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If you could have been told one thing before starting your A-Levels what would it be

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Reply 80

Hippysnake

I'd have told myself not to worry as much, Uni is much much much harder.

Reply 81

Fragile_Illusions

Original post by Tasneemo

ooohmygod you do NOT even want to know what stumbleupon is.
it's the sole cause of all procrastination, and .... oooooooh. It's like a motherf*****g vortex of the internet that sucks in you in and never lets go, and then you end up spending 4 hours on the internet just stumbling onto new sites/sites you've already seen before, but you don't have enough willpower to stop stumbling and then you end up in this neverending spiral of doom.

it sucks.

don't do it. DON'T DO IT.

I JOINED!

I can't wait for this to engulf my entire life.

Reply 82

S_123

Languages are always going to be really hard at the beginning of the year. But it'll come together.

English Literature omg you will never get enough practise (actually this is just our school. Other schools seem to do loads of practise). We have literally done like 3 essays all year and our last one was at Christmas. We've just been told not to worry about our AS grades as we can retake in January :facepalm2:

Coursework is living hell as well.

Geography is great except for the exams. The grade boundaries are always stupidly low like 50% for an A because it's so hard to get marks!

Philosophy and Ethics. Philosophy is fun but Ethics...meh. If you get classes with debate in them, then it's fun. Otherwise you're literally being given hordes and hordes of sheets to memorise. The exams are sometimes tricky as well like the last one as they can be on anything so you need to know enough about everything to write a 25 mark essay on.

Basically, RUN, OP, RUN AWAY NOW!

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 83

noniona

Original post by auzzieman04

I'm good at writing and love most books ( except mice and men :angry:

) and english was always my favourite lesson at school, but I dont know if I'll enjoy the college course, it seems to have a bad rep :s-smilie:

Do you get many oppurtunities for original writing or is it mainly studying other peoples work?

If English was your favourite lesson at school then I'd definitely recommend taking the A-level course. I really don't understand all the hate for eng lit, it is definitely my favourite course :smile:

I did the WW1 literature syllabus (with the Oxford book of war poetry) and it made me realise how much more there was to literature and good writing than what I thought I knew.
English language is the course that includes creative writing, but even then it's just for your coursework (if you do AQA). The rest is just analysing different texts. Eng Lang can get quite frustrating at times. It's harder than eng lit in my opinion just because it's harder to engage with.

-btw how could you dislike Of mice and men? :O

Reply 84

razzler

If you continue doing the same amount of work that brought yyou 10 A*s at gcse your going to get A,B,C,C in the january modules. oh and don't take business studies

Reply 85

Exer

A level maths will ruin your life

Reply 86

riotgrrl

You might spend hours and hours crying over your AS maths but keep doing past papers (and bugging your teachers) and eventually it will all click into place.

Reply 87

barcelona99

Original post by SmallTownGirl

Do not expect to be getting As just because you got them at GCSE. It doesn't work like that.

thanks for the advice :smile:

Reply 88

Mo_H92

Do NOT take five AS Levels unless you are COMPLETELY, 100% sure that you will be able to cope with the intense pressure.

Do NOT take Maths and Chemistry unless you are sure that you are competent enough for the course. I ended up dropping both of them halfway in my AS year as I couldn't deal with them.

Do as much as research about soft options (very controversial topic, I knew - but well worth researching) if you plan to go to a top university. I dropped Travel & Tourism when I learned that it wasn't considered a proper A-Level for a Literature degree from a top uni.

If possible, start studying at least for an hour per subject in the summer if you plan to give any January modules.

I don't understand all the hate for English Lit. I'm a foreign student and English isn't my first language but I just love Literature and plan to do it at uni. It is by far my favorite subject. I love exploring different texts, researching about the lives of authors, interpretation of poetry. It is also by far the only subject I enjoyed revising for when my exams were near :smile:

Reply 89

PendulumBoB

Original post by Soppe

Make sure to do well in coursework!!!!!!

Self teach chemistry
Self teach Physics....

Yeah, my physics teacher tried to explain sine waves by pinging and metre rule.

Reply 90

Kalliope

Original post by Glasshouse_Life

Don't listen to the haters, I enjoyed English Literature so much at A Level I did it for my Degree. In conclusion AS/A Level Literature was DA BOMB.

A Levels aren't the horror time that people here are describing. If you enjoy the subjects you're taking then revision and class work shouldn't be horrific and balance this with a social life...all work and no play...you're only 18 once...etc. You should love Sixth Form and be looking forward to it; it is a hugely enjoyable two years!

Thanks for your advice! Yes, right now I am 90% certain I want to study English Lit at uni so I can't really see it being horrible at all. I am definitely looking forward to sixth form right now - I think I'll really enjoy having more of a challenge, even though I know it will be hard work.

Reply 91

Mo_H92

And did mention that a grade A at iGCSE does NOT translate to a grade A at AS-Level. The jump is insane especially for Maths and Chemistry.

Reply 92

F1's Finest

Original post by *Rouge*

Agreed - it's so fascinating how one missing enzyme in one out of so many pathways can cause so many problems. :biggrin:

or better still, a change in the sequence of amino acids, which codes for a different enzyme which is non funcitional to its purpose. hehe sorry im so geeky after the chemistry and biology exams.

Reply 93

mellie220

Don't be a lazy **** and take another A-Level (I only took 3 because I'm lazy). Also, take Economics instead of Business Studies.

Also, don't think AS is as easy as passing GCSEs - you actually have to revise for your subjects now. I found out the hard way and had to resit all except one of my AS topics in A2.

Reply 94

Casshern1456

That uni fees will increase to 9k a year. I guess we all didn't see it coming. :tongue:

Reply 95

laura94

- That cramming at the end doesn't work.
- That you shouldn't let anyone else affect your subject choices.

I'd really like to start over tbh. OH WELL.

Reply 96

dknt

Revise. For the love of God, REVISE.

Reply 97

OriginOfShowbiz

PAST PAPERS are more useful when it comes to revising than all your text books. At A Levels, especially A2 exams, there's no way you'll get an A by just regurgitating information. Nope... it's all about "applying your knowledge" :rolleyes:

That is especially useful with Sciences/Maths.

Please, for the love of God, do not take Art as the "fun" subject. You'll spend two years of your life banging your head against brick walls, sleeping 2 hours or less a night if you don't keep up with deadlines and dipping your paintbrush in your coffee. It takes up a hell of a lot of time, and you'll end up neglecting your other subjects if you want the top grades.

I don't really get the English Lit hate. It's been my favourite subject, but then again, I was blessed with an amazing teacher.

Basically:
-Pick subjects you're genuinely good at, and not those that you hate but think will look good on UCAS.

-However, if you know what you want to do at uni, make sure there are no subjects that the universities you want to go to do not accept for that course.

-It's not necessary to kiss your social life goodbye completely. Having time to relax is important too. LEARN TO PRIORITIZE!

-Yes, it's a huge jump from GCSEs and you'll end up wondering how anyone ever complained about them, but it's not impossible to make that leap if you, yourself, put the effort in. Teachers will no longer chase after you.

-Write your personal statement in the summer or as early as possible. Too much time was wasted from Sep-Dec doing UCAS rubbish which meant I neglected revision, which showed in Jan exam results...