Whether you are picking up GCSE results, vocational qualification results (such as BTEC), or A level results - make sure that you get ready for results day 2016.Follow these simple tips:Plan ahead. Discuss with your parents, teachers or someone you trust, what your options are, depending on your grades. Planning your response for a best or worst case scenario will enable you to respond much more quickly and with far less stress.Get a contact number for the university departments for both your firm offer and your insurance unis. If you narrowly miss out on grades you might need to call them.Focus on your own situation. There are an awful lot of dramatics, tears and tantrums on results day with emotional highs and lows going on all around you. Make sure you focus on your own results and what you need to do – don’t get dragged into other people’s dramas!As you’ll be in school on results day, try and arrange to have someone at home next to a computer in case you need to check clearing websites or the UCAS site in a rush. It’s a mad day for UCAS too, so be prepared for their website to be very slow or to crash altogether occasionally…Top up your mobile and make sure it’s fully charged. You’ll be calling lots of people to celebrate or commiserate and that means you’ll need lots of credit.Take your time. Whether you get the grades you needed or you do better or worse than you thought you would, there is plenty of time for you to consider what to do.Results day can be a turning point for some students. If you have any doubts about uni not being the right thing for you, now is the time to speak up! Just because all your mates seem to be to going on to HE, remember – it’s your life and you need to do what’s right for you. Choosing to take a different path into employment after A-levels takes a lot of bravery and requires a great deal of thought. Don’t let yourself be swayed by the crowd or by teachers who don’t know how you feel.If you’re panicking for any reason, find somewhere quiet to calm down and get your head together. Focus on your breathing and clear your mind. Taking a few minutes away from the madness will help you to make sensible decisions and will stop you rushing into making rash decisions.Appreciate your achievement. Whatever your results turn out to be, you’ve just completed nearly two decades of continuous education. You’re amazing! You’ve grown, developed and learned so much and that learning process will carry on throughout your life. You should carry on building on that education, whether you go to uni, do an apprenticeship or start at the bottom and work your way up in your chosen profession. Be proud of what you’ve achieved so far and never stop doing everything you can to develop your unique skills and your enquiring mind.
