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One crucial piece of advice you'd give to someone starting their A-levels

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What would it be?

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Make sure u start taking notes if not revisig from the start while u have the motivation and initial excitement.
And use ur free periods to get ahead, dont bother with common rooms, breaks or rests because ull take them automatically without timetabling for it. Because im telling you ive just hit an obtacle i never thought ill have. U lose motivation quickly after so much more time being spent on the subjects whether u like the subject or not.

Reply 381

BlueSheep32

Make sure you study exam mark schemes a lot, particularly for science subjects. Often you can write a whole page on something, but if you've missed out one key word or phrase you won't get all of the marks for it, which I found was especially the case in Biology. Half the battle at A-Level is knowing what you need to write or do to get the marks.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 382

Ninjasrule

GCSE's are so much easier than A-levels. Don't listen to anyone who says they aren't.
Get into the habit of revising from day one (but make sure you take plenty of breaks) so that your work load is a lot less when it comes to prep for exams. You also want to start revising properly at around February for the May/June exams if you want top marks.
Find out which way of revising works for you and what type of learner you are - this makes thing so much easier.
If your school offers revision classes, attend them, you sometimes get extra information which they don't give you in class and you'll learn a lot more.
If you get stuck on something, ASK. With A-levels you're given a lot more responsibility for your learning so if you don't ask, your teachers will assume you understand. If you're shy about asking in front of the whole class, wait until the end of lesson while it's fresh in your mind otherwise you'll completely forget and slap yourself later on.
Read ahead of lessons - this way when you get "taught" something in class you'll already understand it and it will stick in your mind a lot better. It helps with picking out things that you're unsure of and your teacher will be impressed that you have initiative (don't forget that they are the people who write your reports and letters of recommendation).
My last piece of advice is to be prepared! Your college/sixth form is unlikely to give you exercise books so make sure you stock up on them in the summer while they're cheap (I'd already used up 8 A4 books by Christmas...). Stock up on pens, pencils, folders and get a lever arch file for each subject - trust me you'll use them all up. :yep:

Reply 383

tavesherdson

Don't expect it to be a breeze, it's going to be stressful and tough but one good piece of advice is don't leave the work till the last minute, make sure you keep up with your work and what you're learning, constantly revise and get on with your courseworka and you'll feel better for it in yeh long run than having to stress last minute.

Reply 384

fully_caffeinate

If you don't like calculations and equations, DO NOT pick chemistry

Reply 385

QuantumSuicide

A-levels are easy only if you make them to be easy. The only person stopping you from doing well is yourself

K thx bi

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Reply 386

doris20sr

You are never out of work, there is always something more that you could do!

Reply 387

AnnekaChan173

Don't waste your long summer after Year 11. I'm not telling you to work until you drop, but you should read up on the basics, especially if you are taking maths and sciences. This will make it so much easier for you when you start, honestly - you'll understand certain theorems and the IUPAC naming system before anyone else does, and will therefore be less stressed out. There are many websites with transition from GCSE to A level packs - do those. They're pretty helpful.

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Reply 388

6davis

Original post by shooks

What would it be?

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One word, STUDY

Reply 389

BaudelaireLucky

As soon as you finish a unit/topic/section of your course, type or write up all of your notes for it. I'd reccomend having a word document in which you have your whole course in condensed notes in your own words (this will work better with very knowledge based subjects like sciences or history), because then you can just print it off and use it to revise from and you don't need to dig back through a years worth of notes when you come to revise
I'd also reccomend revising every unit as soon as you finish it, especially if there's a lot of content to learn, because that way you won't have all of it to learn right before the exam :smile:

Reply 390

Hellomoto.

Pick the right subjects, ie I took geography, physics, biology and maths. Cant start geog and its not really going to help me wit a physics degree! :cracker:

Reply 391

Hellomoto.

Original post by Hellomoto.

Pick the right subjects, ie I took geography, physics, biology and maths. Cant start geog and its not really going to help me wit a physics degree! :cracker:

Also, make sure you know what you are going to be doing over the year/2 yrs. ie geography involves loads of essays for some reason
:headfire:

also if you have the chance see who your teacher will be in AS/A2 this can make all the difference ie dont get a rubbish geo teacher where you have to teach it all yourself!!!!!

Reply 392

username1177050

Start talking to girls early, to edtablish yourself and to not make it awkward when you attempt to talk to them in February

Reply 393

3LostContinents

Something my teachers would say again and again was "hit the ground running", and it was such an essential piece of advice.
Start doing extra work outside of lessons right from the start of term, the jump from GCSE is huge so you have to work quite hard to keep up with it.

Reply 394

Old_Simon

Original post by neal95

Start talking to girls early, to edtablish yourself and to not make it awkward when you attempt to talk to them in February

LOL.

Reply 395

jlane2

Make sure you keep up to date on any work set for you, it's there for your benefit not as punishment. For revision i can't recommend past papers enough, especially for the sciences where they want very specific answers to explanation questions which crop up every year. Learning the mark schemes allows you to be very succinct and still get all the marks, which saves time in exams.

Reply 396

Alice Carmen

Work really hard for your AS exams so you don't have to retake them next year in your A2's and end up with a ridiculous amount of A level exams. Although, I'm not sure what will be the case with the next year 12 intake.

And the hard work really pays off on results day in August :biggrin:

Reply 397

guglemugle

Keep on top of work!!!! You need to be going over the work you do in class, and do all homework tasks. Trust me, if you leave all the revision right before the exams, you will not get the grades you wanted. It's not like GCSE. I learnt that the hard way...

Reply 398

nisrinxo

Revise and practise as soon as you learn something (especially for Maths and Physics) and don't leave coursework till the last second.

Reply 399

Emerson_333

Do not just pick subjects because they are considered as 'good' such as maths if you know you will struggle with them. If you like subjects such as health and social care(which are considered 'weaker' by some people) the pick them.
Pick subjects you like!