It is no secret that results day is a somewhat stressful 24 hours for most A Level students hoping to get into their first choice of university, and things don’t always go to plan. If, like me, you find yourself going through clearing on results day this may seem like an extremely daunting thing to do. However, in my experience, a student can take several steps to build their own clearing survival kit which will help make this process easier.
How to Prepare
Making a good start is one of the most crucial elements of building a successful survival kit and so you should start by making sure that you have plenty of snacks ready, a drink on hand (preferably with some caffeine in my case) and a fully charged phone which you will need later. Some people may prefer to use a computer for the process but it’s up to you. I would recommend using whichever device you’re most comfortable with.
In my experience one of the key things to do in the build-up to results day is researching the clearing options that may be available to you. As much as everyone hopes that they will get the grades they need, you should also plan for every eventuality and researching your options is one of the best ways to do this.
Once you have found one or two universities that you would like to go through clearing with, I would recommend making a notes page on your phone or computer and noting down some key information that you will need to keep handy on results day. The crucial information you will want on this page is your student number (which can be found on UCAS), your email, the course code for the course you would like to apply for, the clearing phone number for the university you want to go through (which can often be easily found on the university’s clearing page) and then, once you have received your A Level results, note these down too so you don’t need to search for them.
I would suggest you check the entry criteria on the morning of clearing once universities websites are update, so stay optimistic! I made this note on my computer and I found it was also very helpful for me to take a photo of this so I could access the information on the move, especially because results day is often very busy and you may need to take a phone call whilst you’re out.
The Phone Call
Now that you’re prepared, your next step should be to ring the university you would like to go to and apply to the clearing course of your choice. If you are successful, the university will give you a verbal offer on the phone.
I admit, a normal phone call can be quite stressful for most people, let alone a phone call to apply to university, and so taking steps to remain calm should also be a crucial part of your clearing survival kit. Making sure that you don’t rush is a very helpful way to lower your stress levels and is one of the main ways that I managed to remain relatively calm in this process.
If you are successful, you are now able to add this course on your UCAS and head off to the university of your choice in September!
Final Advice
My final advice to add to your kit would be to not fear clearing, and don’t be upset if you find yourself going through clearing. In my experience, clearing turned out to be the best decision I made, leading to me heading to a great university and making amazing friends. Using this clearing survival kit I’m confident that you will be able to have the very positive experience that I had.
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