5 Things to prepare for in year 11

I’ve been through the whole year 11 journey and to be frank, it was tough and fun at the same time, but if you paid me one million dollars to repeat that year, I most definitely WOULD NOT. I'm not so sure that there are many people out there who would willingly repeat 2020.

 Year 11 and year 10 are not too different in terms of academics, but what is different or what will be different is your mentality. As soon as you realize that GCSE’s are right around the corner, something in your head might click and the anxiety will slip in forcing you to get off of Instagram and in front of your desk. That is one of the many things that you should expect in year 11.

WORKLOAD.

The workload is a bit tricky to predict in terms of how heavy it could be. It will fluctuate depending on the time of year, it’s also dependent on number of subjects you take as well as the type of teachers you have in your school, but from my experience the workload somehow got heavier despite dropping more subjects.

At this stage in your life the teachers will try their best to prepare you for your exams so of course you should expect a lot more assignments and difficult tasks. They might try to prepare you by giving you more homework and trying to make you spend most of your time doing school work, of course this is helpful, but very time consuming. Just make sure you can manage your time well, it’s one of the MOST important things to keep a track of.

SCHOOL WORK WILL GET HARDER.

This is obvious because you will be getting deeper into the syllabus. The deeper you get, the harder it becomes and the more your brain will hurt. Some teachers (like my math teacher) prefer to give students harder work in order to challenge their brain and get them used to challenging questions, this is a very helpful and efficient technique but expect a lot more mental breakdowns from having an incapability of solving challenging questions.  

PREPARE FOR MORE EXAMS AND TESTS.

This was one of the most annoying parts of year 11 for me. My school decided to give us exams after every term and WE HAD FOUR TERMS! Let’s not forget the weekly tests and assignments as well as after school classes. Year 11 as a whole is really time consuming and all the studying will eventually make you feel as though you don’t have a life.

If any teacher is reading this please reduce the workload, although it can help, it also causes a lot of unwanted stress towards your students!

I promise I’m not trying to scare you or anything, year 11 isn’t entirely boring and stressful. As long as you can manage your time, you’ll be able to go out with friends and do all the things you love while maintaining a good grade in school, but here’s a warning, KNOW YOUR PRIORITIES!

CHANGE IN MENTALITY.

With all the changes you will go through expect a change in mentality. During every new stage of a person’s life there is always a change even if its small it could affect how you see or do things in a positive or negative way.

I changed in terms of maturity. You will realize that these exams your doing, whether you think they are important or not, will determine something in your life. They will determine whether you will move on to college or continue to your A levels or repeat the year. And when your brain starts to realize this you mature a little. You start thinking about your priorities and all that deep stuff and look at life at a different aspect. I’m not a psychologist so I can’t say I’m speaking on behalf of everyone but it makes sense to me that that sort of change may occur in someone. At least it did to me.

My mentality was one of the greatest changes during year 11 and I’m truly grateful for that little bit of maturity I acquired. I believe that everyone’s mentality would change a little to cope with academic changes. School gets tougher so your mind will try to adjust to it. In order to keep progress you should be able to keep up with changes.

LOST FRIENDSHIPS.

This is a point in your life when you discover the people who are truly good for you or bad for you. Expect to lose some toxic friends or try and distance yourself from people who only bring negativity into your life. This is the time when you want to surround yourselves with people who support you and understand when you have to miss out on hanging out because you have to study. Don’t let anyone slow down your academic progress.

I had some really smart friends who motivated me to change unproductive ways and become a better version of myself and I’m truly thankful for all of them (special shoutout to Sanaa). I now understand why its so important to surround yourselves with smart people because their good qualities can change you to become so much better than you ever thought you could possibly be.

Please don’t be afraid to let go of toxic friendships because in the end that is all that they are, TOXIC! So you aren’t really losing much, its all for the greater good.

If your about to start year 11 don't worry too much, like I said its not too different from year 10 but you will have to change a lot of things your doing since your a lot closer to the finals. Make sure you can manage your time well and don't forget to have fun. GOODLUCK!