The Student Room Group

Sixth form survival tips?

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Original post by katodizzle
plz


You just don't survive, sorry mate
work hard
play hard
Revise from the start, Speak to everyone and be nice, Don't over stress.
Run for the hills
If you're gonna use a memory stick to save your precious coursework:

a) back it up
b) back it up again
c) copy and paste the file to make duplicate files of the same document
c) back it up on your laptop / mums laptop / & anyone who's got a laptop in your family
d) somehow attach it to a dropbox file for extra precautions
e) make sure your computer is intact and isn't going to update to windows 10 or something.
f) keep saving your work and don't let little brothers / sisters near your laptop if your working

Here's 2 coursework's horror stories for you...
THESE ACTUALLY HAPPENED!!!

I lost about 1/3 of my coursework for a subject this year because Word did a faulty save and deleted it. It wasn't there on my laptop cos it wasn't backed up. I had to rewrite it and i had nearly finished the section. I cried for the rest of the day... haha luckily i got an extension but some teachers may not be as lenient.

Another girl was doing her coursework on her laptop. Suddenly, her water tank flooded from upstairs which flooded her kitchen + laptop. The memory stick was in the laptop & the laptop got soaked including the memory stick. Her coursework was due, but she had to send it to the manufacturers which took about 2 weeks - the coursework was recovered luckily.

Also like others have said keep on top of all nights / work in general.

Another point is, consider extra curricular / and whether your part time job will affect your studies or not it may be difficult to do all. Teachers will normally say how long it is appropriate to work for as well.

This is all you need to really know about 6th form & college though:


Original post by Rajive
What a levels did you do and what were your grades? :colondollar:


Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths I'm doing AS this year so no grades yet
Reply 46
Original post by Lauren1999
Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths I'm doing AS this year so no grades yet


Oh okay, do you plan on dropping any?
Original post by Rajive
Oh okay, do you plan on dropping any?

Maths
Use Google Drive for everything.
- automatically saves
- able to access past versions of files
- can share with teachers/friends who can live edit
- built-in research tools
- can access live copy from any device (phone, laptop, tablet, even an xbox)


My personal favourite has been the ability to send documents that you can live edit. It allows you to send incomplete homework to your teacher so they think you've done it on time, then finish it at home before they actually read it!
Original post by bizzy_penguin
If you're gonna use a memory stick to save your precious coursework:

a) back it up
b) back it up again
c) copy and paste the file to make duplicate files of the same document
c) back it up on your laptop / mums laptop / & anyone who's got a laptop in your family
d) somehow attach it to a dropbox file for extra precautions
e) make sure your computer is intact and isn't going to update to windows 10 or something.
f) keep saving your work and don't let little brothers / sisters near your laptop if your working

Here's 2 coursework's horror stories for you...
THESE ACTUALLY HAPPENED!!!

I lost about 1/3 of my coursework for a subject this year because Word did a faulty save and deleted it. It wasn't there on my laptop cos it wasn't backed up. I had to rewrite it and i had nearly finished the section. I cried for the rest of the day... haha luckily i got an extension but some teachers may not be as lenient.

Another girl was doing her coursework on her laptop. Suddenly, her water tank flooded from upstairs which flooded her kitchen + laptop. The memory stick was in the laptop & the laptop got soaked including the memory stick. Her coursework was due, but she had to send it to the manufacturers which took about 2 weeks - the coursework was recovered luckily.

Also like others have said keep on top of all nights / work in general.

Another point is, consider extra curricular / and whether your part time job will affect your studies or not it may be difficult to do all. Teachers will normally say how long it is appropriate to work for as well.

This is all you need to really know about 6th form & college though:




Thank you! I'll definitely keep this in mind next year :smile:
Original post by TelAviv
Use Google Drive for everything.
- automatically saves
- able to access past versions of files
- can share with teachers/friends who can live edit
- built-in research tools
- can access live copy from any device (phone, laptop, tablet, even an xbox)


My personal favourite has been the ability to send documents that you can live edit. It allows you to send incomplete homework to your teacher so they think you've done it on time, then finish it at home before they actually read it!


Thanks :smile:
-Don't just sit there in your free/study periods talking if you have revision to be doing or work to be doing. Trust me, you will regret it. I spent the first term sitting and making new friends during my frees. That costed me 3 weeks worth of revision which I'm still trying to catch up on (slowly).

-Have a small group of friends. It's very difficult to float around large groups of people. I found it difficult to make friends at first so I decided to float around large groups of people. In the end it became so demanding the amount of conversations I'd have at one point I just had to split into a small group.

-Time off school? Make sure you email your teachers beforehand and let them know so they can possibly send you work if you're well enough to do it. If not they should understand. Don't take the sneaky days off because you hate Mr Smiths lesson on Tuesdays or Mrs Clarks lesson on Friday period 3 - You will end up being picked up by a member of the sixth form team about it. Don't take time off unless you're genuinely ill and physically cannot get into school and concentrate.

-Homework. For some reason my subject teachers have never set me homework, it seems to be we're just told to revise. However, if you receive homework do it on the night and hand it in on the day (or before).

-If you decide you want to go to university spend some of your free periods looking into things you could be doing to build on and talk about in your UCAS personal statement. I'm currently in Y12 and I haven't been doing this, I've only just been recently attending chess clubs, law society and other events around the school. I've also been asked to help out with the law society.

-If you want to get more involved within the school if you're an external student, consider setting up a club. You can make a lot of new friends from all years and find lots of things in common. You can also put this on your UCAS.

-Don't mess around in lessons. Don't talk in your lessons unless you need to, don't interrupt your teacher. They are literally the make/break of your A-Level if you're not into self teaching yourself. If you can't respect the teacher then it's going to be a tough year.

-Find out if you're allowed to exit at lunchtimes. I find that sitting in the local park during the lunch hour helps me relax a bit. Sometimes I pop home quickly and eat my lunch there just to get away from the school for a bit.
Reply 52
Original post by Muttski
-Don't just sit there in your free/study periods talking if you have revision to be doing or work to be doing. Trust me, you will regret it. I spent the first term sitting and making new friends during my frees. That costed me 3 weeks worth of revision which I'm still trying to catch up on (slowly).

-Have a small group of friends. It's very difficult to float around large groups of people. I found it difficult to make friends at first so I decided to float around large groups of people. In the end it became so demanding the amount of conversations I'd have at one point I just had to split into a small group.

-Time off school? Make sure you email your teachers beforehand and let them know so they can possibly send you work if you're well enough to do it. If not they should understand. Don't take the sneaky days off because you hate Mr Smiths lesson on Tuesdays or Mrs Clarks lesson on Friday period 3 - You will end up being picked up by a member of the sixth form team about it. Don't take time off unless you're genuinely ill and physically cannot get into school and concentrate.

-Homework. For some reason my subject teachers have never set me homework, it seems to be we're just told to revise. However, if you receive homework do it on the night and hand it in on the day (or before).

-If you decide you want to go to university spend some of your free periods looking into things you could be doing to build on and talk about in your UCAS personal statement. I'm currently in Y12 and I haven't been doing this, I've only just been recently attending chess clubs, law society and other events around the school. I've also been asked to help out with the law society.

-If you want to get more involved within the school if you're an external student, consider setting up a club. You can make a lot of new friends from all years and find lots of things in common. You can also put this on your UCAS.

-Don't mess around in lessons. Don't talk in your lessons unless you need to, don't interrupt your teacher. They are literally the make/break of your A-Level if you're not into self teaching yourself. If you can't respect the teacher then it's going to be a tough year.

-Find out if you're allowed to exit at lunchtimes. I find that sitting in the local park during the lunch hour helps me relax a bit. Sometimes I pop home quickly and eat my lunch there just to get away from the school for a bit.


What subjects are you doing?
Reply 53
One thing which is exceptionally important is to segregate work from fun. Don't try multitask. When working, work. Put down the mobile, switch off the tv, exclude yourself from others. Don't do two tasks at once because it just means you'll do two tasks half done in twice the time. By doing this; allowing yourself complete focus - it means you have much more time to relax as you'll find you finish tasks much quicker and much more effectively!:smile:
Original post by Rajive
What subjects are you doing?

Law (AS currently, hoping to do A2)
Classics (AS currently, hoping to do A2)
Economics (full 2 year course)
I'm also doing an EPQ where I'm writing a screenplay on a Athenian courtroom in the classical era, a somewhat 'who done it' screenplay.
Original post by cowie
One thing which is exceptionally important is to segregate work from fun. Don't try multitask. When working, work. Put down the mobile, switch off the tv, exclude yourself from others. Don't do two tasks at once because it just means you'll do two tasks half done in twice the time. By doing this; allowing yourself complete focus - it means you have much more time to relax as you'll find you finish tasks much quicker and much more effectively!:smile:


Good plan, I really need to do that lol

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