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How difficult is the new physics a level?

Hey, I am going into year 12 this September and have chosen maths, further maths, history and physics, I am just getting a bit nervous on the difficulty of the new a level. So I was wondering, how difficult is it to fully understand the concepts taught and also how difficult are the exams? Any help would be appreciated!

EDIT: I'm doing AQA btw


Posted from TSR Mobile
(edited 7 years ago)
Moved this to the Physics forum for you - you're more likely to get an answer here :h:
Original post by Eden00
Hey, I am going into year 12 this September and have chosen maths, further maths, history and physics, I am just getting a bit nervous on the difficulty of the new a level. So I was wondering, how difficult is it to fully understand the concepts taught and also how difficult are the exams? Any help would be appreciated!

EDIT: I'm doing AQA btw

Posted from TSR Mobile


There are a small number of changes to the topics you are taught, but the overall difficulty of the qualification seems to be about the same. I wouldn't worry about the difficulty anyways, you should be taught to the required standard. With a suitable amount of independent work from you, you should be fine :smile:


Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 3
Avatar for Eden00
Eden00
OP
8
Original post by kingaaran
There are a small number of changes to the topics you are taught, but the overall difficulty of the qualification seems to be about the same. I wouldn't worry about the difficulty anyways, you should be taught to the required standard. With a suitable amount of independent work from you, you should be fine :smile:


Posted from TSR Mobile


Ah that's a relief to hear! I've just been worrying about it in general as I've heard people saying it is really difficult and stuff. Thanks for the reply!


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by Eden00
Hey, I am going into year 12 this September and have chosen maths, further maths, history and physics, I am just getting a bit nervous on the difficulty of the new a level. So I was wondering, how difficult is it to fully understand the concepts taught and also how difficult are the exams? Any help would be appreciated!

EDIT: I'm doing AQA btw *



The concepts in terms of understanding the meanings of experiments, the models, postulates and thoughts is not the greatest problem in A level, you can get it by keep trying, the calculations, derivations and mathematical considerations per se are more difficult. They might be taught, but solvable. *
Original post by Eden00
Hey, I am going into year 12 this September and have chosen maths, further maths, history and physics, I am just getting a bit nervous on the difficulty of the new a level. So I was wondering, how difficult is it to fully understand the concepts taught and also how difficult are the exams? Any help would be appreciated!

EDIT: I'm doing AQA btw *



The concepts in terms of understanding the meanings of experiments, the models, postulates and thoughts is not the greatest problem in A level, you can get it by keep trying. The calculations, derivations and mathematical considerations per se are more difficult. They might be taught, but solvable. *
Reply 6
Avatar for greg_greg
greg_greg
I would like to add this. As a fault on my part. You really need to learn why things are like they are. It is no use to just learn past papers (if there were any. lol).
My experience is this- it was much harder than GCSE, until I put in the effort to do problems in my own time.
Reply 7
Avatar for Tashazara
Tashazara
I have compared the old spec and personally i think the new spec is easier? i saw there was AC current in the AS spec last year and its been taken out this year it just looked so confusing. Although I did not take the AS paper this year as my school are doing the full linear option where you sit the exams after two years, I found the content to be relatively decent some key concepts from GCSE are still there like electricity and refraction etc but you would probably have to work hard with new mechanic/particle physics concepts as i struggled with those for a bit. I dislike the multiple choice papers however as some are quite challenging and as they are only one mark you kinda cba to do them.
tl;dr the spec seems easier but the exams look harder

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