Now that your exams are over, you might have a gut feeling about how they went, you might have no idea, or you might have (sensibly) put the whole exam experience in some kind of mental safe so that you can get on with some important living before results day comes around.
You will probably have been bombarded with advice about what to do and what not to do if your results are not what you were expecting. Keep this article handy, and, combined with the help and support of your family and school or college, it could be surprisingly useful.
Here are 5 tips to keep you calm and refocus if the results you get aren’t quite what you’d planned:
1. Be Prepared
Familiarise yourself with the UCAS Track system, and be prepared to use it before you get your results. No matter how confident you are in how you did in your exams, there may be a surprise, and making sure you know how the system works is really important.
2. Use Clearing; be bold
A confident approach to clearing can make all the difference. Focus on the fact that there will be plenty of people who haven’t made their grades, and that there may be universities that you hadn’t originally considered which have excellent courses just right for you. Make sure you set aside time and a quiet space to make your phone calls, and speak to the Universities in person.This may be a great opportunity rather than a consolation prize.
3. Resits are a tough choice
Although you may feel that you want to prove that you can achieve better grades, there may be more constructive ways of moving ahead and regaining confidence. Check out the list of successful people who underachieved at A level and went forward to do great things: broadcaster Jon Snow, actor Benedict Cumberbatch, journalist Clare Balding, author J.K. Rowling, DJ Chris Moyles, comedienne Sarah Millican, neurophysiologist Dr Mark Lithgoe, writer, actor, bad boy Russell Brand, presenter Ben Fogle. There’s an even more impressive list of people who never even took their A levels: Sir Alan Sugar, Sir RIchard Branson, Joss Stone, Heston Blumenthal. You may be better off focusing on developing your existing skills, gaining work experience, and getting other qualifications rather than mourning what has passed.
4. Talk to your family honestly
Emotions can run high at times like this, and it is important to prepare for best and worst case scenarios well before the day. This will make talking things through calmy much easier, and reassessing you future plans will be much less stressful. Make sure that you have talked to your family about this, and ensure someone is around to support you on the day. Schools have staff on hand on results day to help with pointing you in the right direction, so don’t be afraid to reach out and use their years of experience.
Assess your financial situation and your emotional wellbeing. You might be stronger than you think, more flexible than you think, and more open to change. Make lists of pros and cons of each one of your options, and talk them over with someone who has your best interests at heart. This is just as necessary as wearing a seatbelt or taking out decent travel insurance; hopefully, you’ll never need them, but they need to be there, just in case.
5. Call The Language Gap
Seriously, this is a really good idea! We can organise a programme to make the most of an unexpected Gap Year that will really make universities sit up and notice you. It’s time to end the misconception that a Gap Year is just an empty space full of pointless bumming around the world on money you’ve earned doing something boring and monotonous. We have access to literally thousands of different options, to fit every budget, all over the world. When you approach universities through clearing or reapplication, telling them about the fantastic plan to learn a language and get real experience of working or volunteering will definitely give you the edge over everyone else. We can even organise last minute intensive courses between results day and the beginning of the university term to get a language up to scratch in time for your degree course.
With years of experience of working in schools and teaching and learning languages overseas, you can be sure that The Language Gap is the perfect resource to take the stress out of planning your time abroad.