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How difficult is sixth form?

I live in Sweden, although I'm half-English and used to live in England when I was younger. I am seriously considering going to sixth form and taking my A-levels in England, and I've been watching tons of Youtube-videos about sixth form. Everybody in the videos say that A-levels are super difficult and that they are a big step up from GCSEs. As I have not done any GCSEs since I live in Sweden, this does not tell me very much. My question to you is exactly how hard is sixth form and what kind of things do you do? Is it a lot of homework or is it mainly revision for the exams? How much do you study everyday? The subjects I'm thinking about taking are Media studies, Photography, Psychology and Sociology, if that helps at all.
Is sixth form mainly fun or mainly just a pain that you have to get through so that you can go on to uni and/or a job?
Thanks a lot :smile:
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by frejachristy
I live in Sweden, although I'm half-English and used to live in England when I was younger. I am seriously considering going to sixth form and taking my A-levels in England, and I've been watching tons of Youtube-videos about sixth form. Everybody in the videos say that A-levels are super difficult and that they are a big step up from GCSEs. As I have not done any GCSEs since I live in Sweden, this does not tell me very much. My question to you is exactly how hard is sixth form and what kind of things do you do? Is it a lot of homework or is it mainly revision for the exams? How much do you study everyday? The subjects I'm thinking about taking are Media studies, Photography, Psychology and Sociology, if that helps at all.
Is sixth form mainly fun or mainly just a pain that you have to get through so that you can go on to uni and/or a job?
Thanks a lot :smile:


Hello! I think that the big difference with sixth form is that you are given much more freedom than you have in school. You are not expected to be in lessons all of the time and you have to make the transition to being an independent learner. What makes sixth form a massive step up is that you have to motivate yourself to manage your time and keep up with your work and if you don't, it is ultimately you who is going to lose out. Having said that, sixth form is a lot of fun. You will be in a new environment surrounded by lots of new people and it is very easy to make a lot of friends. You will be doing subjects you have chosen, rather than those you have to do. This will probably mean you enjoy learning a lot more! Hope that helps :smile:
It can be both fun and a pain, sometimes at the same time. You just have to make the most of it at the right time.

All of my classes were fun to be in, and while I was the quiet guy that no one really knew the name of in Year 12, that changed in Year 13 and that's when it got really fun. Jokes at the right time are great (though not when everyone's seriously stuck into classwork), playing hangman during breaks, debating about stuff, there are a lot of interesting things to do. And if there's someone you're interested in, get together to study and get to know them and something might happen.

It is also a step up, but a lot of the step up is adjusting from how you were learning before to how you'll be learning at A-levels. It requires a lot more independence, time management, etc. I'm not one for timetables but a general timetable of what I should know by when, what I should start by when was helpful. Just put the work in, do past papers and develop your understanding of the topic.

And revision guides, where applicable, are amazing, they're definitely worth investing in.

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