~Gingerbread's Guide to Starting Sixth Form~

1. Make sure you've picked the right subjects
While this one might be a bit late for some of you, there's nothing worse than having one of your three or four only subjects as something it turns out you don't enjoy. Look through the course summary if your Sixth Form give it to you, or look it up on the exam board website. Many subjects are also quite different at A Level compared to GCSE, so make sure you talk to your teachers about it too. You should really be taking a subject if you're good at it and enjoy it, rather than just one of them. Make sure you keep in mind what you want to do with your subjects too.

2. Make sure your notes are consistent
At the start of the year, try to make a system of colour coding and notetaking for each subject. This might mean writing all of your dates/facts/names/definitions in a certain colour, or always highlighting certain factors in the same colour. This makes it a lot easier to read when you're recapping everything at the end.

3. Prepare to take speed notes
Your lessons may become more like lectures than you're used to, where your teacher will have a presentation up and just talk for a while. To practice for uni and to make sure you get everything down, try to paraphrase what they're saying, make abbreviations and initialisms, just do anything to make your writing quicker. You can always rewrite your notes in neat later if you want to have a proper neat copy.

4. Start revising early
For a lot of subjects, you're now going to have lots of exams at the end of Year 13. Don't think this means you don't need to work in Year 12! It's a good idea to keep refreshing what you're learning. Recap each subject at the end of every week, and then recap each topic you've completed 2 weeks later, then 4 weeks later, then 8 weeks later. Keep going over things you don't understand.

5. Get to know your teachers
In Sixth Form, a lot of teachers are a lot friendlier and open to giving you independence. If you get to know them and chat to them, they'll probably be more willing to spend more time giving you additional help and advice that you need.

6. Work on your Personal Statement
If you haven't previously been into extracurricular activities, now is the perfect time to start. Try and join a few clubs, become a Prefect or Head Boy/Girl, join the School Council, do Duke of Edinburgh. If you have always been into doing things like that on the other hand, start making a list of what you've done and think about what skills they have given you. Consider what you want to do after Sixth Form (or at least the vague direction) and see if you have any gaps missing in your experience.

Hi just a quick question. You know when you said reviewing everything you learnt after 2 weeks and etc... Do you mean that i should review from the very very start or ?
Thank you x

Because anyone can become a headgirl/boy...

Yep, don't neglect the things you do early on

There's no harm in applying, just try to go head first into any PS advancing opportunities as you can

Is it possible if you could give me an example i don't really understand

So if for example in your first week you looked at Hitler in WW1 for example, then a few weeks later you might go back to your notes about that and condense them, and then a bit later after that you might go back again and make some flashcards about Hitler in WW1, then you might test yourself every few weeks on them