Chanittha Vajrasthira (Nuna)
Meet Chanittha Vajrasthira (Nuna), a BIST alumni. Not only she was a part of BIST family but she also moved to pursuit her Sixth Form at Bromsgrove School UK to experience the life in our sister school as well. Nuna is currently a Year 13 A-Level student of Bromsgrove School, UK in subjects of Economics, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths. Getting offer in Bsc in Economics, LSE. Here is part of her interview and advice that she gave to current BIST students.
What did you enjoy the most about your BIST experience?
I would say that the advantage of BIST over other schools is the small, warm and friendly environment that it provides for the students. I took it for granted while I was at BIST but now I realized it is a very unique experience that BIST offers and is rarely seen elsewhere! From this environment came along with the ‘stress-free’ and ‘chill’ life that I miss very much.
Please tell us in what year that you move to BUK and why you have chosen to go to study at UK?
I moved to BUK for Sixth Form, so I left BIST at the end of Year 11 after completing my IGCSE.
I wanted a more dynamic and challenging environment for the last few years of high school and BUK has a large proportion of international students that makes up their Sixth form. I knew that this would allow me to gain experience in a new type of environment that I have never encountered while also ensuring I would excel in my academic career from their excellent facilities and academic support.
Can you tell us about the life that you have in BUK?
The number of students in Sixth Form here is already over a few hundreds so it is very different to BIST. As the Sixth form itself is really large, it is unlikely that you’ll get to know and make friends with everyone (which is a rare scenario in BIST) and the student here are relatively independent both in terms of studying and socialising, which in my opinion is a good practice for life outside school. But from time to time I still do miss the warm environment that BIST provides and most importantly, the sunshine! (it rains 24/7 here in the UK).
How you prepare for iGCSE and A Level exam?
IGCSE – just do lots of past papers
A-Levels – If you’re doing humanities subject e.g. Economics and History, then read lots of outside materials because it’ll help increase your understanding and consolidate the basic materials covered in the syllabus. But for science subjects, it may be more difficult to find outside materials that fits the A-level course so I suggest just make sure you know the syllabus really well and do lots and lots of past papers.
Please give some advice to current BIST students relating to academics or life at BIST in general?
Academics: IGCSE grades (and A-Levels of course!) do matter a lot for university application, both in the UK and Thailand so make the best out of it.
Life at BIST: Try to participate in school events and sporting activities because it will improve you as a person (even if you don’t realise it, others will) and it’ll also make a huge impact on your university application.