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| Check the time stamp on that tweet - literally just about a week before my GCSE results! |
BS THEORY #1: 'A Levels are easier than GCSEs because you're doing fewer subjects'
This theory is probably the one that irritates me and many other A Level students alike the most - this is utter nonsense. Sure, you're doing fewer subjects and I understand at GCSEs when you're studying like 10 subjects, the prospect of doing 3-5 sounds a lot easier, but A Levels are about 50 times harder than GCSEs. You have to learn a hell of a lot of extra detail, like you know at GCSEs when learning specific detail was something you did if you really wanted the A*? Yeah, at A Levels the specific detail is bare minimum like it'll probably bring you to a C at most so already you're having to put in a lot more effort to get a C.
BS THEORY #2: 'You'll be able to do all your work and revision in your free periods so you'll have a lot more free time'
Again, this isn't true because you get so much extra work at A Levels and there's so much content to revise, you're going to need free periods as well as time outside of school to do all the work you need to do. Don't get me wrong, you'll still have free time but you definitely won't have as free a schedule as you did at GCSEs.
BS THEORY #3: 'You have to do A Levels if you want to get into University'
I can't stress this enough, but if you don't feel like exams are your sort of thing, you do not have to do A Levels, you can do a BTEC and still get into University. There are certain courses at certain Universities that will only take A Levels and that's granted but for loads of courses they accept people with BTEC results and I know people who weren't so into exams but did amazingly on their BTEC and got unconditional offers from good Universities so please don't listen to all that crap about how A Levels are the only route into University and can we please stop with the whole 'BTECs are for stupid people' malarkey. Yes, I did A Levels but I know from other people that BTECs are still a heck of a lot of work, that's why you can get onto a University course with, for example, entry requirements of BBB at A Levels but DDM at BTEC - so if you don't feel exams are for you, please do consider a BTEC and don't let people put you off them because of the stereotypes around them, you know what kind of education is best suited for you I'm sure.
BS THEORY #4: 'You should do a Science subject because it looks good on your UCAS'
Okay, this is true in general like you should never do a subject based on the fact that it looks good on your UCAS, but I know in Science this is a particularly big problem and it's something that actually happened to me.
As you may know, I did Biology for As and hated it within the first couple of weeks. I did actually really like Biology at GCSE and our teachers made us think that the course we were doing was basically A Level (which was complete and utter rubbish anyway, we were doing Cambridge CIE iGCSE, which is done in public schools and is a heck of a lot harder than a regular GCSE) so I assumed I'd be fine at A Level, but I absolutely hated it and found no enjoyment in the course anymore, but I didn't even question dropping it before A2 because I thought that having a Science subject there would make my UCAS look better but it really wasn't worth the trouble. Firstly, I genuinely despised going into school on some days because I knew I'd have Biology (Thursdays especially because, whilst I had a half day, I had 4 periods of Biology) and this made me really down on those days. Secondly, I wouldn't concentrate much in lesson or I'd get lost because I didn't care about what we were learning and I didn't find it at all interesting for the most part (although, gonna give it some credit, I quite liked all the biology on food and diet like that was pretty interesting.) Thirdly, I basically scraped a pass in it so I barely got any UCAS points from it anyway plus Universities only look at 3 subjects generally and they pretty much disregard As entirely.
This brings me onto another point, never do a subject if you have the intention of dropping it. During the first few weeks of A Levels, I knew I either wanted to drop Biology or History but after those few weeks I was dead set on dropping Biology and I'm pretty certain it's that mentality that contributed to me not working as hard in it. Essentially what I'm trying to say is, do subjects that you love. Also, if you're only doing certain A Levels to get onto a certain Uni course and you hate those subjects, you probably won't like the Uni course so you may need to reconsider what you want to do. Furthermore, to do well in a subject you should have some sort of interest in it otherwise revision is going to be a complete task (I don't really think revision should be the most enjoyable of tasks, but if you're bored to tears revising it like I was learning about bonds and Alpha helixes and all that jazz, you're doing the wrong course).
BS THEORY #5: 'Once you've made your choices for A Levels, you're stuck with them'
There's a degree of truth in this in the sense that if you're a few months into the course, then it's probably not worth changing because you won't be able to catch up on a new course in time for the exam (the year goes by dangerously fast, be prepared) but if you change in the first few weeks, there'll probably still be places on other courses that you can change to or you can drop a subject if you're not liking it. I feel like you do get a feel for the course you're doing in the first few weeks of it, I know I definitely did (especially with Biology, but lets not go through that again) so if you don't like a course in the first few weeks, don't hesitate to ask your Head of Year about changing. They may not let you drop it in the first few weeks because it's possible after a first assessment sort of dealio you get a good grade so they can persuade you to stay on the course, but you may be able to change to a different course that you'll enjoy more.
That's all I really have to say, I hope any of you receiving GCSE results are happy with what you get, and I hope it's enough to do what you want to do next whether that be A Levels, BTEC or an Apprenticeship (I think there are more options too but these are the main ones that I'm aware of).
What are your tips for those who've just finished their GCSEs?
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