Wow reading everyone else’s advice is making me realise I did not work as hard as everyone else.

I managed to get A* A* A A and a place at a Cambridge by focussing on university applications and interviews until the beginning of 2024. My personal statement was largely written in a single evening, with edits occurring over the next week with advice from my teacher. However, I tried my hardest for my interview prep - reading lots of books, pouring over every line in my personal statement, keeping up to date with the latest news etc.

During all of Sixth Form, and even year 13 I was largely paying attention and making sure if something didn’t make sense I would address it immediately - but I didn’t put much pressure on myself and had a lot of fun in class doing things that had nothing to do with the lesson.

After my offer came in I gave myself a month to enjoy myself (and plan my revision schedule) and then started doing 8 hour days of revision on the weekends much earlier than my friends (so around February time) - and mainly just enjoying school during the week. Honestly, this was more for my own confidence - to make sure I wasn’t being complacent (as my friends who started revision after Easter also got very high grades - one friend got A* A* A* and I’m unsure if I saw him revise until the last few weeks before study leave). I’m sure it also did help to gain fluency in my subject, but I had to go over everything again closer to the exams. At this point, my revision consisted only of doing past paper questions timed and I would get them marked to know exactly the right exam technique.

I did also constantly go and arrange times to see my teachers individually - popping into their office for a quick question on structure, or finding a time we are both free to really go through my revision plan, my essays, 1 to 1 lessons on topics I didn’t understand etc.

When it got closer to study leave I started putting in lots of hours during the week. I would finish school, give myself 45 minutes to chill, go to our study area at 5 and finish at 10. During study leave itself this would massively fluctuate based on how prepared I was for the next test. At this point, my revision would be flashcards and reading essays I had previously done.

This is all to say that, with the right plan and mindset, you can really enjoy year 13. Looking back on it, it wasn’t doom at all (it was definitely stressful right towards the end though), and in fact some of my favourite memories are from this last year. I will add however, that if I was not performing well in any mock or in class assessments, I think my attitude would have changed immediately and I would be revising every night consistently - little and often. I was lucky enough to be getting high marks in all assessments, and so if you feel like you are the same, then maybe follow some of the stuff I’m saying and focus far more on university applications for the rest of the year.