There’s a kind of muffled quiet in your brain, everything is drifting into the background and your palms are a little sweaty… You’re mindlessly scrolling through Facebook, liking the occasional status (although you forget what it says as soon as you do) and comfort eating an insane amount of Oreos as you count down to 8amg…
“Year 13 goes a little something like this: you start off the academic year thinking, ‘Yep, this is the year that I’m going to be on the ball. Nobody’s getting in my way. I’ve got my highlighters, I’ve got my Pukka Pad, and I’ve got 328,195 Bic pens in case one runs out. Classes, coursework, exams – come at me, bro!”
But then slowly, so slowly that you don’t realise it’s happening, your motivation isn’t the same as it once was. You’ve been reading your notes immediately after your lectures/seminars for three weeks now, so… maybe this week you can take a break. You’ll read them after dinner! But then you find yourself having eaten too much and wanting to sleep, so… it’s okay, you’ll do the reading tomorrow… and thus begins your downward spiral…
This might not be the same for everybody, but it’s what it was like for me. I’d do what I needed to do at school, and I’d do it well, but just not quite well enough. Whenever I completed an exam, or submitted a piece of coursework, I would immediately start to bite my nails in anticipation of my bad grade. This made waiting for results day – particularly A-level results day – twice as painful!
So, in short – I get it. I’ve been through it myself, and the waiting game is no walk in the park. However, it is something you can’t let rule your life. I got through it; loads of people before me got through it, and so can you! Here are my tips for pushing through the next few days:
1. It’s out of your hands. Your exams are done – no matter how hard you think about it, the result won’t change. Try to find acceptance in that, because you’ve got a summer to enjoy before it all starts again
2. Believe in your strengths. Why so negative? Remember that motivation you felt at the start of the year? Feel that now. You thought you could do it then, so why has anything changed?
3. Be selfish. This is about you – not anybody else. Don’t be afraid of disappointing others, because it’s your life and you’re in charge of it. I had a friend whose mother made her choose a different uni after her results weren’t great – she has regretted listening ever since! There are always other options.
4.You can succeed in any way you want. If your results aren’t what you dreamed they would be, it’s not the end of the world. You can still do exactly what you want to do – just ‘dust yourself off and try again’. (RIP Aaliyah)
5. This too shall pass. Years down the line, you’ll be laughing at how nervous you got. Ask older people how they felt then and how they feel now. Don’t torture yourself. Everything comes to an end – even results day.
Good luck, and remember:
– Karis
