A Smart Guide to Surviving Sixth Form at RHS – Lexine Lee
Dear Year 11 pupil/newly ‘arisen’ sixth former,
Congratulations! You are now officially allowed a winter coat that even Detective Holmes will envy, the freedom of finally not being in squad, and two drinks (TWO!!!) at socials!
First day of sixth form — you walk through the corridors hassle free, donning your new suit, as juniors and inters part for you like the Red Sea. Your eyes light up and you shimmy a little when you see all the places where Taylor Swift can write your name on your timetable. Ev(en your erstwhile tormentors (teachers) are congratulating you for achieving your GCSE target grades. Everything is just perfect.
Fast forward two weeks — it’s 10pm, you’ve had a full day of lessons and all your frees have been used up to meet with teachers because your brain cannot function properly anymore. Your afternoon was taken up with activities and more meetings, and you had the longest house prefect meeting – ever – before you could finally reply to all the urgent emails you got today. You have a 1000 word essay due tomorrow that you haven’t even started planning. Plus, you’re sleep deprived because you were doing prep until 1:00am yesterday (or technically, today).
As a Year 12 reaching the halfway point of my sixth form career, I have to admit I still get some of those days. Unfortunately, there is no magic trick to ensure these two years will go as well as the last two (and you thought GCSEs were rough). However, I do have some pointers as to how you can make a smoother transition across this big jump and make the most out of it.
- ‘Tis the simple truth. You might have realised the coffee and tea in the DH are decaffeinated, so don’t count on that.
- If you are studying harder than you are partying and you really feel like you should go to bed, doing prep that is due in a free – I mean, study period — the next morning is always a viable option, but always overestimate the time you need. You are not going to finish an essay in one study period.
- Do prep and make lesson notes seriously. In the rush of exams and tests, they might act as a good set of temporary revision notes, you’ll thank yourself later. If you do have time however, try to make notes, mind maps, revision cards, or whatever helps you as you learn the topics, it will make your life so much easier come exam time.
- Go to clinics. They’re not just for geeks. Rather clear up any confusion now than accumulate questions until just before exams when teachers cannot remain uninterrupted for more than five minutes. Plus, working with a teacher one-on-one could give you some interesting new insights.
- This one might sound a bit stupid but it avoids a whole lot of embarrassment in the long term. Gain your teachers’ trust, you’ll need it. Imagine having to paste a smile on your face when awkwardly asking your housemaster/ mistress to be your prefect application referee after being rude to them all this time. Also, have some long conversations with your teachers and your tutor. Soon enough, you’ll need their help, and the better they know you, the more they can do. Not only will these people be writing your references for your life after school/ prefect applications, they are also the people who have the power to cut you some slack for not handing in prep because you haven’t had a lie-in for three consecutive weeks.
- It is never too early to start thinking about what you would like to do after school, especially if you are considering to go to university. Do your research on different universities and subjects you would like to study. Your thoughts will most likely change more times than you have gotten back together with that boy/girlfriend, but it’s always useful to think about it. Go and attend open days, courses and events. They really do make a difference to just looking at a website, and you won’t have the problem of discovering clashing open days at the last minute next summer. Also, a lot of them are only for Year 12 pupils, so if you had not planned in advance, you won’t get another chance to go. The only downside is you will have to skip school and miss all your wonderful lessons. As a side note, there are actually lots of prospectuses and books about post-secondary pathways in the library. I know it sounds really far away and irrelevant at this point but the stress of having to make a decision will pile up quicker than you think, so do go and explore that.
- There seems to be quite a long queue for the careers advisor, so ask Mr Graham for an appointment as soon as you can if you know you’ll need it.
- If you don’t ask, you don’t get. You’re at a stage now where staff know that you are mature and want to provide you with the best opportunities they can to help you. Whether you feel a certain activity could benefit your future plans; you think there are important issues in the school that need to be addressed; or even if you just need some advice from a Head of Department to help you with your co-curricular endeavours, the help is there. But if you don’t ask somebody, no one will ever know you can be of their help. It might surprise you how many things you can put into place (I mean, some Anson sixth formers managed to get a house hamster…). Not to mention as a bonus, it might even be something you can add on to your application letters or personal statement.
- Girls, don’t even bother with the natural nail varnish. You use your hands so much during a school day it will be pretty badly chipped by day 2. It really isn’t worth the effort. You don’t want to be crying over your nails when you can be integrating a mathematical function.
- If you have period four free and you can just hear food beckoning for you, you could leave house slightly early to avoid the queues when the rest of the pupil stampede is released. But obviously don’t arrive before 1:00pm because, every minute counts when you are studying, right?
These are my current top tips for future sixth formers. A Level is a completely different experience to what you have had so far. Not only will you have to get used to a new lifestyle, you also have to start taking responsibility for things and be organised. Remember how you saw sixth formers when you were a junior? It’s now your turn to live up to that. On the other hand, sixth form is a lot of fun as well! You will make new friends, finally get all those privileges, have a diverse range of exciting opportunities offered to you, so work hard but don’t get too caught up either. You only get to experience this once, so enjoy it!
https://splice.gopro.com/v?id=epqWlLAJd
Post Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.