I am very grateful for the fact that, being outside of mainstream education, I was able to enjoy the whole exam experience. I think exams are generally labelled with stress and anxiety. However, I was able to approach them with excitement and curiosity. Actually taking the exams was quite enjoyable. This isn't to say that I didn't feel nervous about any of the process because, of course, it is inevitable that anyone would. However, I didn't have any outside pressure from either peers or teachers. Yes, I had the ambition to do as best as I could but I didn't feel worried about the grades. I was able to go into the exam and think about using it as an opportunity to show what I had learned. At the time I didn't focus much on the thought of results, I just focused on each exam in turn. In fact, I must have been quite relaxed because at one point we didn't have WiFi (meaning internet resources were off limit) so I didn't worry too much about cramming in lots of revision. I just did what I could with the time and resources to hand.

Standing outside the exam hall for the first exam was very unusual to me because I was one of the only ones (there were some other private candidates as well), without a uniform on. It was really interesting that once I got inside the exam hall I felt rather relaxed. As I went on with the exams I got used to standing there as one of the 'odd-ones-out'. On one of the days of my exams, it was really hot so I decided to take in a water bottle that I had frozen previously. This proved a problem when the ice started to melt and all the condensation on the outside of the bottle dripped all over my desk!

I hope this post gives some insight into how exams work for home educated students and how I perceived the experience to be. Even if you aren't taught at home I would encourage you to enjoy exams as much as possible because it does take the pressure and stress away and helps you relax.