10 Things You Can Do After A Levels 🎊🎉

Hi everyone, I am an A level graduate just tryna fill in the time everyday before I go to Uni. Well, I cannot speak for everyone but for me, there were times where I found myself lying on the couch, doing absolutely nothing (and feeling insanely bored). Lazing around at home and not doing anything productive brought a feeling of dissatisfaction at the end of the day. That feeling led me to think of some activities that I could do to make my post A level life more meaningful and exciting. And I would like to share them with you!

1. Get a job

I think right after A levels end, most of you will be thinking of getting a job or an internship. And this my friends is the ultimate way to make the most use of your time. I believe the blog post by May Xuan has already explained how you can potentially find a job suitable for you, hence I will not explain here. However, once you get a job, this will become the fixed schedule you will follow and plan all your other activities around.

2. Do your budgeting

After getting my first internship, I remember one exciting moment was receiving my pay! With this new income, what was I going to spend my money on? One of my goals after A levels was not to use any money given by my parents for my own personal spending. Hence, I learnt the importance of budgeting. The first thing I did in my budgeting book was to write down specific goals on what I wanted to buy with my money. My list included: Food, Transport (Adult fare is really expensive compared to student fare ☹), New clothes, Savings for the future, etc. After writing down my goals, I wrote down the steps that I would take to save up for each category such as saving $10 a month for miscellaneous spending. With so many goals in mind, it was impossible to achieve all of them with a pay of $540 from my internship. Hence, I categorised my goals into short term, mid term and long term goals and what I would like to save up for first. In the beginning, I tried recording my spending everyday in a book but I realised I was too lazy to continue after a while. Thus, I switched to an online version using the budgeting app, Monny, and from that moment on I have never failed to record down all of my expenses.If you want to key in data quickly and on the spot, online apps are the most suitable for it. Other popular budgeting apps include Seedly and Money Manager Expense & Budget. (They are free and allow you to record your daily spending effectively)

Format of my Money app💵

3. Hobbies

Enough about the money, where is the fun? During the period after A levels, I took the time to explore my hobbies. I have taken up crocheting and even tried making my own kombucha. (You can find free recipes online) If you are thinking of starting a hobby, just search up YouTube and there are a ton of tutorials you can try to learn from. For the DIY fans, there are also tons of tutorials on Tiktok as well 😊 And if you are looking out for inspiration, Pinterest is great to search for ideas. I would recommend you create a list of hobbies you might want to take up and start trying all of them out. It would be even better if you could profit from your hobby as well such as creating your own Instagram shop selling the items you have created.

my attempt at crocheting a coaster 😀

4. Read a book or watch some drama

Have you been missing out on those new dramas that came out? Or that new book that came out recently? Being an avid drama fan, I feel your agony having to wait until the A levels have ended for you to binge watch your drama. (Okay I did binge watch a few during A levels as well cause I have no self-control oops) After A levels, it is the best time for you to catch up to date with all the dramas you have missed or those books you have been dying to read. If you are currently studying for your exams, create a list of the dramas you want to watch so that you can start immediately after your exams. The guilt free feeling of staying up to 6am to watch your dramas is the best feeling you would ever feel. (Trust me you won’t even feel tired cause you can sleep in the next day woohoo!)

5. Explore Singapore and hang out with friends

Don’t just stay stuck at home though, go out and enjoy some time socializing with your friends. There are actually quite a few interesting things you and your friends can do. Here is a list of things my friends and I did that you can try out too😊

- 24h stay in Jewel

- Picnic at Marina

- Sleepovers

- Having our own Bridge club

- Museum Tours

- Staycation

- Night Safari/ Zoo

6. Learn a new skill

Since you have a lot of time before University, you should try to increase your level of knowledge during this period. Not only will you not forget how to study, but you can also increase your skillsets for University. Personally, I have tried learning a new language in my free time. One of my friends has also taken up coding lessons. Not only is this a chance for you to learn a new skill but a time to improve yourself. I would recommend reading some self-help books on topics that you're interested in as well.

7. Exercise

Without any more PE lessons, I actually realised I was starting to bum out and be lazy. For me, I don’t really like to exercise at all and so I could actually feel my body getting weaker (and let’s just say unhealthy). I would recommend everyone to at least try exercising once a week (even if your super lazy I feel you should take up this advice). There are many simple ways to exercise at home such as following YouTube exercises. You can also try to eat more healthily during this period as you may find yourself eating out more often.

8. Volunteer

If you are looking for a meaningful way to spend your holidays, you can try to volunteer in your community. Some guiding questions I would share on how to find the right volunteering activities for you would be: What are you passionate about? What do you want to learn from it? Are you able to contribute to this project? For me, since I want to give back to the school community, I found the opportunity to join the Project Oracle planning committee. Some of my friends have joined Meet the People sessions in their residential areas as well. Overall, discover your own passion for volunteering!

9. Spend time with you family

I’m sure many of you had your family’s support while you were crazily studying for your A levels. But how well do you know your family? With such a long break ahead of you, spare some of your time to hang out with your family at home. Play some board games, talk about your aspirations to your parents (they may provide some advice on Uni selection as well), find a common hobby to do together. Take this opportunity to increase bonding with your loved ones.

10. Nua at home

In all honesty, you can’t possibly have filled activities every day. Your body and mind need to rest especially after all those intensive studying you have done for the last 2 years. You need to rest and chill out so maybe sometimes lying on the couch isn’t so bad after all...