Worthwhile things to do over the holidays
Relax
This is not an absence of activity, but a really worthwhile thing to have a go at. It is enjoyable, energising and should be a conscious excercise with an measureable outcome. Afterwards, you should feel calmer, more positive and more interested in doing stuff. It is a lifetimes work finding out how best to relax in a given situation. Relaxing well will make you a better person. Some quick suggestions can be found here. This tip here is absolutely worth a try.
Read
There will always be a difference between someone who is well-read and someone who is not, and for things like Oxbridge this difference can be used to decide if your application should succeed. Reading well won't necessarily make you a better person, but it allow you to be better informed if chance ever allows you to be involved in the decsion about how your time will be used. A list of what you could read is here.
Expand your mind - Click here for tips on how to do this
Past Paper Questions
Completing past exam questions on topics you have studied, then checking the markscheme to find you got them right, just because you can, is the greatest thing that has ever, or could ever, be done by anyone. Ever. You will become a the best kind of person doing this.
For grade 10
Write your first draft to your Personal Statement for university. If you are interested in getting into the best universities, you will need possibly 15 drafts of this. Your first draft is basically just a list of things you have done (a good version might even try to explain why that list of things makes you a good applicant). If that list doesn't impress you very much, you need to start doing things that you could add. Immediately. Read examples here.
If all of your exams went well then hopefully you are using this time to do something productive (e.g. volenteering, work experience, visiting a university) that might be included in your personal statement for university: ideally what you do now will be a less impressive version of what you will organise for yourself for next summer that takes you into your final year. What you do next year will be your last great oppertunity to stand out from the others with exactly the same grades who will be rejected by your dream university. Sometimes when you do things like this, you can even find out what you want to do with your life :if I had not tried volenteering to teach to help improve my CV I don't think I would ever have wanted to become a teacher. Most likely though, work experience will help you rule out things you don't want to do.
Prepare for your A-Level subjects. Your teachers will be starting your A Level course with the idea that you now know what is at iGCSE level. If you feel the exams didn't go well, this is the first place to start. If the exams went well, ask your teacher what will be the first couple of topics in the course and read IB level. In chemistry, these are the first few topics
Relax
This is not an absence of activity, but a really worthwhile thing to have a go at. It is enjoyable, energising and should be a conscious excercise with an measureable outcome. Afterwards, you should feel calmer, more positive and more interested in doing stuff. It is a lifetimes work finding out how best to relax in a given situation. Relaxing well will make you a better person. Some quick suggestions can be found here. This tip here is absolutely worth a try.
Read
There will always be a difference between someone who is well-read and someone who is not, and for things like Oxbridge this difference can be used to decide if your application should succeed. Reading well won't necessarily make you a better person, but it allow you to be better informed if chance ever allows you to be involved in the decsion about how your time will be used. A list of what you could read is here.
Expand your mind - Click here for tips on how to do this
Past Paper Questions
Completing past exam questions on topics you have studied, then checking the markscheme to find you got them right, just because you can, is the greatest thing that has ever, or could ever, be done by anyone. Ever. You will become a the best kind of person doing this.
For grade 10
Write your first draft to your Personal Statement for university. If you are interested in getting into the best universities, you will need possibly 15 drafts of this. Your first draft is basically just a list of things you have done (a good version might even try to explain why that list of things makes you a good applicant). If that list doesn't impress you very much, you need to start doing things that you could add. Immediately. Read examples here.
If all of your exams went well then hopefully you are using this time to do something productive (e.g. volenteering, work experience, visiting a university) that might be included in your personal statement for university: ideally what you do now will be a less impressive version of what you will organise for yourself for next summer that takes you into your final year. What you do next year will be your last great oppertunity to stand out from the others with exactly the same grades who will be rejected by your dream university. Sometimes when you do things like this, you can even find out what you want to do with your life :if I had not tried volenteering to teach to help improve my CV I don't think I would ever have wanted to become a teacher. Most likely though, work experience will help you rule out things you don't want to do.
Prepare for your A-Level subjects. Your teachers will be starting your A Level course with the idea that you now know what is at iGCSE level. If you feel the exams didn't go well, this is the first place to start. If the exams went well, ask your teacher what will be the first couple of topics in the course and read IB level. In chemistry, these are the first few topics