Results Day. Yuck.

Waking up on the morning of the 17^th August, 2017, was nerve-racking. I hadn’t got much sleep the night before, knowing the my future depended on the grades I saw on that piece of paper that morning. I knew that I could find out if I’d got into my first choice uni by looking on the UCAS website at around 7:30am. It was 7:20. I opened the webpage.I couldn’t believe it. I refreshed the page 3 or 4 times before I let it sink in. I was off to uni. I was off to Manchester Met 🙂

That was how the morning of my results day went. At about 11am I drove to school with my friend Meg to pick up our grades – the UCAS website doesn’t tell you your grades, just whether you got into your first or second choice uni. I had no idea what grades I’d actually got, but I knew that they were good enough to get into Manchester Met, my first choice.

Sixth Form was heaving by the time we got there, with a mixture of happiness and disappointment hanging in the air. Meg and I went into the classroom where all the results we laid out onto a table in the centre. I opened mine with a little confidence (I’d somehow made myself believe that it was all a mistake and I’d actually failed everything and it was all going to be a disaster). There was no mistake, I’d got BBB. For the second time that day I took a few looks to let it sink in.

My first question was how – as you probably know from my previous blogs, my Dad had been very unwell that year, so it seemed like a miracle that it hadn’t affected my results. My second question was, ‘what now?’ – it was all done, I’d got through the toughest year of my life so far and I’d achieved more than I’d ever hoped, so now the next challenge is actual university, am I ready for that? Possibly.

A lot of the people I knew had to go through clearing, or go for their insurance choice, ringing Uni’s to see whether they’d take them, and deciding what to do next. Many of my friends decided to do a gap year and a few said they’d retake their exams. The feel of sixth form was so strange, with opposite emotions everywhere. In the afternoon, my best friend Tom and I decided to forget all the drama of the day, so we sat on a hill, ate McDonalds, and discussed the best way for him to break the news of his results to his parents. What a day.

Results Day doesn’t always go this well for everyone (trust me, you should have seen my AS results), but knowing that you can bounce back from a fall like I did then, helped me to be even more dedicated to turning my grades around for my A levels. Looking back on it, I did have options if my results were different, but at the time, those letters on a piece of paper feel like the be all and end all. Results Day is difficult and stressful for everyone, but if you’ve honestly taken those exams with enough preparation and effort, you’ll get the rewards and even if things don’t go according to your plan there are always other options. My advice to everyone would be to make sure you have a plan B, just in case.  Best of luck to anyone who is receiving their results this year!