The Student Room Group

Change From Yr11 To Sixth Form

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Reply 80
Are you kidding?? Free periods were actually the best thing that ever happened to me! I don't know how I used to cope with 5 lessons a day! It kinda means that you don't really have to do any homework at home, you can just do it all in your frees. Or you can just sit in the common room, drinking coffee, eating chocolate and just talk about what happened on saturday night.
Reply 81
PurpleSnow
I start tomorrow!
But.. what I'm worried about is that I can see so many free lessons, and I think I'm going to get bored!

How can free lessons be considered a bad thing? Just use them to do homework.

Also how many free periods do you get? I keep on seeing posts with people talking about how they have loads of free periods (but never saying how many), but I only have 3 hours free a week out of 25.
brimstone
That time has come. The end of the exams are soon to be in sight, then the long summer holidays, the results and finally... moving on to Sixth Form :eek:. It's a big change going from GCSEs to A Levels, so this thread is here to help you find out about the transition from normal school to Sixth Form.

Feel free to ask questions here and to discuss the changes :smile:

Thank you to kellywood_5 for the following information :

From school to sixth form
-You'll have a much better relationship with most of your teachers and they'll treat you more like adults, even as friends sometimes
-Depending on the subjects you take and the size of your sixth form, the classes will probably be much smaller, allowing for more interaction in lessons and a more relaxed atmosphere
-You'll have frees and it'll most likely be up to you how you spend them
-You'll still be nagged to get your work done, but because you're there of your own free will, they can't do anything to you if you don't, so you need more self-motivation
-You'll be the most senior students in the school and thus expected to set a good example to the younger pupils

From GCSEs to A-levels-You only have to study your favourite and best subjects, which is obviously great
-The work will be much more in depth and probably more interesting
-For essay subjects, it'll be much more about analysis and evaluation than just pure facts
-You can no longer get away with having a basic knowledge of a subject and then blagging the exam or just learning reams of facts without actually understanding them

hiya i noticed that you have taken as english lit and french, im thinking of taking them and I just wondered what you thought of them???
Reply 83
i actualy thought i had to do the same amount of work, which is not saying alot for gcse's as i did zilch. in my second year now i actualy enjoy the level of work becuase its in subjects i like, although i find them hard alot the times its good to understand lots of new stuff. great atmosphere and relationships with teachers.
Is anyone finding Sixth form even more of a doss than GCSE was?
Reply 85
I want to do the IB but I need to change school.
My nearest IB school is Slough Grammar.
Does anyone know it? Is it any good?
sluggabed
pretty much..yeah!


we had to wear suits, so the yr7s often mistook us for teachers



Aww!

They can also be little brats to Prefects and Year 11s. :mad:
Choccielatte
Aww!

They can also be little brats to Prefects and Year 11s. :mad:

*is hoping to become Year 7 Prefect: interview tomorrow*

They are quite sweet at our school though :smile:
Reply 88
Lucyatthegym
Is anyone finding Sixth form even more of a doss than GCSE was?


Certainly me. My secondary school was absolutely useless and so GCSEs were pretty difficult for me as I didn't know a lot of the stuff. It wasn't that I had to do a lot of work, it was more I couldn't.

A levels have been so easy so far, it's brilliant. At college the teachers are really good... they tell you all the things you need to know to get a high mark in the exams.
Reply 89
I'm staying on at my schools sixth form, from reading this thread I think I've made the right choice :smile:, had my interviews recently. I'm planning on doing Business, Psychology, Law and ICT. Anyone do these subjects? Supposedly A Level ICT is really crap I hear...
*Mr.$andhu*
I'm staying on at my schools sixth form, from reading this thread I think I've made the right choice :smile:, had my interviews recently. I'm planning on doing Business, Psychology, Law and ICT. Anyone do these subjects? Supposedly A Level ICT is really crap I hear...


Law isn't considered a good choice by many unis - it's not very good.

I want to go to study law and decided not to choose it for that reason.
Reply 91
Choccielatte
Law isn't considered a good choice by many unis - it's not very good.

I want to go to study law and decided not to choose it for that reason.

Yep I want to do law as well, and I have not taken it either.

Furthermore my step dad has told me that it is not even that greater footing for doing law at university. As he said they had no advantage at all as far as he could tell. However don't let that stop you, I don't see it hurting your chances in the slightest.


As for me I am changing schools (thank god) and doing English lit, History, Geography, economics and a critical thinking AS.
harr
How can free lessons be considered a bad thing? Just use them to do homework.

I know this is a really old post, but I have to comment... free lessons are possibly the worst thing about sixth form. I reckon I'm turning lazy because of them. Great when you have some homework to do, but even then, 40 minutes generally isn't long enough to do it, motivation is probably very low as it's noisy in the sixth form centre and everyone else is having fun... and then if you do take those lessons off, you become lazy and don't really want to go to your next lesson. It's a real motivation-killer. 8 lessons a day used to be great for me, I could just go through the day without thinking about it, but now if I have a huge 40-minute hole in my day, 40 minutes sitting in the common room tires me out and really makes me feel like I don't want to go to my next lesson.

That said, my free on Monday morning, period 1, is the best thing that's ever happened to me. Ever.
Reply 93
generalebriety
Great when you have some homework to do, but even then, 40 minutes generally isn't long enough to do it,

You get more homework than me then.
It's a real motivation-killer.

I find it the opposite. I like to concentrate in all my subjects (other than biology and the stats modules of maths), but I can't concentrate the whole day: it's exhausting. At GCSE I had loads of subjects where I wouldn't pay attention (especially english as we would spend weeks going over points for which one lesson would be sufficient) but at A level I need the breaks. I don't have any frees on Monday, Wednesday or Thursday and I can't concentrate in the last lesson of any of those three days.
Reply 94
generalebriety
I know this is a really old post, but I have to comment... free lessons are possibly the worst thing about sixth form. I reckon I'm turning lazy because of them. Great when you have some homework to do, but even then, 40 minutes generally isn't long enough to do it, motivation is probably very low as it's noisy in the sixth form centre and everyone else is having fun... and then if you do take those lessons off, you become lazy and don't really want to go to your next lesson. It's a real motivation-killer. 8 lessons a day used to be great for me, I could just go through the day without thinking about it, but now if I have a huge 40-minute hole in my day, 40 minutes sitting in the common room tires me out and really makes me feel like I don't want to go to my next lesson.

That said, my free on Monday morning, period 1, is the best thing that's ever happened to me. Ever.

Completely agree ;yes;
generalebriety
40 minutes generally isn't long enough to do it


My lessons were 1 hour 45 minutes each, so that was more than long enough to do it :p: I agree with some of your post though. Frees never demotivated me or made me not want to go to my lessons, but it was practically impossible to get anything done in them because the common room was always noisy and since some genius decided it would be a fantastic idea to get rid of the library :rolleyes: there was nowhere else to go. They always seemed pointless at the beginning or in the middle of the day, but I had Thursday and Friday afternoons off because of them, which was excellent :biggrin:
kellywood_5
My lessons were 1 hour 45 minutes each, so that was more than long enough to do it :p: I agree with some of your post though. Frees never demotivated me or made me not want to go to my lessons, but it was practically impossible to get anything done in them because the common room was always noisy and since some genius decided it would be a fantastic idea to get rid of the library :rolleyes: there was nowhere else to go. They always seemed pointless at the beginning or in the middle of the day, but I had Thursday and Friday afternoons off because of them, which was excellent :biggrin:

Oh, we have a library. We have two work rooms, a prefects' room, two common rooms and a games room, and they're all just as full, bouncy and noisy. :rolleyes: I like frees at the beginning of the day, because I have to walk to school (which normally means I'm incredibly late so I have to run to school), so in my free I can sit down and get my breath back. :p:

harr
I find it the opposite. I like to concentrate in all my subjects (other than biology and the stats modules of maths), but I can't concentrate the whole day: it's exhausting.

Strange... I just find it much easier to be constantly doing something. It's the same with my revision - as soon as I stop for a 10-minute break, I end up taking a 10-hour break.

That said, I should get down to it.
Reply 97
generalebriety
It's the same with my revision - as soon as I stop for a 10-minute break, I end up taking a 10-hour break.

I find the best way to get around that is to avoid revising.
I'm thinking of picking Maths, Chemistry, Biology and Psychology has anyone picked any and are they good???
Reply 99
Scorpio2211
I'm thinking of picking Maths, Chemistry, Biology and Psychology has anyone picked any and are they good???

I am in year 11 still. but the way I picked options was to look at notes online for the subject and stuff, as well as look at the course. So you can see what sort of stuff is on it and whether it interests you.

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