The Student Room Group

Should I study my A Level courses now?

Scroll to see replies

Reply 20
Honestly, I'd advise you to do as close to nothing as possible.

Obviously, if your sixth form has sent work for you to do over the summer, do it. My college sent out a little pack of stuff to do over summer for certain subjects to some students who'd confirmed their subjects in advance. I wasn't one of those students, but it honestly didn't affect me at all.

If you take a subject with a reading list, such as english, drama or certain social sciences, then find out what books are on that and maybe make a start with reading them. That would be helpful to you...I took english, and I didn't even finish some novels because I just didn't have the time to:s-smilie:

Don't sweat it though, you've come out of two years of hard work and you're about to go into two even harder years. You've got eight weeks to just rest. You won't fall behind because you didn't work over summer. Good luck:smile:
Original post by 34908seikj
I finished my GCSEs this year, and currently revising for next years maths & FM. I've pretty much finished C1, completed all the edexcel past papers, and I am halfway through the IYGB papers!


good for you lol - wish i had this motivation ahahah
Original post by roarchika
for the rest of the summer I just learnt about 5 words/day for the 2 language A levels I'm doing - with languages, taking a summer off would be pretty devastating


:eek: I'm taking German next year. At the moment I'm going over conjugations each day and I will move onto vocabulary soon, is there anything else you would recommend doing? :tongue:
Should've started revising for A Levels as soon as you came out of your mothers womb, isn't it a bit too late now?
Original post by karmacrunch
:eek: I'm taking German next year. At the moment I'm going over conjugations each day and I will move onto vocabulary soon, is there anything else you would recommend doing? :tongue:


just the vocab. Grammar you can learn in school. Try to read a little German every night before bed or something
Reply 25
Original post by 34908seikj
Truth be told, I like maths :frown:


Then why are you wasting your time doing a-level maths past papers? If you like maths, you'd find that a-level maths is a bastardisation of actual proper maths and you really wouldn't want to waste your summer doing it.
Original post by Zacken
Then why are you wasting your time doing a-level maths past papers? If you like maths, you'd find that a-level maths is a bastardisation of actual proper maths and you really wouldn't want to waste your summer doing it.


I do It next year, so it seems pretty useful to do it now, rather than doing [what you may consider] interesting maths.

What would you consider to be "proper" maths?

Spoiler

Original post by 34908seikj
I do It next year, so it seems pretty useful to do it now, rather than doing [what you may consider] interesting maths.

What would you consider to be "proper" maths?

Spoiler



Not really, 10 months before the exam. That's just ridiculous
Original post by Student403
Not really, 10 months before the exam. That's just ridiculous


I'm not revising for the exam, I'm just going through the units thoroughly so I can focus on other **** in September like A2 maths units.

Spoiler

Original post by 34908seikj
I'm not revising for the exam, I'm just going through the units thoroughly so I can focus on other **** in September like A2 maths units.

Spoiler



completely unnecessary, but your decision
don't bother, its really not that hard anyway
Original post by karmacrunch
:eek: I'm taking German next year. At the moment I'm going over conjugations each day and I will move onto vocabulary soon, is there anything else you would recommend doing? :tongue:


Good choice! Language A Levels are a lot of work (I'd argue more so than any other A Level), but they give a really high level of reward! Are you at a level where you can begin to read material in German, and only have to look up 40% of the vocab or less? (preferably only about 20% max) Find material - preferably written for natives, but anything in German will do - and just read, adding any vocab you don't know to your memrise course/anki deck/whatever it is you use. The faster you get used to reading German material, the faster you get at actually reading and understanding it - and seeing vocab in context is always so so so so SO helpful. On top of that... watch German TV shows with German subs, if possible, for that listening + high pressure reading practice, and listen to German music etc. It's all about using the language as much as possible and immersing yourself as much as you can whilst not being in Germany! To that extent, using a site like lang-8/finding yourself a German person to speak with/generally practicing producing the language is also crucial - remember, at A Level most of what you're tested on is your ability to write English into the language you're studying.

Otherwise, going over conjugations and vocab is absolutely great - just make sure to keep it up! I hope this helped - let me know if there's anything else in particular you're curious about :smile: and congrats on finishing GCSEs!
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 32
I understand why people want to start doing A level work now, but I think it's crazy. You've been revising for GCSE's long enough, you have the longest summer holiday you'll probably ever have. Enjoy it! You're not going to look back and remember the days you revised.
If you do decide to start, do it the last week of the holiday.
Original post by roarchika
Good choice! Language A Levels are a lot of work (I'd argue more so than any other A Level), but they give a really high level of reward! Are you at a level where you can begin to read material in German, and only have to look up 40% of the vocab or less? (preferably only about 20% max)


I'd say so, provided it's not too technical. :tongue:
Original post by roarchika
Find material - preferably written for natives, but anything in German will do - and just read, adding any vocab you don't know to your memrise course/anki deck/whatever it is you use. The faster you get used to reading German material, the faster you get at actually reading and understanding it - and seeing vocab in context is always so so so so SO helpful. On top of that... watch German TV shows with German subs, if possible, for that listening + high pressure reading practice, and listen to German music etc. It's all about using the language as much as possible and immersing yourself as much as you can whilst not being in Germany! To that extent, using a site like lang-8/finding yourself a German person to speak with/generally practicing producing the language is also crucial - remember, at A Level most of what you're tested on is your ability to write English into the language you're studying.Otherwise, going over conjugations and vocab is absolutely great - just make sure to keep it up! I hope this helped - let me know if there's anything else in particular you're curious about :smile: and congrats on finishing GCSEs!


I've found a show that uses German subtitles but do you think I should I try to avoid looking at them because I find it easier to look at subtitles and translate than translate through listening? :tongue:

I have a pen-pal so I'll try to speak to them more in German. :h: Thank you so much! I'm really looking forward to taking German next year! + I hope your ASs went well! :biggrin:
Don't sweat about the work, just get some key concepts understood.
(E.g: Differentiation/integration in maths)

Overall just relax, you'll not remember most heavy duty knowledge you learnt over these weeks anyway! :biggrin:
Original post by TheGreatImposter
Should've started revising for A Levels as soon as you came out of your mothers womb, isn't it a bit too late now?


Not if you go back in ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
C1 and C2 are so easy you might as well learn them in school. Try some mechanics instead if you insist on doing work. The person who said he's finished C1 already is wasting his precious summer... The exam is in 11 months time anyway, please just don't do anything because you will regret it. I didnt do anything and it wouldn't have made a difference if I had.
Original post by xyz9856
C1 and C2 are so easy you might as well learn them in school. Try some mechanics instead if you insist on doing work. The person who said he's finished C1 already is wasting his precious summer... The exam is in 11 months time anyway, please just don't do anything because you will regret it. I didnt do anything and it wouldn't have made a difference if I had.


To be fair, I literally don't have anything to do this summer. While there's no right or wrong answer, just a difference in opinion. Wouldn't it be better to cover Core 1 and 2 over the summer since they're so easy, and do mechanics in school where you have the help of your teachers (if you get stuck that is)?
Original post by 34908seikj
To be fair, I literally don't have anything to do this summer. While there's no right or wrong answer, just a difference in opinion. Wouldn't it be better to cover Core 1 and 2 over the summer since they're so easy, and do mechanics in school where you have the help of your teachers (if you get stuck that is)?


Nah, it depends on your mathematical ability actually. If you will get an A* at GCSE then you shouldn't have to do anything, if you get an A maybe have a look at indices and surds.

Remember you will get taught it when you get to school in September so going over it now is a bit pointless in my opinion
Original post by xyz9856
Nah, it depends on your mathematical ability actually. If you will get an A* at GCSE then you shouldn't have to do anything, if you get an A maybe have a look at indices and surds.

Remember you will get taught it when you get to school in September so going over it now is a bit pointless in my opinion


It's a fair point, but i'm an obnoxious **** who likes to be ahead of everyone :biggrin:

Quick Reply

Latest