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What's the essential piece of advice you'd give to someone starting their A-levels?

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Do not take any form of IT, it is pure evil where you will not get any marks unless you copy paste the mark scheme.
Original post by Bezoar
I find self study so difficult though... I need to be able to talk to someone and be in that immersive environment to learn! How do you do it on your own?


Step 1: the boring alone stuff. Get a book to study your grammar. Get a bunch of flash cards to learn your vocab.

Step 2: the slightly less boring alone stuff. Look into graded native material: TV shows, radio shows, newspapers, books. Get reading. Work hard, read and listen a few times til you understand what's going on. Look up important things to the piece that you don't understand, instead of every little word you don't know. This can start from the get go! I'm learning Japanese and Malay, having just started on Malay, and in that language I try to just read newspaper headlines and see if I can figure out what the article is about.

That stuff isn't all that fun. Most of medicine isn't going to be fun to study either. It's about having the discipline to grind it out anyway.

Step 3: the fun stuff. Make friends that speak that language. You can do it online through places like HelloTalk, Language Exchange and lang-8. You can find friends IRL at uni societies and meetup groups. And then you get speaking!

Repeat ad infinitum.

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Don't know if it's been said already, but if you get stuck, ask for help!!
Original post by Hype en Ecosse
Step 1: the boring alone stuff. Get a book to study your grammar. Get a bunch of flash cards to learn your vocab.

Step 2: the slightly less boring alone stuff. Look into graded native material: TV shows, radio shows, newspapers, books. Get reading. Work hard, read and listen a few times til you understand what's going on. Look up important things to the piece that you don't understand, instead of every little word you don't know. This can start from the get go! I'm learning Japanese and Malay, having just started on Malay, and in that language I try to just read newspaper headlines and see if I can figure out what the article is about.

That stuff isn't all that fun. Most of medicine isn't going to be fun to study either. It's about having the discipline to grind it out anyway.

Step 3: the fun stuff. Make friends that speak that language. You can do it online through places like HelloTalk, Language Exchange and lang-8. You can find friends IRL at uni societies and meetup groups. And then you get speaking!

Repeat ad infinitum.

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Thanks so much. Amazing advice!! Will deffo make a start then whilst I still have my holiday :smile:
When you have coursework due sleep is for the weak :bawling::bawling:
Enjoy sixth form, and get an idea of at least where (if not what) you want to do in the early part of the first year. Seriously, it will take the heat off of hard decisions you will have to make later down the road when you are more concerned about grades.

If you have good teachers thats great, but if, like me, your teachers decide to leave/disappear then dont be an idiot and muck around (too much). Force yourself to work independently, its the perfect prep for uni.



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Make sure you are organised with your notes throughout your study. There's nothing worse than getting near the exams and realising your notes are all crumpled in your bag or spread out randomly in 10 folders. Also, skimming through your notes after each lesson (only quickly to make sure you understand it all) is really useful so you don't end up with multiple topics that you don't understand right at the end.
Original post by She-Ra
Your A-levels are done, you're now officially a little bit older and a little bit wiser :moon:

So what's the essential piece of advice you'd give to someone starting their A-levels?

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Don't think that just because you came out with decent grades at GCSE with minimum revision, that the same will happen for your A level exams. Consistency is key. Don't let over confidence determine how you do
From experience: start revising for exams at Easter at the very latest. You don't want to be still making revision materials the day of the exam. :colondollar:
make sure you study hard but also have breaks where you treat yourself, see friends and family and just try to make studying enjoyable through study groups or having food at your side
Its not what you know its who you know. I studied maths physics and computing and will likely get C,D,B. Not great grades. But i was a hard worker and dependable. One of my tutors recommended me to a company he had links with and I am now a software developer and I don't even have my A-level results.

So, whatever you end up doing, work hard and have the right attitude.
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alow
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Original post by Bern Herkins
Its not what you know its who you know. I studied maths physics and computing and will likely get C,D,B. Not great grades. But i was a hard worker and dependable. One of my tutors recommended me to a company he had links with and I am now a software developer and I don't even have my A-level results.

So, whatever you end up doing, work hard and have the right attitude.


With those grades you clearly weren't hard working.
Original post by elegantelephant
From experience: start revising for exams at Easter at the very latest. You don't want to be still making revision materials the day of the exam. :colondollar:


Top advice :h:
For those who reallyyy wanna do well;

#1 - Look around and find out how much work the average person is doing for the subject.
#2 - Do three times as much as that.
#3 - Start from September I'm not even kidding; I started my Philosophy in February and that was still too late.
First and foremost, I cannot stress the importance of starting early and staying on top of your syllabus from day one (don't wait for the teacher to teach everything before you revise). Paying attention in class is important but doing the past papers yourself early on is just as useful. Only pick subjects you are passionate about, the process will be so much easier!

If you are taking these subjects:


Biology: Marking schemes all the way! But, keep revising concepts/phrases/keywords everyday and read the textbooks faithfully till exams. This subject was the easiest for me to understand and I had the highest score in it.

Chemistry: Very exciting but make sure you get the concepts properly as you will struggle to get it at the last minute (it isn't something you will understand fully in the first round). I loved Organic Chem/ Inorganic Chem. Physical Chem was a bit tough when I started, but with repetition, I got it and loved it just the same! Once you understand everything, solve as many past papers as you can! Textbooks are helpful guides.

Maths: Practise from day one!!!! Remember, you have to do 90% of the work yourself as it is not a spectator's sport. Ask you teacher for help if you face difficulties but only after you tried answering it to your level best. Use Exam Solution on Youtube for quick revision. Last minute work is a sure recipe to fail so avoid that please!!

Last but not least, read the Harry Potter series/watch the HP movies during study break especially if you lack motivation(or anything else that you like). This always worked and will always work for me.:h:

P.S. 'If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!

All the best!
(edited 6 years ago)
1. Choose your A-levels wisely - attend taster days, speak to teachers and students.
2. DON'T PROCRASTINATE - you will definitely fail if you don't revise early (like start from the beginning of year 12 early!)
3. Don't be cocky and think you can do 4-5 A levels, EPQ etc in one year unless you're a genius or not human
Most of all...
4. Use your time wisely as there is a lot of it and you won';t get by without a little bit of organisation

Enjoy!
If you're doing maths or economics, practice past papers like mad!!! do as many as you possibly can in the months leading up to the exams especially. For economics essays, essay structure is the most important thing (for OCR) as you can pick up the bigger marks on them more easily.
read up on the subjects you're planning to take and make sure you understand what you're in for! (a mistake i made was take a subject i THOUGHT i'd like, with no knowledge of the syllabus...)

also, constantly write things down. write down key words/sentences/quotes/etc and it will keep your mind on task. also, you're able to read back through them in your own words and it may place you back in the classroom. it lets you focus much more than if it was someone else's incomprehensible notes.

finally - good luck. keep your goals in mind so you can rationalise the hard work. sometimes the work seems pointless but just remember what you're working towards
Make sure that you stay on top of all the work that you get set, as if you let it stack up, you're stuffed. Don't spend every moment doing the work though, enjoy your self but don't slack off your work.
The assignments you don't complete on time (or at all) will be the content of the questions you fail to answer in your exams.

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