A-Level Results Day - reflections from Youth PCC Harvind Grewal
As we head into A Level results week and near GCSE results day, it is inevitable that the long summer holidays which have hazed out our routinely school lives, will now be focused around the reality of results day, and for some of us we will go into panic mode. It’s good to panic because it shows you care, but only to an extent. So, with such a challenging yet exciting period of our lives looming above us, I thought I’d talk about the importance of your wellbeing.
As you stand in the queue waiting to collect your results, surrounded by your teachers, your mates and other parents, you will feel light-headed, your throat dry and your heart may start to race. Remember, this is quite the norm and you will not be the only one in this situation. Try to relax and take a drink of water with you and take plenty of time opening your results. What may help is opening your results in the car, or somewhere away from others. However, it is better to stay in the school building, as you can talk to your teachers, as you maybe unsure or confused about any grades, scores or if you want to ask questions.
If you’re someone like me then the moment you wake up, you will go on Twitter and type in something like #ALevelResults2019. Don’t! This is where the frustration will start to boil up from and before you know it, you’ll have scrolled down for about 10 minutes having had looked at what others got, if they got into the university of choice, if they got into their choice of sixth form (and not forgetting the vast selection of unforgettable memes)!
Jokes aside, going on social media before and after you receive your results doesn’t really help. Instead, it adds to the stress and sadness. When I received my GCSEs, I was relatively happy with them as I did how I expected to have done and I immediately went on social media as I wanted to see how my friends did, but after seeing their grades I started to compare my grades with theirs. By comparing, although it’s hard not to as much as you try, I realised that we are all different, and the same results will mean a different thing to a different person. What really matters is knowing that you put your hard work and strength into all that you did. Maybe things may not go your way on results day, but this does not mean that there aren’t other paths to take. Perhaps, you were two grades too short to get into sixth form, or you didn’t get the grade you needed in a core subject. Think of this as a learning experience. There’s plenty chances to re-take, get opportunities elsewhere, which will teach you to do things differently in the future. Perhaps, make your revision technique to revise smarter than harder, or change the environment you study in. Small changes can make a big difference to your future grades. In essence, regardless of the outcome of your results you will learn something that could influence your future grades or how you cope with things differently.
Make a plan. Don’t just dwell on the negative emotions, move forward. This will make you mentally stronger and robust. You must remember that you are not the only young person caught up in this pandemonium of opening up a white sheet of A4 paper with letters littered all over it, on a certain day, a certain time. We are talking about lots of other young people going through the same. So, don’t feel you’re in this alone. There’s plenty of us that have been through some tough times and with a positive attitude and good application, we can take the initiative to move forward and change what we can for the better. You can always talk to people above you in your year, or your friends and various helplines for young people out there.
At last I would like to wish you all the best of luck and I hope you get the results you worked so hard for. Just remember that you are not alone, there are other paths, and no matter what there will always be people who are proud of you. It's hard enough being a young person, so the fact that we deal with so much already means we all young people should be proud of each other regardless.
Good luck guys and best of luck.
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