St Edmunds Mentoring: Live Demonstrations

Week Five: 12/03/20

Part 1: Year 9 Talk on UCAS applications and personal journeys

During the last week of the Co-lab experience, we had the chance to speak to the younger year group about GCSE options and different options after university e.g. foundation year, gap year, University etc. I briefly spoke about the Physics and Math’s myth and breaking through the boundaries of why some students may not want to go in the Architecture route. Due to taking maths Alevel Level and dropping that option, I demonstrated that you may wish to change your options slightly at A-Level if the decision isn’t right for you. Emphasising that extra curricular activities, such as duke of Edinburgh will separate you from your year group and give you a better chance at getting into a competitive college/university even if you do come out with average results was a crucial point to get across also.

Following from this, it was vital to speak about the UCAS timeline from applying online when choosing your firm and insurance choice to the final stage, which is accepting your offers and seeing if you have secured a place for the academic year. However, the only issue with informing the year 9’s this early on is that they will have a lack of memory as they’ll be occupied with their GCSE results and applying for college.

 

Emre Covered his background experience with the international process of finishing school with IGCSE results and how adapting to the British education system is rather different. This is due to the overall exams being more challenging and testing than those in Britain. By studying academic subjects at his college and only getting average grades, he discovered that he exceeded in the creative design department as he did many portraits on the side and designing his own merchandise. This meant that by having hobbies and interests on the side, it may influence what bracket of design you fall into and how this will influence your career options moving forward and if you decide to take a year out for foundation level.