How hard would a fast track in A-level Chemistry be?
Chemistry discussion, revision, exam and homework help.
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How hard would a fast track in A-level Chemistry be?I am doing 4 AS levels at the moment and I intend on dropping one of them at the end of this year. However, I'd really like to get four A-levels so I have been thinking about doing either a fast track in Psychology or Chemistry. I don't want to do medicine or anything, but I did enjoy it at GCSE.
So basically, I was just wondering how you found Chemistry and what type of work is involved. Do you think it would be too much work to do in one year? How much homework on average do you get per week? Obviously if I did take it I would review my GCSE work and prepare for the A-level over the summer. I actually almost took it this year, but I chose to take Physics instead (which I ended up dropping).
Thanks for your help!
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Re: How hard would a fast track in A-level Chemistry be?Hello(Original post by Silverwing)
I am doing 4 AS levels at the moment and I intend on dropping one of them at the end of this year. However, I'd really like to get four A-levels so I have been thinking about doing either a fast track in Psychology or Chemistry. I don't want to do medicine or anything, but I did enjoy it at GCSE.
So basically, I was just wondering how you found Chemistry and what type of work is involved. Do you think it would be too much work to do in one year? How much homework on average do you get per week? Obviously if I did take it I would review my GCSE work and prepare for the A-level over the summer. I actually almost took it this year, but I chose to take Physics instead (which I ended up dropping).
Thanks for your help!
okay, I'm taking both chemistry and psychology at A2, and would say that chemistry would be very hard to do on fast track- ive found it hard enough over two years! The syllabus is big and you need time to learn it, especially for the A2 stuff. I'd not recommend trying to do both AS and A2 in a year.
Psychology would probably be slightly easier because, as long as you can write an essay, it's purely memorising.
However, I know you want 4 a levels, but you really don't need four. I'm sure you've been told this over and over, but it's true, and year 13 is hard enough with only 3 subjects, especially with sciences. I would say, if you want to pick up chemistry, take it as an AS only.
Hope this helps! Pm or quote me if you want any more advice!Last edited by emmaarr; 28-03-2012 at 19:52. -
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Re: How hard would a fast track in A-level Chemistry be?Agreed, AS chemistry isn't that big, until you see unit 4 which is maasssivvveee! Takes like 6months of learning(Original post by emmaarr)
Hello okay, I'm taking both chemistry and psychology at A2, and would say that chemistry would be very hard to do on fast track- ive found it hard enough over two years! The syllabus is big and you need time to learn it, especially for the A2 stuff. I'd not recommend trying to do both AS and A2 in a year.
Psychology would probably be slightly easier because, as long as you can write an essay, it's purely memorising.
However, I know you want 4 a levels, but you really don't need four. I'm sure you've been told this over and over, but it's true, and year 13 is hard enough with only 3 subjects, especially with sciences. I would say, if you want to pick up chemistry, take it as an AS only.
Hope this helps! Pm or quote me if you want any remote advice!
If you've got the motivation then go for it, but if you picked it you'd have to pretty much start at the beginning of summer to stand a chance of finishing in time for june
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Re: How hard would a fast track in A-level Chemistry be?Very hard, I spent two years doing it and got a poor grade (through lack of revision) if you're self-teaching it's even harder and if you want to fast-track you'd have to be a bit of a natural and dedicate a lot of time to it if you want even a B. Not something I'd recommend tbh.
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Re: How hard would a fast track in A-level Chemistry be?I really wouldn't recommend taking fast-track Chemistry based on you enjoying it at GCSE. I don't know, I probably have a biased opinion, I was top of my class at GCSE and now I'm at the bottom, scraping a C. It's probably my hardest A-Level, and a lot of the time I don't really find it that interesting, a lot of it, to me(and I'm not going to lie, I'm hardly a great source), seems like it doesn't really have any context or it's just industrial application stuff, like I don't see how it's really applicable with all these random chemical tests you have to remember.
I'd say a good 50% of the content I've done so far at AS is as trivial/annoying/tedious as the limestone stuff and the fractional distillation at GCSE, in that it's not really that interesting and I don't see why we're being taught it since I'd assume A-Level chemistry would you give you some foundational understanding of chemistry rather than going into industrial applications and stuff.
Obviously the application side is important, and maybe some people don't notice it as much as me or find it as uninteresting as I do, but when I was taking A-Level Chemistry I guess I was expecting to learn more Physical Chemistry than anything(the stuff in unit 1 I guess).
I probably should've kept going with Physics.
I'll probably get neg'd but meh, I'm doing badly at it, yes I'm biased, this is just my opinion. Most of the lessons I just really don't understand the context of what we're being taught or how it's applied or whatever. It just seems like loads of unrelated mechanisms and formulas to memorise(which in lesson aren't given any context or very little).
EMZ.Last edited by Emor; 28-03-2012 at 20:00. -
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Re: How hard would a fast track in A-level Chemistry be?Pretty damn difficult, I'd imagine. Impossible is nothing, though. With enough dedication and a teeny bit of natural ability, you will be alright. One thing to bare in mind: it is possibly one of the hardest (if not the hardest) A-level subjects possible.
According to a lot of my Psychology friends (my friends who take Psychology, rather
), it isnt the hardest of subjects but there is a significant amount to remember. It is very content based. The easier ride would, without a doubt, be Psychology, though.
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Re: How hard would a fast track in A-level Chemistry be?Just to add, Chemistry A-level has a large quantity of stuff to learn, even if the understanding of it isn't that complicated.
So unless you have ALOT of time on your hands to constantly go over notes and the text-book, I would advise against fast-tracking it.
The fact you enjoyed it isn't quite as important when the quantity of work hits you :P -
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Re: How hard would a fast track in A-level Chemistry be?AS Chemistry is ok and if you are a hard worker then you can do a fastrack.
However i don't understand why you are doing 4 A-levels.. Thats just ALOT (and i mean ALOT) of work. Just do 3 subjects so you can concentrate more on each.. But i would not recommend you doing A2 chemistry because it's HUGE and i dont think anyone can fastrack it.. its just alot of work..
