Timetable
One of the main differences here compared to secondary school is the timetable you receive. You can forget your boring 9-3 at school. At college, you’re going to have a wild schedule, you'll finish some days earlier, you'll even start some days later!
One day of the week I come in for 2 lessons in the afternoon (1pm – 4:15) and while for three of the days in the week I still start my day at 9, I can say I'm finished before lunch twice. While of course you have to have a full day at least once, on Thursday I will go in for 3 lessons taking my day from 9am until 4:15.
Everybody's timetable will be different, you might have 2 full days and 3 half days, or even a day off if you’re lucky! Each lesson is a little bit longer than school, which is 90 minutes for me, whilst it took some getting used to its no major negative change, and in fact most lessons are fun and useful.
What happens when I have no more lessons, but I finish mid-day?
Thankfully you’re not trapped. When you have no lessons to go to you can leave the building if you want to. Thats another of the biggest changes compared to secondary school. Whether you want to stay and wait for your friends to finish or go to the library and make use of the resources given to you, the choice is yours.
It’s hard to give an “A Level student day in the life” when every day is different.
Once my lessons are over, I do many different things in my day, I go back home, go for lunch, play video games, watch TV, go out with friends, even go to work at a part time job some days. You have a lot of free time when you decide to take A Levels but what you decide to do with the free time is important.
There is a lot of outside work you have to do. I study 13 and a half hours a week in lesson, though there is an expectation that you do a lot of revision in your own time. Its recommended you do 4 hours of revision per subject each week. It feels like a lot, but it can be managed easily.
You may decide to stay in college every day for just one extra hour when you finish and spend some time in the library revising with the extra resources available in there. That way once you’re home you only need to fit in an hour or so each evening or even slim it down and do a whole study day each Sunday. A Levels can be very academically challenging and so there is always lots to study to keep you occupied.
As an A Level student, my week is always full of different moments. I feel as though I have so much time to myself compared to secondary school and what's better is I can plan everything myself and in my own time. I can plan my revision and social life around each other thanks to the shorter college days A Levels have given me. I am still given much loads of support through my teachers and have many resources around me to use, making my life much easier and more fun.
Written by James Martin, High Pavement student
