Posted By Laura in Education, Featured, Parenting Teens | 2 comments

This was to be a post describing a plan to complete A Levels in one year. As regular readers know, in 2020 our 17yr old had a lightbulb moment, shook himself and decided it was time to study now. He took the four GCSEs he needed for his next step, and gave himself nine months to study them using the ICS Learn courses. Not only did he pass everything, but he achieved a 9 in English Literature , and an 8 in English Language – having never written an essay (or really enjoyed reading) before last summer (he shared his tips for other teenagers setting out on homechooling GCSEs in the UK here). Riding high on his success he decided to plough on and complete his three A Levels inside a year too. How much harder could it be?
The new courses were set up, and he quickly contacted all his tutors to introduce himself and explain his timeplan.

He was met with polite disbelief – the experienced tutors were unanimous in their opinion that this plan was not only not sensible, but also self-sabotaging. Each of them questioned Toby as to why he needed to do the three subjects inside one year, instead of the usual two. Of course it was possible – anything is possible – but what was the need? What was the urgency, having come this far, in cutting short his own chances?

So Toby came to us, acknowledged what his tutors had told him, and talked it through. We asked the same question – why this drive to get it done in a year? It was a deadline he had imposed upon himself – no one else had told him it was necessary. So what was the reasoning behind his urgency to study A Levels in one year? It transpired that it was a combination of impatience for his ‘next step’, heady confidence after his GCSE success, along with an underestimation of the work involved in A Level courses. Toby briefly considered whether to pay for homework assistance to manage the workload, especially given the intensity of A Level courses. In the end, careful planning allowed him to take control of his study schedule without compromising the quality of his work. We looked at the hours required for each course (History, English and Law), and did the maths.

• A Level syllabuses are designed on the assumption that students have approximately 360 guided learning hours per subject.
• 360 hours pers subject, and three subjects, that’s 1,080 hours of studying.
• There are 29 weeks between September and March, allowing a week off for Christmas, and presuming a five day week that’s 7.5 hours solid study a day, without additional reading or research.

Yes of course it’s do-able… but it’s a tough schedule for anyone to uphold for that long, and allows almost no time for revision or exam practice. It also meant an 18yr old looking at an exhausting, pressured and relentless year, with no room for bad weeks, loss of motivation, being unwell, a holiday… any small thing could throw the entire course off track and impact on his final results.

Plus of course all three courses are essay based – it’s not so much the amount you need to learn for A levels, but how well you can develop the sophisticated reasoning and writing skills. And that simply takes time.

So we talked through the practical consequences of taking the usual two years instead of one – what and how would this impact? And it turned out… not very much. Yes, of course, Toby would be another year later than his cohort. But he already is a year behind them – and many are taking a year out instead of going straight to Uni. Will twelve months really make such a difference in the grand scheme of things? As adults we know it won’t, and we attempted to help Toby see that slowing down is perhaps the fastest way to get there; using a little patience will still get him to the same place, but perhaps with a lot less stress and anxiety along the way.

A Levels in one year? We thought so…

And so, he stepped back. He listened – and now he’s not planning on A Levels in one year. He’s planning on A Levels in summer 2023, with two years ahead filled with a combination of studying, travelling, time to see friends and doing what most teenagers do. And instead of the anxious face weighed down with the study schedule and colour coded constant screen alarms, he’s enjoying his studying again, and feeling excited for the next chapter.

And for us, the best thing is not only seeing him examine his choices, weighing up consequences and choosing the right path for himself, but also atching him learning to be bold enough to be flexible, to change his mind when something doesn’t feel right, and to know it’s never too late to choose a new way.