Tips for Starting Sixth Form
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After a wonderful ten weeks off, students up and down the country will be heading into Year 12, ready to start their Sixth Form journey. If they pay any attention to the internet, they will soon figure out that the next two years are bloody difficult.
If you are heading to Sixth Form this September, there is a lot you should know. I’m about to start Year 13, so I know what you’ll be going through and can give you the real advice schools often fail to provide.
1. Go to the first party
I made the mistake of not going to the first Sixth Form Party and so it took me longer to get integrated with the Year 13s, and indeed even my whole year. It’s easier if you go when everyone else does, especially if you’re not a social butterfly.
If you don’t feel comfortable going to the first one, that’s okay. You can still join later in the year and get integrated – it’s just easier if you start from the beginning.
2. Use your time wisely
Your teachers will tell you this one – and so will I. It is definitely the most important tip for Year 12 I can offer.
There is a lot of freedom that comes with being in Year 12 and you’re expected to work out what to do with it. Use some of it to work otherwise you will pay for it later in the year.
Use lots of your frees ( but not all) to do extra research and work on the topics you will be covering and touching on in Year 12. Get some books, look at some theories. It’s simple, shows you’re genuinely interested in the subjects you’re studying and have good self-motivation skills. And it will honestly pay off when you get your results either next year or in two years.
3. Speak to your teachers
There is a much closer bond between classes and teachers in Sixth Form, usually, because of the smaller class sizes, you will end up in. This is all a good thing. You can get some great nuggets of information when there are fewer people around to take up your teachers’ time.
Teachers are a great tool to utilise when you’re starting Sixth Form, so make sure you talk to them. Ask them about the work, extra reading or anything that interests you about their subject. They will have pieces of information that can be classed as ‘extra knowledge’ in exams that you can use and boost your grades with. Try and make the effort to learn more than just what’s on the curriculum.
4. Create a work-life balance
Throughout my GCSEs there was no work-life balance for me: it was all work. I had completely run myself into the ground by the end of things and there was no way I could continue doing that in Year 12.
Create a work-life balance in Year 12 by working during your frees at Sixth Form at the beginning and relaxing in the evenings, and/or going to do your part-time job. Even your part-time job is not school work, so you are not constantly thinking about it all of the time.
When you get towards December and into the new year, use the Christmas break to relax. Don’t work through it unless you get homework. You need your energy for when you return where you will have to do A Levels at Sixth Form and home much more. But even then, set a time limit for when you will finish work. I won’t work past 8 pm, for example.
5. Be yourself
One of the things people worry about most in Sixth Form is how they look and act. It seems that since you don’t have to wear a uniform and you can suddenly go to all of these parties and might even get drunk at them, you have to keep up a persona. That’s a load of rubbish.
People really don’t care when you’re in Sixth Form. Wear what you want and be who you are. Everyone is worrying about their own stuff, not whether your top is too ‘dressy’ or whether you’ve worn your hoodie for two weeks in a row (yes, that happens and nobody cares).
And if you were like me during your GCSEs and didn’t feel comfortable in who you are, worry not. In Sixth Form you can be who you truly are and not care if people aren’t a fan of it. If you want to sit in the library and read Harry Potter, do it. If you want to go to McDonald’s in your frees for the first two months, that’s up to you – do what you want. (However, be advised that too many McDonald’s trips will make you fat and make your grades as messy as eating a Big Mac.)
6. Revise
Even if you aren’t sitting external exams (marked by examiners not in your school) at the end of Year 12, the work you do gets carried over into Year 13 when it really matters.
Create revision for the end of every topic so that at the end of the year, you aren’t working flat out and can keep going over the key information from the beginning. It will chill you out and is undoubtedly a recipe for success.