How hard are these A-lvels. Are they bearable?

I'll give you some advice:

Firstly History requires a lot of time - reading lots of books, writing lots of essays. You may want to re-think this choice [unless you are good at essays!]
Secondly: DO MATHS TO A-LEVEL - you need it to get into basically every university course and it will be very useful to you even if you do history to university.


babyjustin

Not sure I agree. I take history and it's more than manageable as long as you do revision throughout the year and make sure you understand exam technique and content equally as both are important to make your grade. I've heard maths A level is really hard, and no, you don't need it to get into 'every university course' although, obviously for a maths or medicine degree it's fairly useful...

If you're going to do something sciency after uni then I'd advise that you take Maths too, at least to AS. One of my friends took Bio, Chem, History and English (so quite similar to you) and in Year 13, decided that she wanted to do something science-related at uni. However, she told me that apparently the only science-related course she could (and would) do without Maths A-level was Nutrition and Dietetics, which is what she's applied to do now. So just bear in mind that you might need Maths!

I'm doing History at GCSE at the moment. I don't think it's that hard once you know how to recall , but what's History AS like? Are you on AS or A2? People who want to do History at AS do not nescessarily have to at GCSE I hear does AS pretty much repeat GCSE?

Currently I'm on my A2 I'd say that a History GCSE is pretty key to the AS course but the content I covered differed significantly from GCSE (but that will vary according to your exam board and the options you sit). Under Edexcel I studied Crime and Punishment and Germany at GCSE, but at AS I studied Women's Rights in Britain and China which was culturally a very different unit looking at Communism, Mao, Civil War etc.

In terms of the skills you use and the structure of the exam it is fairly similar, but with most humanities subjects you do recycle and build upon your pre-existing skills. For History these centre around forming coherent arguments, evaluation, analysis, looking at and interpreting evidence critically (i.e. aware of reliability and utility and how these are affected by bias and context) etc. So in that sense it is fairly similar and the exams I have sat involved essays, both with and without source material to interpret and use to support your points. But obviously at AS and A2 your analysis needs to be more complex, subtle with more extensive content and a greater depth of knowledge and understanding required.

Hope that helps

what ever you do mate don't "chill out" or else you defo will retake.hit the ground running really.i now have to retake my jan exams (physics and business) because i got an u and e.

Snap!

I am choosing A-level Biology, Chemistry, History and most likely, Economics.

Right now, at GCSE, I am at an A in Biology, A* at Chemistry, A at History.

At GCSE level, I cannot say I find Biology and Chemistry easy. It's not one of those things I can get around the first time. History, I'm quite fine with.

I am aware that GCSE-> A level is a huge jump, but how huge is it exactly? Is it unbearable, because all I ever hear is "Ive failed my A levels" "They're too hard, I'm failing"
I'm getting quite concerned because I don't know what's coming, and It's affecting my work at school. The colleges arent that helpful either, they just "advertise" how friendly the environment is.

I am considering on taking Biology and Chemistry further at A2 and maybe even History. I am not going any further than AS with Economics.
Should I be worried? Is it very, very hard, and should I start work on A-levels now?

* I can't resit my A-levels if I fail. I have to get it right the first time, which is why I'm worried

Whoever said chemistry is quite easy is lying!! I got an A* and GCSE and a B in my january exam, but that didn't come without a lot of work! I put in a lot less work for maths and physics and got A's. I think a large number of people in my college would tell you that chemistry is hard.
Not to put you off.. it's definitely do-able if you get an A* at GCSE, it will just require more work that other subjects in my opinon :-)

Thanks for that
I hear from a lot of people that Chemistry isn't easy, and I understand why after I heard the stuff people have cover.
It's pretty crazy, and the thought of having to think of setting up my own experiment scares em

That's not true. I've offers for Chemistry doing bio and chem to A2.

That's what she told me heck, what do I know - I've applied for social sciencess!

I know that Imperial, Oxford and Cambridge will not accept you for chemistry/ Nat sci without maths. Well, Cam will, but you get forced down a biology route.

I'm personally not looking to apply to a higher university, I just don't see the point where I can get the same degree in another university.
But that's just me, my opinions may change in the future, maybe I'm missing something x]