Going into Year 13 - Give me some unique tips for getting As and A*s?
Hi guys!
So basically I'm going into year 13 and I wanted to know whether you guys had any tips for succeeding at A-Levels/staying organised and preferably not the normal: "try not to get behind", "ask questions", "use your frees wisely" kind of tips. I'm basically looking for anything I might not have already considered!
Thanks
So basically I'm going into year 13 and I wanted to know whether you guys had any tips for succeeding at A-Levels/staying organised and preferably not the normal: "try not to get behind", "ask questions", "use your frees wisely" kind of tips. I'm basically looking for anything I might not have already considered!
Thanks
(edited 1 year ago)
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Original post by JoeyTr
What A-levels?
Maths, chemistry, physics and biology
Khan Academy for Maths is a great thing. And never underestimate YouTube if you don't understand something from a textbook etc, it's an excellent tool for look at things from a different perspective.
Also making timetables and sticking to them is top stuff, when I did A-levels using timetables in this format really helped a lot.
Also making timetables and sticking to them is top stuff, when I did A-levels using timetables in this format really helped a lot.
Original post by JoeyTr
Khan Academy for Maths is a great thing. And never underestimate YouTube if you don't understand something from a textbook etc, it's an excellent tool for look at things from a different perspective.
Also making timetables and sticking to them is top stuff, when I did A-levels using timetables in this format really helped a lot.
Also making timetables and sticking to them is top stuff, when I did A-levels using timetables in this format really helped a lot.
Damn, that looks organised but sticking to timetables are hard
Original post by Ze Witcher
Damn, that looks organised but sticking to timetables are hard
True, but if you have someone to study with, and who does most of the same subjects as you, and you're similar to academically, it's makes it much much easier.
Same as me. I got A*'s in Chemistry and Physics, and A's in Maths and Biology, so maybe I can help here.
The key is not getting too stressed about everything-when you are stressed it becomes really hard to focus. I got several good bits of advice on how to do this, whilst i was doing it AND since i've finished that, and my Bachelors degree. Many of these may be from TED talks.
1) Don't focus on the goal-your A's and A*'s. If you do, everytime you miss the mark you will become very disheartened, add to stress etc. Yet there is so much you can't control so you shouldnt be extremely stressed about it. Focus on what you CAN control-like the timetable for studying. You can control (largely) how much time you put in to study, how focused you are when you study, what you study etc. Focus on that and if you do it wisely, you will become much closer to being as best prepared for exams as possible.
2) Work with others to study. I found in most of my classes, I thankfully understood most of the stuff we studied-when i didnt understand something, someone else did. It helps to talk with those people and try and understand it from a different perspective.
3) Put in the work. I suffered in my degree because, unlike for my A-levels, I started slacking and spent a week or two every now and then where I barely studied. Commit to doing, say, a few hours each week for each subject.
4) Focus on your weaknesses. I went to a lecture by some guy who promised he had the key to getting an A* in my Alevels. And that was focusing almost entirely on the stuff you don't know. His logic was if you decide to study everything, you risk getting overwhelmed. Why waste time on organic chemistry when its the compound structure stuff you struggle on? So check your practice tests, see where you went wrong, and focus more on that.
5) Stay focused. Don't do what i did in my final year of my degree-delude yourself into thinking you worked hard. The best way to stay focused is to work for short bursts-30 mins to an hour-and have some kind of incentive at the end of that time (cake/food works good). That way the part of your mind that wants to procrastinate can be suppressed long enough to get work done.
6) Ask lots of questions. I work as a private tutor for A-level students, and while I dont want to advertise myself and I know it wont work for everyone-your teacher is there, and they are free. If you are in private school-even more reason to get your moneys worth. Ask them questions, ask on here, work out those uncertainties.
7) Learn the style of questions. Actually do practice exams-do all of them. See what kinds of questions you are going to be asked. See the mark scheme model answers. That way you begin to start understanding how you get the marks. I found when I did this, when i went into exams, I knew exactly what they wanted me to say for so many questions.
Hope this helps
The key is not getting too stressed about everything-when you are stressed it becomes really hard to focus. I got several good bits of advice on how to do this, whilst i was doing it AND since i've finished that, and my Bachelors degree. Many of these may be from TED talks.
1) Don't focus on the goal-your A's and A*'s. If you do, everytime you miss the mark you will become very disheartened, add to stress etc. Yet there is so much you can't control so you shouldnt be extremely stressed about it. Focus on what you CAN control-like the timetable for studying. You can control (largely) how much time you put in to study, how focused you are when you study, what you study etc. Focus on that and if you do it wisely, you will become much closer to being as best prepared for exams as possible.
2) Work with others to study. I found in most of my classes, I thankfully understood most of the stuff we studied-when i didnt understand something, someone else did. It helps to talk with those people and try and understand it from a different perspective.
3) Put in the work. I suffered in my degree because, unlike for my A-levels, I started slacking and spent a week or two every now and then where I barely studied. Commit to doing, say, a few hours each week for each subject.
4) Focus on your weaknesses. I went to a lecture by some guy who promised he had the key to getting an A* in my Alevels. And that was focusing almost entirely on the stuff you don't know. His logic was if you decide to study everything, you risk getting overwhelmed. Why waste time on organic chemistry when its the compound structure stuff you struggle on? So check your practice tests, see where you went wrong, and focus more on that.
5) Stay focused. Don't do what i did in my final year of my degree-delude yourself into thinking you worked hard. The best way to stay focused is to work for short bursts-30 mins to an hour-and have some kind of incentive at the end of that time (cake/food works good). That way the part of your mind that wants to procrastinate can be suppressed long enough to get work done.
6) Ask lots of questions. I work as a private tutor for A-level students, and while I dont want to advertise myself and I know it wont work for everyone-your teacher is there, and they are free. If you are in private school-even more reason to get your moneys worth. Ask them questions, ask on here, work out those uncertainties.
7) Learn the style of questions. Actually do practice exams-do all of them. See what kinds of questions you are going to be asked. See the mark scheme model answers. That way you begin to start understanding how you get the marks. I found when I did this, when i went into exams, I knew exactly what they wanted me to say for so many questions.
Hope this helps
Generally I wouldn't commit myself to too much responsibility leading up to exams and keep my schedule as open as possible so the time-table can lead the way. That being said, if something unexpected arises then do what you got to do, and then do what you missed in an evening/weekend at one point and squeeze it in again. But generally just keeping yourself quite free is the way to go.
One last quick point actually: A lot of people, probably most people, get quite stressed when exam season comes around in A-levels, but I also found that a time-table sort of takes all of that stress away. If you make a well-crafted and also reasonably difficult time-table ahead of time, you can sort of enter autopilot. You don't have to worry what you're going to revise each day, if you've done too little at the end of the day, when you're going to make time for such and such, all you have to do is exactly what the time table says and nothing else, which takes away that responsibility and allows you to focus on your work.
Good luck!
One last quick point actually: A lot of people, probably most people, get quite stressed when exam season comes around in A-levels, but I also found that a time-table sort of takes all of that stress away. If you make a well-crafted and also reasonably difficult time-table ahead of time, you can sort of enter autopilot. You don't have to worry what you're going to revise each day, if you've done too little at the end of the day, when you're going to make time for such and such, all you have to do is exactly what the time table says and nothing else, which takes away that responsibility and allows you to focus on your work.
Good luck!
Thanks for all the great tips. I have failed to reach the mark at AS level but I hope by following these tips I will get a lot more done. I am repating some of my AS exams but I have dropped Physics which will open up a lot more time. As a lot of you mentioned last year I wasn't using my frees effectively and didn't have many friends to talk to but hopefully this year I will make try to make a difference in my grades one small step at a time and what I mean by this is not worrying about the pile of work I have to do but slowly working my way through all that work and try not to stress as much.
Re-write your notes the night you get them - summerise and make them more concise
Make mind maps or revision posters when you reach the end of a topic - no more than one A3 page per topic - you're more likely to remember the information bc you have to think about how to shorten it down
Do practice questions from the get go. Though I only did humanities subjects, doing the practice essays from September really helped me develop the best way to write to get maximum marks - it's the same with the sciences. Keep track of which topics you don't do well at and revise them after the assessment.
Personally, I also found it helpful to keep track of my results across the assessments, so I could see the improvement I was making. Really good for motivation!
Good luck for year 13!!!
Make mind maps or revision posters when you reach the end of a topic - no more than one A3 page per topic - you're more likely to remember the information bc you have to think about how to shorten it down
Do practice questions from the get go. Though I only did humanities subjects, doing the practice essays from September really helped me develop the best way to write to get maximum marks - it's the same with the sciences. Keep track of which topics you don't do well at and revise them after the assessment.
Personally, I also found it helpful to keep track of my results across the assessments, so I could see the improvement I was making. Really good for motivation!
Good luck for year 13!!!
I don't know for the other subjects since I didn't do them but for Maths, don't be afraid to ditch a lesson if you're not gaining anything from it and go to a local library instead. I have 26% attendance and 6 phone calls home this year but got an A (3 ums of A*) because I realised that while my teachers were nice, they were utterly ****ing ****.
The main tip which I always give everyone, is to start revising from the very first day of the year. I'm serious, just read over your class notes/make revision notes/do past papers every school night and at the weekend after your homework. You don't have to do much - just 1.5-2 hours per day every day and by the time you get to exams, you will know your stuff so well that you won't have to put in ridiculous 12 hour revision sessions every day like some people do.
This is the method I followed both at AS and A2. At AS, it got me AAAA and at A2, it got me A*A*A*. Because I revised little and often, around exam period it looked as though I was doing barely any studying and all my friends cannot believe how I hit such good grades despite "doing no work". But, I did work. It's just that I worked consistently throughout the year. If you add up the time I put aside every now and then from September onwards to revise, it would outstrip the total amount of revision done by people who suddenly start revising 24/7 only a few weeks before exams and then complain that, despite working so hard, they still haven't got a full set of A*s.
This is the method I followed both at AS and A2. At AS, it got me AAAA and at A2, it got me A*A*A*. Because I revised little and often, around exam period it looked as though I was doing barely any studying and all my friends cannot believe how I hit such good grades despite "doing no work". But, I did work. It's just that I worked consistently throughout the year. If you add up the time I put aside every now and then from September onwards to revise, it would outstrip the total amount of revision done by people who suddenly start revising 24/7 only a few weeks before exams and then complain that, despite working so hard, they still haven't got a full set of A*s.
Just look at it this way.
Say, 200 hours of revision = 1A* (I just plucked that figure out of the air, by the way)
You can either get that A* by consistently putting in half an hour of work a day for the next year, or by cramming for 6 and a half hours a day every day in the month before your exams.
If you are less lazy up front, you can afford to be more lazy later.
Say, 200 hours of revision = 1A* (I just plucked that figure out of the air, by the way)
You can either get that A* by consistently putting in half an hour of work a day for the next year, or by cramming for 6 and a half hours a day every day in the month before your exams.
If you are less lazy up front, you can afford to be more lazy later.
I'd say initially be quite generous with the time you give yourself to complete tasks, and then as the next month or two moves on you should start to get to grips with how long things should take you, and then you can refine the next one. The beauty of it is that you can learn from your last time-table to improve the next one, so they should each become more effective than the last, and you'll quickly learn how much time you need to assign for things, especially if you make them for 2-3 week periods at a time.
Start a journal. At the end of each day note down everything productive you've done to do with your studies. I find this helps with motivation, and makes me want to do work in order to feel fulfilled and fill my journal. It doesn't work for everyone but I find it to really work! Also helps to make notes on things you didn't understand in class that you can come back to at a later date. You could also do a daily review, where you almost re write your notes in simple form to remind yourself of what you've done and to back up your learning. Good luck
I'm not sure if people have said this already but I'd say to read examiners reports especially with biology, they can be very useful in knowing where other candidates tend to slip up on certain questions and can help you avoid such mistakes. Also pace yourself with past papers etc. for example with maths during study leave I would do 1 C4 and 1 C3 paper a day (closer to each exam I'd focus more on one of them) and I managed to do most of the papers from 2006 up to the most recent ones.
As long as you start early enough you won't drown in piles of revision you have to do over a couple of weeks. Make sure any notes you make are completed fairly early (I started mine in jan/feb and completed them by the end of the Easter holidays) as well to ensure you are actually able to read over it and ensure you understand all the content.
As long as you start early enough you won't drown in piles of revision you have to do over a couple of weeks. Make sure any notes you make are completed fairly early (I started mine in jan/feb and completed them by the end of the Easter holidays) as well to ensure you are actually able to read over it and ensure you understand all the content.
The hard part of this year is the extra overload of exams considering that AS doesn't count. I'm planning on doing revision for AS content, working on the backbone of it during one day of the week (for me it's Sunday) so that by the time it gets to Jan-March, that extra pressure won't be added.
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