It is well known that waiting for your results at the end of an academic year can be really intimidating, and can leave you feeling pretty anxious. This anxiety is usually increased when it’s A-Level results that you’re waiting for, as these will influence which university you go to. However, you don’t need to feel stressed. There are lots of ways to make yourself feel more comfortable during this time, which I’m about to discuss.

Personally, I found the lead up to results day a lengthy wait, but I found these things really helpful:

Hobbies

As A-Level results are generally released in summer, it would be a good idea to keep yourself busy with fun activities in the lead up to the date to distract yourself. By indulging in your hobbies you can have a fun summer and ensure that you aren’t constantly dwelling on your exam/coursework performance. There’s nothing you can do to change it now, so there’s really no point in worrying.

Get Active

Keeping active either by participating in your favourite sport or by working out in the gym can also do the world of good while waiting for your results to come out. For me, it helped to take my mind off my results, and it also had the added bonus of making me extremely productive afterwards. I liked to do things like indoor bouldering, as it makes you use your brain to crack challenges and also keeps you really fit.

Diet

Another thing that helped me to relax was maintaining a healthy diet. Foods that are full of sugar and trans fats are known to make you feel more lethargic and down. They could also end up making you not want to participate in activities that take your mind off the wait for your results.

Thinking Positively

As a whole I found that I wasted a lot of time being worried about things that didn’t really matter when I was waiting for my results. As I mentioned before, there is no point in worrying about your performance as you can’t go back in time and change it. It’s much better to focus your thoughts on the positives, like how hard you worked or how much cool stuff you learnt. You should always see the positives and be proud of what you have achieved. I have always found that if I have worked hard and put the time into my assignments then it will always show in the long run, even if occasionally I don’t do as well as I expected in certain small things. Just learning to think a bit more positively can leave you feeling like a weight has been lifted.

Talking

Finally, if you are still worried, make sure you speak to people about it. I found that speaking about my upcoming results to my class peers and my close friends really helped me shake off some of the excess stress. These conversations help you to realise that you’re not the only person experiencing these feelings, which can be reassuring. Talking to other people also helps you to see that it’s not the end of the world if you don’t get the results you wanted. I’m sure you’ll hear lots of stories about people who didn’t get their expected grades, but they went through clearing and ended up being really happy. I know I did! So, really, there’s no need to worry whatsoever.

If you want to know more about clearing, take a look at our clearing website.

Ross

Hello, I’m Ross and I’m a 2nd year Music Production student from County Durham. I have a real interest in recording music in pretty much any genre - including arranging, mixing and mastering. I am also a first study guitarist who sings and writes songs, and I would consider myself a bit of a gym enthusiast as I like to keep active. If I am not doing anything relating to studying, music or fitness, then I enjoy playing games, watching movies or reading books like the ‘Game Of Thrones’ series.

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