One crucial piece of advice you'd give to someone starting their A-levels
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Unlike GCSEs, hard work and revision is required.
Work throughout the year. Don't waste your free periods: do revision and homework in every single one of them. It's not like you have to do this all by yourself - you can rope your friends in too - but you'll be grateful for having done that work when the exams start to roll around.
Make sure you do lots of sport and activities regularly to manage your stress and work more efficiently.
"Revision" does not start 6 weeks before your AS exams.
From day one, start looking over your class notes every night, just for half an hour - it'll help massively with retention and when it comes to knuckling down for an exam you can skip rote-learning definitions and immediately focus on the tricky stuff, past papers etc.
From day one, start looking over your class notes every night, just for half an hour - it'll help massively with retention and when it comes to knuckling down for an exam you can skip rote-learning definitions and immediately focus on the tricky stuff, past papers etc.
Pick subjects you enjoy - not just because you think they'll be useful. Its hard to be enthusiastic about subjects you hate, and you'll be more willing to revise if you're keen on the subject. Im in year 12 and I picked Biology, Chemistry, Geography and Spanish because I enjoyed them, and I'm glad that I did!
When doing tests the only person you need to beat is your past self and the only class you need to come at the top of is the one with only you in it. A-Levels are about learning, you don't have to be good at them instantly - you just have to keep getting better until you're very the best that you can be. The best that YOU can be. Not as good as your friends or some bright-spark on TSR. Aim high and do your level best!
hi guys!! I am new to TSR (joined today) and I made my first post but I don't really know how to use this thing well. I am well in need of an answer urgently as I have not received any replies on my post! can anyone have a read at my post please?? http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2634546
Don't be afraid of using up lunchtimes or free periods to catch up with work, because you're worried you may be missing out on fun times with your friends. That was one of my main worries (since GCSEs), but recently I've started to use most of these periods of my time, particularly for coursework, and I'm not afraid of missing out nowadays! You can still have plenty of time for your friends and your own stuff (even if it doesn't seem like it), and you'll thank yourself later when you can do something without a rush of guilt.
I suppose this is something that we should probably be doing anyway, but I know how much of a problem this can be for some people. Good luck!
I suppose this is something that we should probably be doing anyway, but I know how much of a problem this can be for some people. Good luck!
Organise yourself constantly.
Don't overstress - it's actually counter-productive.
Don't compare yourself to anyone else, just focus on yourself. As I quote a friend "Yes, other people are 'succeeding' now. Or getting technique/applying the knowledge better. But it doesn't mean you are stupid."
Don't overstress - it's actually counter-productive.
Don't compare yourself to anyone else, just focus on yourself. As I quote a friend "Yes, other people are 'succeeding' now. Or getting technique/applying the knowledge better. But it doesn't mean you are stupid."
when doing GCSEs you might have found you could get away with not doing that much revision and still getting good grades. This is not the case for A-level!!!!! you really need to work so hard from the start of the year and learn everything as you go along. otherwise you will fall behind and when it comes to exam time you will not be able to cram it all in. beward it is a big step up in terms of the amount of independent work/study you have to do!
After learning each topic go and do some futher learning so you are extremely confident on that topic and you need to revise it less during Easter.
Watch youtube videos for advice to = efficient procrastination
Watch youtube videos for advice to = efficient procrastination
Have about 20 refill pads and 5,000 pens during your course on hand.
On a serious note, prepare BEFOREHAND. Start literally as soon as September begins, depending on the difficulty of the subject or how well you understand it. If you feel that for a subject, you need to dedicate practically your whole life, then start right at the beginning. If you feel that you can listen in class and understand it straight away, and don't need to do any revision for it, then you STILL need to start at the beginning of the year, because that will most likely never happen. In fact, I would recommend starting in the summer holidays beforehand, like reading your course, maybe making notes beforehand too, as when you go to lessons in September you will just be refreshing your memory. I mean, you can be WAY more relaxed during the year.
Also, I know this might not be a positive influence, but in some mock exams you do, try to 'intentionally' not do well in them, because then your teachers will more likely be spending time with you and you can get more help from them (so in our school if we get below our target grade, we have to attend after school sessions with the teacher where we get extra help). But ONLY DO THIS IF YOU FEEL YOU WILL BENEFIT FROM GETTING THE EXTRA HELP. Otherwise ignore this. At my school, the people who got A's were left alone last year and teachers mainly focussed their time on other low-achieving students, and if the A students needed help, they would prioritise the low-achieving ones. In the end, the A grade students got LOWER than the then low-achieving students.
Also, don't be shy to ask for extra help from your teachers. If you have forgotten something, and are embarrassed to ask them for help, just remind yourself that 'If I don't get help on this topic, I might fail.' Also, teachers are paid to HELP you. Just go up to your teacher after school or during break/lunch if you don't want to ask for help in front of friends/classmates and ask for help, no matter how silly it may seem. If your teacher is nice, then they will help you, esp. because your teacher gets paid based on student's performance, so yeah.
Moreover, I would suggest do NOT have study groups with friends, or people who you will be talking to and stuff rather than doing work. Instead, if you really need a study group, then just do it with people who might be in your class but you might not talk to them much but are quite good in the subject. Or even if they aren't you can help teach them topics they are unsure of, as by teaching you are also learning at the same time and refreshing your memory. Only have study groups if you KNOW you will learn. Otherwise they aren't that necessary.
Another point to note: Don't worry about perfectionism when it comes to writing your notes. At the start they will probably look all colourful and neat and tidy with all that fancy writing, but by the end of the year, what's going to happen is your notes will probably look like you wrote them with your eyes shut (which is probably what happened). In fact, for some subjects you might not need to write notes, so DON'T. This is just a time waste.
Also, some might say timetables are awesome, but others might be like meh. I am one of those people who will make a pretty looking timetable, but will never actually USE it. If you need to organise yourself, instead of making a table and stuff and writing what you will do each hour/minute, just write a 'TO-DO LIST', which is roughly like a timetable, but only takes about 5 minutes to write out whilst still achieving the same thing a timetable does. With this you can write brief bullet points on things you have to do (not necessarily in that particular order, but things you have to accomplish in a certain time period (e.g. day/week/month). So for example,
- Finish off 1 chapter of Physics (acceleration, formulas)
- Complete Mechanics Homework
- Start Maths C1, algebra
- Do Chem (at least one chapter - maybe atoms?).
- Do Some anthro work.
- Exam questions on History on Hitler rise to power.
So things like this. And these are things you might want to do in a day or a weekend or a week etc. And with timetables, they might not always work because sometimes you might want to study a different subject than what is written in your timetable e.g. Psychology in the morning but your timetable says that you need to do 1 hour of Sociology or whatever. With a to-do list, you can put down things you need to finish by the end of the day and do whatever subject you want whenever you want to. It is quite helpful, if I do say so myself
And it also motivates you, esp. if you write this list in the beginning of the day, because then you can see your progress and work harder to achieve these little goals you've set for yourself. But obviously, don't make them too vague (do chemistry) or too specific (Psychology - Learn Peterson and Peterson study on STM).
Tuition is one thing I would recommend if you have really bad teachers and cannot learn the topic yourself (for example with anthropology, apparently there is no book to learn from and if you have a bad teacher you're basically screwed). So whatever you are stuck with, you can ask your tutor to elaborate on it or guide you wit examination techniques and stuff. Though this is not compulsory and you can probably do fine without this.
And I think that is it
Also, keep looking back on things you have done previously before Christmas or in previous units.
Be organised at the start of the year, putting teacher's class notes in your folder as soon as you go home in your folder.
Also, stationary is a MUST. I have so far used up about 50 pens (no lie) with all the personal and class notes and homework I have written (for all my subjects I mean, from the beginning of 6th Form to now). And about a dozen refill pads too. And I don't mean anything fancy or anything, just the basics. Folders are also compulsory for organisation. Post it notes can help too if you're too lazy to write notes and just stick them in your revision book with the key notes on them.
Free periods have been given to you FOR A REASON - not for you to catch up with your friends, but to catch up with your WORK. Use them wisely. That is all I have to say on that.
There is no ONE crucial piece of advice - they are ALL crucial for you to get the best grade possible. Hope I helped
On a serious note, prepare BEFOREHAND. Start literally as soon as September begins, depending on the difficulty of the subject or how well you understand it. If you feel that for a subject, you need to dedicate practically your whole life, then start right at the beginning. If you feel that you can listen in class and understand it straight away, and don't need to do any revision for it, then you STILL need to start at the beginning of the year, because that will most likely never happen. In fact, I would recommend starting in the summer holidays beforehand, like reading your course, maybe making notes beforehand too, as when you go to lessons in September you will just be refreshing your memory. I mean, you can be WAY more relaxed during the year.
Also, I know this might not be a positive influence, but in some mock exams you do, try to 'intentionally' not do well in them, because then your teachers will more likely be spending time with you and you can get more help from them (so in our school if we get below our target grade, we have to attend after school sessions with the teacher where we get extra help). But ONLY DO THIS IF YOU FEEL YOU WILL BENEFIT FROM GETTING THE EXTRA HELP. Otherwise ignore this. At my school, the people who got A's were left alone last year and teachers mainly focussed their time on other low-achieving students, and if the A students needed help, they would prioritise the low-achieving ones. In the end, the A grade students got LOWER than the then low-achieving students.
Also, don't be shy to ask for extra help from your teachers. If you have forgotten something, and are embarrassed to ask them for help, just remind yourself that 'If I don't get help on this topic, I might fail.' Also, teachers are paid to HELP you. Just go up to your teacher after school or during break/lunch if you don't want to ask for help in front of friends/classmates and ask for help, no matter how silly it may seem. If your teacher is nice, then they will help you, esp. because your teacher gets paid based on student's performance, so yeah.
Moreover, I would suggest do NOT have study groups with friends, or people who you will be talking to and stuff rather than doing work. Instead, if you really need a study group, then just do it with people who might be in your class but you might not talk to them much but are quite good in the subject. Or even if they aren't you can help teach them topics they are unsure of, as by teaching you are also learning at the same time and refreshing your memory. Only have study groups if you KNOW you will learn. Otherwise they aren't that necessary.
Another point to note: Don't worry about perfectionism when it comes to writing your notes. At the start they will probably look all colourful and neat and tidy with all that fancy writing, but by the end of the year, what's going to happen is your notes will probably look like you wrote them with your eyes shut (which is probably what happened). In fact, for some subjects you might not need to write notes, so DON'T. This is just a time waste.
Also, some might say timetables are awesome, but others might be like meh. I am one of those people who will make a pretty looking timetable, but will never actually USE it. If you need to organise yourself, instead of making a table and stuff and writing what you will do each hour/minute, just write a 'TO-DO LIST', which is roughly like a timetable, but only takes about 5 minutes to write out whilst still achieving the same thing a timetable does. With this you can write brief bullet points on things you have to do (not necessarily in that particular order, but things you have to accomplish in a certain time period (e.g. day/week/month). So for example,
- Finish off 1 chapter of Physics (acceleration, formulas)
- Complete Mechanics Homework
- Start Maths C1, algebra
- Do Chem (at least one chapter - maybe atoms?).
- Do Some anthro work.
- Exam questions on History on Hitler rise to power.
So things like this. And these are things you might want to do in a day or a weekend or a week etc. And with timetables, they might not always work because sometimes you might want to study a different subject than what is written in your timetable e.g. Psychology in the morning but your timetable says that you need to do 1 hour of Sociology or whatever. With a to-do list, you can put down things you need to finish by the end of the day and do whatever subject you want whenever you want to. It is quite helpful, if I do say so myself
And it also motivates you, esp. if you write this list in the beginning of the day, because then you can see your progress and work harder to achieve these little goals you've set for yourself. But obviously, don't make them too vague (do chemistry) or too specific (Psychology - Learn Peterson and Peterson study on STM). Tuition is one thing I would recommend if you have really bad teachers and cannot learn the topic yourself (for example with anthropology, apparently there is no book to learn from and if you have a bad teacher you're basically screwed). So whatever you are stuck with, you can ask your tutor to elaborate on it or guide you wit examination techniques and stuff. Though this is not compulsory and you can probably do fine without this.
And I think that is it
Also, keep looking back on things you have done previously before Christmas or in previous units.
Be organised at the start of the year, putting teacher's class notes in your folder as soon as you go home in your folder.
Also, stationary is a MUST. I have so far used up about 50 pens (no lie) with all the personal and class notes and homework I have written (for all my subjects I mean, from the beginning of 6th Form to now). And about a dozen refill pads too. And I don't mean anything fancy or anything, just the basics. Folders are also compulsory for organisation. Post it notes can help too if you're too lazy to write notes and just stick them in your revision book with the key notes on them.
Free periods have been given to you FOR A REASON - not for you to catch up with your friends, but to catch up with your WORK. Use them wisely. That is all I have to say on that.
There is no ONE crucial piece of advice - they are ALL crucial for you to get the best grade possible. Hope I helped
(edited 10 years ago)
My main tip for starting a levels? it may sound simple but i wished i had done it! ---> Make your revision notes as you go along! so everytime you finish a topic in your study periods or at home make your revision notes on it so when it comes to the summer revision time you aren't wasting ages writing the notes but you can actually learn them and have time to do more past papers. It's hard to do but trust me i have a friend who managed to do it and it paid off for her i have tried it in my A2 year and im noticing the difference casue i have saved a whole load of time!
Organisation is the key. It's so easy to give up and just let all the notes and paper take over your life, but you have to keep them organised and in folders, otherwise life will be much harder when it comes to revision.
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