How to Prepare for Sixth Form Over Summer

hey everyone and welcome back to the channel so if you're new here my name is ray and i'm a second year cambridge student physics and at a levels i achieved fourier stars in maths for mass physics and chemistry now because of that a question i get often from year 11 students is that how can they best spend the summer to optimize for getting the best possible grades at a level and i do have a few thoughts on that which i will present in this video so in this video i will be working under the assumptions that you want to achieve a's or a stars you will be studying stem related subjects so computer science maths for maths physics chemistry and biology um you want to go to a russell group university or even to cambridge oxford but if you're planning on doing humanity subjects and hopefully you will still find some of the advice useful maybe not the academic advice on improving your problem-solving abilities but more so ways of spending your summer like finding opportunities for next year so as always timestamps will be in the description so do check those out during the video so my first recommendation is

that you don't bother studying ahead for your a-level subjects and this may seem counterintuitive because people think oh well the hardest subject is early i start the better position i've been by the time exams come around or something like that and this is what plenty of year 11 students think as well which is why they go and buy revision guides and textbooks and stuff and start learning ahead for their a-levels and the thing is i've had plenty of friends who did that and they scored no better in their a-level results than people who hadn't actually did that during the summer and those who actually waited around until september to start studying for their levels and i think the reason for why they didn't do any bets in the end is because they never really focused on improving their problem-solving abilities so there's an article called the calculus trap on the auto problem solving which demonstrates this issue quite well and that's linked down below in the description but basically the article says that for an avid student rushing through the school curriculum is not necessarily the best approach or option to actually getting better now the article does focus on maps and it says that for a math student who wants to get ahead it's much better for them to develop their problem-solving abilities instead of trying to rush through their curriculum and learn as much content as possible because if they have better problem solving abilities then more advanced mathematical concepts and ideas can be built upon that foundation so the way i like to think about it is that during gss you sort of developed yourself a toolbox with a bunch of tools from all the skills you developed during that subject and at a level you're going to develop even more skills and like have more tools in your toolbox and it's much better for you to learn to use existing tools you already have in more complicated situations and scenarios uh rather than actually just throwing a bunch more together in there and hoping that you'll be able to manage like that because only by refining your abilities with the existing tools you already have can you get really good at your subject especially when you don't have to learn any new content uh such as during the summer after year 11. now this explains why some of my friends scored no better despite learning ahead for their levels they just kept throwing more tools into a toolbox without improving their abilities or refining their abilities whether any of the existing tools they've already had so by the time the exams came around the people who already had a really good toolbox of tools they had to do they knew how to use inside out they scored much better whereas people who sort of knew how to use some of the skills and tools they've learnt at gcse uh they um and then at a level they didn't score as well so the question then becomes how do you spend your summer refining your existing abilities with the tools you already have and this is where my recommendation for stem subjects come in so i have a link in the description and below which includes some problem solving bookmarks because i think improving your problem solving abilities is by far the most beneficial thing you can do if you're studying even maps for maths physics chemistry maybe biology i have i didn't take biology and definitely can be designs as well so i think the most useful links there are to uqmt papers because they really do help you improve your problem solving abilities as well as to brilliant. org which hasn't sponsored this video but there is a community page on which you can uh do a lot of problems for free and not have to pay for the subscription and i think i'll make a video about it sometime and if it's out it should be linked up somewhere by now and i think a few of the disadvantages of learning ahead is that you can't really ask your teachers any questions because they haven't started teaching you yet so if you develop a misconception or a misunderstanding of this topic that can be really hard to remove so i think it's much better to wait until your lessons uh where you can actually engage with lessons more ask your teacher questions that helps for when they write your reference and stuff at universities because you've engaged with lessons and you won't find it as boring because it's like the first time you're seeing the material which makes it much more interesting and fun so my second

recommendation is that you should learn study effectively if you don't already know how and that's because studying effectively is a huge time multiplier now at a level a lot of people used to ask me how many hours i studied at night and stuff like that and they'd often be surprised to learn i studied for less hours in them but we're still getting better results than them and that's because i was studying in a more effective manner like for me doing about two hours of flash cards is probably just as good as i'm spending about 10 15 hours highlighting and rereading a textbook because doing flash cards and using active recall and space repetition is really effective now i actually have a series on studying effectively for gcses and a levels which is linked somewhere above right now so do watch that series if you do have time but i wouldn't recommend watching it straight away i recommend watching it about a week or two before your a-level starts and you can sort of come up with an idea or a plan or a strategy for how you're going to approach them now the series does cover about 90 percent of everything you need to know and that's because the remaining 10 is usually the hardest to get and you don't really gain much else from learning that remaining 10 it's much better for you to have the framework and foundations in place and then figure out the uh more refined strategies as you go along so i don't tell you what time of day you should be studying and people try to find out what time of day i was studying and tried to copy that but i'm like my daily routine is completely different to yours i took the tram to school at different times stuff like that so yeah so just make a few notes on the series and don't get caught up in designing the perfect system because you will never be able to design a perfect system you can design a good system in place and then uh when something goes wrong or when you feel like something isn't quite working as well as you uh force it should be then you can stop to yourself think about why it's not working and then you may come to realization that you've been spending too much time doing this process which isn't particularly effective and you should spend more time doing active recall or some practice questions in between topic tests and stuff like that also with studying effectively i would recommend learning to ask for help if you don't already know how now a lot of people at gcse and a level sort of just sit back in their chairs hope that someone else asks that question for them despite them not understanding a part of the teacher's explanation or something and i think that comes down to being afraid to look stupid which i was never really afraid to do and i asked a lot of stupid questions at a level and people like laughed at some of the questions i did but i didn't really care because i was actually learning and understanding material better as a result of those questions and the thing is most people are probably also thinking the same question in your lesson but or just too free to ask it and i think this comes back to spotlight effect which is that people have a tendency to think that others think about them more than they actually do which is completely not the case like if you try if you can remember your own embarrassing moments quite easily and you probably feel like others have remembered those embarrassing moments just as well as you have but the thing is they haven't because if you try and think back to a time where i don't know someone else from your school or something had embarrassing moments you'd probably struggle to remember that because like the thing is people just don't remember and they just don't care everyone's too busy focused on their own lives so with that approach sort of in mind i wasn't really hesitant to ask any questions because i knew it would improve my own understanding and my own grades and the people who like care too much about like the questions i was asking or thought it was a stupid question or something well i mean they're going to forget and they clearly don't have much else to do

so now i also recommend that you be proactive in finding opportunities for yourself especially throughout year 12 and during the summer after year 12. so in the sum after year 12 i attended three different summer schools which were the eaton college sum school which was for state school peoples um one at ucl and a nevada cambridge and i could have attended one of oxford as well if i didn't clash with the eaton once so yeah i could have attended form but whatever now generally summer schools and math camps and these sort of opportunities between year 12 and year 13 the summer in between are a really good way to spend that summer because it lets you meet a lot of interesting people as well it gives you a chance to study your subjects as though you'd be studying at university and it just it's just a fun thing to do um and it also gives you something to write about a new personal statement as well when it comes to about university because universities like to see the ways you've explored your subjects and attending like a school or a math camp on your subject is yeah a good way to do that now this doesn't mean you should wait around and wait for your sixth form to tell you which summer schools you should be attending or something like that or tell you which ones exist it requires you to do some googling and find out which summer schools and math camps exist in the uk and stuff like that uh for yourself because i mean many sex films just don't tell their students and if they do tell them then it's probably going to be like a few days before the deadline which may not give you time to write the best possible application for them now some skills and math camps are free but many are paid as well and if you're from a disadvantaged background then you can usually get a scholarship or get some money off which is what i did for the eaton college one which was i think 400 pounds and but i managed to go there for free which was good but many of my friends over there still spend the 400 pounds and because it was like 10 days long they said that 400 pounds was really well spent and because it was already subsidized quite a bit so uh if you're looked and spend the money uh then i would still really recommend spending it um if you'll have the money of course if you don't then ask for some kind of financial aid or something from the summer school or math camp or whatever now even during the academic year there are some really good competitions you could be entering as well like there are essay competitions advertised by different universities uh for students in sixth form and there are i remember that being like one physics research competition as well where you sort of investigate uh something and write a report um and there's also like a cryptography competition i think as well which one of my friends entered now some of these essay competitions some schools math camps all the sub opportunities their deadlines can be quite early so i would recommend googling uh googling for them over the summer and trying to find which ones you would like to take part in because generally they will have run it in previous years and they will update the website for the following year so if they haven't updated website yet to tell you when applications open or close then i just recommend adding it onto a list and checking back like every week or something for when they open and when they have opened and you want to keep track of which applications you're making then you can also add onto the spreadsheet when the deadline is and sort of pay attention to that and generally be proactive in finding these opportunities and for some reason if you don't find anything you're interested in or just don't get anything then sending cold emails to people is a really great way as well and because you have very little to lose by sending a cold email to say a lab or a local startup just being like hey can i come in for a few days get some work experience uh see how you guys do things and stuff like that and then just say like oh it will help me sort of gauge whether i want to do this at university and just writing a nice email like that and there is actually a link down below uh to an article which i recommend on the best way to write cold emails and i would recommend doing that because there's very little to lose and that like there's just so much to gain from like sending out these cold emails and most of the economy emails i've sent like i generally receive positive responses if they genuinely can't help me or they tell me or they give me a contact i can contact instead and stuff like that but yeah generally be practicing finding these opportunities and trying to google for a bunch of them over the summer especially summer schools and math camps if you're applying for maps that is um because and they they're insanely good and you get to meet so many interesting people and you just generally have a great time overall

and now my next recommendation is to explore the subjects you sort of want to be doing going forwards and because you can usually only change your a level options about two to three weeks into your a levels or like even four or five weeks which is a bit of a stretch it depends on your school um but and just taking some time to explore like what sort of paths it may lead you down or what degree you'd want to be doing after it or something is really generally generally a good investment of your time but i'd recommend not getting too caught up on the degree and what future career prospects you'd have from it because i mean like i do physics and people say to me oh are you just going to become a physics teacher afterwards or like become a physicist like they think my opportunity opportunities are pretty limited but the real value in a degree comes out of the skills you're gaining from that degree not so much a content and this is a thing that a lot of employers know and recognize it's more about the skills you're getting which is why you have people who like study chemical engineering and then just go into data science despite that not being linked to chemical engineering much at all because employers know that they've gained useful skills from doing this like stem-based degree and yeah there's just generally so much you can do with just any degree and well most degrees um not all degrees i guess not in like esports gaming or something like that which is a thing but yeah as an example like one of my friends his older brother studied chemistry here and then he said oh well he just sort of had enough of chemistry so he did masters in like information engineering and now he's sort of working at date science and scientist at blackrock and you'd think like just him studying chemistry at the beginning he'd the only thing you could probably do is be a chemist or a chemistry teacher work in a lab or something but no now he's like working on data science as a data scientist in some like big financial firm or whatever so my final

recommendation is that you should try to get into the right frame of mind going to your a levels especially if you're going to a new sexual because um remember that sex form is not going to last forever it's just going to be two years when you're doing your a levels so there's no need to get involved in with drama or trying to impress people or doing all the sort of stuff that you generally be doing in year 7 to year 9 or year 10 and because it's just not a valuable use of your time at all and many of the people at your sixth form you probably wouldn't speak to or see to see them again unless you're going to the same universities because despite how close of friends you may think you are right now if they go to a different university and you one as well then you'd spend more time making new friends there and so would they and you just gradually speak less and then eventually if like two three years later you could lose touch which has happened to me so far like having spent two years at cambridge although this doesn't apply for everyone i know a few people who do keep in touch with their friends from sixth form and still catch up with them when they go back home and stuff like that um but yeah it's just something worth thinking about but yeah that's basically

most of video my final like suggestion is to sort of enjoy the journey as well in sixth form because i think that it's so easy to get caught up in a system whereby you keep working for the next thing ahead so you work a lot in six homes get into like a really good university and then say that you'll enjoy life when you get to university and plenty of people say that and then they say oh well i'm going to work hard at university and then enjoy life after they graduate and get a job and then people like they start working a lot during their career and they say oh i'll enjoy life when i get this promotion or like when i'm at this stage or earning this much and they just keep pushing back this like chance for them to actually enjoy life so i recommend keeping that in mind you don't have to like be working 24 7 during a sex form and during your a level is like there is a chance to like step back and sort of like hang out with friends and meet some new and interesting people and stuff like that um but yeah don't get too carried away with eva by saying enjoying way too much and not getting any work done uh or just spending all your time working and being detrimental to your mental health and stuff like that but yeah that's basically for this video hopefully you learned something useful and you sort of have a better idea of what you should be doing over the summer um i would recommend checking out the links in the description and checking out the playlists and videos which i mentioned and enjoying the video as well but for now i guess i'll see you next video bye