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The hardest thing I have done so far in my life i choosing my A-levels. It is insane that someone of the age of 15 or 16 has to decide on their future when they have no idea about the working world. Supposedly work experience is set up in order to educate children about the world outside the school gates. Looking at this I can safely say that this is not true. Tell me, how many people who do their work experience at their old school intend on teaching? I could only find one person who said this.

Work experience is essentially one or two weeks off for pupils in order to pretend that they are being educated.
At the end of two excruciating years of course work and exams we are then mad to choose what A-levels we want to take. I have to say that my first answer to that question was "What? I don't know... I'm 15 you idiot I ain't going to be a doctor yet. Am I?". I was subsequently told that i should know. So I chose them and that was the end of it until...I started to question my choices. What if I fail my gcse's and can't do that? What if I don't want to study science after all? It occurs to me that maybe students would cope better were they told more about university. Although information is given freely to those who want it many are immediately expected by parents and teachers to go to university and are never asked whether they want to take A-levels, merely which ones they will take. It is this presumption that makes it so hard for some teens to cope with A-levels and maybe when given the choice they would in fact choose something entirely different. Without being put under pressure to decide so soon and this country may produce happier more satisfied people who are where they want to be in life.

Learn more about this author, Amelia Forrest.
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