Stage 4 advice!

Tuesday 5 November

How are you going to approach Stage 4? As we're at the start of it, it's worth taking a moment to think about it. One approach is to GET REALLY STRESSED. An alternative is to take a step back and decide you're going to consciously look after yourself. Obviously we recommend the latter approach if you can manage it!

Information about the set-up of online interviews and college assessments will become available as things progress (as soon as we can manage it) and will be there in time for you to prepare for the set up if you are selected for interview. As you can see in the Stage 4 information, you will hear from us about whether or not you are selected for interview, but not soon - it will be in the second half of November, since we first of all need to consider your applications. Note also that the second half of November doesn't necessarily mean 15/16 Nov; there are a lot of days in 'the second half of November'. Please don't spend all of November stressed about hearing from us, it's just not worth it and it's a waste of your time and mental energy.

If you look at the Stage 4 information, you'll see that there's a table where you can check if any subjects have heard from us yet. We update that and recommend that you use it if you're curious rather than comparing notes with others (at other colleges / in other subjects) on internet forums etc. Different Colleges do things at different times and will work through subjects in different orders - following the progress is likely to be an exhausting time drain which may also increase your stress levels, and you should compare the benefits of it to, say, doing school work (if relevant), using resources linked from the subject information, or taking yourself for a walk (or similar). Good mental health strategies and study skills are the key for November.

This is only advice, of course - you don't have to follow it and we all know that these things are much easier said than done. But please consider it carefully, consciously look after yourselves this month, and focus on keeping yourself as mentally and physically fit as you can manage and making good, steady progress on your school work if you've got exams or assessments at the end of the school year.  

Back to current points box / stage 4 information / subject information