Result’s Day Anxieties

With only 4 more sleeps until the big day, and Im sure you’re all just as nervous as I was this time last year.I thought I’d share my result’s day story and a few tips on how to prepare and what to do on the day. Let me know in the comments if it helps!

So, I made myself physically ill with stress and nerves the week before results day and had a pretty big meltdown on the day as well. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life other than I wanted to never see another sixth form as long as I lived, I didn’t know if I wanted to go to uni and I’d also convinced myself that Leicester was never going to accept me. I was always very black and white and never really had a back up plan it was either ‘that’ or nothing.

Well it got to results day and I hadn’t got the grades I wanted and worked ridiculously hard for. I was absolutely devastated and was taken in to an office with one of the teachers and my mum and brother who tried to calm me down. I honestly felt so disappointed in myself and felt that I’d let myself down and wasted 2 years of my life.

Once I’d calmed down I checked UCAS to find out that I’d been unbelievably lucky and Leicester, my first choice, had accepted me regardless. Unfortunately however, I’d already let myself get into such a slump that I decided with my results I shouldn’t go to university because I’d be holding everyone else back (this was so not the case and my results were pretty average but it just shows what stress can do to you).

Anyway I had a lot of people telling me I was being overdramatic and stupid and that I should pull myself together go to Leicester and get my degree. And I did. It was the best decision I ever made and the Bryony that had a meltdown due to her results is well and truly gone. University has made me a much more easygoing, calm and confident person. Here are a few things I’d say to results day Bryony if I had a chance…

1. No matter what your grades are, you should be proud of what you have achieved. A grade lower than you worked for DOES NOT diminish the blood, sweat and tears that went into those exams. And at the end of the day you still finished, be proud of yourself.
2. If you don’t do as well as you wanted to you, you are allowed to be disappointed. Be sad, have a cry, let it out. But then pull yourself back together and make a calm decision as to what you’re going to do.
3. Whatever your results are they are your results and not to be compared with anyone else’s. If you’re sad you got one grade lower than you wanted, but the grade you got was still one higher than your friend and they’re happy, THAT’S OK. Each person is unique and is capable of different things.
4. Results day is not the be all and end all of your life. If you get accepted by your first choice, amazing, if you decide that you’ve changed your mind and you want to do an apprenticeship, amazing, you want a full time job, amazing, you went through clearing and found a fantastic course at another university through Clearing… AMAZING. Whatever you choose to do is YOUR DECISION and yours only and as long as you are happy then that is all that matters.
5. Intelligence and grades can only take you so far in life. Experience, resilience, confidence, being trustworthy and reliable are all vital qualities for a CV. If you’re a hard worker and put your mind to whatever it is you want to achieve YOU WILL DO IT. And there is always another way, you just have to search hard enough to find it.
6. Here are some brilliant websites on how to cope with the stress…
   • successatschool.org
   • Complete University Guide

So on Wednesday night when you’re struggling to sleep, make yourself a nice cup of tea, put on a film and try your best to get a good night’s kip. There isn’t anything you can do to change your results now and as long as you’ve tried your best over the two years then you should reward yourself regardless. Sometimes its not about the fall its about the getting back up again. I hope you all achieve the best results, and end up exactly where you want to be! Good Luck!