Year 11 – My year so far

Hello!

I thought I would show you my thoughts and reactions to the academic year so far, becoming a Year 11 student. I hope you find this interesting.

July 2021 – The end of Year 10

The end of another year, but this one was even more challenging than the last. Not just the fact that we now are playing the big game (GCSEs!) but the game has had to be played with the added difficulties of coronavirus!

But we have all got through it all and we have worked through the challenges and hurdles that life has unfortunately thrown at us.
Looking ahead… Year 11. My goodness! Where has the time gone?

I still remember the day I was once in Year 7, just settling into secondary school, getting used to it all and loving the idea of responsibility. Moving forward into year 11, this was just going to increase, and in my view, for the better.

When you first go into secondary school, you’re told to enjoy your time and make the most of your youth because the time will go faster than you think. This is exactly what has happened but you never think it would happen THIS quick!

I do think that the year has gone faster than it would normally go because we have been all focused on the present and took each day as it came, and then the holidays, without paying too much attention to where you are in the course of the year.

After this unstable year, hopefully, next year will be a bit better.

Either way though, life goes on, and hopefully, all is well and better.

September 2021 – The start of Year 11

A few days into the new year and school seems to be looking normal: no more separations of year groups, no more compulsory mask-wearing, and now, we have to move to our teachers – hopefully, this continues for the year.

Everyone now calls you ‘Year 11’ and it’s like you’re in a bit of a dream, like you are part of the special group where everything happens from fun to serious to dramatic and now it is our turn to experience this.

We are now at the top of teachers’ priorities in many different ways, one of which is exams. Whether these will happen in actual form is still in question, though it would be great to sit exams and be awarded grades on our own merits.

But that’s not important for the time being. What is important is concentrating on revising and keeping the knowledge as fresh as we can in our heads for the mock exams we have scheduled in November, which feel like they are miles away, but looking at the bigger picture, they’re not. Revision is a key part of success in Year 11 and it is going to have to be my best friend!

When you learn languages, you are taught to revise little and often – this must be the best bit of advice I was given. This is the trick to avoid being stressed and overwhelmed – do a little bit of revision every day. (While writing this I feel like such a hypocrite as I try to do more than just a little bit because that’s just me!)

February 2022 – More than halfway through Year 11

Fast-forwarding to February now. New year but it’s the same, just older, me.

In November, we sat our first set of mock exams. At the time it felt quite new and exciting but with more to come, it will become second nature and we are going to have to get used to those.

In exams, you go through various states of mind. One of those is feeling quite scared about what might come up in the exam. You see the question and your mind goes blank. You are then completely thrown off by what’s in front of you.

Here, I find it’s best to calm yourself down, break up the question and think back to those topics and little parts of information will slowly make their way back to you. I find that once you remember one bit of information, the next bits will unfold and you will be able to work it out from there.

The other state is when you look at what’s in front of you, holding your breath, wishing for the best. You then see the question and within seconds all the nuggets you need to know come flooding into your memory! (This is how you know you’re having a good day. It’s either that or you’ve spent your revision time well!)

Once the exams were done, college applications were next. This decision is more important than the one we made when choosing our GCSE subjects. This must have felt more stressful than the exams, trying to think ahead of what we would want to do when were are older.

The thing I kept in mind here was to remember that elements of life may change so I followed my gut and went with what I enjoy, whilst having a career or sector in mind – this is for another time.

Last week, we found out that GCSE examinations will actually take place. We will get to sit our exams as we were preparing for. This is good news!

Nice to know that our set of exams will be the ‘comeback’!

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