I'm currently in my second and last year and I am studying A2 English lit and Sociology and AS business; I was originally doing psychology but my Sixth Form stopped it for various reasons.
Moving from secondary school to Sixth Form was hard for me as I always had a hard time in school, I hated it pretty much. My behaviour and attitude in school was AWFUL; I bunked, didn't do homework and was just incredibly rude *cue cringe moment* but I overcame it.
During year 11 (my last year) I had finally had enough of people not taking me seriously and viewing me as the 'joker' so I buckled down. It was so hard at first but I knew I had to do it in order to ensure that I was accepted into a college or Sixth Form. I sat 16 GCSES and did better than I ever expected to do, not great but I only had myself to blame as my parents and the rest of my family did their best to help but I made my bed so I had to lie in it! When my head of Sixth Form told me I had got good enough grades to be accepted I was beyond happy because I thought I had messed up. So I enjoyed the rest of my holiday and found myself sitting in Sixth Form 2 weeks later.
To begin with I thought that it was easy and this was because I wasn't doing as well as I should have been but again, as I did with school, I took it for granted. It wasn't until a couple of weeks into Sixth Form after an incident I realised that this was it, my final chance and I wasn't willing to let it go. I began to pay attention in lessons, complete all the homework that was given to me and I found that I actually enjoyed being praised a LOT more than being told off.
English was quite easy as I've been doing it my whole educational life and psychology didn't seem too hard, but sociology was probably my biggest challenge. I found it quite hard to structure essays and to remember theorists and dates, however it gradually became easier and I realised that you have to work hard in order to gain the best results. When exams came around it was extremely stressful, but I had made a lot of new friends (one in particular, Lisa, who is one of my closest friends and who is absolutely amazing) and this meant I had so much support behind me. I was over the moon once I got my results as it seemed all my hard work paid off and I intend to feel the same this year about my results as I did last year!
So far my second year has been really good, mostly positive. I have changed psychology to business which is a massive difference but my love for psychology has been shared with business as I think its such a good subject to study. English Lit and Sociology are also still going well, probably even better than last year!
OVERVIEW OF SUBJECTS:
- For English I had to complete two essays for my coursework (one was on The Handmaid's Tale and the other was on Top Girls and A Streetcar Named Desire) and then one exam which included novels, plays and poems. The texts I studied were The Color Purple, Top Girls, Streetcar, THMT and Feminine Gospels by Carol Ann Duffy.
- Sociology was zero coursework, though we had a lot of homework and revision, and two exams at the end of the year. I studied family and households and education and research methods, but I think these units depend on the Sixth Form/College.
- Psychology was the same as Sociology as there was no coursework and two exams. However, I think there was a lot more to Psychology and it is quite a hard subject but I thought it was amazing and I actually want to study this in Uni!
- For Business there are two coursework's (marketing a product for a company and marketing a product for your own company) and one exam. So far I have only completed one of these coursework's but I will make sure I keep you posted!
Sophiey Louise xoxo
