Study Skills

The transition to linear subjects means that you must do everything in your power to make a success of every subject that you take. Dropping subjects that you’re finding a bit hard is no longer an option. With this in mind it has never been more important that you develop excellent study skills and positive working habits.

Consolidation

In the Sixth Form it is crucial that you adapt how you work, use your time effectively and are proactive in seeing support. You have considerably more time outside of lessons and a key mantra should be:

One hour lesson ⇒ One hour homework + One hour independent consolidation

This additional consolidation is the biggest change from your studies at GCSE level where concentrating in class, and doing the homework, would almost certainly be enough to get good grades. At A Level you MUST do more than this if you wish to be successful.

Click here for a document which gives detailed guidance for the consolidation work that you should be doing for each of the different A Level subjects.

Study Support - DCGS Sixth Form Mindset

To support you over the year we will be using the resources and ideas from the A Level Mindset (www.alevelmindset.com). Their idea is that there are five elements to success at A Level, and more importantly that these five elements can be learned. They use the acronym VESPA:

V = Vision - how well do you know what you want to achieve?

E = Effort - how many hours of independent work do you do per week?

S = Systems - how do you organise your learning and time?

P = Practice - what kind of work do you do to practise your skills?

A = Attitude - how do you respond to setbacks?

During term time the best avenues for support are initially your subject teachers and also your div tutors who will be able to help guide you with exactly what you need to do to be as successful as possible.

Advice for Revision and Exams

Please follow the link here to visit our site to support students with this crucial aspect of their time in the Sixth Form.