Things Sixth Form Has Taught Me (so far)

I cannot believe I'm saying this, but I'm half way through sixth form! Year 12 has been the quickest year of my life. It's crazy to think we only have one year of school left before uni and, arguably, real life starts. At the beginning of the year I wrote a post about my expectations vs. the realities of sixth form, but considering I wrote that after a week of being in year 12, it's safe to say I was more naive then and the post definitely needs an update. Although most of what I wrote still stands true, I've thought about and learnt a lot more than just that sixth form get cake days (which I only had about 5 of anyway, the downfall of taking subjects taught in labs)...

• You begin to wonder how on earth you ever fathomed queuing for the canteen, where you actually spent lunch times and break times without the common room to go to and how you managed lessons and exams for 12 whole subjects with zero frees.

• You don't feel like you should be in sixth form. When we were in year 7 sixth formers seemed so much taller and more mature. Surely we can't look like that to them? Although saying that year 7's are SO much sassier than we were- I would never even think about talking back to a sixth former when I was that age!

• Frees are for sitting in the common room, watching VINES and having mindless conversation about the different degrees of being a hippie. Unless you have a free 1&2, in which case it's the game of 'how many essays and pieces of homework can I get done to standard that doesn't look as though I've done it ten minutes before the lesson'. 

• If you go into the downstairs work room, you are accepting the fact that you're not going to get any work done.

• 'I'm so tired' is the standard response to most questions. Sixth form equals a constant state of fatique. 

• General studies really is as pointless as people make it out to be. An hour before the the exam I didn't even know what the structure of the paper was. At least the paper was enjoyable- it's such a good feeling sitting an exam knowing you could answer literally zero questions and it wouldn't affect your future.

• You'll never be happy with the music playing in the common room, but you accept it and get on with it anyway. It's usually either an hour of rap or a pop party one comeback.

• Being a prefect is not at all glamorous. It is sitting in the humanities quad pretending to watch over people littering, when in reality you're thinking about who to spend your next free with. It's is an excuse for teachers to delegate work which they don't want to do themselves, but oh well, do it for badge (which us chemistry prefects DON'T EVEN GET!!!!)

• UCAS haunts over you - even during exams when it's the last thing you want to think about you get twenty emails a day about various taster days and scholarships. No, I do not want to do a Boat Building Apprenticeship. Why is there no unsubscribe button ???

• There are people you spent all your time with last year that you will hardly ever see, which is hard to contemplate. To a certain extent, your friendships are dictated by who you have lessons and frees with, which strange but is kind of true. Don't get me wrong, I haven't stopped being friends with people I don't have lessons with- I just have become better friends with people in my lessons.

• Going for the 'I'll do no work during the year and cram for the exams' method will not work. Trust me, I learnt the hard way with maths- I went insane spending a week solid cramming statistics. I never want to see coding again.

But, saying all of this, there are loads of perks of being in sixth form and I really have enjoyed it (and not just because of the free food that sometimes mysteriously appears on the common room tables on Friday afternoon). I don't know whether I'm looking forward to next year or not- right now it's looking like a year of worrying about my personal statement, interviews, offers and then actually getting those grades... but for now I will try to forget about that and enjoy summer!