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

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Make sure you review your work thoroughly every week and back it up by referring to your textbooks and practise plenty of past papers. That is all you need to do!!!!!!!!!

Reply 161

Ice Dragon

Do not take EPQ and work hard but don't make yourself sick.

Reply 162

AdeptDz

Original post by Ice Dragon

Do not take EPQ and work hard but don't make yourself sick.

Why not?

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 163

Laurajayne1

Just avoid a-levels to begin. Thats my best advice! Oh and also don't leave your revision until a week before the exam (which i may or may not have done...)

Reply 164

Taud

Work hard, hard, hard, never give up and thrust yourself

Reply 165

7me7

A-levels can be difficult but also really fun! The most important thing I would say to do would be to make notes throughout the year and work hard to constantly revise them. Also do lots of past papers and don't leave them all until study leave! Try to motivate yourself with the thought of going to the uni you love and remember that you'll need to work hard to get the grades to get into that uni (unless you're lucky enough to get an unconditional offer!)

Having said that, don't overload yourself with work; make sure you take lots of breaks, go out with friends and have fun. After all, they're your last few years ever at school and will go very quickly!

Good luck with the journey! :smile:

Reply 166

Franckenstar

To someone just starting their A levels, I'd say read before and after school on the subjects you have. Do not just do past papers or practice questions but read m, make notes and make sure you understand the underlying concepts. In my first year It took me some time to understand what I was meant to do and I applied this while doing Maths, Chemistry and Physics at A2. Reading and understanding, that's very important. Also, participate in group works if possible and even read beyond your subject to get a solid grasp. That is all for now.

Reply 167

AJP98

Turn around. Stop. Do not pass go. Do not collect 200 breakdowns.

Real talk though, don't stop revising, ever. Start revising now. Start revising before you've even learnt it. Start revising 3 years ago.

Reply 168

Bubbles198

When your teachers tell you to start revising before/during the Christmas holidays, take it seriously amd get going! You can never start revising too early, and (trust me) you CAN start revising too late. The few weeks before exam season should be dedicated to past papers and practising - not recapping and note taking!
When your teachers say "ASK if you don't understand" don't be shy or proud - just ask and accept the help that's being offered because it could change things a lot for you!

Reply 169

3121

In the summer after you've taken your exams, without even looking at a textbook everything will just make sense to you somehow, if you can get that to happen before the exam you're gonna smash it!

Reply 170

sherace

EPQ is a pointless venture. And don't take A-Level Chemistry lightly :tongue:

Reply 171

petraaa

Pick your subjects wisely!
Pick your subjects wisely!
Pick your subjects wisely!
Don't do an EPQ presentation, do an EPQ essay.Don't spend ages on planning your revision, actually revise instead.

Reply 172

freefood

Don't spend all your revision time every day reading tsr revision threads go and revise right now

[Edit: this was meant to be in all caps but my phone's acting up]

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 173

itinterestsme

Personally, if you do not feel passionate about a subject, I would advise you to not take it. A Level's are on another level to GCSE's! What you do in GCSE's is just the tip of the iceberg. No seriously, A Level's literally take the prize, they completely blind side you with stuff you didn't even know existed! Unless you are completely confident with your decision, you; not your parents, not your friends, YOU should be the sole decider of what subjects to take.
Also, if you want to take 4 subjects, and you are very confident with your abilities, then by all means, go for it! You should take challenges in life and take yourself out of your comfort zone. By doing so, you will be able to witness first hand how amazing of a person you are.
Last but not least, the preparation tips are given above, but the sole most important survival trip is... BE PREPARED! I cannot stress this enough. I really wish I had drilled this into my head all throughout the 2 years rather than like a day or week before exams. Please don't be like me, learn from my mistakes. After each lesson, if it helps, buy a little A5 notebook and make notes on the topics you covered in that lesson so that you are on top of things. Try and do 1 past paper each month, build up your revision bit by bit, a tower of cards doesn't appear suddenly. Challenge and dare yourself, also produce a revision timetable of some sort that you can follow and after completing a task, give yourself a small reward, maybe a sweet or something that you are prepared to work for and give the stash to your parents or someone else to hide to resist the temptation of course.

Reply 174

MicCl

Work most days for at least an hour and go over your stuff, don't cram for an exam (internal or the real thing)

Reply 175

hopefuldentist10

This is aimed at hopeful medicine students

* Don't have your heart set on getting multiple A* grades, you're just setting yourself up for disappointment.

* Don't take psychology as your fourth, it's seen as soft. Don't take physics with the EPQ, choose between the two unless you're hardcore.

* Do not go to your sixth form common room. Literally just don't step foot in there once. Spend your break and lunch time wisely.

* Don't underestimate these exams, at all, ever. It doesn't matter if you're breezing through the past papers, these exams are very unpredictable and you could be in for a smack if you get big headed.

* Make sure you've made notes on literally EVERYTHING in the syllabus. This year there was a 6 mark biology question on something that had only a paragraph in the revision book.

* Your past paper ratio should be split 65/30/5 ... maths/chemistry/biology. You need to understand what mental capabilities the subjects require. Biology is heavily memory based and therefore you need to recall your NOTES rather than doing past papers. Mathematics is almost entirely problem solving, therefore you need to PRACTICE with many, many past papers. Do literally every single maths past paper there is. Before doing that, look up the past grade boundaries and omit the easy ones. Chemistry is in the middle and will be half memory half intuition.

* Read, cover, look is the age old revision technique taught to you from primary school. It is essential that you can memorise the material learnt and be able to RECALL the material at any time off the top of your head. You can't be reliant on some sort of prompt.

I could have probably come up with a few more, but here's a last one:

If your revision isn't making you hate life, then you're probably not revising properly.

Reply 176

CourtlyCanter

Start early! Make sure you are making notes throughout the 2 years of your a-level and revise over them that evening they were made. Whenever there's something you don't understand, even if it's something you think is minuscule, still get it clarified or it will come back and haunt you in the exams! Do tons of past papers but remember to stay balanced and don't over-work yourself. Be positive!

Reply 177

Estie_xx

Two years of not slacking off will be totally worth it in the long run when you can relax a bit more. Don't leave everything until the last minute because that makes things harder to manage. Lastly, ask for help when you're stuck! Trying to teach yourself something isn't always a good idea.

Reply 178

Divine Turnip

Adding to what i posted before:

Ignore teachers who tell you to do extra reading. Thats for uni. Stick to past papers and DOMINATE them i swear down there is a pattern THERE IS ALWAYS A PATTERN just figure it out and you will excel. Also, start A2 in the Summer after AS because lord knows you wont have enough time.

Subject specific advice (for my subjects)

AS Sociology - make flashcards and memorise till the flashcards become photographic memory - got a solid A this way, even though I had no teacher for the majority of the year

AS/2 Biology - DONT underestimate the power of coursework

AS/2 Chemistry - DONT underestimate the power of coursework

AS/2 English Literature - DONT underestimate the power of coursework
Love reading, because it seriously helps (so many people in my AS took eng lit when they didnt even enjoy reading and ended up dropping out of A2 with terrible AS results)