To past self,

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Having finished your A-levels it is important to look back on what went well and what didn’t before beginning the next chapter at university. I feel that in the past two years your independence with work has massively improved; for example with your AS ‘Cheap Chic’ coursework you were able to design the concept, plan, develop, and then produce four separate adverts before editing and evaluating the whole process. This coursework made you take on multiple roles and also be strict with yourself with decision making as well as improving your leadership skills through directing. Also multiple research projects, especially the report of the commodification of Christianity in the film industry, improved independent research methods, encouraging you to use a wide range of secondary research sources as well as finding theorists to help build up an argument.

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I feel that A-levels have helped improved your teamwork skills; when in a group of unknown people you were able to design and develop an idea for a new children’s television show, and present to the rest of the class the idea and the story line of the first episode, incorporating images of the characters and descriptions of their personalities. I believe that you have increased your capability in switching between taking a leadership role as well as doing as you are told, this was also aided by completing the Gold Duke of Edinburgh, where teamwork is key.   

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I believe that one of your strengths is being a creative thinker, often looking at a situation or task in a slightly unusual way. This has helped massively over the past few years as it has made your work more individual. It has also helped when creating solutions to a problem, as you often think of a method that others had not considered. This creative thinking is probably down to your dyslexia as it causes your mind to think in a different way, however having dyslexia also affects your reading which does cause issues with long assignments and having to understand texts books. Yet over the years you have managed to create methods to counter the challenges with having dyslexia, I believe it has improved your perseverance as you are willing to read over work multiple times to insure you have understood it, as well as taking your time with work to make sure that it is done to the best of your ability. However, wanting all work to be to the best of your ability can cause some issues, as sometimes things will not end up exactly how you originally imagined. I feel that over the next year you need to try and strike a better balance between making sure that work is done to its best and not stressing over it not being perfect.

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Having taken on more independence over the past two years I believe this has helped your organisation skills. The ability to prioritise work as well as balancing multiple deadlines at once has made sure that all work is finished to the highest standard by the deadline. You have achieved this by making sure you start work early, and being willing to put in extra time; such as during your A-level coursework by staying behind after school and coming in during half terms to use the software needed to make sure you stay on time. Another method that helped you stay organised during A-levels was making sure that all work was planned before starting and in relation to practical work, possible future problems were identified and solutions or alternatives pre put in place.

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It became very important to have good problem solving skills during your A2 coursework where the practical video was set in Malta. After having completed all of the filming over summer when extra sections of footage were needed you had to come up with creative solution of how to either create the illusion of either being in Malta or using alterative footage ideas.

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Good luck in your first year of university!
From,
Alice