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difficulty of my A-Level choices

Im writing out of curiosity as to how hard other students have found the subjects i have chosen to do this coming year(Politics,History and Maths) ?
Maths turned out to be easier than I expected. It is harder than GCSE of course, but if you work hard during the year then do loads of past papers for revision you can do well.
I second what is above! Got my final maths exam tomorrow and as long as you put the work in you'll be fine :smile:
Reply 3
Original post by HopelessMedic
Maths turned out to be easier than I expected. It is harder than GCSE of course, but if you work hard during the year then do loads of past papers for revision you can do well.


Thanks for your input,going on this I hope to achieve an A at GCSE and would then be looking to achieve a B at A level ,obviously i plan to dedicate as much time as possible in to it to secure it but was wondering how you possible you feel this is with the difficulty of it?
Reply 4
Original post by ABoyHasNoName
I second what is above! Got my final maths exam tomorrow and as long as you put the work in you'll be fine :smile:


Thanks for your input,going on this I hope to achieve an A at GCSE and would then be looking to achieve a B at A level ,obviously i plan to dedicate as much time as possible in to it to secure it but was wondering how you possible you feel this is with the difficulty of it?
Original post by GPeters38
Thanks for your input,going on this I hope to achieve an A at GCSE and would then be looking to achieve a B at A level ,obviously i plan to dedicate as much time as possible in to it to secure it but was wondering how you possible you feel this is with the difficulty of it?

If you can get an A/A* at GCSE then you are capable of an A/A* at a level. However just because you are capable doesn't mean you will get it, you can very easily get a U if you don't put the work in. Make sure you are on top of all your work and homework throughout the year, make sure you understand everything you do and ask for help if you don't. Then I think the key is to start past papers early, around Feb/March or earlier so that you have done all the past papers for your exam board, even more if you want. You can easily get an A if you do all this imo
Reply 6
Original post by HopelessMedic
If you can get an A/A* at GCSE then you are capable of an A/A* at a level. However just because you are capable doesn't mean you will get it, you can very easily get a U if you don't put the work in. Make sure you are on top of all your work and homework throughout the year, make sure you understand everything you do and ask for help if you don't. Then I think the key is to start past papers early, around Feb/March or earlier so that you have done all the past papers for your exam board, even more if you want. You can easily get an A if you do all this imo


Thank you again ,i plan to really work hard with maths in the following years and really hope for good result but thank you for your advice .

P.S I appreciate your name
Reply 7
People will find some subjects hard, some easy. This wont help you decide how hard your subjects are lol.
One thing i would say is, your grade you end up with will be a reflection of how hard you work. There is a big step between GCSE and AS.
Revise throughout the year. Half way through the year try to be at a point where you can do a test on the unit you've covered and get a mark that you would be happy getting on the real thing. Also be open to different and new revision techniques. What works for GCSE might not work so well for As.
I'm doing both Maths and History - maths is by far and away my easiest A-Level - however, history killed me and I'm dropping it. The jump between History at GCSE and History at A-Level is huge and I know that most people struggle with it the most.

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Reply 9
Original post by Zahid~
People will find some subjects hard, some easy. This wont help you decide how hard your subjects are lol.
One thing i would say is, your grade you end up with will be a reflection of how hard you work. There is a big step between GCSE and AS.
Revise throughout the year. Half way through the year try to be at a point where you can do a test on the unit you've covered and get a mark that you would be happy getting on the real thing. Also be open to different and new revision techniques. What works for GCSE might not work so well for As.


thank you ,i have of course taken this into account i understand others will have different opinions was just trying to get an idea of the general opinion as I am currently clueless.I will take this into account though (Revision techniques). I know they are a personal thing that work different for different people but are there any specific techniques you would recommend me trying?
Reply 10
Original post by nomophobia
I'm doing both Maths and History - maths is by far and away my easiest A-Level - however, history killed me and I'm dropping it. The jump between History at GCSE and History at A-Level is huge and I know that most people struggle with it the most.

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Well thats promising as i was assuming it would be my weakest ,could i ask what aspect of it you found most challenging?
Reply 11
Original post by GPeters38
thank you ,i have of course taken this into account i understand others will have different opinions was just trying to get an idea of the general opinion as I am currently clueless.I will take this into account though (Revision techniques). I know they are a personal thing that work different for different people but are there any specific techniques you would recommend me trying?

I do this:
Get the book that is endorsed by the exam board for your subject. Open up the specification pdf from the website of your exam board on your topic. There should be a list of bullet points on the specification that outline what you need to know.
I read the specification and the book for a topic. And write notes on anything to do with that bullet point.
I do this for every bullet point in the topic (takes 1-2 hours). Usually takes 7-10 days to do the whole unit.
Then I do all the past papers, while writing notes on the front page on anything i got wrong.
Then i go over my notes, adding extra details from past papers i mightve missed.
Towards the exam i just keep going over my notes (that should be extremely detailed, you shouldn't need to pick anything else up). It takes me upto 2 hours to read them all for one unit, usually 1 hour.
I write common 4-6 markers on notecards and go over them whenever (walk to college), trying to answer in my head. Mostly just to get things into my head that rely purely on factual recall.
Week before the exam, read notes and the book. Do the past papers again, all of them, writing notes wherever you get things wrong.

I get A's so i guess that would make you feel more confident about what i do lol
Reply 12
Original post by Zahid~
I do this:
Get the book that is endorsed by the exam board for your subject. Open up the specification pdf from the website of your exam board on your topic. There should be a list of bullet points on the specification that outline what you need to know.
I read the specification and the book for a topic. And write notes on anything to do with that bullet point.
I do this for every bullet point in the topic (takes 1-2 hours). Usually takes 7-10 days to do the whole unit.
Then I do all the past papers, while writing notes on the front page on anything i got wrong.
Then i go over my notes, adding extra details from past papers i mightve missed.
Towards the exam i just keep going over my notes (that should be extremely detailed, you shouldn't need to pick anything else up). It takes me upto 2 hours to read them all for one unit, usually 1 hour.
I write common 4-6 markers on notecards and go over them whenever (walk to college), trying to answer in my head. Mostly just to get things into my head that rely purely on factual recall.
Week before the exam, read notes and the book. Do the past papers again, all of them, writing notes wherever you get things wrong.

I get A's so i guess that would make you feel more confident about what i do lol


Very thorugh, i look to do something similar thank you i will almost definitely experiment with this.
Original post by GPeters38
Well thats promising as i was assuming it would be my weakest ,could i ask what aspect of it you found most challenging?


:lol: do you mean history? I'm gonna assume so.

Getting your essay right I found the hardest - it's so impossible to be able to write an essay upto an A standard at A-Level. The sheer amount of content I had to learn and being able to use specific examples in the essay was very very challenging.

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Politics isn't too bad, I found it okay but slightly hard yet I think that was because I wasn't that interested in it
They key bit is (obviously as well as understanding it), examples - you need to be up to date in what's going on :smile:
Maths A level was really nice actually, I really struggled with statistics though.. But every individual is different! It was a nice transition from GCSE to A level.

History, it was a lot different. At school we used to revise by making mind maps and the style of teaching was different. I did modern history and my teacher taught us with essay plans, loads of them! We would take notes but after every sub topic we did an essay plan for that one. Essay plans are the best method of revision. I was so thankful to my teacher he made us use a new revision technique it was really helpful.

Hope this helps.

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