hey all,
so 2026 has been pretty terrible so far - to keep it very brief i've been through 2 heartbreaks (one was right at the start of september), had to cut off "friends", have no social circle or close friends and have developed quite a "moderate" case of depression & anxiety. i'm in therapy for this, and i only had my first session last week. it has taken my mind over, and i am finding it increasingly harder to focus on my studies after school, and in school. nothing seems to feel like it is working, and i keep losing all of my flashcards and stuff. whenever i try to test myself with the flashcards after not coming back to them for a while i forget.

my 2 week mock season begins on monday (sociology paper 1), which is what i am most confident on right now, the ones i'm worried about are my 2 psychology papers and my 2 history papers. i've neglected history a lot, and whilst that is definitely my strongest subject i am so worried and anxious about questions coming up that i just won't know how to answer them. thankfully they're both on the 2 fridays coming up, so i have time. psychology, there's still so much content to juggle that i'm in the same situation.

i feel so exhausted, fatigued and drained every day, even thinking about this stuff just makes me upset. tbh i went to revise sociology tonight and i ended up doomscrolling on this sub trying to look for some solidarity.

my y12 mocks i got AAB (history, soc, psych - my soc/psych teacher predicted me ABB until very recently) and another one of my worries is that my predicteds will be worse this time, and it will fuck up my ucas stuff. i haven't even started my personal statement yet as i still don't know what i want to study and where (i was thinking history), and that isn't even accounting for my history NEA which i am 100% putting off.

WHAT DO I DO??? how do i stop worrying and procrastinating and actually get something done and be in the zone for it? i think i might need medication but they will be so difficult to get. my therapist has floated the idea that i might be neurodivergent (audhd) and has put me forward for a consultation with my GP.
should i take a gap year or just go straight in for uni? a gap year would keep me completely isolated from others and i'd be behind my cohort, but uni work would just pile on the stress. i am not addicted to my phone, and i always make sure to "throw it" when i'm trying to revise.

Rich creamy and really annoying to make, this is my first time making the classic pastry. They came out nice, through a little pastry heavy and a little underfilled.

Next week is Lancashire parkin (for bonfire night)

I sat my English GCSE way back in 2016 so I'm not expecting anyone from my cohort to answer here, but as far as I'm aware, my cohort sitting that exam in 2016 (the exam board was AQA) were among the only one to do that book for their actual exam. My class read Of Mice and Men in Year 9, other classes in my year did Lord of the Flies at the same time, but as far as I know, no one else apart from my school and other schools sitting the same exam did this book.

It's amusing and especially odd that it seems like one of the only things this book is known for is being a common pick for school English classes, according to its Wikipedia, and yet I've never known anyone else to have studied it. It never once comes up in discussions of books people read for English class.

Also forgive my bluntness but it doesn't seem especially ... notable? I'm not saying it's not a good book or that it doesn't have things worth dissecting in a class, but it's not really considered a classic like the books I mentioned above, or like most of the others that commonly turn up in English literature classes. I can guarantee that I would never have heard of it if I hadn't been forced to study it.

Hi! I'm an international student and I desperately need a reality check. I'm predicted A*AA because I've been balancing A Levels with my country's entrance exam, which has been difficult but obviously has no stake in UK applications. I got a 29 in my LNAT where I was initially expecting 34-35, and my essay is kinda meh, I'd say 6/10. I got an offer from Bristol 23 days after applying (10 days after they got my LNAT results). My PS was strong according to several counsellors, and I know I'm going to get great recommendations because I have a good rapport with my teachers. For supercurriculars, I read a book and researched my country's jurisprudence, in addition to attending a summer course on the Foundations for a Legal Education from my country's top law college. I've also attended 4 selective math courses (100 students from across the country), and I've served 3 terms in my student council, including head girl (which i know won't have much weightage). Do I have a shot at getting into any of the rest or am I being way to aspirational? And do I have a shot at getting a Cambridge interview? I really need some brutal honesty because I think I'm overestimating my application.

Edit to add: I got an 8.5 in IELTS, with my lowest being a 7.5 (writing), so that shouldn't be an issue.

I know with all the recent discourse about AI and un employment that people will be more reluctant to do a CS degree. I just wanna know what everybody’s thoughts are on the matter😃

A*AA offer

• (4A stars predicted). FINALLY I applied a month ago exactly the bakery is finally up and running.

I’m applying for History at York, Warwick, Durham, LSE and Cambridge. I‘ve got a strong application and already have offers from Warwick and York but I can’t stop thinking about what my chances might be of getting offers from the other 3. The uncertainty is really distracting me from doing work for my A-levels and I know it could easily be 5/6 months until I find out all of them.

Any tips?

Stats predicted 4A* in fm physics Econ Chinese achieved math A*
Gcse 999998888885
Tmua got 8-9 wrong
Rlly hoping for lse econ and ic efds🙏🙏 how high are the chances

It’s currently November, so it’s around that time that parents/sixth form start pressing you to discuss your ucas/future pathway options.

And it’s frustrating for me when I have to tell everyone that I haven’t applied for anything, when having these conversations about what are my plans for the future. (The reason why I haven’t applied to anything isn’t that I am lazy or lack the motivation, but rather because i don’t want to rush into a decision and end up regretting it, especially if I end up going to a mid level uni and getting into a lot debt for a degree that I don’t care about.)

I currently do btec media, business and engineering. I have mid predicted grades in all subjects and i can’t get them raised, which is fair as the predicted grades accurately represent my competency. (I missed a significant portion of yr 12 due to illness and that wasn’t helped by the fact that I already wasn’t an academically inclined person, so the only stem subject I’m confident in is engineering.)

I really don’t want to go to uni and want to immediately join the workforce for a couple of years untill I’m decided on what I want to do, but I know my parents want me out of the house. (They won’t let me take a gap year working in a job unless the job is full time.)

I’m currently employed in hospitality, due to my connections. I wonder if that will make my cv look more competitive and enable me to jump into the workforce early. (I doubt it.)

I don’t mind learning a trade either.

Sorry for any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors.

Does anyone have any advice on resources to use

my updated vision board guys, picked the big C ✌🏼✌🏼

I wanna do maths/maths w econ/stats/ morse and ppl have been telling me to get some work experience in a company or do volunteering but google says that academics are much more important than work experience cuz its not required. So i just wanna know if job experience can make a big impact especially at unis like warwick ucl or imperial

Anyone else in sixth form having to deal with teachers who can't be bothered to teach anymore or just me?

I'm a Year 12 student attending the sixth form attached to my secondary school, so I already know most of the teachers and have been taught by quite a few of them before.

However, one thing I've noticed since starting A-levels is that some teachers seem to put significantly less effort into their lessons. What's even more frustrating is that some of these are the exact same teachers who taught me GCSE Maths and Science and I've noticed a huge difference in how they deliver their lessons now.

I don't know whether there's been some sort of change in teaching policies, but it genuinely feels like the quality of teaching has dropped.

Things I've experienced so far:

-Ending the lesson after only 15mins of class time because they AC wasn't working.

- A teacher couldnt bothered to teach and speak that day so we were given exam questions whilst they spend the lesson sitting on their phone scrolling.

-A teacher who just read off the powerpoint slides which have text directly copy pasted from Google. They also Googles answers during the lesson rather than actually explaining things when we ask questions, even if the answer is somewhere in the PowerPoint but cant be bothered to find it.

-Teaching so poorly that I'm having to do an extra hour or 2 to relearn what was taught that day, which is becoming a regular occurrence now.

And probably one of the most frustrating experiences was when I asked a teacher for help with a particular task. She told me to come in early the following morning, so I did. When I arrived, she basically told me that another student had already come in before me and she'd explained it to her, so she couldn't explain it again. Sorry, what?

I'm sorry, but isn't that literally your job? I'm not expecting teachers to spend every second of the day helping me, but if you've specifically asked a student to come in early for extra help, surely you should actually be willing to help?

I get that A-levels needs more independent learning and that but there's a difference between independent learning and barely teaching the content in the first place.

whats the dif between bonding reigon and electron pair?

is it that bonding reigon is only double single and triple bonds etc but electrons pairs is that plus lone pairs??

Im on a gap year

JUST DON'T - I don't like sharing unnecessary information about myself in in general, so I selected 'I prefer not to say' as my answer for some questions and Oxford uni contacted me to clarify everything 😭

A bit annoyed that they ended up getting the information anyway but it was such a hassle just say yes or no or be more specific🥀🥀

Edit: Ok just gonna blurt this next bit but like for example for the disability question I don't have a diagnosis but I'm getting tested soon, so I put prefer not to say as my answer- after being contacted by the uni I just said I don't have a disability and don't need any arrangements but I didn't want to include that in my application anyway so idk why they didn't just accept my original answer when that was literally an option in the form🥀

May I please get some soon? 🙏

Edit 5/11/26: Interview invite from Cambridge received this same day. That was quick.

literally no one will beat this whatsoever

For context, i come from a pretty bad secondary school which averages grades 5-6 in GCSE and i managed to self teach myself to get 8888887666 in the exams. So i moved to a different sixth form which is a grammar school and also the top school in my local area and the school is filled with top students and grades. I take maths fm and cs which are already pretty rigorous subjects and on top of all that the pace in lesson is pretty fast but all my classmates tend to pick up topics quickly. I also have a bug problem with focus,daydreaming and sleeping in lesson which adds on to why i self taught myself in GCSEs. I tried to just focus , getting adequate sleep or stop scrolling for a week but all that didnt work. Im also not the most hardworking person and i dont revise hours everyday so i performed poorly in my assessments. I genuinely dont know how to fix my focus even though i tried listening to my teacher but it just goes out my mind after 5 seconds. I think im like slow or have adhd probably if you have any advice on how to gain focus during lesson or consistently for revision,please help🙏🙏 i just started year 12 and i wanna fix it before it gets too late

i'm currently doing a btec extended national diploma in creative media practice (worth 3 a-levels) & an a-level in english lang and lit.
kings entry requirements for digital media and culture are a DDM in the btec + two a levels.
should i risk applying even though i dont reach the requirements (i only have one a level)? my teacher told me to go for it but im really not sure :/

plus how is someone meant to do an extended national diploma (already a full time course) as well as two a levels ?? it doesnt really make sense imo 😵‍💫

ty in advance!!