What advice would you give to people just starting college?

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Haha sorry :lol:

I mean I know when I went into college I was worried about getting to know people, making friends, how the work would be different to GCSE and things like that. Advice I would give personally is just not to work yourself up about it and be yourself, but it might be good to get different perspectives - especially from people who have just been at college. I start college 7 years ago now!

take all the opertunitys that are offered be it university UCAS fairs open days etc these all happen in first year your Lucas form happens second year but get to some of those open days and try to decide weather you want to go to uni it will help for the second year and beyond to have a long term plan and make sure you have a back up plan also a job is worth having.

Reply 21

CarefreeZoe

One of the most daunting things I found about ALevels was that as soon as I started they were asking me what I was doing when I left. From the get go in first year they were discussing university and apprenticeships. So, my biggest advice is just to point out that those 2 years go insanely quickly. I was **** scared for a levels. My brother is 2 years older than me and didn't do so well, failing most subjects. This meant that as soon as I got there I was working hard, revising lots and creating notes and materials from the start. At the end of the first year, I got AAAB. But beginning of second year, I came down with several illnesses and lost motivation. Then got an unconditional offer and lost motivation more. So I'm really worried about results day this year. One of my main issues was also that I lived about 5 mins walk from college and so would come home in my frees and it became increasing tempting to just turn on the tv, blast music, watch a film, make some food etc. Anyway, returning to my earlier point, it's only 2 years. Work hard for those two years and get as much out of it as you can. Figure out what you enjoy doing and what you would like to do afterwards. It's your last years of free education, so make it count.

Reply 22

Phoebe Joan xo

My advice would be think about what you want to do i.e uni or apprecticship or job or other course early and make the most of services like careers adviser. Also think about what the best college is for you depending on whether you are doing A levels or B-tech and what you want from it, personally I loved my college experience so enjoy it

Reply 23

Phoebe Joan xo

Sixth forms attached to schools are not particularly common in my area , unless you got to a private school. However the college is a sixth form college so it offers a academic experience, people always think I did a vocational course because I went to 'college' its just called college because its not attached to school like sixth form. Not wearing uniform was a big diffrence and is something I enjoy but not a major factor, however it did help because of the timetabling, at college you would often have half days so you wouldn't have to change out of uniform to do whatever you were doing in the afternoon. The diffrent sort of timetable is something that I was sort of introduced to in year 11 when we in study leave so only went into school for exams and revision classes, so say like a morning or a afternoon rather than being in from 9-3 everyday. Despite people having half days ect i still got to spend time with friends if you had the same free periods and would go to the library together. We were still in tutor groups like at school and there were still extra curicular sports like at school. The main diffrence is not sort of knowing everyone, like in school there was a whole emphasis on your 'year'... like year assembly's and obviously because you are there for 5 years and all doing the same subjects you get to know everyone. At college you only get a year to get to know people (the class groups change for first and second year) and the classes are not on abilty like at school. It is still possible to make friends, but I dont have much advice for that as i went to college with a group of friends already.

Reply 24

Plagioclase

If you did well at GCSE without making much effort, do not assume the same will be true at A Level. You will do well, as long as you take it seriously and put the work in.

Reply 25

kkboyk

>Don't be afraid of asking for help, or even asking stupid questions in class. If you don't understand anything, always ask for help rather than sitting there in silence.
>Don't spend most of your time writing notes, but rather testing yourself (by attempting quizzes, exam questions you can find online) to ensure that you thoroughly understand what you are learning.
>Repetition: make a flexible timetable so that you will start developing a good study habit
>Take some time off from revision from time to time
>Always do your homework early to ensure that you will enough time later on
>Don't be afraid to ask for help on TSR

Reply 26

BethanyC23

I've just finished my 2nd year of college and my advice would be actually listen when the teacher says to start revising, they know their stuff and they're not kidding when they say there is a lot of content to learn.
Allocate one of your frees to a lesson obviously give yourself a break but just make sure you either look over your notes from the lesson, condense them down or make your revision from that- whether its flash cards, mind maps or whatever, or just do the homework for that lesson.
Don't put too much pressure on yourself, give yourself plenty of time to yourself and to rest, there;s always people there if you need them for support,
I was worried about making friends at college, but to be fair, its a lot more relaxed than school, and many people seem more easy going and less judgemental so don't worry too much.
Make sure to enjoy yourself, i actually enjoyed college a lot more than i did with school.
Also, theres a lot of perks to being a student, mainly student discounts, so whenever you start make sure to sign up to unidays! ---> https://www.myunidays.com/r/DRabMKDgtCg :smile:

: )

Reply 27

Joshieboyxo

Original post by Fox Corner

Starting at a sixth form or college can be a daunting experience, even if it's the same sixth form as your school.

If you've just finished your first year at college or you're even further on, what advice would you give to other people who are just about to start their A levels?

This can be personal, academic, emotional or financial advice for taking that next step in the academic journey!

And if you're a student just about to make the jump from GCSE into college, what are you most anxious about starting?

I'm just scared about fitting in!!!

Reply 28

10CLisa

Hello everybody,

So i just finished year first sixth form and to all the students who will be going into sixth form can i just say YOU BETTER FIX UP. I ain't even trying scared you all but you got to step up your games. I know you have worked hard to get those grades for GCSE but Alevels well...i can only say AS, is not a pretty place for you to relax. the demand to keep on top of your work is insane...at least the first term is daunting anyways. I think you should have a positive and STRONG mindset, you really need to be strong yourself and to motivate yourself to do the work because it is going to be worth it. also to people who are planning to applying to OxBridge you definitely need to do well in your AS...I want to apply to Oxford now but its too late because i didn't work as hard as i should and could of even though they care about the final grade but if you're getting D's and E's the probability of them accepting you for an interview i think is quite low. but either way meet a good group of friends that will l motivate you to do the work instead of complaining how hard sixth form is because you will most likely be caught up in the moaning and moan yourselves. and get yourself a planner/diary, really keep up the work load esp. starting in December.

So I'm currently taking OCR biology, AQA chemistry, Edexcel Maths and OCR religious studies.
FOR MATHS: go on exam solutions! just trust the guy and do a lot of past exam questions and papers and really try to understand what the hell is going on in the lessons.
FOR BIOLOGY: yoooo you need to be on top of this from the start, make sure you complete your notes so that it is easy to go back and revise, so after you have learnt a topic make sure you're notes on the topic is complete. and can i just say how important past exam questions are!! i didn't take the advice of doing exam style questions which i really regret. I freaking love biology but I'm not even confident in getting the grades.
FOR CHEMISTRY: omg past exam questions! and go subscribe to 'E Rintoul' on youtube (he will save your asses) and also go on 'level chemistry' (the website) but really try to understand whats going on during lessons.
FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES: just do past exam questions because that way you'll really train yourselves on how to write esp. after the 3 months you had off. and i think for each topic you should write key words relating to that topic on a big A3 sheet or even A2 sheet and then write everything around those key words relating to the key words, that way you will have everything you need to know on the topic. (i hope that makes sense) MOST IMPORTANTLY ask questions if you dont understand whats going on. also it will be hard at first, if you miss out on a lesson make sure to catch up because if you miss the stuff then it'll just drag you behind, so for me i didn't understand anything in lessons but i wouldn't ask any questions and i was waiting till the mocks to really fix up but it comes to a point where you dont know too much and its hard to try and catch up on everything all at once...i think thats my biggest mistake. SO PLEASE keep a positive and strong mindset and motivate yourselves to keep working hard because these two years will be the hardest but only for 2 years. also dont think you have to stress yourselves out, you dont have to revise every single day non stop but just at least go over the the you have learnt that day when you go home and do your homework. Use you weekends to do as much consolidation and pre-learning as much as possible so that you already know the questions you need to ask in class. Also make sure to get some rest, having enough sleep is so important!!! stay healthy! i'll stop rambling now. LOL hope this helps!!!