Students

5 things you need for year 12

So it’s the middle of summer and year 12 is probably the last thing on your mind but it’s good to be prepared for what is to come. Here’s a list of things I learnt I needed throughout the year, and probably wish someone had mentioned it to me earlier or some things I had and realised I couldn’t live without.

 

Highlighters – no kidding! This is my number one because I promise you, no matter what subject you do, you will need them and you will use them. Get a good range of colours, five is probably enough and make sure they’re the big ones, the minis are compact but won’t last you long enough.

A planner/homework diary – I didn’t have a proper one of these when I started year 12 but boy I wish I had. My life would have been so much easier! It’s easy to forget bits of homework to hand in or stuff you have to email so  make sure you have a  good organiser AND THAT YOU USE IT!

Get a Microsoft OneDrive account – huh? Have you ever spent the night writing a ridiculously long essay for the next day only to have forgotten it? or worse, your printer breaks and have no other way of getting it to your teacher? Never fear, onedrive is here! If you have a hotmail/outlook address chances are you have an account already and just need to upload your files to it. When going to save your word docs or other microsoft genius, simply click ‘save to my onedrive’ and type in your email and password. Now, whenever you log in to your onedrive, all your docs and files will be there – and not left on the computer at home. Goodbye detention, hello A*.

As soon as you start your courses, make sure you know what exam boards you’re on – it’ll help when it comes to doing past papers. It seems crazy to be thinking about your exams already, but trust me there’s never enough time to revise. Make sure you know how to get to the examiner’s reports – they’re useful in telling you where previous candidates fail to gain marks or where future ones (that’s you) will benefit from highlighting certain points.

Knowledge of university course requirements (if you’re going) – A lot of university courses require you to take specific subjects to get onto them in  the future. If you have a career in mind then its useful to check out which courses will suit you and if you don’t have one but think you want to go to uni then there’s no harm in looking at courses. Don’t let entry requirements scare you – A Levels are a fresh start and you could get AAA if you wanted to!

 

Good luck in your first year! It’ll be tough but you’ll laugh about it at the end.

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