How big is the jump from AS to A2?

So today I got my AS' back and got 4 As in German, Japanese, Politics and Economics. Before, I was certain about dropping economics, but it turns out I did quite well, so am thinking of continuing it to A2 and not dropping any subjects.

For all A2 students out there, what is the jump between AS and A2 like? I'm worried that 4 A2s will end up being really difficult because of all the new content that needs to be learnt. I didn't find the gap from GCSE to AS as bad as people said, but is A2 a lot harder than AS?

Reply 1

rlbarker95

From the sounds of it, you won't need to do any resits. I did Physics and Maths at A2, which is a different style of subject to you I know, but the work load for just the A2 modules was just the same. However, I resat every As module for both subjects, so I personally had a lot to do. I still managed to get from an E in As Physics to a B at A2 in one year, and C to A in Maths, so with my experience, the work load was no problem. Perhaps 4 A2 subjects won't be a problem for you

Geography at A2 didn't seem to be any more difficult either, even if I was too lazy to do the work :tongue:

Give it a go. You can always drop a subject if it's too much. I found 13 exams this year not too overwhelming, so I'm sure you'll be fine

Reply 2

tinhat

10

Personally I found A2 easier than AS because by year 13 I had settled into the A-Level exam technique and therefore found it easier to relax, knowing that I could do it after getting good AS results helped too. I don't think the units were that much harder in A2 than AS either. However I still don't recommend taking 4 subjects into A2, you only need 3 to get into university so there is no point taking on the extra work load.

Reply 3

LouieSax

12

Personally, I did A Levels in Biology, Psychology and Health and Social Care and I found whereas the actual work load was no bigger and the content was not any harder from AS to A2 I found that the exams themselves were structured in a much harder way. For example with Biology, they were far more specific with what they accepted as a mark on the mark scheme and they tended to bring things in from AS even though it was not part of the A2 Syllabus. I found with most of my A2 subjects, there was more having to think about things during the exams, more apply your knowledge compared to AS where you could (at least in my subjects anyway) mostly get away with regurgitating information that you had learnt. But if you did not struggle with the work load this year, you could carry on with 4 A Levels, provided that think you could put more time in to "get to know the exams" if you will, which I found to help and took some time up :smile:

Good Luck

Reply 4

francis.alfred

Original post by rlbarker95

From the sounds of it, you won't need to do any resits. I did Physics and Maths at A2, which is a different style of subject to you I know, but the work load for just the A2 modules was just the same. However, I resat every As module for both subjects, so I personally had a lot to do. I still managed to get from an E in As Physics to a B at A2 in one year, and C to A in Maths, so with my experience, the work load was no problem. Perhaps 4 A2 subjects won't be a problem for you

Geography at A2 didn't seem to be any more difficult either, even if I was too lazy to do the work :tongue:

Give it a go. You can always drop a subject if it's too much. I found 13 exams this year not too overwhelming, so I'm sure you'll be fine

Thanks for the advice! When did you do your 13 exams? Where they spread between Jan and June? Now that Jan exams are gone for us, would you recommend doing 7 resits + 4 A2 (dropping maths at A2) exams? I got BBCC at AS, which I'm quite disappointed about seeing as my GCSEs were good at 4A*s and 6As. I think I just got really complacent and didn't work my butt off, I guess I'm going to learn the hard way!

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 5

WK_Of_Angmar

I think it is subject dependent. I took Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry and for all the subjects I found the GCSE to AS jump much greater than the AS to A2 jump since I was more prepared for an increase in the workload the second time. To be honest, I didn't find A2 much harder for any of those subjects except Further Maths and even that wasn't hugely significant.

Reply 6

rlbarker95

Original post by francis.alfred

Thanks for the advice! When did you do your 13 exams? Where they spread between Jan and June? Now that Jan exams are gone for us, would you recommend doing 7 resits + 4 A2 (dropping maths at A2) exams? I got BBCC at AS, which I'm quite disappointed about seeing as my GCSEs were good at 4A*s and 6As. I think I just got really complacent and didn't work my butt off, I guess I'm going to learn the hard way!

Posted from TSR

I had a few resits in the half-term before we broke up, but most were all in the final half-term, where I was having 4 exams a week. You had good results, but if you're planning on taking 7 resits, then maybe 4 A levels is too much. You really don't need 4 A levels, so unless you want to take all 4, I would consider dropping one. Maths for me got alot easier for me. C3 was so daudaunting at first, but all of a sudden it's "wow, this is actually easy" and everything started falling into place

Reply 7

corax

21

What Politics are you doing? If it's the AQA board the content gets a bit more complex and the question papers are different with there being no source provided.

In all, I don't think the jump is harder, I mean AS and A2 is split 50/50, it's just that at A2 your papers are more likely to be a little trickier.

How big is the jump from AS to A2?

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