The start of Sixth Form

Hi everyone! Welcome to my third entry :). It's been a while since I have written on here as sixth form has been pretty full on in comparison to year 11/GCSEs. However, I will start writing weekly/biweekly now. As I have written in my 'About me' section, my A Levels are currently Mathematics, Economics, Biology, and Psychology. I went through a lot of switching in the first few weeks of sixth form, as I wasn't sure what I wanted to study (and I am still not 100% sure what I want to study). I originally had picked Art as one of my A-level options but changed it the day before school started to Computer Science. I did at GCSE and generally found it quite straightforward, and due to this my parents encouraged me to continue studying it further for A levels, even though I didn't necessarily have a 'passion' for it. The first few weeks in the subject I could immediately tell that I didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as my fellow peers in the class. So, even though I was a few weeks into the term I chose to swap it to Economics, even though I had never taken the subject previously. I ended up enjoying it and finding it very interesting, and I am so happy I chose to swap as now I am considering studying it further into university and having it as a career prospect.

Anyhow, once that was sorted, it did not become less stressful from there on. When you are in year 11 doing 10 subjects, you think 4 A levels will be a breeze. Let me just say, it's not. Immediately you realise not only the level of detail or difficulty increases, but the volume of work that is placed upon you triples. It is so so important to be organised and have a proper study schedule that you stick to, especially if you are doing 4 A levels instead of 3. I didn't get this straight away, and I feel like it's important to figure out what you need to do in the beginning so you can fix it and stick to it. It is really difficult to always use your free periods to study because you want to relax and hang out with your friends, which is also important, so instead of saying you have to study every single free you have, make a rule for yourself such as, use at least 20 minutes of your free to do work, and then you can either continue working if you feel or you can relax and not do any more work. This is the rule I use for myself which works well, it helps me to stay on top of my homework and even do extra work. I only have around 4 frees once you take away the ones that are used by EPQ and Volunteering I do, so it's important for me to try and stick to this and have a routine.

Another thing is you have to be able to reach out to your teachers and ask for extra help, because in the end that's what they are there for. It is typically seen as meaning you aren't smart enough to understand it yourself (especially in my school as it is quite academically competitive), however, this is not the case at all. Most people would be surprised to find out that a lot of the top kids in the year are the ones who ask for help the most. When I don't understand something my teachers are always happy to meet me during a free period or lunchtime and explain it to me one-on-one which helps so much.

So that's a quick sort of summary of my first impressions of Sixth Form and a little bit of advice based on my experiences so far.

Until next time :) - Kaila

Dubai College Courtyard