Surviving GCSEs...

I know a lot of my viewers are either starting their GCSEs this year (year 10) or are in their final GCSE year (year 11) and so I thought since I finished year 11 in June, that writing a post like this would be helpful to quite a few of you.

What I’m going to do is summarise everything down into key points so it doesn’t get too rambly – even though I know it will because I have so much to say – but I guess that way it’ll be easier for you to read and take in. I hope this helps some of you out at this mega important time!

Don’t Panic

When I was starting year 10 and even more so, year 11, I was absolutely terrified. I only had one GCSE to complete in year 10 compared to 9 in year 11, but the idea of one absolutely terrified me even at that stage. By year 11, well I was past myself by that point. I’m not a great example here, staying calm about it is key because as soon as you start to panic you lose all rational thoughts and that isn’t going to help you at all.

Don’t get yourself in a flap about anything because you will regret it later. Everything will be fine if you chill out, it might not be fine if you freak yourself out over everything. It’s only stressful if you make it stressful. Keep on top of yourself and keep a good grip of yourself. That sounds awful, but sometimes you just need someone to say, ‘get a grip’ to put you back into the real world and see sense again. You will be okay, I promise.

Stay Organised

This is my key to life, never mind GCSEs. Staying organised is your best bet to passing, aside from studying obviously. Get notebooks for different subjects, files, post its, highlighters whatever you need to be confident that you are organised. School will probably give you exercise books or folders to put you things in I would imagine, my school did but if you feel you need more than what they have given you then go out and get it.

Think of it this way, well actually, I’m sure there’s a quote that says something about a tidy desk is a tidy mind or something along those lines. Keep your workspace organised and your mind will be organised too. Some of my teachers know me for being so organised, which I guess you could say is a good thing because sometimes it’s obsessive… I’m sure I have OCD where my school work is concerned.

Ask Someone

The worst thing you can do during your GCSEs if your stuck is sit there and do nothing, struggle through by yourself trying to teach yourself about phototropism or titration or algebra for goodness sake if you don’t understand. You most likely won’t get anywhere on your own and you’ll only get stressed and frustrated. Your teachers are there to be asked questions, it’s what they’re paid to do! Beside what you think, they have your best interest at heart and they want to help you because they want you to do well and pass the exam.

I was so bad for this through most of my GCSEs and I honestly regret it so much, I just wanted to be able to say that I’d worked it out and felt like I had to do everything on my own, but I didn’t. Even asking a friend can sometimes be enough, we all understand different things more than others so asking a classmate could be your key to understanding, and you don’t always have to go to a teacher. However, going to someone is always highly recommended.

Attend Your Classes

This goes without saying really, actually go to your lessons and be on time. So many people seem to think that skipping classes is “cool” but let me tell you, GCSEs are not to be messed with. This is not the time to mess about, you’re probably told this at school all the time but it’s true. All through your school life, skipping class is never acceptable but at this time it’s really not a good choice. It might be a bit forward and shocking to say and think about but these grades will affect you for the rest of your life, they will determine what you do with your career. Don’t screw it up. You’ve worked since the age of 5 for this so don’t ruin it now.

Obviously sometimes we can’t help being a few minutes late to a lesson, but avoid it where you can because at the end of the day it’s your time you’re wasting, no one else’s. This is your chance so make it your best chance because if you don’t you will regret it later. I know peer pressure and popularity seems like the most important thing at this age, so cutting class would be the perfect way to make people think you’re the bee’s knees, I promise you it isn’t. No one thinks that so get a grip and sort yourself out! Wow I sound so much like a teacher, I’m sorry…

Actually Listen

I think this goes without saying as well, you go to a lesson to learn, not to take a nap or daydream about what you’re going to have for lunch. Pay attention because there isn’t time to go over absolutely everything in this much detail right before the exams. Yes, there is time for revision with teachers but they physically won’t be able to go through everything that is in a 2 year course in 6 months before the exam, it isn’t possible. Things will get missed out and some things will be summarised so during lessons listen and write down as much as you possibly can because you will need it later on.

There is also a lot of information about exams and content etc. given in lessons, revision sessions and other things like this will be talked about and if you miss that information you will miss out on those opportunities and you don’t want to do that I swear to you.

Revise

Again, another obvious one but so many people think revision is flicking through your notes and the revision guide the night before the exam, it’s not. It’s much more than that. Revision should start months before your exams, and it should be thorough. You are in charge by this point, your teachers can tell you to revise every day but it’s up to you to actually do it. It’s up to you how you revise, everyone learns in a different way you just have to find the best method for you.

You will probably also find that your school holds revision sessions for different subjects and I can’t hound you enough to go to them. I didn’t miss many when I was doing my exams. It may mean coming in an hour early, leaving an hour late or giving up your lunch break but it will all be worth it in the end. Some of you will find you don’t get coursework to go towards your grade so it all depends on you exam, I believe that’s the year 10s now if I’m thinking right, sorry to scare you kids. But, this makes it even more important for you to go to sessions like this and revise as much as you possibly can. I’m dreadfully sorry you don’t get the advantage of coursework… It’s my favourite thing, I feel awful that they changed the rules!

Surround Yourself With Good People

At this point in your life you haven’t got time for people who are trying to put you down or cause arguments within the friend group, this is your time to get your best chance in life and you can’t let anyone ruin it. Surround yourself with people you know aren’t going to distract you and are going to be there for you when the stressful exam season comes round because you will need that support system during that busy time, it helps so much to have your nearest and dearest there to help you through.

My friends and I often had study dates at our local library, at school before an exam or at each other’s houses on weekends and things like that which was nice because we were all able to help each other. We also went to Costa for study dates, so it can be extremely tasty too. Just make sure you actually do work, have fun too but have fun less than working if you get what I mean… Do more work than mess about is what I’m saying, you know what I mean!

I hope you found this helpful or could relate to this if you have also just finished year 11! I’m about to start year 12 and I’m going to apply these tips to A Levels, so maybe you could too! 

What tips do you have for new year 11s?

Love, Becca

-xoxo

Summer Holiday Essentials

Today I want to list all of the things I think are 100% necessary to take on holiday whether you're only going a hundred or so miles down the country or flying across the globe. 

I'm not going to go into beauty essentials as such because I'm going to do a separate post about that which you will see very soon!

Most of these things would probably go in the hand luggage, but there probably will be a few things that would be much more suited in the suitcase. Maybe a better title for this would have been travel essentials... Oh well!

One thing that I always take on holiday is a book. I know I'm extremely late on the Girl Online bandwagon but hey, at least I'm joining it! I've had this since my birthday but with GCSEs I haven't had the time to read it! So, now that they're finished I will have plenty of time to get reading! No matter where you are in the world there is always time for reading.

I also take my Kindle. Side note: apologies for my reflection but I didn't really have another option! You might think, well why would she take that anywhere if she's already taking a book? I am a very quick reader ladies and gentlemen, so I need more than one book to keep me going! I can also go on the internet etc. on this as it's the Kindle Fire which is always a bonus, allows me to stay in contact with the world as long as I have WiFi! 

If it's a summer holiday, even if it's in the UK, you can pretty much guarantee there will be some sun at some point, well, hopefully... I always carry sunglasses around - often on top of my head which means I forget about them - because it's just satisfying to know that they are there if it gets a wee bit bright! And if you're going to a foreign country, then chances are you'll definitely need a pair of these! 

It is unbelievably hard to photograph a hat... Like so hard! But anyways, this might be more of a foreign country thing because I don't think I would need this in the UK weather at the moment, but I guess it all depends on your style! When I bought this I pictured myself in my black bikini, with my black sunglasses and this hat sitting by the pool looking fabulous... A girl can dream.

Who leaves the house without their purse? Not me! I don't go anywhere without mine anymore, often it's empty, but that's beside the point. I think most people save up a little bit of extra cash before they go away anywhere so it's important you have somewhere safe to keep it! 

I think we can all agree that these are the 3 main essentials of life in this day and age... I don't go anywhere without my phone and I don't often go anywhere without my headphones. Even if I don't use them, you can pretty much guarantee they are there somewhere, just in case. I don't really carry my charger around because if I do need to charge my phone I usually just use one of the battery packs. However, when I go away those battery packs don't last long enough so my charger has to come along too! 

And finally magazines and activity books. I feel like I'm one of the only people who actually uses activity books when travelling anymore? My favourite is criss cross but word searches are fine too! I think it just helps pass the time a little when you're travelling. Also I think magazines help for a little bit of light reading if you aren't really feeling a book, you can have some pictures to break down the text but still be reading - it's a win-win really! 

A couple of final things that I didn't photograph are my camera, obviously because I can't really take a photograph of that. If I go away anywhere for a longer period of time I will always take my camera because you never know a perfect moment for a photo until you're in that moment and you don't have a camera with you. Most devastating thing ever.  I also didn't photograph travel tablets because I don't have any to hand right now but I absolutely HAVE to have travel tablets with me if I'm going on a flight, car or train journey, boat whatever. I can't travel without them because I get really bad travel sickness unfortunately. Anyone who also suffers from travel sickness will understand my pain. I'm one of those people who feels like absolute rubbish but can't actually vomit, so it just sits there like this disgusting feeling the whole journey. It's super annoying although I'd prefer not to vomit anyway. This is getting off topic, as I was saying, I need travel tablets to feel well during a journey. They also cause drousyness which for me means that they knock me out. It's literally like you've given me a sleeping pill when I take those. It's really good actually because it means I miss most if not all of the journey! 

And that's it! These are the main essentials that I personally need to have with me when I'm travelling during summer. I believe I have a 'What's In My Summer Makeup/Wash Bag?' post coming up soon so keep your eyes peeled for that if you want to see more of the beauty side of what I take away with me.

I hope you enjoyed this post and I will see you very soon! 

Would you take any of these things on holiday?

Love, Becca

-xoxo

Struggles Of Being A Teen

So, I am now taking part in another blogging project, alongside the Secret Blogger Project but this one is called the Teens Tell Their Story Project, and it's basically a topic a week to write about and I guess it'll probably just be general things! I will leave a link to Caitlin and Sherina's blogs at the end of this post as they are the creators and I'm sure they would be happy to answer any questions you may have about the project! 

So, the first topic is the Struggles Of Being A Teen and I honestly think this is such a perfect topic to start this project off with because let's be real, being a teen comes with a lot of struggles. So, I'm not going to waste anymore time rambling on and I'm just going to get straight into it!

SCHOOL STRESS

I think school and the pressure put on teenagers at school is one of the biggest problems for teenagers right now. Whether it's GCSEs, A Levels, college courses whatever, it's really stressful and there is a hell of a lot of pressure put on people to pass, to get good grades, to even really push for the highest grades possible. I understand our teachers want us to reach our full potential, and I want to reach my full potential too but having just finished GCSEs and having to take 7 subjects, it's a lot of pressure to do well on ALL of them. I think I had about 17 exams in total, including my practicals in dance and that is a lot, we are still children and I think sometimes that is forgotten because these are the grades that we need in order to live a successful life. I think the fact that your teachers say 'this will affect you for the rest of your life' so many times until it makes your ears bleed, puts so much extra unnecessary pressure on kids. But, I guess we have to get on with it if we want to get a job...

PHYSICAL CHANGES

I don't want to go into too much detail with this because if I do I'll end up sounding like that school nurse that came to talk to you about puberty etc. in middle school. However, the physical changes that happen in the body are at their peak in teenage years which makes it even harder for us. I think hormones are the biggest problem because let's be honest, they control everything. I don't really know if it's worse for boys or girls but I feel it might be worse for girls with the menstrual cycle etc. so I'm going to speak from a girl's point of view on this one. Hormones literally control everything we do, in my opinion although that may be a little extreme, but I over exaggerate a lot, moving on. I find that I can go from being the happiest person in the world to rock bottom within 2 seconds flat, and that sucks. I feel like I'm going off the physical changes thing here a little... But I guess hormones in the body control the physical changes in the body, yeah, let's go with that.

RELATIONSHIPS

When I use the term 'relationships' I use it loosely as I am referring to both intimate and friendly relationships here. Building relationships as a teenager is so hard I think we underestimate it because it was so easy as a child. People say things get easier as you get older but for me personally, building relationships with people is something that just gets harder with age. Whether it be a boy or girl you're completely head-over-heels in love with or someone you would just really like to be friends with, making the first move and starting that relationship can be really difficult. I feel that there's some sort of wall that's built up between teenagers because it's such a judgmental generation, am I the only one who thinks that? I feel that teenagers, more specifically teenage girls, judge each other like there's no tomorrow and I think that's the main problem. We judge each other before one word has been said and it really isn't fair, but that just seems to be how the world works these days. 

Another thing about relationships is once you have that relationship with someone, keeping it the way you want it to be and keeping it good can be super difficult too because again, the judgmental and jealous generation that we live in sucks. There are too many things of getting in the way of keeping a good strong relationship with people, my bet is technology...

CONFIDENCE

I have written a few posts about being confident now and I will be writing many more in the future but I think confidence in teenagers lacks so much, I even lack confidence myself so I know that it's a huge issue for people my age. Again, I think one of the main problems is the judgmental society we live in but I also think the media plays a huge part in how confident teenagers are with themselves, and more specifically their bodies and their appearance. I've seen countless articles and interviews etc. about the media and the effect it has on teenagers, more commonly girls, and how they view themselves. Magazines, TV shows, you name it, we've all sat there and said to ourselves 'I wish I looked that good' but honestly, they don't really look that good either. I've said the same thing so many times on this blog now but I can't say it enough! These people have someone touching up their hair and makeup every 30 seconds, they have lights, photoshop, everything! They have absolutely everything there for them and that's how they look that good, I bet if you saw them in real life they wouldn't look as good as they did in that picture.

CAREERS AND JOBS

I've recently been doing some part time job hunting after finishing my GCSE's and honestly, it's been so much more difficult than I thought it would be. I saw something on the news a while ago that said there was something like 14% of teenagers were employed last year, or something along those lines I can't quite remember what it said, but I remember thinking, if only they realise how hard it actually is for someone of the age of about 16 or 17 to get a job. My problem has been experience, but how can anywhere expect me to have experience if no one will take me on and give me that experience? It's a hard thing to do. Staying along the lines of work, choosing your career path is also so hard at this age but there is also again a lot of pressure to have some idea of what you want to do and where you want to take your life. Currently I'm settled on the idea of event management or photography, and possible interest in interior design. But I have changed my mind multiple times and I'm sure it will change again at some point. You get interviews at school, college etc. where people ask you what you want to do when you're older and you just freeze... 

I guess that's everything I have to say for today! I really enjoyed this as a first topic for this new project I am a part of and I hope you all enjoyed reading it just as much!

Caitlin's Blog

Sherina's Blog

Love, Becca

-xoxo

Beach Days

I'm sorry there isn't really a fashion post for you tonight, but everything I am wearing in the following photos is from Primark, literally everything apart from the sunglasses which are from TopShop so there's a very quick description of my outfit! 

I went to the beach with my 3 closest friends today and we had a lovely time since the sun has finally come to stay in the UK! 

So, I thought why not share a few photos! Sorry there's nothing special tonight but you guys know by now how I like to post about my days out, so enjoy!

And that's the best photos out of the lot! 

Hope you enjoyed joining in a little day at the beach with me! 

Love, Becca

-xoxo