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