When “independent learning” is used in a classroom, it’s hard not to think back to the stressful situation during the pandemic in 2020. Children around the globe were thrown into the deep end, having to adapt and develop new skills to keep learning quickly. Although there are mixed feelings about the lockdown, and being able to do independent work at home, do current A-level students feel that this previously difficult situation helped them with their learning now?

To find out whether year 12s feel this way, I decided to interview my friends, and take their opinions on how they learn independently now. the general responses all gave similar results: “I developed a system during the pandemic which I use now”, “Online learning was hard but now I’m more used to doing it”, “It helped me understand what worked for me”, “I felt more prepared going into sixth form knowing I had done independent learning already”.

The general response was the same, year 12 students now feel that having previous independent learning experience helped prepare them for the new independence of sixth form, where learning differs significantly from GCSE education. 

Personally, I agree with all the given statements, the pandemic was a stressful period, where we all were thrown into the deep end with having to learn independently (before zoom calls), now I can apply my ways of learning then to current subjects, and I know what works for me. Although most of us have negative feelings towards that time, there were positive outcomes to do with our learning now.