Life After Exams
Such is the pressure of exam season, it’s easy for a student to forget that anything else of much importance exists. As stressful as GCSEs and A Levels can be, it’s worth trying to maintain a little perspective. I know it’s can be easier said than done sometimes, but it’s worth remembering that there is much more life after exams than has come before them!
Exams are simply a navigation point on the way to your next phase of studies and life. For those sitting GCSEs and going on to A Levels, you’re about to experience much more freedom and responsibility for managing yourself and your time.
The majority of A Level students will be expecting to go to university, and for many it will be the first experience of lengthy stays away from the family home. A complete change of environment and a chance to grow into independence beckons.
We experience tests, or testing times, at many stages of our lives. After university it may be that you face professional exams that are considerably more arduous, and with much harsher outcomes, than anything that school or further education has thrown at you.
Imagine working for a company for 2 years and your continued employment is reliant upon you passing your exams and gaining your professional qualification at the first attempt. High stakes indeed!
It’s fair to say, as challenging as you may find exams and all that goes with it, it will be forgotten in a shockingly short space of time. GCSE results will be forgotten once studying A Levels and they too shall be forgotten upon acceptance to university. The glow of achievement will render thought of exams, or waiting for results, a thing of the past.
Life is marvellous at giving one perspective. There aren’t many parents who have been through university, strived to forge a professional career, whilst raising a family, who wouldn’t swap their daily stresses for the simplicity of taking some exams!
Life is fast, exciting and there’s a whole world to explore out there. Keep your eyes firmly fixed on the prize for the next few short weeks and know that greater and richer experiences await you!
