GCSEs to A-Levels is like a giant leap across the Grand Canyon!
So, I have decided to help you all out a little by creating this short guide on how to ace your A-Levels. I have used my experiences from my first year of college and also looked at things others have done this year (that I maybe should have), that I feel will really help you succeed when studying for your A-Levels;
1) Use your time wisely and plan ahead
Whether you decide to go to a college or a Sixth Form, you're guaranteed to get some free time within your day which is meant to be dedicated to 'Independent Study'.
Use this time to get your assignments and essays done in a quiet environment like the school/college library or an empty classroom. It will help you so much in both the long and short term. The short term advantages being that when you get home that night you can just eat food and take a nap and not have to worry the night before a deadline, because you're already done. And the long term advantage being that you will get used to going to the library or wherever in your free time and doing your work that it will become a habit and closer to exam times you can get all of your work out of the way in this time, so all you really have to do at home is revise!
Another helpful tip is to set yourself a personal deadline for your assignments and revision, say your lecturer tells you to hand your maths assignment in on Thursday, try to get it done for the Wednesday, this is helpful for two reasons;
1. You won't be stressing out at 11pm on Wednesday night trying to work out how to factorise an equation.
2. You have Wednesday to rethink any trickier problems and work them out again or ask a friend for help.
Now I know I gave maths as an example, but honestly this little trick works for all subjects!
2) Read up on the topic ahead of class
Most lecturers at the beginning of your year will inform you what topics you'll be covering and when, most of the time they follow the order of topics within the textbook you use and this is very useful!
Reading up on the topic before you're taught it in class will help you enormously. You're bound to find parts of the topic really tricky especially if its something you've never ever been taught before but there will be parts you do understand - so when your lecturer comes to explain this topic in class, you will begin to understand the harder parts and if you don't, then it means you can ask your lecturer to explain it further. This is such a useful little hack for testing your knowledge and making sure you fully understand the topic before completing assignments and exams on it!
3) Rewrite your notes
Lecturers tend to rush through things quite quickly (which is another reason why tip number 2 is useful), which means your notes are going to be written quickly and they'll probably look a little messy. When it comes to revision time, it's really not helpful to be revising from messy and unreadable notes, so rewrite them as soon as you possibly can, so you can still remember what everything says!
I use a little colour coordination in my notes so when flicking though my notebooks and files I can quickly find what I'm looking for and it's also really good for revising too! I only colour coordinate my notes when rewriting them as I don't want to waste my time in the actual lesson. I usually use;
- Black pen, when writing the basic lecture notes
- Blue pen, for my work (essays, questions I've answered etc.)
- Green pen, when writing examples
- Red pen, when writing really important information (important maths formulae or key dates)
4) Revise little and often
Now I know that revision is probably the least of your worries when you first start college or Sixth Form but honestly your first year will fly over, and there's nothing worse than sitting down to revise a topic in May that you haven't even looked over since Septmember - trust me!
So at the end of a week recap what you've learnt by testing yourself, either do a few practice questions or just write down 3/5 things you can remember from your lectures - and by this I mean educational things!
REMEMBER: Take revision breaks often as you can usually only concentrate fully for the first 15-20 minutes of revising something. Only let your breaks last about 5 minutes though and try to do something productive in this time like get a snack - don't check your social media as you will become obviously distracted!Then once you've finished a topic in class, prepare your revision notes in whichever way you prefer. If you do this after every topic make sure to read all of your notes each time. So say you've just finished topic 5, write your notes of it, then re-read topics 1-5 to refresh your memory!
Another good way is to teach someone else! If a friend in your class is struggling with something you understand, offer to help them revise it as it will also be good revision for you!
66% of things are forgotten within 7 day of learning them! So imagine the percentage of things that are forgotten after 7 months of learning them... scary thought!
5) Flash Cards and Mind-maps
I have always really really struggled with revision techniques, throughout my GCSEs I used a variety of techniques, which helped at the time but didn't actually help me find out which one was the most successful for me. However, this year I saw a lot of fellow students using flashcards to help, so I jumped straight on that bandwagon and actually found them pretty useful! The best thing about flash cards is they are only small so you can only fit the relevant and necessary information onto them. This not just saves time but also means you're not cramming your brain with pointless information you don't need.
The same goes for mind-maps! You can fit a little bit more information onto a mind-map, but this might be useful if you're studying for a subject that involves a lot of information you need to write into your exam, for example; media - I had to write a lot of key terms and information in my media essays and I found writing the terminology in a mind map with visual aids really helped.
I like to continue my colour coordinated notes throughout my revision process too because I'm really weird in a sense that I like everything to match and look neat.
Now I'm not saying you should all revise from flash cards or mind-maps because I'm sure you've all got some way of revising that suits you best and helps you succeed in your exams - but if you don't, give these a try!
And finally...
6) Only take essential equipment to class
Keeping you bag clutter free will honestly destress you so much! Don't carry around unnecessary items with you for weeks and weeks because it will just way you down and stop you from find the things you actually need in your bag. I've included a list of useful things to take with you to Sixth Form/college that you will find useful!
- A notepad - you only need one for all of your lessons because then you can go home and rewrite your notes and store and file them in the way you want to
- A pencil case - just make sure you have pens and pencils and then if you're doing maths and science make sure you have your calculator and things like that
- Your text books or previous notes - if you're continuing on a topic in your class take the notes you've made from the previous lesson on this topic as ultimately it will help
- Water - you've got to stay hydrated but also it provides an innocent distraction for when you're bored in class and you want to check your phone which is in your bag
- Toiletry bag - I always make sure I have my lipstick, concealer, sprays and chewing gum with me to freshen up throughout the day
- Your purse, lunch, phone - obvious things that you would never normally leave the house without
Basically just don't drag files filled with work, into college with you, unless you're planning on using all of your notes to revise from or if it's compulsory in your Sixth Form to do so...
So everyone, I really hope my guide to 'Acing A-Levels' helps you all to do well and succeed in your first or second year of Sixth Form/college and good luck to you all for the stressful year or so ahead!
Emily
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