Choosing your A levels? Your questions answered here!

How are you finding RS and english compared to gcse? How much work are they?

And what units are you doing in RS? (My school does Christianity: Philosophy and the New Testament)


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Will i struggle with an A in GCSE chemistry and Biology in A level,

how are people finding them and what did u get in ur GCSEs and A levels for them

Will i struggle with an A in GCSE chemistry and Biology in A level,

how are people finding them and what did u get in ur GCSEs and A levels for them

Hi all,

I have chosen Politics, History, Economics and Maths Stats and I want to see if anyone else here has chosen the same or is doing them right now? I am pretty certain I have chosen the right subjects but I want to kind of get an impression of what they are like

I want to do exact same as you except maths stats, only doing 3

I got A at GCSE In chem and bio and got Bs in both at AS. Found the jump in chem really hard at the beginning but soon got into in. Bio isn't as much of a jump there is just SO MUCH CONTENT!

Ah, what kind of thing do you think of doing after A level? As the 3/4 subjects go quite well together for a lot of degrees and courses

Come to think of it, I remember somebody saying today that politics at my school isn't A-level, it is (or will be in the near future) replaced by pre-U, along with economics and history, which are the two other subjects I want to do for A-level. Although this may not be true, the person who told me is quite reliable, especially since history is already a pre-U at school I can see others become the same. Do you know anything about pre-U politics, or pre-U in general?


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I'm thinking of law, wbu? I love everything about it, except the fierce competition for training contracts at the end of it, that's the only thing that could put me of as there's no guarantee which is worrying even if I go to a uni like Bristol or UCL

just to warn you, I did AQA RS at GCSE and I seriously underestimated it at a level, I thought it would be relatively simple, as it was at GCSE. I'd say it's much harder, but is still probably the easiest of my subjects but much harder than I imagined! I do RSS01 and 03 ethics and philosophy! there is so much more to learn than there is for GCSE but it can be done!

English Lit is probably the smallest step of from GCSE to AS in my opinion, however at A2 it apparently gets a lot harder! I do WJEC which is 40% coursework which I'm glad about- people normally do better in the coursework than the exam! there's not loads to learn it's more how to write essays and you just keep developing your skills at doing this!

overall you've probably asked me about my two least favourite subjects of the four - and I'll be dropping one of them! ahah, other people I know do enjoy them though so don't take what I'm saying to be what it's always like! RS isn't as hard as I've made out I guess but be warned of the step up! having got an A* at GCSE with 99 UMS I was surprised to be getting C's/D's at the start of the year- luckily it's now gone up to A's/B's!

any more questions, feel free to PM me!


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Thank you!

That's good about English because lots of people say AS is a lot harder Thank you! We don't have any coursework at all for AS though which I'm a bit worried about. :/ I know they're trying to make the exams more linear ect but I think English is a subject we really should have coursework for. Oh well.

I don't really like RS too much now, because it's too much of a memory game and that's all there is to it really. :/ They said it won't be like that next year. Oh wow that's a huge grade difference between GCSE and AS for RS! Eurghhhh nervous but thanks!


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which one was harder and which did you like most

in my opinion English was the least of a step up but yes, everyone's different! there is more to learn because tbh you could kind of just blag your way through GCSE!

RS there is more to learn and it's more about understanding it than at GCSE definitely.

yes it came as a huge shock to me also, it's normal to start of getting E's apparently ?!

I got 10 A*'s at GCSE's , psychology is the only subject I started off getting B's and A's in, English I started on a C, History C and RS C (averages probably) so do be warned! this doesn't mean you can't do well eventually, I'm hoping to get four A's but I really don't think it's going to happen due to not having time to learn everything!


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Okay thanks very much, this is really helpful

E's? Jeez my school are insane (although I knew this already) if that's normal, they said we should be working at Bs when we first start AS and work our way up! (pressurising or what!:/)
Well done on your amazing gcse results!

I'm hoping for 4 A*s 3As 3Bs (Damn those sciences!)


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Sorry if this question has already been asked, but I didn't want to read over 500 pages of comments to find out!

What does doing a language, such as French or German, at AS/A-level involve?
I appreciate it would be harder than GCSE, but how do the assessments work? What sort of things do you learn?
If anyone does take a language, do you enjoy it/would you recommend taking a language?

Languages are great a Levels to have

The way it normally works it AS is you talk about yourself for a bit, like what subjects you do, future plans etc just a casual conversation. Then you pick cards which you haven't seen (or some boards it's a pre chosen topic) and you have to answer questions about the content of the card. Normally one card is two pictures and the other is two contrasting texts

The written exam is just an essay about a theme, there's always a choice. And then a translation from French to English. As well as listening and reading exercises

Topics are things like gender equality, youth culture, healthy living, etc