One of the trending, hottest topics that has been enthralling everyone a lot lately almost in every social media platforms is many people getting accepted into their dream colleges and getting good grades in their A-levels, as expected. First of all, a big CONGRATULATIONS to everyone who made it to university and got amazing grades in their advanced levels. I was so happy about so many people being happy and moving forward to the next, most amazing phase of their lives.

Apart from all the joy and success stories, something which most of the families fail to see is the damage all those pressures of “YOU NEED TO GET GOOD GRADES” cause in the lives of many teenagers, especially girls, who haven’t gotten the expected grades for their A-levels and worse, those who haven’t gotten a seat into any of the best colleges from the top 10 list of best universities. Tragic.

It’s not a secret about the huge number of suicides that have appeared on the tabloids about teenagers that failed either few or all of their advanced level subjects a lot lately. A student commits suicide every hour in India which makes it 135,000 people out of 800,000 dying every year. So basically, India’s teenage death rate accounts for 17.5%, making it the only nation with the highest teenage death rate across the globe.

The trouble with A levels is that they come at an age when there is no such thing as minor tragedy, everything is a major tragedy. Nothing can cause more anguish than an exam failure. ~Irma Kurtz, Cosmopolitan’s Agony aunt.

A-levels are nothing but a stepping stone towards university/college life for an individual, but today’s pressure from parents and families makes it very hard on teenagers who are sitting for their examinations. It’s almost like a battle between happiness and what’s right and happiness in the sense, satisfying grades in order to feed in the egos of parents and what’s right is that any grades achieved at A levels is an achievement and are to be celebrated for. Well, any grades as in not F or U. Well, why would someone get an F or U if they really had an interest in the subject they are writing? That’s something to be taken into one’s consideration because if one has mere interest and love in the subjects they chose for A-levels, I am one hundred percent sure that they wouldn’t come down to achieving an E or lower.

I used to feel like this torture of A levels is a never-ending one but then here I am: I’ve successfully completed it, achieved grades that I am more than happy with and am here now, stepping into the college I always wanted to enroll myself in for the program I always dreamt of majoring in! It all takes time, you all need to give time some time and it will reveal what has been meant for you when your time is right AND of course, hard work. Working hard is an important ingredient not just during A-levels, but in uni, your career, and everything else that comes after that such as promotion, development, ambitions, long-term goals etc. One needs to work hard in order to achieve success. If it were all easy, who would even appreciate the success that almost everyone talks about today? The success in which you no longer have to look at the price-tag of anything? The success that you can go on vacation for a year or more? Well, that’s all an outcome of your hard work. Work hard today so that you can appreciate its outcome tomorrow and cherish it forever.

My heart goes out to every girl that has ended her life for a simple thing like not achieving good grades or have failed their A levels. Trust me, life is about the next step you take and that doesn’t ever include taking away your life. Many, many brown families need to stop pressuring their teenagers in order to feed in their egos and ‘How will I face the society if not‘ mindset. After all, she is your daughter and you need to make sure she’s emotionally and mentally stable before making sure her grades are for you to brag about. It’s just a grade after 3 or 4 years which no one will ever bother asking about as long as one has a successful career and is financially stable.

To do anything to a high level, it has to be total obsession. ~Conor Mcgregor

To all the A-level students out there, let me remind you something I used to remind myself over and over again throughout the agonizing years of my A levels: DON’T ever choose a subject or stream because your friends do or family wants you to! Choose a subject because you love it, because you want to major in it at university or because it relates to the respective field you’re choosing to major in. If you’re going to choose a subject just for the sake of it, it is simply going to end up disappointing you, mark my words. It might seem like a forever battle, but once and for all, when you’re finally done with it you will realize that every bit of it was an achievement and the outcome is nothing but a stepping stone towards the next level of your life; Uni/college life. All the best!