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Did anyone else not find Sixth Form to be as hard a everyone said?

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Reply 40
Original post by nihil_nimis
There is an increase in the sheer amount and complexity of content you need to understand, but apart from that I don't think its that bad. I put in pretty much the same amount of effort I did for GCSE and still got A's at AS, I haven't started year 13 yet so Idk how much of a step up that will be, but hopefully not too bad.


Yeah I feel the same 100%
Original post by rolaah
Omfg in what world?! I bet you haven't done any of them. You clearly have no idea what you're talking about...


Apart from History, 2 languages and politics aren't he most challenging subjects. Not saying they're easy, but the sciences are much harder
Reply 42
Original post by HopelessMedic
Apart from History, 2 languages and politics aren't he most challenging subjects. Not saying they're easy, but the sciences are much harder


I admit they're not the HARDEST ones you can do, and tbf politics is pretty easy, but languages at A-Level are comparatively very challenging to a vast majority of people. I completely reject the idea that they are easy - it all comes down to individual ability and I know many people who struggle with languages in the same way as many struggle with sciences. In my opinion they are among the harder/hardest ones to do imo
GCSE to AS - very difficult, just about scraped AAAb

AS to A2 - piss easy, coasted A2 to get A* AA
made silly error in one of my econ exam costing me A* and *****y teaching for coursework component in history -.-
Found A2 content a lot more interesting and finished exam spec by January for all 3 subjects.
(edited 7 years ago)
what did you get in your GCSE's?
Original post by rolaah
I admit they're not the HARDEST ones you can do, and tbf politics is pretty easy, but languages at A-Level are comparatively very challenging to a vast majority of people. I completely reject the idea that they are easy - it all comes down to individual ability and I know many people who struggle with languages in the same way as many struggle with sciences. In my opinion they are among the harder/hardest ones to do imo


I explicitly stated that they weren't easy. I don't think they are especially difficult, but that's mainly because the people I know who've taken them barely put any work in and yet achieved good grades, something that's impossible in chemistry for example.
Reply 46
Original post by HopelessMedic
I explicitly stated that they weren't easy. I don't think they are especially difficult, but that's mainly because the people I know who've taken them barely put any work in and yet achieved good grades, something that's impossible in chemistry for example.


But the fact you had to comment and let me know that what I was doing was nothing special lets me know that you think they're "soft subjects". It's certainly not the case, and clearly you don't pay attention to how they're working.

With languages it's gradual development and constant revision throughout the year, so by the end your language is good enough and there's no last minute cramming possible/necessary. This is not the case for most other subjects, but just because it's different, doesn't make it easy.

If you think it's easy having a 20 minute improvised conversation about the refugee crisis in another language as well as a nearly 3 hour exam in listening, reading and writing abilities, often to standards comparable to GCSE English Language, then cool. I personally find it not too bad because I'm naturally good at languages, but SO many people drop out and avoid languages because of the intensity it can be.

The same is true of sciences - some find it easy and interesting so it doesn't feel as bad, others choose it because they think it's useful so find it hard. Normally only those passionate about languages/native speakers chose languages at A-Level so it looks easy, but is actually VERY rigorous a course.
Reply 47
Original post by Windies
GCSE to AS - very difficult, just about scraped AAAb

AS to A2 - piss easy, coasted A2 to get A* AA
made silly error in one of my econ exam costing me A* and *****y teaching for coursework component in history -.-
Found A2 content a lot more interesting and finished exam spec by January for all 3 subjects.


Nice, go you! What are you plans post-A2?
Reply 48
Original post by Blackstarr
what did you get in your GCSE's?


I got 10 A*s
Original post by rolaah
But the fact you had to comment and let me know that what I was doing was nothing special lets me know that you think they're "soft subjects". It's certainly not the case, and clearly you don't pay attention to how they're working.

With languages it's gradual development and constant revision throughout the year, so by the end your language is good enough and there's no last minute cramming possible/necessary. This is not the case for most other subjects, but just because it's different, doesn't make it easy.

If you think it's easy having a 20 minute improvised conversation about the refugee crisis in another language as well as a nearly 3 hour exam in listening, reading and writing abilities, often to standards comparable to GCSE English Language, then cool. I personally find it not too bad because I'm naturally good at languages, but SO many people drop out and avoid languages because of the intensity it can be.

The same is true of sciences - some find it easy and interesting so it doesn't feel as bad, others choose it because they think it's useful so find it hard. Normally only those passionate about languages/native speakers chose languages at A-Level so it looks easy, but is actually VERY rigorous a course.


I never said what you were doing wasn't special, nor did I say that any subject was easy. I simply said that in my opinion they are not as difficult. Obviously you disagree, which is fine.
Original post by rolaah
I got 10 A*s


Cool.
Reply 51
Original post by HopelessMedic
I never said what you were doing wasn't special, nor did I say that any subject was easy. I simply said that in my opinion they are not as difficult. Obviously you disagree, which is fine.


Cool, but you have to understand that if you're going to the effort to let me know that then you clearly want to make me feel bad about what I do. At least that's the way I took it - if that was not the intention then fine.
Yeah the jump from GCSE to A Level is way too hyped up imo

I found GCSE to AS fairly easy, but AS to A2 was a slight bit harder. I did Maths, Physics & Politics for A2 (also Further Maths and Business for AS - before you say my school didn't offer Economics so it was as close as I could get!). In Maths the concepts got a little more complicated, but was definitely manageable if you put in the effort and I finished Core 3 in the summer holidays before we started anyway so I was pretty on top of things. Physics was quite hard in places but the topics were much more enjoyable than AS so it wasn't so bad, and one unit in particular was quite easy. Politics was an odd one, because the difficulty didn't really change from AS - it was just different stuff - but the volume of information you're expected to know and the analysis are both to a much greater level than AS. On the whole though I found A Level to be much more enjoyable than GCSE. If the jump from A Level to year 1 of your degree is supposedly less than from GCSE to A Level then I guess I have nothing to fear, but I'm doubtful that this is the case.
Original post by rolaah
Cool, but you have to understand that if you're going to the effort to let me know that then you clearly want to make me feel bad about what I do. At least that's the way I took it - if that was not the intention then fine.


It wasn't my intention, you have clearly done well in your subjects which is a great achievement
Reply 54
Original post by JRKinder
Yeah the jump from GCSE to A Level is way too hyped up imo

I found GCSE to AS fairly easy, but AS to A2 was a slight bit harder. I did Maths, Physics & Politics for A2 (also Further Maths and Business for AS - before you say my school didn't offer Economics so it was as close as I could get!). In Maths the concepts got a little more complicated, but was definitely manageable if you put in the effort and I finished Core 3 in the summer holidays before we started anyway so I was pretty on top of things. Physics was quite hard in places but the topics were much more enjoyable than AS so it wasn't so bad, and one unit in particular was quite easy. Politics was an odd one, because the difficulty didn't really change from AS - it was just different stuff - but the volume of information you're expected to know and the analysis are both to a much greater level than AS. On the whole though I found A Level to be much more enjoyable than GCSE. If the jump from A Level to year 1 of your degree is supposedly less than from GCSE to A Level then I guess I have nothing to fear, but I'm doubtful that this is the case.


I agree with absolutely everything - especially the last sentence about degree jump
I felt as though I worked extremely hard during GCSEs, not because I actually did a huge amount of work but because it was definitely more than i was used to doing, and felt mostly happy with my results although some weren't as good as what I expected them to be. I didn't get the feeling during GCSEs though that the hard work paid off, not because my grades were bad but because I felt as though I worked hard enough to achieve better grades in certain subjects. Expecting A-levels to be considerably harder, I felt a little deflated at just how hard I'd have to work to achieve top grades and that really made me change my attitude for when I entered sixth form.

I was then very much expecting a huge transition into A-level (basically from GCSE to what is actually around mid-degree level) but I realised the jump wasn't actually all that bad, maybe because i was expecting it to be so much worse? From the point of starting sixth form I was a lot more independent and self-motivated to do work, but I was also finally interested in 100% of what I was learning about so that really made the difference. But all of these factors combined made me feel as though A-levels weren't all that bad really and I was fortunate to come out with some of the top grades in AS and A2.

There is a definitely a jump from GCSE to A-level in terms of content difficulty, but I expected it to be much worse than it was. I studied maths, further maths and physics at A-level with an AS in chemistry
Original post by sdotd
A Levels aren't too hard. In fact I got a higher grade in History A level than I did in History GCSE


same I got an A at GCSE (one mark off an A*-got it remarked and it didn't change) and ended up getting 98UMS in both units at AS. I think A level is easier because it's less of what happened and more of why it happened and what were the consequences. Forming arguments over memorising facts any day
I wish I could relate OP lol. A levels slyly drained me and the subjects I chose were not even that "hard"
Reply 58
I honestly didn't have to work as hard as I thought. Did most revision in GCSEs probably due to doing 10 subjects, then did less in year 12, and I'm surprised I was able to do the least work in year 13 while keeping my grades consistently high.

It was just a matter of just doing all set work and homework and everything actually came easy to understand
I did biology, chemistry and physics and I found it a big jump, going from mostly A*s at GCSE to B's at AS....

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