Back to school: Tips for students starting GCSEs & A-Levels

It's that time of year when the school bell starts ringing once again for the new academic year. Starting your GCSEs and A-Levels can bring a mixture of feelings. You might be feeling:

• Excited

• Raring to go with anticipation

• Apprehensive

• Overwhelmed

• Indifferent

There is no right or wrong way to feel.

Adding Cerebral Palsy/a physical disability to the mix can often bring extra considerations, additional challenges and worries to GCSEs and A-Levels. Common concerns, questions, and factors often include:

• Am I going to keep up physically?

• How am I going to juggle my subjects with extra physical needs?

• What about fatigue?

• I need to fit in physio - how am I going to do this?

• How will my exams look and how am I going to do them - fatigue wise and physically?

Ellie Simpson, Founder of CP Teens UK, did 8 GCSEs and 3 A-Levels, and went on to study at University. Here she shares some tips based on her first-hand, lived experience:

1. Class Notes

Everyone has their own way of learning and taking in information, so my approach might not necessarily work for everyone. However, as someone who a) has a very slow output/typing speed (especially when under pressure to physically keep up!), and b) is good at listening and picking up information audibly, I found when doing my GCSEs and A-Levels that the most effective way of 'getting things down' was for my TA to take notes (which she then typed up for me) and for me to have my own notebook where I would scribble down 'buzzwords'/phrases that resonated with me.

For example, I took Sociology at A-Level and we were learning about a social experiment carried out by a man with the surname 'Garfunkel'. Garfunkel released chickens in the middle of a busy shopping mall to see the reactions of members of the general public going about their shopping and every day routines. I wrote in my notebook "Garfunkel - chicken man!". It then came up in my A-Level exam and a combination of my class notes written and typed up by my TA, and my own 'scribbles' that resonated with me, as well as obviously revision, meant that I knew exactly how to answer the question - but I hadn't exhausted myself trying to make my own notes and physically keep up in class!

For me, it was about knowing and understanding how to take everything in effectively without physically exhausting myself, which brings me onto my next point...

2. Fatigue

   
   

Fatigue is such a huge factor for many people with Cerebral Palsy/a physical disability, and especially with the demands of doing GCSEs and A-Levels. It can be a really difficult challenge to know a) how to, and b) when to, pace yourself in such a fast paced environment - and especially in mainstream education, where quite frankly no one else around you struggles with fatigue.

At GCSE, I was determined to do 9 GCSEs like everyone else, and I did start Year 10 doing nine. I quickly fell behind in one subject in particular, which was ICT. This wasn't because I didn't understand, but because the amount of work was demanding - it was a very coursework heavy GCSE, and whilst this initially appealed to me rather than doing exams, the reality was that it involved working at a constant fast pace to keep up and stay on track. All of my other subjects started to suffer as a result.

I reluctantly made the decision to drop ICT, which my school allowed under my circumstances. I can honestly say it was the best decision I could have made - I suddenly had 4 hours a week of 'free time' at school. Not only did this allow me to concentrate on all my other subjects, it gave me time to do homework/coursework at school. In turn, this reduced my workload at home, which gave me more down time/time to sleep, which of course made my fatigue easier to manage. I totally understand why people might be reluctant not to do the same number of GCSEs as their peers - this was me to a 't'! I think I saw it as a failure, which it absolutely wasn't. It was in fact a life saver - a life saver that enabled me to get 4 A's, 3 B's and a C.

At A-Level, the dynamic changed. We were allowed to go home after our final lesson of the day. For me, this meant that for 3 days of the week 11am was home time! Usually, the last thing a 17-18 year old would be doing at 11am three times a week is going back to bed. It felt wrong, and self-indulgent, on every level. I also felt like I was very much fulfilling the stereotypical 'lazy teenager' image. However, it was anything but these things. By 3pm ish on each of these days every week, I felt refreshed after my hefty nap and I could then spend the remainder of the afternoon into the evening doing any homework/coursework that needed doing, or enjoying a good period of down time if not. Not only was it a brilliant way to manage my fatigue, in my eyes I had not lost much as the school day finished at 3pm - it was just luck that three days a week my last lesson finished at 11am, and I would have only been in school if I had not have had morning lessons!

Everyone will have different levels of fatigue and different ways of managing it, as well as different school timetables and dynamics. But, my top tip is make sure you factor fatigue management in, and don't feel embarrassed to do so. Understand your limits and try not to get frustrated by them and/or push through them - unfortunately, fatigue will always win in the end if you don't accommodate it along the way! It is essential to work with it and not against it.

3. Exams

Exams are often a challenge for everyone and can be stressful enough as it is. Adding Cerebral Palsy/a physical disability to the equation and how it can physically impact an exam situation can bring even more stress. It sounds dramatic but when I first started my GCSEs in Year 10, I really struggled to visualise how I would physically do an exam, let alone 11-12+ of them.

I can't physically write (well, I can, but no one can read it, I write roughly four words per minute, and after 5-10 minutes I can no longer grip my pen!), I can type but it's slow, and my speech is affected so giving my answers verbally for any length of time and/or to someone who doesn't know me isn't always the easiest.

All of these factors made me wonder how on earth I was a) going to do my exams, and b) if exams were a fair representation of my understanding and knowledge given my circumstances? Unfortunately, exams were the only way - I don't know if it has changed now, but in 2011 and 2013 it was exams, or... exams!

I got given 100% extra time, which was bittersweet. Sweet because there was absolutely no way I could have completed my exams in the standard times allocated. Bitter because, a) for some exams like English and History where it was heavy on the essays, believe it or not it still was still not enough time for me to complete my answers at my typing speed! And, b) some of my exams were 6+ hours long, which was very difficult - you lose concentration, your brain goes 'gaga', and fatigue kicks in.

I was extremely lucky to be able to have my own TA support me in my exams, and to be honest this is what made exams possible for me. I had my own personal exam room with an invigilator monitoring. We came up with a system where I would start my exam by typing myself so I could get my brain and natural flow going. My TA would clock watch and tell me at a specific point that we had agreed of the time. For example, if it was a 2 hour exam, I would ask her to let me know around the 50 minute mark that I was just approaching half way. From here I would then decide when I wanted/needed to switch to my TA scribing. As my TA knew me well, I could verbally speak with ease and without having to concentrate hard or repeat myself.

This worked for me, but everyone will have different circumstances. As I said, when I did my GCSEs and A-Levels, exams were the only option, but this could have changed. My top tip is, regardless you have a right to find a way of being assessed in a fair way. The way I did my exams wasn't perfect, but it worked. If you can identify how you work best outside of an exam situation and then take this and mould it to an exam, this can be a good starting point - for example, I identified that my TA could scribe for me with ease as opposed to someone who did not know me. I also identified that whilst typing myself wasn't a viable option for an entire exam, it was good to start an exam typing myself to get my flow going.

4. Self-belief!

It sounds incredibly cheesy, but you have to have self-belief. I didn't have any at all when doing my GCSEs and A-Levels. I could just not see myself achieving the grades I 'should', and whilst it didn't effect the level of effort I put in, it did make me sometimes question why I was putting the effort in "because I wasn't going to pass anyway"...!

I think when you have Cerebral Palsy/a physical disability you are so used to having support to do things and lots of things in life are a 'team effort'. Before I did my GCSEs and A-Levels, I hadn't really done much that was just down to me and my own efforts. Of course I had support in my GCSEs and A-Levels - as did my peers to be honest, every youngster needs support in some way, shape or form. But, what I mean is that ultimately when it came down to it, it was down to me to know my stuff and get it down in the necessary way in my coursework and exams. This freaked me out if I'm being honest. I had no self-belief that I could do it.

I now realise all of this as an adult, and I wish I could go back and tell 15-16 year old me that I can absolutely do it... and I did do it! But, I can't go back in time, so it's going in my top tips instead. You may feel as if you can't do it, and this may stem from a lifetime of having support in a lot, or all, areas of life - but, it's so important you believe in yourself. You might have to do things differently, you might have to make sacrifices, and at times it will probably all feel very chaotic and maybe even too much, but you can, and you will, do it.

5. Revision

The word 'revision' still makes my heart sink! I hated revision. It was a necessary evil. I cannot give advice on how to revise because it is such a personal thing - everybody will have a different approach to get all of the necessary knowledge into their brain and to make it stick! However, I can share some things that worked for me personally.

At my school it was drilled into us constantly how 'important' a revision timetable was. However, I personally found a revision timetable a very stressful thing to have. When you have fatigue and I just had to 'go for it' as and when I could, timetabling 'Biology revision' at 10am on Saturday for 2 hours and then sleeping through it made me feel a) behind, and b) out of control because I felt I had missed my 'slot'. I was far better establishing when my exam was and then ensuring I had plenty of time to do the revision as and when I could up until a deadline I set myself usually 3-4 days before the exam. This did not mean I kept brushing it under the carpet with the vague promise to myself of "I'll do it tomorrow" - it still required discipline, arguably more than a revision timetable. But, it took the pressure off of me - I knew it needed to be done and I always got it done, but if the best time for me to revise was 11am one day, and 8pm the next, then that was okay!

My peers also put a lot of effort into making their revision 'pretty', i.e. pictures, revision cards, colours etc. I don't know if it's still the case now, but when I was at school it seemed to be the trendy thing to do, and for some bizarre reason the more visually pleasing someone's revision was then the more they seemed to fool themselves, as well as teachers, how much revision they had done. The reality was that they had spent most of their 'revision' time drawing and colouring! My revision was far from visually pleasing. I was limited to Microsoft Word and a home printer that soon ran out of ink if I used pictures and colours. However, arguably I did more 'useful' revision than a lot of my peers as a result. Don't be put off by other's 'all singing, all dancing' revision - there are absolutely no marks, nor grades, awarded for 'pretty' revision! What matters is that you do it, and in a way that works for you.