\n\t \n<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd so the looming anxiety of exams re-emerges with a vengeance. For those doing GCSEs, trust me on this – A Levels are not easier ‘because you’re only doing four subjects’. Four subjects, with just as much work as the sixteen or so I was taking last year. More ‘free time’ – actually, that goes to study periods. But I’ve learnt a few news skills over this past year alone:<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tCard games – at the beginning of Year 12, without what you consider to be ‘too much work’, you spend your free lessons playing cards. You’ll learn new games such as ‘speed’ and the old classic ‘go fish’ with re-appear. Learn these games early on – procrastination is hard to maintain when just about everyone is stressed in February<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tTake subjects you enjoy – I learnt (only through my partial failure at Science and Maths at GCSE) that I only really remember something if I enjoy it, my case in point being, I could tell you all about Mao Zedong’s reign of China or how Saunders Lewis’ ‘Blodeuwedd’ is still important today or how Sheila Birling could have been a Suffragette in ‘An Inspector Calls’ but ask me how carbon aging works or how to figure out Sin, Cos or Tan and you’ll earn a blank expression from me.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tContrary to popular belief, just because you don’t study the sciences, you’re not any less intelligent – I (somehow, by some miracle) made it into the Governments ‘Seren Network’ scheme, helping those who got certain grades at GCSEs earn a place at the highest-ranking universities. Funnily enough, despite you studying three Sciences and Further Maths, and myself studying English, History and Welsh, we’re both here. For different reasons. You can’t let someone assume that they’re better than you because of the subjects you excel at. Being able to explain human anatomy to impresses me – in the same way that my knowledge of American’s judicial system of the 1950s should impress you. You can still be of the same intelligence as someone and not study the same subjects because who knows, maybe the way you worried about your Maths exam was the same way they worried about their English exam.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tMake an effort to speak up for yourself – I have a fear of speaking to people I don’t know, as if I somehow have to prepare what I say first, so that I don’t feel half as nervous stating things I’ve practiced. I continuously have this fear I may say something I’ll regret, so I tend to not say anything at all. Yet recently, I had the best week. Because I spoke to strangers without too much fear. I went to an event with my school (a Universities fair) and spoke to a representative of Cardiff University – alone -– and had an amazing conversation about the course I’m practically obsessed with by this point. The next day, another representative from Cardiff University came to my school to speak with us – on the very subject I’d love to study. And for once, I got the courage to stand up and introduce myself. And boy, did it pay off! I got some incredible advice, some sweet compliments on my current efforts to get to my end goal and a promise that I’d make a good impression that they would remember me. So, sometimes guys, talking to strangers actually works in your favour. It’s hard, I know trust me but try it,<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tbecause maybe it might help you.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tI should probably go – I have A Levels to pass (hopefully, at least). Just one last thing: if you’re stressed that’s a good thing. Stupid, right? Nope – because stressing this much means that you actually care about doing well. Just know that you should never let anyone put too much pressure on you (and do NOT put too much on yourself), and just know that if you did the best you could and still end up disappointed, there’s nothing more you could have done, and it doesn’t make your grades any worse than anyone else’s. They did the best they could have done, too – you’re just better at some things than others, not everyone can be incredible at everything. Oh there’s the eighth (ninth?) point: you learn at A Level that literally no one is perfect – they’re all worried about the same things you’re worried about.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tBy Tirion Davies<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And so the looming anxiety of exams re-emerges with a vengeance. For those doing GCSEs, trust me on this – A Levels are not easier ‘because you’re only doing four subjects’. Four subjects, with just as much work as the sixteen or so I was taking last year. More ‘free time’ – actually, that goes to study periods. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[274],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-Qg","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7152,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=7152","url_meta":{"origin":3240,"position":0},"title":"Happy New Year everyone!","author":"Alan Williams","date":"3rd February 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy New Year everyone! Since getting back into the flow of uni work, I\u2019ve come to realise recently that just maybe some of my work-life balances aren\u2019t as healthy as they probably should be. These days, I wouldn\u2019t dare submit an essay the day it\u2019s due \u2013 I\u2019m too worried\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2388,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=2388","url_meta":{"origin":3240,"position":1},"title":"Further Musings of A Political Teenager","author":"Alan Williams","date":"3rd February 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 PLAY HARD, WORK HARD 2016:- A Summary. Welcome to 2017! At the beginning of January 2016, I sat my first Year 11 GCSE exams which let\u2019s just say hadn\u2019t exactly gone to plan. I was too worried about my failure to gain my sought after marks in January that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Play Hard Work Hard"","block_context":{"text":"Play Hard Work Hard","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=274"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3318,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=3318","url_meta":{"origin":3240,"position":2},"title":"Songs for Teenagers","author":"Alan Williams","date":"27th May 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"When you\u2019re barely 17 it\u2019s like the world seems to pass by in a blink of an eye. What feels like a few weeks ago becomes a year in Sixth Form land \u2013 and what feels like a year is only a matter of eternally long weeks. GCSE to A-Level\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Play Hard Work Hard"","block_context":{"text":"Play Hard Work Hard","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=274"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4416,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=4416","url_meta":{"origin":3240,"position":3},"title":"I Had to Laugh – Social Media","author":"Alan Williams","date":"28th March 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 I had to laugh at the item in March What's On \u2018Living Without Facebook'. I love reading and it reminded me of some paragraphs that had jumped out at me. I have recently re-read JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, first published in three parts in 1954-55. Every\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Readers Articles of Interest"","block_context":{"text":"Readers Articles of Interest","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=228"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15670,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=15670","url_meta":{"origin":3240,"position":4},"title":"In Search of George and The Dragon","author":"Alan Williams","date":"2nd July 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"IN SEARCH OF GEORGE AND THE DRAGON With the Summer still here, walking in and around the Vale is as popular as ever. Whilst Valeways walks celebrate a 25th anniversary this year, the Visit the Vale website also provides details of a host of other opportunities to get out an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Front-Cover-295x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3785,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=3785","url_meta":{"origin":3240,"position":5},"title":"There always needs to be a balance","author":"Alan Williams","date":"27th September 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Last year, I wrote my first article for the What\u2019s On reviewing the balance of work and play. School\u2019s back in and suddenly this had become all the more relevant yet again. The dread and panic about this final year has yet again cropped up and I won\u2019t lie\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Miscellaneous"","block_context":{"text":"Miscellaneous","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=127"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3240"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3242,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240\/revisions\/3242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}