Starting A levels soon!

Not too sure. I found it a bigger jump from AS to A2 level. I did the same amount of work both years (I know, I should have worked harder in A2 ), and got:

AS: A*A*A*AA (I know you can't A*, but they were above 90 so it's just to show they were high As)

A2: AABBB

So quite a drop (my high AS grades saved my A2 grades. I only got an A in one module during A2 whereas they were all As during AS)

Congratulations, those are great grades

I've heard that it's quite a big jump from GCSE to A level... also someone suggested that in most cases you drop down one grade from GCSE to A level? Any truth in this?

Not too sure. I found it a bigger jump from AS to A2 level. I did the same amount of work both years (I know, I should have worked harder in A2 ), and got:

AS: A*A*A*AA (I know you can't A*, but they were above 90 so it's just to show they were high As)

A2: AABBB

So quite a drop (my high AS grades saved my A2 grades. I only got an A in one module during A2 whereas they were all As during AS)

It will be a bit of a shock at first because of the workload but you will get used to it. Remember to keep a balance though and don't just lock yourself away studying (this is what I did lol), universities like well rounded students who have hobbies/extracurricular activities as well as good grades. I found its best to do at least a couple of hours of work a day and definitely don't let yourself fall behind. As you are doing a lot of languages, it would be a good idea to practice speaking/listening/reading in those languages everyday. If you have free periods at college then use them for studying rather than just sitting around, think of it as reducing the amount you have to do at home. Also, if the amount of subjects you are studying gets too much for you then consider dropping 1 unless you need them all for the uni course you want to do. I had a friend who really pushed herself doing 5 A levels and then found that her uni only looked at the grades of 3 of them so don't overdo it if you don't need to. It is better to get 3 As than 5 Bs. When it gets to exam time, the best thing to do for revision is to do practice exam papers, really A levels are just about learning a set amount of stuff to get through an exam. Good Luck

They are good I suppose but it meant I missed my university offer. I am extremely lucky that they let me in anyway but it's still annoying to have missed the grades! I know if I'd worked harder during A2 I could have easily got A*AABB at least.

Sorry I just realised, you said your AS grades saved your A2 grades, are the overall A level grade a mixture of the two (AS+A2)? I've always be confused about this... sorry if it's a truly stupid question

Hey, all 6 modules in the A level course are weighted equally, each at about 16.66%, but when it comes to getting an A* at A2 level, you need to get 90% or above in just the A2 modules, so that's 270/300 UMS, but need to get 80% in the whole course, so that's 480/600 UMS.

I'm not too sure as to whether you need to get above 90% in each A2 module, or if it's okay to have an average of 90% in the modules to get an A* overall.

Sorry I just realised, you said your AS grades saved your A2 grades, are the overall A level grade a mixture of the two (AS+A2)? I've always be confused about this... sorry if it's a truly stupid question

Yes

Depending on the subject A levels are made up of 400 (2 units) or 600 ums points (3 units). I think yours will all be 400 ums points as you are doing arts subjects.

Here's an example.

In AS maths I got: 95, 100 and 84 in my three units (all out of 100). So overall I had 279, which is 93%, a very high A.

In A2 I got: 76, 50 and 70 in my modules So over the A2 I only got 65% (a C) but adding it to my A2 grades I got 475/600 which is a B.

the only one where you have to do really well in A2 is the A*. To get that you have to get 90% over the A2 modules, not just overall!

Thanks What subjects did you take out of interest?

A2 sounds like a scarier beast than the AS level.

History, Business Studies and Law - I would've taken 4 but I was lazy at the begginning of last year . I'm thinking of taking up an AS in French though next year - don't know if it'll be too much though alongside my resits

It's not really. I know lots of people who did well and got A*s If you work hard you will do fine; unfortunately I didn't work very hard :/ eg did my English coursework at the very last minute when I had sooo much time to do it but just wasted it on TSR Got an ok grade but if I hadn't rushed it, it would have been automatically better.

Another tip: Disable TSR

Good thread, I'll be following this with interest. I'm about to go into Year 11, so a year behind you, I have the majority of my GCSEs and have pretty much decided my A-levels,
Spanish, Biology, Psychology and either Business/German/English Literature - I'm not brave enough to do 5. Unlike some brain boxes on here, I'm not the brightest and am not a straight A* student! I have to work hard to barely scrape A's and B's and was chuffed with my A* in Biology! I love languages and I do a bit like you fast track- so I did a German GCSE in a year and do a Spanish GCSE in a year- although I was pretty familiar with the languages prior to GCSE's!

Good luck, I'm sure you'll do fine- it's probably quite exciting but if you're like me, you have to keep trying to keep on track because I get distracted VERY easily....!