So, you’ve just finished your exams or you’re on your way to finishing them.

“The exams are over finally!” you think, you don’t have to stress out about them anymore. But wait…what happens now?

The waiting.

Yes, now you have to wait over the summer for the results to find out if you performed the way you thought you would or if (nightmare) it’s all gone horribly wrong in some of the exams that you took.

This summer of waiting is a time of uncertainty that can be used by you as an opportunity to not just sit and wait but to do something amazing.

Think about the future

Some of you will have already planned what you are going to do after the summer once you have got your results back from your exams. While others are still deciding. Whatever the case is you should try to set some time aside to think about what your future could hold now that you’ve taken the exams and have an idea of how you might have done.

If you think you’ve done well, you could have a lot of options to choose from with college or apprenticeships on the horizon. Think about what career you want in the future and if college is the best route to get there and what subjects you would need to do or if an apprenticeship will serve you better in getting you to that dream career.

If you don’t think you’ve done well, don’t worry the world isn’t going to end and the sky isn’t going to fall. This is an opportunity to be resilient. Discuss it with your parents and make a plan for this worst-case scenario as well as one for the best case. You might have done better than you think but you won’t know until the results are out.

Either way, if you think about the future now you’ll be better prepared when the results come through. Even if you aren’t quite sure what you want to do, putting a plan in place so you are in the best position for when you want to decide is better than no plan at all.

Help others with a blog or a vlog

Use your fresh perspective on the stress that the exams can bring to put together tips for those students coming up to face the exams the following year.

The new GCSE’s are something students will want to know more about and teachers will want to give their students the best chance they can to do well in their exams. Even if you didn’t do well you still have valuable advice to impart for where you may have gone wrong. Vlogger  UnJaded Jade is a great example of a vlogger who shares study tips and information that young people are interested in or going through. You could do this too!

Volunteer

Keep busy and take your mind of worrying about the results by volunteering your time to a worthwhile cause. You will feel accomplished by the end of the summer and will have developed skills you might not have had before. This might not appeal to everyone but is something everyone should consider doing especially when you have the time.

Get a summer job

If volunteering isn’t something you would be interested in but you would still like to keep busy, maybe you should look into getting a summer job to occupy your time. Not only would you earn some extra money, it would also help you build skills and a CV.