I’d be lying massively if I said the first year of sixth form has been easy for me but I do have quite a few tips that might make it easier for you.
1. Do the bridging work you get set at the end of year 11, this one is super important for science based subjects as (going off my experience) they tend to treat it as your first homework but also because it gives you a taster of the subject and your syllabus. It’s much easier to study Plato’s views on truth in philosophy for example if you already know that he rejected empiricism,
2. If you don’t like a class after the first week, drop it, it honestly isn’t worth putting yourself through something that you’ll either find too hard or you just won’t enjoy. If you drop it early on in the year you’ll be able to choose a replacement option as you won’t have missed much work, I did this with English lit and easily switched to English language.
3. Use your free periods carefully, too many times did I skive off doing work in frees in favour of just messing about and all it did was leave me with more work to do when I go home. It’s important, especially at A level to ensure that you keep working on your knowledge of a topic and don’t just leave it all to last minute. Also don’t let people convince you to skive off if you want to work, at the end of the day your grades will benefit.
4. Set up a group chat with a couple of people from each class, this can be hugely beneficial as it not only allows you to discuss areas you may struggle with but also means you’ll find it harder to forget homeworks as someone in the chat will more than likely know the deadline. Just make sure you start the chat with people as serious as you, i know i’ve been added to chats where there was little to no study talk.
5. Prioritise your time, this is not to say that you shouldn’t go out or go to parties or see your friends but perhaps when it’s two weeks before exam season starts you should give that party your friend has organised a miss. It may suck and they may not like you for it but again, just like number 3, it’s your grades that will benefit. There’s plenty of time for parties after exams or in the months before it gets close to exam season.
6. Embrace flashcards with all the love in your heart, not even being dramatic. Flashcards (or index cards) are one of the best ways to learn dates, events, or small sequences. They can be used as visual cues with illustrations and pictures to jog your memory or can be written cues such as a date with it’s significance on the back. Do not use flashcards as your main revision tool as they are only for small amounts of information but don’t leave them out. I doubt i would have got my A in history if it wasn’t for tediously learning significant dates using flashcards.
7. Take notes in a way that works for you, and stick to it! It will only make your revision harder if you have to look through notes that are all taken in different ways. A lot of people in my year started with shorthand then forgot it which obviously made things hard for them. It’s much easier to revise if everything has the same layout.
8. Talk to teachers, at GCSE level you can kind of make it through by yourself but at A level i’ve found communicating with your teachers so much more important because they won’t tell you everything in the lesson (it’s meant to be more independent study) so it’s important to ask questions if you feel there’s gaps in your knowledge.
