The three subjects I chose to do at A-Level were psychology, history, and health and social care. Both psychology and history were the reformed A-Levels (the ones that you do for two years and have your exams at the end of the two years) and health and social care was a legacy A-Level (the old A-Levels where you take an exam(s) at the end of year 12 (AS-Level) and then the other exams at the end of year 13 (A-Level). I'm fairly certain that my year were the last year that could do any of the legacy A-Levels so any of you that are either currently in year 12 or going into sixth form won't be taking these. This is good and bad in many ways. It's good because in year 12 I found that I didn't particularly take A-Levels as seriously as I should have done, especially as I had an exam at the end of that year. However it's also bad as it means that you now have to take all of your exams at the end of year 13 which does create a lot of pressure on you, especially when it comes to trying to remember things that you learnt two years ago.
I feel like only the people who are either currently doing A-Levels or have finished them in the past couple of years are the only people who truly understand how difficult and stressful they are. There is no easy A-Level, they are all difficult in their own way. Let's take the subjects that I was taking as an example. The one that is probably portrayed as the easiest out of all of them would be health and social care, however this A-Level is particularly difficult as it involves quite a lot of coursework (eight per year, so sixteen in total, and we only had two weeks to do each one) and the year 13 exam was on anatomy and physiology which even those in my class who had taken biology found difficult.
Psychology and history were both difficult in their own rights. Psychology was difficult because not only did it involve 100% exam and no coursework, but it also involved biology and a bit of maths. It's easy for some people to say that the maths is alright because it's only statistics, which wasn't that bad when I did it at maths GCSE, but the statistics in psychology do take quite a while to get your head around and is something that I'm still struggling to understand. Even though a lot of psychology is quite interesting, it's very difficult to learn all of the different studies and ones that support and refute them. History is also very difficult because even though there is a lot of information to learn, as long as you know the key facts and can fit these facts into the different themes then you should be alright. However, the most important thing that you need to be able to do well in history is to be good at the evaluation side of things, which involves explaining why something is or isn't important in terms of the question. It might sound simple on paper (or on screen) but believe me when I say that it isn't.
When it comes to where I went to study A-Levels I'm kind of glad I chose to stay at my secondary school because the sixth form there is quite small which means that it is easier to interact with the teachers on a more personal level. I'm not necessarily saying that at those sixth forms or colleges that are bigger or are specifically just for sixth formers don't offer the same amount of one-on-one interaction with students and teachers, but from an outsiders point of view I found it much easier to interact with my teachers in a class of between 10 and 15 students than I would have done in a class of 30. However, I would just like to point out that I would only bother staying on at your secondary school if some of your friends are also staying there because if they're not then everyone else already have their own groups that you might find a little bit more difficult to try and fit into if you've already been at school with these people for five years. If this is the case then you might be better off starting off fresh somewhere else where everyone should be in the same position as you and you might also find it easier to find a new group of friends to hang out with, as well as still having your old friends from school. But this advice comes from what I have observed from different people and isn't always the same case for everyone, so the best advice that I could really give you is to go wherever you feel the most comfortable, and having friends there is only a part of the whole of the sixth form experience.
I found with sixth form that you don't necessarily keep all of the same friends that you left school with but you also make friends with people that a few months previously you never thought you would be friends with in a million years. I've seen people fall out and I've seen people make up. I've seen people fall in love and I've also seen them break up (including myself). I've witnessed so many different things in the past two years and yeah its been tough, and I have cried and I have broken down on many occasions. I've thought about giving up, yet I've always somehow found the courage to carry on. It was an experience that I'll never forget, but now I'm about to start a new chapter in my life.
I hope that this post has somehow helped with any current or soon-to-be sixth formers and hope that it hasn't put you off doing A-Levels at all. I know I'm yet to find out my results but if I can get through two years of what I often referred to as hell, then so can you. If any of you reading this have any questions about any of the A-Levels that you're taking (preferably the same ones as I did but if there's any others then I'll try to answer them the best that I can) or about sixth form in general then please don't hesitate to either comment below or get in contact with me. All of my contact details are on the contacts tab at the top of this page and I'll try to get back to you ASAP.
Thanks for reading!
Love Beth xx
I feel like only the people who are either currently doing A-Levels or have finished them in the past couple of years are the only people who truly understand how difficult and stressful they are. There is no easy A-Level, they are all difficult in their own way. Let's take the subjects that I was taking as an example. The one that is probably portrayed as the easiest out of all of them would be health and social care, however this A-Level is particularly difficult as it involves quite a lot of coursework (eight per year, so sixteen in total, and we only had two weeks to do each one) and the year 13 exam was on anatomy and physiology which even those in my class who had taken biology found difficult.
Psychology and history were both difficult in their own rights. Psychology was difficult because not only did it involve 100% exam and no coursework, but it also involved biology and a bit of maths. It's easy for some people to say that the maths is alright because it's only statistics, which wasn't that bad when I did it at maths GCSE, but the statistics in psychology do take quite a while to get your head around and is something that I'm still struggling to understand. Even though a lot of psychology is quite interesting, it's very difficult to learn all of the different studies and ones that support and refute them. History is also very difficult because even though there is a lot of information to learn, as long as you know the key facts and can fit these facts into the different themes then you should be alright. However, the most important thing that you need to be able to do well in history is to be good at the evaluation side of things, which involves explaining why something is or isn't important in terms of the question. It might sound simple on paper (or on screen) but believe me when I say that it isn't.
When it comes to where I went to study A-Levels I'm kind of glad I chose to stay at my secondary school because the sixth form there is quite small which means that it is easier to interact with the teachers on a more personal level. I'm not necessarily saying that at those sixth forms or colleges that are bigger or are specifically just for sixth formers don't offer the same amount of one-on-one interaction with students and teachers, but from an outsiders point of view I found it much easier to interact with my teachers in a class of between 10 and 15 students than I would have done in a class of 30. However, I would just like to point out that I would only bother staying on at your secondary school if some of your friends are also staying there because if they're not then everyone else already have their own groups that you might find a little bit more difficult to try and fit into if you've already been at school with these people for five years. If this is the case then you might be better off starting off fresh somewhere else where everyone should be in the same position as you and you might also find it easier to find a new group of friends to hang out with, as well as still having your old friends from school. But this advice comes from what I have observed from different people and isn't always the same case for everyone, so the best advice that I could really give you is to go wherever you feel the most comfortable, and having friends there is only a part of the whole of the sixth form experience.
I found with sixth form that you don't necessarily keep all of the same friends that you left school with but you also make friends with people that a few months previously you never thought you would be friends with in a million years. I've seen people fall out and I've seen people make up. I've seen people fall in love and I've also seen them break up (including myself). I've witnessed so many different things in the past two years and yeah its been tough, and I have cried and I have broken down on many occasions. I've thought about giving up, yet I've always somehow found the courage to carry on. It was an experience that I'll never forget, but now I'm about to start a new chapter in my life.
I hope that this post has somehow helped with any current or soon-to-be sixth formers and hope that it hasn't put you off doing A-Levels at all. I know I'm yet to find out my results but if I can get through two years of what I often referred to as hell, then so can you. If any of you reading this have any questions about any of the A-Levels that you're taking (preferably the same ones as I did but if there's any others then I'll try to answer them the best that I can) or about sixth form in general then please don't hesitate to either comment below or get in contact with me. All of my contact details are on the contacts tab at the top of this page and I'll try to get back to you ASAP.
Thanks for reading!
Love Beth xx
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