Advice for new Year 13s

Hello! It's me, I was wondering if....

No, don't worry, I'm not going to turn all Adele on you!

Today I thought I'd share some of my advice for those of you readers who have just finished Year 12 and are about to enter Year 13. I found Year 13 a huge step up from Year 12 so I hope this is able to help even one person!

1) Choosing which subject to drop

This is potentially the biggest decision you'll have to make so far in your college career. This was quite easy for me, because I did a lot worse in one of my subjects than the other three - and I also did not enjoy philosophy so that was an easy decision for me! But for you lucky people who have done well in all your subjects, this could be a much trickier decision. When deciding which subject to drop, I would recommend thinking of it this way:

A) The subject you did worse in - especially with your year group having much less coursework, I would be aware that it's much harder to increase your grade through an exam. (Or consider a resit as well?).

B) The subject you find hardest - If you find one of your subjects much harder than the others, consider dropping this one. Remember that everything gets much harder at A Level than AS so if you're finding a subject really hard now, this might make you enjoy it less at A Level.

C) The subject you like least - This is a pretty obvious one really I think. If you hated a subject before, you might enjoy it even less this year. However, I would consider what is you dislike about the subject before you decide to drop it. Is it the course itself? Or the contents? Or the teacher? Remember that both the second two can be very different at A Level than AS.

However, despite all that, my number one piece of advice is that it MUST be your decision. Ask as many people for advice as you like, however don't let them make the decision for you! If someone else heavily influences your decision, it may affect how much you enjoy Year 13. Also, remember that it's not going to massively change your life, so don't worry too much!

2) Personal Statement

I know that you're probably going to want to be enjoying your last few weeks of freedom before you go back to college/sixth form in September, I can't tell you enough how much I recommend getting a first draft done for when you go back to college. I didn't do this (despite college advising us to) and I wish I had. It just makes the whole UCAS/applying for jobs or apprenticeships process so much simpler and quicker for when you go back to college. Also, the sooner you have your application finished, the sooner you'll get the offers back from the universities or the requests for interviews. So even if it seems like hard work starting it now, it's going to save you a lot of stress in the long run! Also, it can take a lot of drafts to get your personal statement perfect and when your tutors have a lot of people's to check, it's good to get ahead of the game so that they can get changes back to you!
I wrote this post a while ago giving my advice for writing your personal statement, feel free to check it out again!

3) Concentrate on Coursework
Sorry, couldn't resist the alliteration!!! When I got my A Level results, I hadn't done at all how I expected in my exams - especially in my resits (I'd done worse in all but one resit) and so I was amazed at how I had managed to achieve such good grades overall. When I looked closer at the breakdown of my grades for each subject, I realised that it was my coursework that saved me. All my subjects were 40% coursework and so all the hard work I'd put into my coursework had been worthwhile! The high grades I had achieved in that had saved my grades overall!
If you'd like to hear more of my advice for coursework, I wrote this post a while ago.

4) Get the balance right
I doubt that I need to remind you that Year 13 is the year you turn 18! I'm guessing that for a lot of you (like I was) who are looking forward to finally being a legal adult and able to go out clubbing etc. There are many advantages of this, in that it can take your mind off all the stress you're probably going to be facing at college, however there are also some disadvantages of this as 'recovery' time (if you know what I mean ;) ) can take away time from your studies. The main thing is to have fun, but make sure that you're sensible. Having a good social life is really important, especially in Year 13, as it can be a welcome distraction from everything else!
Similarly, having a part time job is great for many reasons, especially in that you can save up money for uni or whatever you're doing the following year. Just make sure that your college work is always the priority because that's what will help you most in the future! My bosses at work were very understanding, especially in the build up to exams and I'm sure that yours would be too!

5) Enjoy!!
Although ridiculously hectic and often stressful, the last academic year was my best so far. I made new friends and solidified friendships I'd made in first year of college and generally enjoyed life. So make the most of this stage of life because if you're anything like me, you'll look back at the end of the year and be glad that you worked hard but also had fun. So make the most of it!

So that's my main bits of advice for new Year 13s! If you'd like advice for anything specifically, feel free to get in touch!
Thanks for reading, and for all your support, it means a lot!

If you'd like to vote for me as UCAS Blogger of the Month, you can do that here. Thank you!

Until next time,
Anna x

So Many Levels of Joy

Hello!

If you haven't guessed by the title of this post... I GOT INTO HOPE!!!!!!!

I can't even begin to describe how happy I am! Not only did I get into university, I surpassed my own expectations and achieved AAB - grades that I only dreamed of!

Thursday

I woke up at 5:53am, with my A Level results being posted on my online college account at 6am. I knew I couldn't bear to wait those seven minutes so turned over and went back to sleep. During the time I was asleep I dreamt that I'd failed English Lit and woke up in a panic! I imagined it was around 7:30am. It was actually just gone 6am!!! I anxiously logged on to the system and then spent a good couple of minutes being too nervous to click on the "exam results" sidebar! When I did it, I was at first a little confused as there were a lot of exams on there (from both last year and this) and I hadn't done particularly well in a lot of the exams. I then realised that my overall grades were at the top of the page. And I was absolutely elated!!

The night before results day, my Mum and I were talking about what grades I actually wanted - not what I needed to get into Hope. I had told her that the grades I wanted so badly were AAB. And that is what I achieved!! To say I was overjoyed is the understatement of the year!!
That morning, I went and woke up my parents and told them my results. Although both were still half asleep, they were also extremely happy and also very proud. I tried to go back to sleep after this but was unsuccessful so I put some music on and messaged my friends to see if they'd also had good news!

Later in the morning I had to go into college to officially collect my results but it was also a good excuse to see my friends and begin the celebrations early!!

Six extremely happy people

The fact that my closest friends all got into the universities they wanted made my happiness even greater. With us all being happy, it made the celebrations even better - both at college and then later that night!
Liverpool, Manchester, Ormskirk, Preston and Stirling - watch out, we're coming for you!!!

I'm not going to go into detail, but the celebrations continued long into the night and early morning! It was lovely going into town and celebrating with loads of people from college who I hadn't seen since the end of exams!

Friday

The celebrations for me continued on Friday, with my parents taking my sisters and I out for tea to celebrate both my A Level Results and my younger sister's AS results (which were also fantastic, so proud of you Rachel!!) I had a lovely meal and it was really great to relax and celebrate with my family.

Can't celebrate exam success without a family selfie!!! ;)

So overall, I'm ridiculously happy! The celebrations were amazing and I'm so proud of my results, I feel like they reflect the hard work that I put in over the past two years. Thank you to everyone who has supported me through this time, whether to encourage me or to be a shoulder to cry on when it got tough. I'm so blessed to have such amazing and supportive people in my life, so thank you all!

If you'd like to make this month for me, please vote for me as UCAS Blogger of the Month, which you can do here. Thank you!

I'm so excited that in a month and three days, I'll be moving into my halls at Liverpool Hope University! I can't wait for this next new chapter in my life to start!

Anna x

Mixed Emotions

Hello again!

I know its been a long time since I last blogged but fear not! I have a couple of posts in the pipeline so hopefully it won't be too long before you hear from me again!!

With less than 10 hours until my A Level results are released, I wanted to write a very brief post about how I'm feeling: Mainly so I can look back tomorrow or some day in the future and remember this!

In all honesty, I'm not fully sure how I feel. I'm extremely nervous and apprehensive but at the same time slightly excited for it all to be over and done with so I can get on with prepping to go to uni this time next month!!! (So soon!!!) I want tomorrow morning to be over so badly but at the same time I really don't! My head is like a washing machine and I can't wait for it to get off spin cycle and everything to slow down!

Avril Lavigne might have said "here's to never growing up" and while part of me is wishing that to be true, the other part of me is really excited for this next stage in my life to begin - with tomorrow being the first stepping stone on the road!

So to all my family, friends and lovely readers, I wish you all the very best of luck and I hope that you get the results tomorrow that will not only get you where you want to be uni/apprenticeship/job-wise, but will make you happy and feel proud of yourselves. Whatever happens though, everything happens for a reason and so even if things don't go as perfectly as you hoped, there will always be light at the end of the tunnel.

All my love and best wishes to you all (and I hope we manage to sleep at least a bit tonight!!!)

Anna xx

Embracing Freedom

Hello!

I'm back! Once again, it's been ages since I last blogged. I have about four posts published as drafts but I wasn't happy with any of them so drafts they'll stay! Gotta love writer's block...

In much more positive news, I found out the other day that I was voted UCAS Blogger of the Month for June. It was a lovely surprise and I'm so grateful to everyone for reading and voting. So thank you!!!

Even though I finished college three and a half weeks ago, I'm still not used to having no work or revision to do. As I'm sure my Mum would agree, I don't know what to do with myself without college! I'm still finding the whole relaxing thing really weird and I keep feeling guilty that I should be revising or something!

So I thought I'd share some of my hopes and plans for this summer:

1) World Youth Day in Krakow

I've had this booked for almost a year now and I'm so excited for it! Millions of young Catholics like myself will be gathering together in Krakow and we will be joined by Pope Francis. I'm really looking forward to travelling there with my diocese and all the adventures we'll have on the journey and when we arrive in Poland! It's gonna be fab!

2) Spontaneous adventures

With two of my friends having their own cars, I'm really hoping that this summer we can just jump in the car and go for random day trips! I'm looking forward to being able to spend quality time with my closest friends before we go our separate ways in September to uni or whatever we have planned next! Keeping my fingers crossed that the weather is nice for us!

Four of my faves, can't wait to have fun together this summer!

3) Family time

It's been a really busy year for my family and so I'm looking forward to spending time together relaxing and just enjoying each other's company. We bought my Dad a barbeque for Father's Day and so I'm hoping we'll get plenty of use out of it this summer! Again, hopefully the weather will be nice for us!!!!

4) Uni Shopping

Today my Mum and I started making a list of things I'll need for uni... and its a long list!! I'm really excited though to start buying things and to start thinking about how I want my uni bedroom to look. I currently have loads of photos of friends and family up on my bedroom walls and I also have a thing for fairy lights so buying things to make my room look pretty (and obviously the practical stuff as well!!) is going to be loads of fun!

5) Catch ups

I have so many friends who I haven't seen in ages and so I'd love to spend time this summer catching up with some of them and finding out what's going on in their lives. Really looking forward to all the catch ups I've got planned!

6) Hope Picnic Meeting

Some of us who are planning to go to Hope Uni in September are in a Facebook group chat (think I've probably mentioned this before) and a group of us are planning to meet at the end of August to get to know each other. And what better way to do this than with a picnic on campus?! Really excited to start getting to know (in person!) some of the people who will hopefully be my friends for the next three years!

7) Results Day

You probably think I'm crazy to be looking forward to results day and to be honest, I probably am!! But after all the time I spent slaving away revising and everything in preparation for my exams, I'm ready to find out how I've done. And also, after all the time I've spent dreaming about living and studying at Hope, I'm desperate to find out if I'll be able to call it home from September!

8) Read

I've always loved reading, but I haven't read for the sake of it in almost two years! My Mum has been collecting books for me that she thinks I'll enjoy and so I'm enjoying reading again! I'm currently reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and I'm absolutely loving it! Can't wait to read the rest of the books Mum has saved for me!

So that's just a few things I'm hoping to do this summer and hopefully, I'll be able to achieve them all! I also hope that the weather is nice so I can spend a lot of time outside in the sunshine!

Once again, thank you for voting for me, and if you'd like to vote for me to win Blogger of the Month for July I'd be really grateful! You can do that here! Thanks!

With it being uni open day season, I'm thinking of doing a post or two about the process of applying to uni and my top tips for open days, If any one has anything they'd like me to blog about, please let me know!

Anna x

Nearly There

Hello!

It seems like it's been ages since I've blogged but revision and exams have fully taken over my life! This is only going to be short as I have an exam tomorrow and one on Friday which I need to revise for, but I just wanted to show that I haven't dropped off the face of the earth (not yet anyway!!).

I can't quite believe I'm saying this, but I have only one more lesson and two exams left until I finish college! It seems like these past few weeks have flown by (thank goodness!) and now I can finally see the end in sight.

I can't wait for exams to be over and then I have a nice long summer ahead where I'll be able to work and earn extra money before uni but (most importantly) spend loads of time with my friends before we all go off to uni or whatever we're doing next year. It's gonna be fab!

So here's to the light fast approaching at the end of the tunnel and I want to wish everyone the best of luck with your remaining exams! They'll be fine, go and smash it!!

Anna x

P.S. If you want to vote for me as Blogger of the Month, you can do it here. Thanks!  

Preparing for Exams

Hello!

I hope you're okay and not too stressed with exams and revision etc. I've done 2 exams so far this year and so I thought I'd share my top tips on how I prepare the day of my exam.

Morning and afternoon exams are obviously very different, and I know that everyone has one they prefer. Personally, I like morning exams much better because I feel fresher and more energised in the morning and so I'm able to concentrate for longer - most of the time anyway!!

So here is what I do on the day of the exam to help me feel prepared and calm.

1) Confidence

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the most self-confident person in the world. My motto for confidence is "fake it till you make it" and that works pretty well most of the time!

For both my exams so far, I've woken up early before college so I can wash my hair and plan an outfit so I feel like I look half-decent anyway!! Another advantage of washing my hair in the morning is that it helps me feel less tired and groggy and so I don't feel like I'll fall asleep before I even get in the exam hall!

2) No cramming!!

The morning of an exam I try really hard not to cram. I know its really tempting, but I don't find cramming helpful to me at all. The only revision I do is to read through past answers that I've scored high marks on so I can remember the style I've written in and also the exam technique.

3) Relax!

I feel that I do much better in an exam if I'm not stressing my head off before! Before my lit resit this morning, I played my favourite music playlist and had a laugh with my youngest sister before she went to school. Before my afternoon exam on Wednesday, I had a really nice dinner and spent the morning reading over a past answer I'd done and chilled with my Mum before I went to college.

4) Positivity

My college shared a post this week on social media this week which was advice on how to prepare for your exams and I found it really informative (if you're interested, this is the article. One of the things it suggested is to surround yourself with people who make you feel good/calm before your exam. So I've spent a lot of time this week with my parents and closest friends because I know they'll stop me from going crazy!! I also took a break from social media from the night of my exam until I'd sat it. Other people's nerves really affect me and so taking a little break helped me to stay calm.

5) Believe in yourself

Before an exam, I always tell myself that I'll be fine. Again and again and again and again until I start to believe it. This helps me to stop panicking because I know that I know the knowledge, but I also know I'll forget it all if I stress and worry that I'll fail!

So that's my top 5 tips for how to be calm before an exam; obviously everyone has different things that work for them but I hope this inspires you before your exams.

I know I forgot this last week, but this week's Song of the Week is: This Is What You Came For by Rihanna and Calvin Harris. Such a fab song - another song for this summer I reckon!

Next week is my official final week in college so hopefully I'll have lots of leavers' photos to share with you. I can't believe I'm leaving Newman next week, these past two years seem to have flown by! Scary but also one more step towards uni!

If you'd like to vote for me as UCAS Blogger of the Month for May, you can do that here. Thanks so much for all your votes, I appreciate it so much!!

Good luck with any upcoming exams, just believe in yourself and you'll smash them!

Anna x

The Final Countdown

Hello!!

First of all, I want to say a massive THANK YOU so so much for everyone who voted and made me April's Blogger of the Month. I know I joked about trying to get two months in a row but for it to actually happen I'm so chuffed! I'm absolutely over the moon, so thank you! Another cause for celebration is that my blog has reached 2000+ views! So thanks not only for voting, but for reading it as well!!

That exam season thing is coming up as fast as Usain Bolt and I'm wishing it would slow down! Part of me wants them to come and be over with, but the other part wants time to drag so that I can feel more prepared. (I say that every year!)

My first exam is on Wednesday. And I'm really really nervous and also pretty stressed to say the least! My first four exams are resits and then I have my three A2 exams after May half term. Even though I'm spending so many hours each day revising I'm still absolutely dreading them. I'm one of those people who could revise every day and still go into an exam feeling unprepared.

However, I do know that I'll be fine once I get into the exam hall. It's just the build up that I can't bear! I also know that once I get the grades to go to Hope Uni it'll all be worth it. Let's just get them out the way! I'm so excited for this summer, so I'm hoping that sitting these exams is a stepping stone to that and the stress will be worth it!!

So whether your exams have already started, start this week or whenever, I wish you the best of luck and I hope that we all achieve the grades we so desperately want/need.

If you fancy voting for me to be blogger of the month, that would put a massive smile on my face in the middle of my exams!! You can do that here. Thank you!!

Anna x