Kent students speak out about A-level pressures on results day
Now that students up and down the country are getting their A-Level results, Kent's latest batch tell us how they feel after their exams, Daisy Page reports.
Transcript
00:00I was relieved once I opened my results.
00:01I'm feeling happy that I got into university.
00:03Not too bad.
00:04Yeah, decent. I'm alright.
00:05This is the reaction of a few students who have received their results today.
00:09Family, friends and teachers have come together today
00:12at the Thomas Avon Lim School to celebrate each other's achievements.
00:16There are high emotions today as students are collecting their A-Level,
00:20T-Level and BTEC results across Kent and Medway,
00:23but is there too much pressure put on their final grades?
00:26Yes and no. It's the pressure of wanting to do well, I think,
00:29because you think going to university, if you do your apprenticeship,
00:33it's the pressure that you put on yourself,
00:34but the school, thankfully, were able to sort of relieve all of that.
00:38I found that I've put a lot of pressure on myself,
00:41because I'm a bit of a perfectionist,
00:43so I hold myself to quite a high standard.
00:46In terms of teachers, I think the most pressure you get
00:48is just what they believe you can achieve.
00:51Personally, I didn't feel too much pressure,
00:53but a lot of people I know felt a lot of pressure towards it during the exams.
00:59I didn't feel any pressure, really.
01:00I never felt the pressure, because I don't BTECs,
01:03and I knew what I'm good at, I'm good at.
01:05With 91% of secondary school teachers in England concerned
01:08that their students worry about their results deciding their future,
01:11should students be uneasy about their next steps?
01:15I think they all have such a high expectation of themselves,
01:18and that's actually a really lovely quality to have in general,
01:22but I was just having a conversation with a student.
01:25When you have high expectations,
01:26sometimes you're bound to be disappointed throughout your life,
01:31so it's difficult to take those little pits and then build again,
01:35but ultimately, all qualifications are stepping stones into the next stage of life,
01:41so they need to gain and get what they've learned,
01:45and then move forward, so try and see the positives.
01:49And while many smiles have been shared today
01:51as four in five students have got their university of choice,
01:54for some, they may not have received the grades they would have hoped for.
01:58Going to school, we are kind of taught,
02:00and we feel that our perfect vision of life
02:03is a lovely, positive trajectory into fabulousness and happiness.
02:10Actually, life is pretty complicated,
02:13so if they didn't get the grades today,
02:15I think everything happens for a reason.
02:17Get the things that you've learned from them,
02:18whether you feel that you didn't revise enough,
02:21or whether you think that actually you weren't enthusiastic,
02:25or things just didn't work out,
02:27or there was a particularly bad question on that particular paper,
02:30that doesn't define you as a person.
02:33Many now have the decision on what to do next,
02:36from going to university, looking for full-time employment,
02:38or taking the year out being a few options.
02:41There are many great possibilities for the class of 2024.
02:45Daisy Page for KMTV.