A-level and younger Students who will be sitting exams in June and beyond: Advice =]
Hey all, I completed my A-levels last year and on request by quite a few people i'm just going to share my experience and offer some advice on your exams, the content of certain subjects and how to gain some extra marks by improving your exam strategy and technique 
I did Maths + 3 Sciences so will talking mostly about them; but I shall offer some general advice for all students.
General (for all subjects):
* Prepare early - Seriously, work ASAP. Everyday, if possible. You can leave work too late, but never too early. Even if it's 5-10 minutes a day you do and increase this 5-10 minutes a week, by the end of June, you'll be doing 3-6 hours a day without even realising. Trust me, the exams come faster... don't worry what anybody says "err, you revise so early, etc"; in your head tell them to **** off and then ask what they got in June
I'm sure they'll regret it, not you.
Note: I used the word 'work' not 'revise'. There's a difference between the two. I left 'revision' until the last few weeks-month, but I worked pretty much from February for my June exams. The difference is simple: work = learn, revise = master. You have to WORK to REVISE, you can't just expect to do amazingly without working. Reading is working btw, though best 'work' = combination of reading + notes. All i'm asking you to do now is learn the content and keep on top of your class work.
* Attend school - Though I mostly self-taught my subjects, I needed to attend school. Why is it so important? To do anything in life, you need atleast the fundamental principals. You can't build an object without instructions... and trust me, you can't learn every differential equation without any sort of guidance. The first 10 minutes are probably the most important - just stfu and listen to your teacher. Yes, I had some amazing weekends, yes I had some lad conversations, but they were absolutely useless to my school work. Just listen, learn to do the topic and examples then if the teacher says do questions X-Y, have a quiet chat, but get on with a few questions too, even if it is just to make the teacher happy.
* WORK AT HOME - I cannot possibly emphasise this enough. How can people just go to school, come home, play PS3 all day, turn up to the exam and score an A. I'm sure you've all heard that story, right? I'll tell you how... bull****. Those people are real-life trolls. Nothing in life is easy. Exams aren't an exception to that. They are there to test you. If you put the effort in, you will be rewarded. It's really that simple. How hard can it possibly be to follow this sort of routine: Go to school ---> Learn rough idea of topic ---> Re-read chapter ---> Make notes on important bits, use colour, etc ---> Try a few exercise Questions ---> Go and carry on with the rest of your day. Seriously, half an hour a day? An hour at most? You can't invest that much to follow your dream and increase your wages by double, treble, 4-fold, even 10-fold.
* Find somewhere quiet - For me, this is quite important. I want maximum concentration to go on my work. Fortunately for me, I have more than 1 house so the one in which my parents couldn't stfu
, I moved out for my exams and just sat in the other one on my own, sometimes watched an hour a week of top gear, had a game of mario kart wii, etc, at night, but very late at night. It was just a silent house, me, a table, several books and I got on with it. For those who don't have this, how about an aunties house? Or a library (though chavs might be there socialising 
), or even stay behind in school when everyones gone? Just try find somewhere quiet, if you can in your own house, great.
* Music seems to be a method if 'quiet' - Personally, I didn't use music. I can concentrate more in dead silence and sometimes I lose focus into the music, which is annoying for me. For some it works, but not for me, personally. Another problem with music is that some people get lost into it. I know some people who 'worked' and 'revised' with music, but when it came to the exam, they couldn't remember a thing, just the lyrics of the Akon song or whatever. To me, it seems like a risk, but it's personal preferance.
* Plans and timetables - I highly recommend these. I used them personally. I am fully aware they never go to plan, but if you make it in pencil like I did, then you can easily rub it out and swap chemistry to do another day of it, with maths and add an extra session of maths later in the week, for example. I think the general idea of organisation is a good thing and most importantly... it makes you realise that '****, there's only 6 weeks left, crap there's only 4 left' etc.
* Past papers - Honestly, I cannot emphasise how important these are. Let me try and express my point... a few days ago, a girl I know who I went to the library to help the day before her exam, said her exam is tomorrow and she had only done 1 past paper due to not having a printer. Guess what I said to her. "We're in town, Argos/Currys is a 5 minute walk, lets go and buy one." Less than 24 hours until her exam and I told her to go and buy a printer... that's how important they are in my opinion. If I was you, and I had a printer, i'd print out them right now. I printed mine in September for my June exams, so I didn't panic printing them last minute. My past paper pile was bigger than my dong
no seriously, it was bigger than my wrist to elbow span. Go back as many years as you can: 2002 if possible. If you are on a new spec, don't worry, print out the old ones!
The simple philosphy behind the papers - the questions never change; the wording, arrangement and use of pictures may change from past paper to past paper but the questions and mark schemes don't. So if you do 2002, 2003, and 2004 papers. By 2005/6, you'll pretty much know the mark scheme. By 2007/8 you'll be a tad rusty but very good. By 2009/10 you'll be able to recite the mark scheme. And then in the real exam in 2011, you should score very well - the questions and mark scheme won't magically change for this year
Note: Though the mark scheme learning sounds brilliant, you CAN'T do it without knowning the module content so you have to 'work' before you revise; past papers count as revision.
* Money - You might think it's a bit weird including 'money' in an A-level post, right? Yeah, I used to think that too. Until I had an absolutely useless A-level Chemistry teacher. He left now, he was quite young like 20-something and just talked about girls, gym and steroids, but before he did, he taught me one very important message... "If it costs £100 to get an A in A-level Chemistry, do it. Seriously, do it." By this I mean know which revision guides are best for your exam board, printer/ink costs, paper for past paper printing, several things... Money can improve your grades, WITHOUT tution. For those of you who can't afford it, i'm sure, this year atleast you get EMA? Just use it. What else do you use it on? PS3 games < A in Maths. If you were saving it for uni, what's the point having money for uni if you can't get the grades? It's an investment in your future, use it for your aid, it's never going to be wasted down the drain.
* Resits - Several people may be resitting AS or Year 10 exams in A2 and Year 11 respectively, and be put off thinking they have too many exams. But really, don't be. Use it to your advantage. If it was up to me, all A-level exams would be in June of Year 13 and not an exam before. Reason? Simple. Your exam technique, experience, knowledge would be so much greater. For those of you who do Maths; imagine you had done C1, C2, C3 and C4, when you sat C1... wouldn't it be a joke? I wish I did that. I was absolutely ****ting myself before C1. The A-level specifications, and even GCSE, are made so module contents link, and many have a synoptic unit at the end anyway, so you need to be able to link information from all modules, so don't be put off if you're doing Chemistry 1/2, 4 and 5 at the same time. A lot of what you do in 1/2 will be covered/needed in 4/5 and vice versa.
Right, so this is just some general advice to all candidates, hope you found it useful
In post 2, i'll write up some tips and aids specifically for Maths, Chemistry, Biology and Physics, and discuss the challenges I faced, things I learnt, and how I got my A* (Maths) and A's in the rest.
Wish you all the best in your exams, hope you work hard and get top grades
I did Maths + 3 Sciences so will talking mostly about them; but I shall offer some general advice for all students.
General (for all subjects):
* Prepare early - Seriously, work ASAP. Everyday, if possible. You can leave work too late, but never too early. Even if it's 5-10 minutes a day you do and increase this 5-10 minutes a week, by the end of June, you'll be doing 3-6 hours a day without even realising. Trust me, the exams come faster... don't worry what anybody says "err, you revise so early, etc"; in your head tell them to **** off and then ask what they got in June
I'm sure they'll regret it, not you. Note: I used the word 'work' not 'revise'. There's a difference between the two. I left 'revision' until the last few weeks-month, but I worked pretty much from February for my June exams. The difference is simple: work = learn, revise = master. You have to WORK to REVISE, you can't just expect to do amazingly without working. Reading is working btw, though best 'work' = combination of reading + notes. All i'm asking you to do now is learn the content and keep on top of your class work.
* Attend school - Though I mostly self-taught my subjects, I needed to attend school. Why is it so important? To do anything in life, you need atleast the fundamental principals. You can't build an object without instructions... and trust me, you can't learn every differential equation without any sort of guidance. The first 10 minutes are probably the most important - just stfu and listen to your teacher. Yes, I had some amazing weekends, yes I had some lad conversations, but they were absolutely useless to my school work. Just listen, learn to do the topic and examples then if the teacher says do questions X-Y, have a quiet chat, but get on with a few questions too, even if it is just to make the teacher happy.
* WORK AT HOME - I cannot possibly emphasise this enough. How can people just go to school, come home, play PS3 all day, turn up to the exam and score an A. I'm sure you've all heard that story, right? I'll tell you how... bull****. Those people are real-life trolls. Nothing in life is easy. Exams aren't an exception to that. They are there to test you. If you put the effort in, you will be rewarded. It's really that simple. How hard can it possibly be to follow this sort of routine: Go to school ---> Learn rough idea of topic ---> Re-read chapter ---> Make notes on important bits, use colour, etc ---> Try a few exercise Questions ---> Go and carry on with the rest of your day. Seriously, half an hour a day? An hour at most? You can't invest that much to follow your dream and increase your wages by double, treble, 4-fold, even 10-fold.
* Find somewhere quiet - For me, this is quite important. I want maximum concentration to go on my work. Fortunately for me, I have more than 1 house so the one in which my parents couldn't stfu
, I moved out for my exams and just sat in the other one on my own, sometimes watched an hour a week of top gear, had a game of mario kart wii, etc, at night, but very late at night. It was just a silent house, me, a table, several books and I got on with it. For those who don't have this, how about an aunties house? Or a library (though chavs might be there socialising ), or even stay behind in school when everyones gone? Just try find somewhere quiet, if you can in your own house, great.* Music seems to be a method if 'quiet' - Personally, I didn't use music. I can concentrate more in dead silence and sometimes I lose focus into the music, which is annoying for me. For some it works, but not for me, personally. Another problem with music is that some people get lost into it. I know some people who 'worked' and 'revised' with music, but when it came to the exam, they couldn't remember a thing, just the lyrics of the Akon song or whatever. To me, it seems like a risk, but it's personal preferance.
* Plans and timetables - I highly recommend these. I used them personally. I am fully aware they never go to plan, but if you make it in pencil like I did, then you can easily rub it out and swap chemistry to do another day of it, with maths and add an extra session of maths later in the week, for example. I think the general idea of organisation is a good thing and most importantly... it makes you realise that '****, there's only 6 weeks left, crap there's only 4 left' etc.
* Past papers - Honestly, I cannot emphasise how important these are. Let me try and express my point... a few days ago, a girl I know who I went to the library to help the day before her exam, said her exam is tomorrow and she had only done 1 past paper due to not having a printer. Guess what I said to her. "We're in town, Argos/Currys is a 5 minute walk, lets go and buy one." Less than 24 hours until her exam and I told her to go and buy a printer... that's how important they are in my opinion. If I was you, and I had a printer, i'd print out them right now. I printed mine in September for my June exams, so I didn't panic printing them last minute. My past paper pile was bigger than my dong
no seriously, it was bigger than my wrist to elbow span. Go back as many years as you can: 2002 if possible. If you are on a new spec, don't worry, print out the old ones!The simple philosphy behind the papers - the questions never change; the wording, arrangement and use of pictures may change from past paper to past paper but the questions and mark schemes don't. So if you do 2002, 2003, and 2004 papers. By 2005/6, you'll pretty much know the mark scheme. By 2007/8 you'll be a tad rusty but very good. By 2009/10 you'll be able to recite the mark scheme. And then in the real exam in 2011, you should score very well - the questions and mark scheme won't magically change for this year
Note: Though the mark scheme learning sounds brilliant, you CAN'T do it without knowning the module content so you have to 'work' before you revise; past papers count as revision.
* Money - You might think it's a bit weird including 'money' in an A-level post, right? Yeah, I used to think that too. Until I had an absolutely useless A-level Chemistry teacher. He left now, he was quite young like 20-something and just talked about girls
, gym and steroids, but before he did, he taught me one very important message... "If it costs £100 to get an A in A-level Chemistry, do it. Seriously, do it." By this I mean know which revision guides are best for your exam board, printer/ink costs, paper for past paper printing, several things... Money can improve your grades, WITHOUT tution. For those of you who can't afford it, i'm sure, this year atleast you get EMA? Just use it. What else do you use it on? PS3 games < A in Maths. If you were saving it for uni, what's the point having money for uni if you can't get the grades? It's an investment in your future, use it for your aid, it's never going to be wasted down the drain.* Resits - Several people may be resitting AS or Year 10 exams in A2 and Year 11 respectively, and be put off thinking they have too many exams. But really, don't be. Use it to your advantage. If it was up to me, all A-level exams would be in June of Year 13 and not an exam before. Reason? Simple. Your exam technique, experience, knowledge would be so much greater. For those of you who do Maths; imagine you had done C1, C2, C3 and C4, when you sat C1... wouldn't it be a joke? I wish I did that. I was absolutely ****ting myself before C1. The A-level specifications, and even GCSE, are made so module contents link, and many have a synoptic unit at the end anyway, so you need to be able to link information from all modules, so don't be put off if you're doing Chemistry 1/2, 4 and 5 at the same time. A lot of what you do in 1/2 will be covered/needed in 4/5 and vice versa.
Right, so this is just some general advice to all candidates, hope you found it useful
In post 2, i'll write up some tips and aids specifically for Maths, Chemistry, Biology and Physics, and discuss the challenges I faced, things I learnt, and how I got my A* (Maths) and A's in the rest.
Wish you all the best in your exams, hope you work hard and get top grades
Scroll to see replies
Mathematics:
So in the OP, one of my points was 'Attend school' - for Mathematics, I believe this is very important. Especially the first 10-15 minutes. Let's say you're learning Trig, for example. At the start, the teacher might start on the basics, sin and cos graph, identities (learn these!!!), and equations involving trig. Then go over a few examples. LEARN how to do that from your teacher; he/she is giving you an education for free... why waste it? Once you've got a briefing and the teachers been over a few examples, attempt problems yourself. That's how you'll truly know if you can do a topic, and if not, go back and ask for further help. Don't be shy, form a understanding relationship with your teacher and they'll be happy to help
As for 'work at home': I did something like the following...
* Went to school
* Learnt the topic/formula/method
* Went over some examples with teacher on white/blackboard
* Came home and re-read page(s)
* Using colour, put the formula method at the top of a page
* In red and black (red question; black solution), copied and understood - working my way through, several examples on the topic
* Attempted some questions; there are several sources for example for OCR (which I did), there is a black book with many exercise questions, a blue/orange book with miscellaneous exercises, a white essentials... the more question you do the BETTER!
* Carried on with my day
My GCSE Maths teacher, an absolute legend, said if you want an A in A-level Maths, spend atleast 1 hour a day after your lesson just going over the topic you did in class and attempt some questions. If you think about it, I had Maths twice a week... i'm sure we can all spare 2 hours a week for an A in Mathematics? I invested a little more and pushed myself for an A*; and trust me, it was well worth it.
That's all you need to do from now to a month before your exams. It won't be easy to start but if you start slow, eventually you'll naturally do more and more yourself.
And if you hate your subject, firstly, why are you even doing it? But secondly, i'm sure we all do, when we see our work load. But the more effort you put into it, the more you start loving it, and naturally start performing. A love for your subject will result in you wanting to do more of it and your grades should increase.
To those of you who are struggling, there are several methods you can use to help you; your teacher being the most obvious one, Maths websites, TSR has an entire help forum, including posters from Cambridge, teachers and people exceptional at Mathematics, and i'm sure they'll be happy to give guidance, but we want to see you put an effort in, so it will only be guidance not your homework done for you. I'll be happy to answer PM's, if you just want a chat, or have Maths problems, or queries.
Anyway, once you've learnt the content, which should be finished approximately a month before your exam, you should hit past papers. For Mathematics, more than anything, these are essential. You will have things in Mathematics papers that you will ONLY find in Mathematics papers. You will never see in the textbook.
Many students are caught out during their exam; just due to this lack of experience - don't be that person. Prepare well.
Personally, I sat in a quiet room, set 1 hr 15 (-15 from the actual exam time to put pressure on), read the front, and did paper after paper and kept a score of my progress. I tried to create an exam environment with real timings and I even used lined paper and black ink like the real exam
just so I wouldn't be unfamiliar with the real exam situation... with the most important bit MARKING MY OWN PAPER TO LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES - when you be the examiner of a paper, you can look back and see, I shouldn't have done that... and in future you won't.
Believe me, we all screw up a paper or two in our lifes... it's much better to screw up the past paper 'mocks' you set yourself than your real exam
Chemistry/Biology/Physics:
Quite similar to most subjects, even Maths, just more 'wordy'.
I still recommend going to school, getting an idea of a topic, coming home and making notes/mind map/other method of learning and trying the summary questions of each chapter.
Then every so often, trying the 'Exam Style Questions' which are just past exam questions provided by the book, to see your progress.
If you perform well, move on and continue working hard, if you're struggling and don't do so well, go back and re-read the chapter a few times.
For A-level, expect to be put in unfamiliar situations i.e. hearing about chemicals you have no idea of: just look out for -OH or -COOH group sticking out of and automatically think "ooooh alcohol - must be oxidation".
For Biology, you might be given a strain of something you've never heard of and asked to describe how a new population arose or a chemical which aids growth called 'grow-like-a-pro' is produced biologically. You may look at this wtf? But what sort of things aid growth? Proteins... How are proteins produced biologically? Just name your transcription, translation, etc, and bang, 6 marks in the bag.
Also, for biology, there's a lot of graphs and interpretation, including statistics. For this, you have to know the correct terminology. It's no good saying the graph moves to the left, you may have to explain that the standard deviation skews negative or the average mean decreases or in haemoglobin curves for example, look at the size of the organisms and relate this to the oxygen load/off-load.
Interpretation; correctly, is a very important and skill and just like most things... comes with practice!
Don't let names and unfamiliar chemicals put you off - learn your scientific theory (well) and if I haven't mentioned it already - do a million past papers to realise for yourself the 'baffling' you go through when put up against such a unfamiliar context and answer scientifically how ever you learnt making something which looks very hard and complicated into a simple scientific re-hearsed answer.
For Physics, the entire quantum module is 'new' work; so put extra effort into it. It takes understanding but once you understand it, it's like free marks. Going over several times, taking your time, and understanding then answering questions will help you do well. For the other 3, they're quite 'mathematical' chapters. If you do Mechanics in Maths, there will be several overlaps. It is still manageable without Maths, understand is key.
Imo, the 'equations' in Physics are easy. PLUS, they're GIVEN to you! I recommend learning them to save time but don't be afraid to just have a quick glance at the formula sheet. Give your full working so even if your answer is incorrect, you get full marks - 1. Oh, and learn to use a calculator, and brackets
Note: with (science) exam papers (including physics) you need to be quite precise with the mark scheme otherwise they may not reward you the marks, so if you learn the answers how the mark scheme wants them by doing past papers, you'll be more likely to seal the marks. If you really start to struggle with time, and I do recommend (cautiously - but not too slow) taking your time and reading the questions several times, then if you know the mark scheme, just write one word answers; you may only get 50% of the remaining marks, but they're better than none and 1 mark could be the difference between grades - even an A* and a B.
As long as you've been over things several times like mechanisms, equations, mole calculations, protein synthesis, photosynthesis, it should stick in your head and just me naturally to you; this (effort) coupled with past papers should mean you are well prepared - now just keep your nerve and you'll do well.
English lit - Many many thanks to riotgrrl
1. Discuss
Hopefully you will have a teacher who encourages discussion in the classroom about the work that you're doing- if you don't, make a little group with your friends to discuss it, poem by poem or chapter by chapter. Even if you have to try and explain Shakespeare to your little brother, try and talk to someone about it. Not only will it clarify your ideas, but it will also introduce you to new ones and having some form of debate or a variety of ideas will really help you in your exam.
2. Keep up with annotations
Make sure you have every single page annotated (for plays and poems) or a detailed body of notes (for novels) so you know exactly what happens and when. York notes are brilliant for summaries so feel free to read them, but that doesn't mean you can skip writing your own. Just reading stuff is genuinely one of the most ineffective ways of learning. You need to think about them and condensing or rewording someone elses notes into your own is an excellent way to do that.
3. Organise by theme
You're never going to be asked a question on "chapter 23". You're going to be asked a question on desire, hatred, revenge, mother/daughter relationships, whatever. So make a list on word of what you think are they key themes in your text. Now use your summary or annotations to gather quotes and discussion points for each theme.
4. Get critics
You don't need to know what Humphrey Whittington III said about Carol Ann Duffy but it will be invaluable for you to know what a feminist perspective might be, or a post-modernist or marxist. Add these into your notes on themes and you'll be on your way to building a really thoughtfull essay.
5. Practice!
Now we start doing practice essays. At first, you can use your themes notes to help you. Once you've done a couple this way, however, you need to start doing them under exam conditions. Once you've done them, use the mark scheme to go over it. Use different colour highlighters to highlight where you've hit certain objectives (e.g. AO1, AO2) and you'll soon see where you're falling short.
6. Condense
The week or so before the exam, if you're doing closed-text, you'll want to remember some really key quotes. By this time, you should know what actually happens in your text like the back of your hand, so just decide on about 20 key quotes, put them on a piece of paper and carry them with you wherever you go.
History - Also thanks to riotgrrl
1. Notes, notes, notes!
History is about two things: knowing lots of facts and writing good essays. For the first one, start early. Ignore the notes you wrote in class and get the textbook that is written by the examining body. Go through it systematically, in the 3-4 months before the exam and take notes. Be concise. These textbooks are fantastically wordy, last year I summarised the entire thing in about 5000 words. That might seem like a lot, but when you're doing a chapter every week or so for a couple of months it's very very manageable. Once you've done this, summarise your own notes into an effective time-line.
2. Learn the dates
It's history, you really do need to know these! If you're really bad at it, like me, get some flashcards and write an event on one side of it and the date on the other. Keep going through them, putting the ones you get wrong in one pile and the ones you get right in another. Keep going through the ones you got wrong until you get them all right. Repeat again the next day!
3. Write an essay on each chapter
At the end of each chapter in your examiner-written textbook, there should be an essay question. This is really useful, as it will give you practice in the areas the examiners are most likely to ask- remember, they WANT you to pass! At this stage, you're allowed to do each question with your notes.
4. Past papers
No more notes! Now you need to do past papers under timed conditions. Lots and lots and lots. Remember your exam technique: refer back to the question LOTS even if it seems a little clumsy and obvious to do so, sometimes examiners need stuff spelled out to them; make sure there is a clear debate running through your essay and that your conclusion supports the thread of this debate; throw in lots of dates; evaluate as much as you can- your essay CANNOT be narrative, it must be discussing the question at hand.
Economics - Also thanks to riotgrrl
1. Flashcards
Notes, imo, are a waste of time in economics. What you need to know is actually very, very basic, it is applying that knowledge that gets a little tricky. Take the key terms and the very key facts (e.g. determinants of labour supply) and put a question on the front of a flashcard and the answer on the back. Go through these until you can get every single one right.
2. Diagrams
Diagrams are HUGELY important. There are a couple that you will never in a million years be able to draw quickly and precisely in an exam (the kinked demand curve springs to mind for A2, I can't think of any atm for AS) so skip those, but learn every single one thoroughly. Draw them again and again and again. And practice explaining them, there's no point just drawing them in an exam and then not saying anything about them. I found that teaching someone else the diagrams was excellent practice in this respect.
3. Read the news
You need to know about current affairs, particularly at A2. Just skim the headlines every other day. Don't read the business pages (odd advice, I know) because you're not going to be asked about the FTSE. You need to know what's on the main new page like whether theres going to be a double-dip recession and what cuts the government is making. If you're using the Alain Anderton textbook (even if you're not, I suggest you get it), read the applied economics sections in each chapter, they're brilliant.
4. Practice!
Yup, it's our favourite, past papers! Get to know the markschemes because you get marks for the most mundane things. You know you get 2 marks straight away if you just define the key terms in the question? Easy! Put every diagram you can think of into the essay and evaluate absolutely every single thing you say. Almost every economic theory that you learn has a flaw, every act of government intervention has unintended consequences, etc. Talk about them ALL. Don't be afraid to think outside the box a little. And remember, that you just need to apply the basics that you've already learnt. So many times have I come out of exams with my peers and they've said stuff like "but the question was on orange farmers in South America! How are we meant to know about orange farmers in South America?" You're not. But you ARE meant to be able to apply what you have learnt to almost any situation. Also, multiple choice questions for AS are repeated ad infinitum. Do some past papers and you'll see, they literally reuse the same questions over and over again.
5. Fall in love with this man
This guy summarises every topic in about 8 minutes. He is your best friend during A level economics:
http://www.youtube.com/user/pajholden?blend=1&ob=4
Good luck, hope you've found my post(s) useful. Feel free to PM me with any questions and I will be happy to help anytime
So in the OP, one of my points was 'Attend school' - for Mathematics, I believe this is very important. Especially the first 10-15 minutes. Let's say you're learning Trig, for example. At the start, the teacher might start on the basics, sin and cos graph, identities (learn these!!!), and equations involving trig. Then go over a few examples. LEARN how to do that from your teacher; he/she is giving you an education for free... why waste it? Once you've got a briefing and the teachers been over a few examples, attempt problems yourself. That's how you'll truly know if you can do a topic, and if not, go back and ask for further help. Don't be shy, form a understanding relationship with your teacher and they'll be happy to help
As for 'work at home': I did something like the following...
* Went to school
* Learnt the topic/formula/method
* Went over some examples with teacher on white/blackboard
* Came home and re-read page(s)
* Using colour, put the formula method at the top of a page
* In red and black (red question; black solution), copied and understood - working my way through, several examples on the topic
* Attempted some questions; there are several sources for example for OCR (which I did), there is a black book with many exercise questions, a blue/orange book with miscellaneous exercises, a white essentials... the more question you do the BETTER!
* Carried on with my day
My GCSE Maths teacher, an absolute legend, said if you want an A in A-level Maths, spend atleast 1 hour a day after your lesson just going over the topic you did in class and attempt some questions. If you think about it, I had Maths twice a week... i'm sure we can all spare 2 hours a week for an A in Mathematics? I invested a little more and pushed myself for an A*; and trust me, it was well worth it.
That's all you need to do from now to a month before your exams. It won't be easy to start but if you start slow, eventually you'll naturally do more and more yourself.
And if you hate your subject, firstly, why are you even doing it? But secondly, i'm sure we all do, when we see our work load. But the more effort you put into it, the more you start loving it, and naturally start performing. A love for your subject will result in you wanting to do more of it and your grades should increase.
To those of you who are struggling, there are several methods you can use to help you; your teacher being the most obvious one, Maths websites, TSR has an entire help forum, including posters from Cambridge, teachers and people exceptional at Mathematics, and i'm sure they'll be happy to give guidance, but we want to see you put an effort in, so it will only be guidance not your homework done for you. I'll be happy to answer PM's, if you just want a chat, or have Maths problems, or queries.
Anyway, once you've learnt the content, which should be finished approximately a month before your exam, you should hit past papers. For Mathematics, more than anything, these are essential. You will have things in Mathematics papers that you will ONLY find in Mathematics papers. You will never see in the textbook.
Many students are caught out during their exam; just due to this lack of experience - don't be that person. Prepare well.
Personally, I sat in a quiet room, set 1 hr 15 (-15 from the actual exam time to put pressure on), read the front, and did paper after paper and kept a score of my progress. I tried to create an exam environment with real timings and I even used lined paper and black ink like the real exam
just so I wouldn't be unfamiliar with the real exam situation... with the most important bit MARKING MY OWN PAPER TO LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES - when you be the examiner of a paper, you can look back and see, I shouldn't have done that... and in future you won't.Believe me, we all screw up a paper or two in our lifes... it's much better to screw up the past paper 'mocks' you set yourself than your real exam
Chemistry/Biology/Physics:
Quite similar to most subjects, even Maths, just more 'wordy'.
I still recommend going to school, getting an idea of a topic, coming home and making notes/mind map/other method of learning and trying the summary questions of each chapter.
Then every so often, trying the 'Exam Style Questions' which are just past exam questions provided by the book, to see your progress.
If you perform well, move on and continue working hard, if you're struggling and don't do so well, go back and re-read the chapter a few times.
For A-level, expect to be put in unfamiliar situations i.e. hearing about chemicals you have no idea of: just look out for -OH or -COOH group sticking out of and automatically think "ooooh alcohol - must be oxidation".
For Biology, you might be given a strain of something you've never heard of and asked to describe how a new population arose or a chemical which aids growth called 'grow-like-a-pro' is produced biologically. You may look at this wtf? But what sort of things aid growth? Proteins... How are proteins produced biologically? Just name your transcription, translation, etc, and bang, 6 marks in the bag.
Also, for biology, there's a lot of graphs and interpretation, including statistics. For this, you have to know the correct terminology. It's no good saying the graph moves to the left, you may have to explain that the standard deviation skews negative or the average mean decreases or in haemoglobin curves for example, look at the size of the organisms and relate this to the oxygen load/off-load.
Interpretation; correctly, is a very important and skill and just like most things... comes with practice!
Don't let names and unfamiliar chemicals put you off - learn your scientific theory (well) and if I haven't mentioned it already - do a million past papers
to realise for yourself the 'baffling' you go through when put up against such a unfamiliar context and answer scientifically how ever you learnt making something which looks very hard and complicated into a simple scientific re-hearsed answer.For Physics, the entire quantum module is 'new' work; so put extra effort into it. It takes understanding but once you understand it, it's like free marks. Going over several times, taking your time, and understanding then answering questions will help you do well. For the other 3, they're quite 'mathematical' chapters. If you do Mechanics in Maths, there will be several overlaps. It is still manageable without Maths, understand is key.
Imo, the 'equations' in Physics are easy. PLUS, they're GIVEN to you! I recommend learning them to save time but don't be afraid to just have a quick glance at the formula sheet. Give your full working so even if your answer is incorrect, you get full marks - 1. Oh, and learn to use a calculator, and brackets
Note: with (science) exam papers (including physics) you need to be quite precise with the mark scheme otherwise they may not reward you the marks, so if you learn the answers how the mark scheme wants them by doing past papers, you'll be more likely to seal the marks. If you really start to struggle with time, and I do recommend (cautiously - but not too slow) taking your time and reading the questions several times, then if you know the mark scheme, just write one word answers; you may only get 50% of the remaining marks, but they're better than none and 1 mark could be the difference between grades - even an A* and a B.
As long as you've been over things several times like mechanisms, equations, mole calculations, protein synthesis, photosynthesis, it should stick in your head and just me naturally to you; this (effort) coupled with past papers should mean you are well prepared - now just keep your nerve and you'll do well.
English lit - Many many thanks to riotgrrl
1. Discuss
Hopefully you will have a teacher who encourages discussion in the classroom about the work that you're doing- if you don't, make a little group with your friends to discuss it, poem by poem or chapter by chapter. Even if you have to try and explain Shakespeare to your little brother, try and talk to someone about it. Not only will it clarify your ideas, but it will also introduce you to new ones and having some form of debate or a variety of ideas will really help you in your exam.
2. Keep up with annotations
Make sure you have every single page annotated (for plays and poems) or a detailed body of notes (for novels) so you know exactly what happens and when. York notes are brilliant for summaries so feel free to read them, but that doesn't mean you can skip writing your own. Just reading stuff is genuinely one of the most ineffective ways of learning. You need to think about them and condensing or rewording someone elses notes into your own is an excellent way to do that.
3. Organise by theme
You're never going to be asked a question on "chapter 23". You're going to be asked a question on desire, hatred, revenge, mother/daughter relationships, whatever. So make a list on word of what you think are they key themes in your text. Now use your summary or annotations to gather quotes and discussion points for each theme.
4. Get critics
You don't need to know what Humphrey Whittington III said about Carol Ann Duffy but it will be invaluable for you to know what a feminist perspective might be, or a post-modernist or marxist. Add these into your notes on themes and you'll be on your way to building a really thoughtfull essay.
5. Practice!
Now we start doing practice essays. At first, you can use your themes notes to help you. Once you've done a couple this way, however, you need to start doing them under exam conditions. Once you've done them, use the mark scheme to go over it. Use different colour highlighters to highlight where you've hit certain objectives (e.g. AO1, AO2) and you'll soon see where you're falling short.
6. Condense
The week or so before the exam, if you're doing closed-text, you'll want to remember some really key quotes. By this time, you should know what actually happens in your text like the back of your hand, so just decide on about 20 key quotes, put them on a piece of paper and carry them with you wherever you go.
History - Also thanks to riotgrrl
1. Notes, notes, notes!
History is about two things: knowing lots of facts and writing good essays. For the first one, start early. Ignore the notes you wrote in class and get the textbook that is written by the examining body. Go through it systematically, in the 3-4 months before the exam and take notes. Be concise. These textbooks are fantastically wordy, last year I summarised the entire thing in about 5000 words. That might seem like a lot, but when you're doing a chapter every week or so for a couple of months it's very very manageable. Once you've done this, summarise your own notes into an effective time-line.
2. Learn the dates
It's history, you really do need to know these! If you're really bad at it, like me, get some flashcards and write an event on one side of it and the date on the other. Keep going through them, putting the ones you get wrong in one pile and the ones you get right in another. Keep going through the ones you got wrong until you get them all right. Repeat again the next day!
3. Write an essay on each chapter
At the end of each chapter in your examiner-written textbook, there should be an essay question. This is really useful, as it will give you practice in the areas the examiners are most likely to ask- remember, they WANT you to pass! At this stage, you're allowed to do each question with your notes.
4. Past papers
No more notes! Now you need to do past papers under timed conditions. Lots and lots and lots. Remember your exam technique: refer back to the question LOTS even if it seems a little clumsy and obvious to do so, sometimes examiners need stuff spelled out to them; make sure there is a clear debate running through your essay and that your conclusion supports the thread of this debate; throw in lots of dates; evaluate as much as you can- your essay CANNOT be narrative, it must be discussing the question at hand.
Economics - Also thanks to riotgrrl
1. Flashcards
Notes, imo, are a waste of time in economics. What you need to know is actually very, very basic, it is applying that knowledge that gets a little tricky. Take the key terms and the very key facts (e.g. determinants of labour supply) and put a question on the front of a flashcard and the answer on the back. Go through these until you can get every single one right.
2. Diagrams
Diagrams are HUGELY important. There are a couple that you will never in a million years be able to draw quickly and precisely in an exam (the kinked demand curve springs to mind for A2, I can't think of any atm for AS) so skip those, but learn every single one thoroughly. Draw them again and again and again. And practice explaining them, there's no point just drawing them in an exam and then not saying anything about them. I found that teaching someone else the diagrams was excellent practice in this respect.
3. Read the news
You need to know about current affairs, particularly at A2. Just skim the headlines every other day. Don't read the business pages (odd advice, I know) because you're not going to be asked about the FTSE. You need to know what's on the main new page like whether theres going to be a double-dip recession and what cuts the government is making. If you're using the Alain Anderton textbook (even if you're not, I suggest you get it), read the applied economics sections in each chapter, they're brilliant.
4. Practice!
Yup, it's our favourite, past papers! Get to know the markschemes because you get marks for the most mundane things. You know you get 2 marks straight away if you just define the key terms in the question? Easy! Put every diagram you can think of into the essay and evaluate absolutely every single thing you say. Almost every economic theory that you learn has a flaw, every act of government intervention has unintended consequences, etc. Talk about them ALL. Don't be afraid to think outside the box a little. And remember, that you just need to apply the basics that you've already learnt. So many times have I come out of exams with my peers and they've said stuff like "but the question was on orange farmers in South America! How are we meant to know about orange farmers in South America?" You're not. But you ARE meant to be able to apply what you have learnt to almost any situation. Also, multiple choice questions for AS are repeated ad infinitum. Do some past papers and you'll see, they literally reuse the same questions over and over again.
5. Fall in love with this man
This guy summarises every topic in about 8 minutes. He is your best friend during A level economics:
http://www.youtube.com/user/pajholden?blend=1&ob=4
Good luck, hope you've found my post(s) useful. Feel free to PM me with any questions and I will be happy to help anytime
(edited 13 years ago)
Well, that was fun to write 
Good luck all
Good luck all
I have 12 exams in May and June (AS and A2) and have pretty much just started learning the content last week. I'm just going through content in the book and writing up notes. When I finish the notes I re-read them and try to understand the whole topic and then do some past papers to gain exam technique/see where I'm going wrong
Another key thing to have whilst doing revision/learning, is motivation. Think of what the exams will lead to. For me, it's the moving away to university next year; the freedom, the parties, the pussy on tap and getting away from this this house. Point is, when studying, if you ever become lazy and stop, just think about why you are taking the exams in the first place, where you want to be.
Another key thing to have whilst doing revision/learning, is motivation. Think of what the exams will lead to. For me, it's the moving away to university next year; the freedom, the parties, the pussy on tap and getting away from this this house. Point is, when studying, if you ever become lazy and stop, just think about why you are taking the exams in the first place, where you want to be.
You, sir, are amazing. 
Original post by Converse
I have 12 exams in May and June (AS and A2) and have pretty much just started learning the content last week. I'm just going through content in the book and writing up notes. When I finish the notes I re-read them and try to understand the whole topic and then do some past papers to gain exam technique/see where I'm going wrong
Another key thing to have whilst doing revision/learning, is motivation. Think of what the exams will lead to. For me, it's the moving away to university next year; the freedom, the parties, the pussy on tap and getting away from this this house. Point is, when studying, if you ever become lazy and stop, just think about why you are taking the exams in the first place, where you want to be.
Another key thing to have whilst doing revision/learning, is motivation. Think of what the exams will lead to. For me, it's the moving away to university next year; the freedom, the parties, the pussy on tap and getting away from this this house. Point is, when studying, if you ever become lazy and stop, just think about why you are taking the exams in the first place, where you want to be.
Hahahahahahahhahaha
Doing my homework now!
Original post by yourworstnightmare
Hey all, I completed my A-levels last year and on request by quite a few people i'm just going to share my experience and offer some advice on your exams, the content of certain subjects and how to gain some extra marks by improving your exam strategy and technique
I did Maths + 3 Sciences so will talking mostly about them; but I shall offer some general advice for all students.
General (for all subjects):
* Prepare early - Seriously, work ASAP. Everyday, if possible. You can leave work too late, but never too early. Even if it's 5-10 minutes a day you do and increase this 5-10 minutes a week, by the end of June, you'll be doing 3-6 hours a day without even realising. Trust me, the exams come faster... don't worry what anybody says "err, you revise so early, etc"; in your head tell them to **** off and then ask what they got in June I'm sure they'll regret it, not you.
Note: I used the word 'work' not 'revise'. There's a difference between the two. I left 'revision' until the last few weeks-month, but I worked pretty much from February for my June exams. The difference is simple: work = learn, revise = master. You have to WORK to REVISE, you can't just expect to do amazingly without working. Reading is working btw, though best 'work' = combination of reading + notes. All i'm asking you to do now is learn the content and keep on top of your class work.
* Attend school - Though I mostly self-taught my subjects, I needed to attend school. Why is it so important? To do anything in life, you need atleast the fundamental principals. You can't build an object without instructions... and trust me, you can't learn every differential equation without any sort of guidance. The first 10 minutes are probably the most important - just stfu and listen to your teacher. Yes, I had some amazing weekends, yes I had some lad conversations, but they were absolutely useless to my school work. Just listen, learn to do the topic and examples then if the teacher says do questions X-Y, have a quiet chat, but get on with a few questions too, even if it is just to make the teacher happy.
* WORK AT HOME - I cannot possibly emphasise this enough. How can people just go to school, come home, play PS3 all day, turn up to the exam and score an A. I'm sure you've all heard that story, right? I'll tell you how... bull****. Those people are real-life trolls. Nothing in life is easy. Exams aren't an exception to that. They are there to test you. If you put the effort in, you will be rewarded. It's really that simple. How hard can it possibly be to follow this sort of routine: Go to school ---> Learn rough idea of topic ---> Re-read chapter ---> Make notes on important bits, use colour, etc ---> Try a few exercise Questions ---> Go and carry on with the rest of your day. Seriously, half an hour a day? An hour at most? You can't invest that much to follow your dream and increase your wages by double, treble, 4-fold, even 10-fold.
* Find somewhere quiet - For me, this is quite important. I want maximum concentration to go on my work. Fortunately for me, I have more than 1 house so the one in which my parents couldn't stfu, I moved out for my exams and just sat in the other one on my own, sometimes watched an hour a week of top gear, had a game of mario kart wii, etc, at night, but very late at night. It was just a silent house, me, a table, several books and I got on with it. For those who don't have this, how about an aunties house? Or a library (though chavs might be there socialising ), or even stay behind in school when everyones gone? Just try find somewhere quiet, if you can in your own house, great.
* Music seems to be a method if 'quiet' - Personally, I didn't use music. I can concentrate more in dead silence and sometimes I lose focus into the music, which is annoying for me. For some it works, but not for me, personally. Another problem with music is that some people get lost into it. I know some people who 'worked' and 'revised' with music, but when it came to the exam, they couldn't remember a thing, just the lyrics of the Akon song or whatever. To me, it seems like a risk, but it's personal preferance.
* Plans and timetables - I highly recommend these. I used them personally. I am fully aware they never go to plan, but if you make it in pencil like I did, then you can easily rub it out and swap chemistry to do another day of it, with maths and add an extra session of maths later in the week, for example. I think the general idea of organisation is a good thing and most importantly... it makes you realise that '****, there's only 6 weeks left, crap there's only 4 left' etc.
* Past papers - Honestly, I cannot emphasise how important these are. Let me try and express my point... a few days ago, a girl I know who I went to the library to help the day before her exam, said her exam is tomorrow and she had only done 1 past paper due to not having a printer. Guess what I said to her. "We're in town, Argos/Currys is a 5 minute walk, lets go and buy one." Less than 24 hours until her exam and I told her to go and buy a printer... that's how important they are in my opinion. If I was you, and I had a printer, i'd print out them right now. I printed mine in September for my June exams, so I didn't panic printing them last minute. My past paper pile was bigger than my dong no seriously, it was bigger than my wrist to elbow span. Go back as many years as you can: 2002 if possible. If you are on a new spec, don't worry, print out the old ones!
The simple philosphy behind the papers - the questions never change; the wording, arrangement and use of pictures may change from past paper to past paper but the questions and mark schemes don't. So if you do 2002, 2003, and 2004 papers. By 2005/6, you'll pretty much know the mark scheme. By 2007/8 you'll be a tad rusty but very good. By 2009/10 you'll be able to recite the mark scheme. And then in the real exam in 2011, you should score very well - the questions and mark scheme won't magically change for this year
Note: Though the mark scheme learning sounds brilliant, you CAN'T do it without knowning the module content so you have to 'work' before you revise; past papers count as revision.
* Money - You might think it's a bit weird including 'money' in an A-level post, right? Yeah, I used to think that too. Until I had an absolutely useless A-level Chemistry teacher. He left now, he was quite young like 20-something and just talked about girls, gym and steroids, but before he did, he taught me one very important message... "If it costs £100 to get an A in A-level Chemistry, do it. Seriously, do it." By this I mean know which revision guides are best for your exam board, printer/ink costs, paper for past paper printing, several things... Money can improve your grades, WITHOUT tution. For those of you who can't afford it, i'm sure, this year atleast you get EMA? Just use it. What else do you use it on? PS3 games < A in Maths. If you were saving it for uni, what's the point having money for uni if you can't get the grades? It's an investment in your future, use it for your aid, it's never going to be wasted down the drain.
* Resits - Several people may be resitting AS or Year 10 exams in A2 and Year 11 respectively, and be put off thinking they have too many exams. But really, don't be. Use it to your advantage. If it was up to me, all A-level exams would be in June of Year 13 and not an exam before. Reason? Simple. Your exam technique, experience, knowledge would be so much greater. For those of you who do Maths; imagine you had done C1, C2, C3 and C4, when you sat C1... wouldn't it be a joke? I wish I did that. I was absolutely ****ting myself before C1. The A-level specifications, and even GCSE, are made so module contents link, and many have a synoptic unit at the end anyway, so you need to be able to link information from all modules, so don't be put off if you're doing Chemistry 1/2, 4 and 5 at the same time. A lot of what you do in 1/2 will be covered/needed in 4/5 and vice versa.
Right, so this is just some general advice to all candidates, hope you found it useful
In post 2, i'll write up some tips and aids specifically for Maths, Chemistry, Biology and Physics, and discuss the challenges I faced, things I learnt, and how I got my A* (Maths) and A's in the rest.
Wish you all the best in your exams, hope you work hard and get top grades
I did Maths + 3 Sciences so will talking mostly about them; but I shall offer some general advice for all students.
General (for all subjects):
* Prepare early - Seriously, work ASAP. Everyday, if possible. You can leave work too late, but never too early. Even if it's 5-10 minutes a day you do and increase this 5-10 minutes a week, by the end of June, you'll be doing 3-6 hours a day without even realising. Trust me, the exams come faster... don't worry what anybody says "err, you revise so early, etc"; in your head tell them to **** off and then ask what they got in June
I'm sure they'll regret it, not you. Note: I used the word 'work' not 'revise'. There's a difference between the two. I left 'revision' until the last few weeks-month, but I worked pretty much from February for my June exams. The difference is simple: work = learn, revise = master. You have to WORK to REVISE, you can't just expect to do amazingly without working. Reading is working btw, though best 'work' = combination of reading + notes. All i'm asking you to do now is learn the content and keep on top of your class work.
* Attend school - Though I mostly self-taught my subjects, I needed to attend school. Why is it so important? To do anything in life, you need atleast the fundamental principals. You can't build an object without instructions... and trust me, you can't learn every differential equation without any sort of guidance. The first 10 minutes are probably the most important - just stfu and listen to your teacher. Yes, I had some amazing weekends, yes I had some lad conversations, but they were absolutely useless to my school work. Just listen, learn to do the topic and examples then if the teacher says do questions X-Y, have a quiet chat, but get on with a few questions too, even if it is just to make the teacher happy.
* WORK AT HOME - I cannot possibly emphasise this enough. How can people just go to school, come home, play PS3 all day, turn up to the exam and score an A. I'm sure you've all heard that story, right? I'll tell you how... bull****. Those people are real-life trolls. Nothing in life is easy. Exams aren't an exception to that. They are there to test you. If you put the effort in, you will be rewarded. It's really that simple. How hard can it possibly be to follow this sort of routine: Go to school ---> Learn rough idea of topic ---> Re-read chapter ---> Make notes on important bits, use colour, etc ---> Try a few exercise Questions ---> Go and carry on with the rest of your day. Seriously, half an hour a day? An hour at most? You can't invest that much to follow your dream and increase your wages by double, treble, 4-fold, even 10-fold.
* Find somewhere quiet - For me, this is quite important. I want maximum concentration to go on my work. Fortunately for me, I have more than 1 house so the one in which my parents couldn't stfu
, I moved out for my exams and just sat in the other one on my own, sometimes watched an hour a week of top gear, had a game of mario kart wii, etc, at night, but very late at night. It was just a silent house, me, a table, several books and I got on with it. For those who don't have this, how about an aunties house? Or a library (though chavs might be there socialising ), or even stay behind in school when everyones gone? Just try find somewhere quiet, if you can in your own house, great.* Music seems to be a method if 'quiet' - Personally, I didn't use music. I can concentrate more in dead silence and sometimes I lose focus into the music, which is annoying for me. For some it works, but not for me, personally. Another problem with music is that some people get lost into it. I know some people who 'worked' and 'revised' with music, but when it came to the exam, they couldn't remember a thing, just the lyrics of the Akon song or whatever. To me, it seems like a risk, but it's personal preferance.
* Plans and timetables - I highly recommend these. I used them personally. I am fully aware they never go to plan, but if you make it in pencil like I did, then you can easily rub it out and swap chemistry to do another day of it, with maths and add an extra session of maths later in the week, for example. I think the general idea of organisation is a good thing and most importantly... it makes you realise that '****, there's only 6 weeks left, crap there's only 4 left' etc.
* Past papers - Honestly, I cannot emphasise how important these are. Let me try and express my point... a few days ago, a girl I know who I went to the library to help the day before her exam, said her exam is tomorrow and she had only done 1 past paper due to not having a printer. Guess what I said to her. "We're in town, Argos/Currys is a 5 minute walk, lets go and buy one." Less than 24 hours until her exam and I told her to go and buy a printer... that's how important they are in my opinion. If I was you, and I had a printer, i'd print out them right now. I printed mine in September for my June exams, so I didn't panic printing them last minute. My past paper pile was bigger than my dong
no seriously, it was bigger than my wrist to elbow span. Go back as many years as you can: 2002 if possible. If you are on a new spec, don't worry, print out the old ones!The simple philosphy behind the papers - the questions never change; the wording, arrangement and use of pictures may change from past paper to past paper but the questions and mark schemes don't. So if you do 2002, 2003, and 2004 papers. By 2005/6, you'll pretty much know the mark scheme. By 2007/8 you'll be a tad rusty but very good. By 2009/10 you'll be able to recite the mark scheme. And then in the real exam in 2011, you should score very well - the questions and mark scheme won't magically change for this year
Note: Though the mark scheme learning sounds brilliant, you CAN'T do it without knowning the module content so you have to 'work' before you revise; past papers count as revision.
* Money - You might think it's a bit weird including 'money' in an A-level post, right? Yeah, I used to think that too. Until I had an absolutely useless A-level Chemistry teacher. He left now, he was quite young like 20-something and just talked about girls
, gym and steroids, but before he did, he taught me one very important message... "If it costs £100 to get an A in A-level Chemistry, do it. Seriously, do it." By this I mean know which revision guides are best for your exam board, printer/ink costs, paper for past paper printing, several things... Money can improve your grades, WITHOUT tution. For those of you who can't afford it, i'm sure, this year atleast you get EMA? Just use it. What else do you use it on? PS3 games < A in Maths. If you were saving it for uni, what's the point having money for uni if you can't get the grades? It's an investment in your future, use it for your aid, it's never going to be wasted down the drain.* Resits - Several people may be resitting AS or Year 10 exams in A2 and Year 11 respectively, and be put off thinking they have too many exams. But really, don't be. Use it to your advantage. If it was up to me, all A-level exams would be in June of Year 13 and not an exam before. Reason? Simple. Your exam technique, experience, knowledge would be so much greater. For those of you who do Maths; imagine you had done C1, C2, C3 and C4, when you sat C1... wouldn't it be a joke? I wish I did that. I was absolutely ****ting myself before C1. The A-level specifications, and even GCSE, are made so module contents link, and many have a synoptic unit at the end anyway, so you need to be able to link information from all modules, so don't be put off if you're doing Chemistry 1/2, 4 and 5 at the same time. A lot of what you do in 1/2 will be covered/needed in 4/5 and vice versa.
Right, so this is just some general advice to all candidates, hope you found it useful
In post 2, i'll write up some tips and aids specifically for Maths, Chemistry, Biology and Physics, and discuss the challenges I faced, things I learnt, and how I got my A* (Maths) and A's in the rest.
Wish you all the best in your exams, hope you work hard and get top grades
Thank you so much for that, i'm gonna start my work.. once university challenge is over. ;D
Thank you!
All good, but I don't get the printer thing? Why would you send somebody to buy a printer so they could do past papers? It would have wasted less time for the person to sit with the past paper open on their computer screen, and then just write the answers onto blank paper before marking it...
Great thread! The 'work at home' part is so important during A-levels
Original post by yourworstnightmare
Hey all, I completed my A-levels last year and on request by quite a few people i'm just going to share my experience and offer some advice on your exams, the content of certain subjects and how to gain some extra marks by improving your exam strategy and technique
I did Maths + 3 Sciences so will talking mostly about them; but I shall offer some general advice for all students.
General (for all subjects):
* Prepare early - Seriously, work ASAP. Everyday, if possible. You can leave work too late, but never too early. Even if it's 5-10 minutes a day you do and increase this 5-10 minutes a week, by the end of June, you'll be doing 3-6 hours a day without even realising. Trust me, the exams come faster... don't worry what anybody says "err, you revise so early, etc"; in your head tell them to **** off and then ask what they got in June I'm sure they'll regret it, not you.
Note: I used the word 'work' not 'revise'. There's a difference between the two. I left 'revision' until the last few weeks-month, but I worked pretty much from February for my June exams. The difference is simple: work = learn, revise = master. You have to WORK to REVISE, you can't just expect to do amazingly without working. Reading is working btw, though best 'work' = combination of reading + notes. All i'm asking you to do now is learn the content and keep on top of your class work.
* Attend school - Though I mostly self-taught my subjects, I needed to attend school. Why is it so important? To do anything in life, you need atleast the fundamental principals. You can't build an object without instructions... and trust me, you can't learn every differential equation without any sort of guidance. The first 10 minutes are probably the most important - just stfu and listen to your teacher. Yes, I had some amazing weekends, yes I had some lad conversations, but they were absolutely useless to my school work. Just listen, learn to do the topic and examples then if the teacher says do questions X-Y, have a quiet chat, but get on with a few questions too, even if it is just to make the teacher happy.
* WORK AT HOME - I cannot possibly emphasise this enough. How can people just go to school, come home, play PS3 all day, turn up to the exam and score an A. I'm sure you've all heard that story, right? I'll tell you how... bull****. Those people are real-life trolls. Nothing in life is easy. Exams aren't an exception to that. They are there to test you. If you put the effort in, you will be rewarded. It's really that simple. How hard can it possibly be to follow this sort of routine: Go to school ---> Learn rough idea of topic ---> Re-read chapter ---> Make notes on important bits, use colour, etc ---> Try a few exercise Questions ---> Go and carry on with the rest of your day. Seriously, half an hour a day? An hour at most? You can't invest that much to follow your dream and increase your wages by double, treble, 4-fold, even 10-fold.
* Find somewhere quiet - For me, this is quite important. I want maximum concentration to go on my work. Fortunately for me, I have more than 1 house so the one in which my parents couldn't stfu, I moved out for my exams and just sat in the other one on my own, sometimes watched an hour a week of top gear, had a game of mario kart wii, etc, at night, but very late at night. It was just a silent house, me, a table, several books and I got on with it. For those who don't have this, how about an aunties house? Or a library (though chavs might be there socialising ), or even stay behind in school when everyones gone? Just try find somewhere quiet, if you can in your own house, great.
* Music seems to be a method if 'quiet' - Personally, I didn't use music. I can concentrate more in dead silence and sometimes I lose focus into the music, which is annoying for me. For some it works, but not for me, personally. Another problem with music is that some people get lost into it. I know some people who 'worked' and 'revised' with music, but when it came to the exam, they couldn't remember a thing, just the lyrics of the Akon song or whatever. To me, it seems like a risk, but it's personal preferance.
* Plans and timetables - I highly recommend these. I used them personally. I am fully aware they never go to plan, but if you make it in pencil like I did, then you can easily rub it out and swap chemistry to do another day of it, with maths and add an extra session of maths later in the week, for example. I think the general idea of organisation is a good thing and most importantly... it makes you realise that '****, there's only 6 weeks left, crap there's only 4 left' etc.
* Past papers - Honestly, I cannot emphasise how important these are. Let me try and express my point... a few days ago, a girl I know who I went to the library to help the day before her exam, said her exam is tomorrow and she had only done 1 past paper due to not having a printer. Guess what I said to her. "We're in town, Argos/Currys is a 5 minute walk, lets go and buy one." Less than 24 hours until her exam and I told her to go and buy a printer... that's how important they are in my opinion. If I was you, and I had a printer, i'd print out them right now. I printed mine in September for my June exams, so I didn't panic printing them last minute. My past paper pile was bigger than my dong no seriously, it was bigger than my wrist to elbow span. Go back as many years as you can: 2002 if possible. If you are on a new spec, don't worry, print out the old ones!
The simple philosphy behind the papers - the questions never change; the wording, arrangement and use of pictures may change from past paper to past paper but the questions and mark schemes don't. So if you do 2002, 2003, and 2004 papers. By 2005/6, you'll pretty much know the mark scheme. By 2007/8 you'll be a tad rusty but very good. By 2009/10 you'll be able to recite the mark scheme. And then in the real exam in 2011, you should score very well - the questions and mark scheme won't magically change for this year
Note: Though the mark scheme learning sounds brilliant, you CAN'T do it without knowning the module content so you have to 'work' before you revise; past papers count as revision.
* Money - You might think it's a bit weird including 'money' in an A-level post, right? Yeah, I used to think that too. Until I had an absolutely useless A-level Chemistry teacher. He left now, he was quite young like 20-something and just talked about girls, gym and steroids, but before he did, he taught me one very important message... "If it costs £100 to get an A in A-level Chemistry, do it. Seriously, do it." By this I mean know which revision guides are best for your exam board, printer/ink costs, paper for past paper printing, several things... Money can improve your grades, WITHOUT tution. For those of you who can't afford it, i'm sure, this year atleast you get EMA? Just use it. What else do you use it on? PS3 games < A in Maths. If you were saving it for uni, what's the point having money for uni if you can't get the grades? It's an investment in your future, use it for your aid, it's never going to be wasted down the drain.
* Resits - Several people may be resitting AS or Year 10 exams in A2 and Year 11 respectively, and be put off thinking they have too many exams. But really, don't be. Use it to your advantage. If it was up to me, all A-level exams would be in June of Year 13 and not an exam before. Reason? Simple. Your exam technique, experience, knowledge would be so much greater. For those of you who do Maths; imagine you had done C1, C2, C3 and C4, when you sat C1... wouldn't it be a joke? I wish I did that. I was absolutely ****ting myself before C1. The A-level specifications, and even GCSE, are made so module contents link, and many have a synoptic unit at the end anyway, so you need to be able to link information from all modules, so don't be put off if you're doing Chemistry 1/2, 4 and 5 at the same time. A lot of what you do in 1/2 will be covered/needed in 4/5 and vice versa.
Right, so this is just some general advice to all candidates, hope you found it useful
In post 2, i'll write up some tips and aids specifically for Maths, Chemistry, Biology and Physics, and discuss the challenges I faced, things I learnt, and how I got my A* (Maths) and A's in the rest.
Wish you all the best in your exams, hope you work hard and get top grades
I did Maths + 3 Sciences so will talking mostly about them; but I shall offer some general advice for all students.
General (for all subjects):
* Prepare early - Seriously, work ASAP. Everyday, if possible. You can leave work too late, but never too early. Even if it's 5-10 minutes a day you do and increase this 5-10 minutes a week, by the end of June, you'll be doing 3-6 hours a day without even realising. Trust me, the exams come faster... don't worry what anybody says "err, you revise so early, etc"; in your head tell them to **** off and then ask what they got in June
I'm sure they'll regret it, not you. Note: I used the word 'work' not 'revise'. There's a difference between the two. I left 'revision' until the last few weeks-month, but I worked pretty much from February for my June exams. The difference is simple: work = learn, revise = master. You have to WORK to REVISE, you can't just expect to do amazingly without working. Reading is working btw, though best 'work' = combination of reading + notes. All i'm asking you to do now is learn the content and keep on top of your class work.
* Attend school - Though I mostly self-taught my subjects, I needed to attend school. Why is it so important? To do anything in life, you need atleast the fundamental principals. You can't build an object without instructions... and trust me, you can't learn every differential equation without any sort of guidance. The first 10 minutes are probably the most important - just stfu and listen to your teacher. Yes, I had some amazing weekends, yes I had some lad conversations, but they were absolutely useless to my school work. Just listen, learn to do the topic and examples then if the teacher says do questions X-Y, have a quiet chat, but get on with a few questions too, even if it is just to make the teacher happy.
* WORK AT HOME - I cannot possibly emphasise this enough. How can people just go to school, come home, play PS3 all day, turn up to the exam and score an A. I'm sure you've all heard that story, right? I'll tell you how... bull****. Those people are real-life trolls. Nothing in life is easy. Exams aren't an exception to that. They are there to test you. If you put the effort in, you will be rewarded. It's really that simple. How hard can it possibly be to follow this sort of routine: Go to school ---> Learn rough idea of topic ---> Re-read chapter ---> Make notes on important bits, use colour, etc ---> Try a few exercise Questions ---> Go and carry on with the rest of your day. Seriously, half an hour a day? An hour at most? You can't invest that much to follow your dream and increase your wages by double, treble, 4-fold, even 10-fold.
* Find somewhere quiet - For me, this is quite important. I want maximum concentration to go on my work. Fortunately for me, I have more than 1 house so the one in which my parents couldn't stfu
, I moved out for my exams and just sat in the other one on my own, sometimes watched an hour a week of top gear, had a game of mario kart wii, etc, at night, but very late at night. It was just a silent house, me, a table, several books and I got on with it. For those who don't have this, how about an aunties house? Or a library (though chavs might be there socialising ), or even stay behind in school when everyones gone? Just try find somewhere quiet, if you can in your own house, great.* Music seems to be a method if 'quiet' - Personally, I didn't use music. I can concentrate more in dead silence and sometimes I lose focus into the music, which is annoying for me. For some it works, but not for me, personally. Another problem with music is that some people get lost into it. I know some people who 'worked' and 'revised' with music, but when it came to the exam, they couldn't remember a thing, just the lyrics of the Akon song or whatever. To me, it seems like a risk, but it's personal preferance.
* Plans and timetables - I highly recommend these. I used them personally. I am fully aware they never go to plan, but if you make it in pencil like I did, then you can easily rub it out and swap chemistry to do another day of it, with maths and add an extra session of maths later in the week, for example. I think the general idea of organisation is a good thing and most importantly... it makes you realise that '****, there's only 6 weeks left, crap there's only 4 left' etc.
* Past papers - Honestly, I cannot emphasise how important these are. Let me try and express my point... a few days ago, a girl I know who I went to the library to help the day before her exam, said her exam is tomorrow and she had only done 1 past paper due to not having a printer. Guess what I said to her. "We're in town, Argos/Currys is a 5 minute walk, lets go and buy one." Less than 24 hours until her exam and I told her to go and buy a printer... that's how important they are in my opinion. If I was you, and I had a printer, i'd print out them right now. I printed mine in September for my June exams, so I didn't panic printing them last minute. My past paper pile was bigger than my dong
no seriously, it was bigger than my wrist to elbow span. Go back as many years as you can: 2002 if possible. If you are on a new spec, don't worry, print out the old ones!The simple philosphy behind the papers - the questions never change; the wording, arrangement and use of pictures may change from past paper to past paper but the questions and mark schemes don't. So if you do 2002, 2003, and 2004 papers. By 2005/6, you'll pretty much know the mark scheme. By 2007/8 you'll be a tad rusty but very good. By 2009/10 you'll be able to recite the mark scheme. And then in the real exam in 2011, you should score very well - the questions and mark scheme won't magically change for this year
Note: Though the mark scheme learning sounds brilliant, you CAN'T do it without knowning the module content so you have to 'work' before you revise; past papers count as revision.
* Money - You might think it's a bit weird including 'money' in an A-level post, right? Yeah, I used to think that too. Until I had an absolutely useless A-level Chemistry teacher. He left now, he was quite young like 20-something and just talked about girls
, gym and steroids, but before he did, he taught me one very important message... "If it costs £100 to get an A in A-level Chemistry, do it. Seriously, do it." By this I mean know which revision guides are best for your exam board, printer/ink costs, paper for past paper printing, several things... Money can improve your grades, WITHOUT tution. For those of you who can't afford it, i'm sure, this year atleast you get EMA? Just use it. What else do you use it on? PS3 games < A in Maths. If you were saving it for uni, what's the point having money for uni if you can't get the grades? It's an investment in your future, use it for your aid, it's never going to be wasted down the drain.* Resits - Several people may be resitting AS or Year 10 exams in A2 and Year 11 respectively, and be put off thinking they have too many exams. But really, don't be. Use it to your advantage. If it was up to me, all A-level exams would be in June of Year 13 and not an exam before. Reason? Simple. Your exam technique, experience, knowledge would be so much greater. For those of you who do Maths; imagine you had done C1, C2, C3 and C4, when you sat C1... wouldn't it be a joke? I wish I did that. I was absolutely ****ting myself before C1. The A-level specifications, and even GCSE, are made so module contents link, and many have a synoptic unit at the end anyway, so you need to be able to link information from all modules, so don't be put off if you're doing Chemistry 1/2, 4 and 5 at the same time. A lot of what you do in 1/2 will be covered/needed in 4/5 and vice versa.
Right, so this is just some general advice to all candidates, hope you found it useful
In post 2, i'll write up some tips and aids specifically for Maths, Chemistry, Biology and Physics, and discuss the challenges I faced, things I learnt, and how I got my A* (Maths) and A's in the rest.
Wish you all the best in your exams, hope you work hard and get top grades
Okay seriously, I love you for this post. Where should I send the flowers I'm giving you for helping me pass my A2s?
Original post by awais590
Thank you so much for that, i'm gonna start my work.. once university challenge is over. ;D
So true
wow! i'm doing 3 sciences for AS (and religious studies!) and I must say..thank you! that is some really good info..definately will start implementing it! 
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