CALLING ALL NEW YEAR 12s - tips for AS levels (I got AAAA)

Well done on your 4As!!!! what uni course are you hoping to apply for come Y13, and which unis?

Okay, here are my tips for AS levels. Things that worked for me, and things I wish I'd known this time last year. Here we go!

Set yourself a goal and wrote it big on a piece of paper. Stick this up where you work. I just finished AS, and my paper said "GOAL = AAAA" and I saw it every. single. time. I worked and in those moments where all you want to do is crawl back into bed and forget revision, it reminds you why you're doing this and it keeps the end in sight. It really helped me!

Revise for your mocks. They're not a joke. They're there for a reason. Write down what chapters you need to work on and work on understanding them again. Stuck? ASK YOUR TEACHERS. That's what they're there for.

Practice, practice, practice makes perfect. And past papers are the only way you'll learn. DO THEM ALL. And then go back, make a list of every question you got wrong and do it again. Look at the markschemes and find patterns between similar questions. Get in the examiner's head so that when you're in that exam hall in May staring at the first question of the paper, you're attacking the question and answering it in a way that it's easy for you to get marks.

Yes, it's a drizzly November morning and you have a double free and a tear-inducing pile of work. But please for the love of god DO NOT be tempted by the common room with it's endless cups of tea/coffee, friends to talk to and comfy sofas. I would have been a LOT less stressed during exam time if I had actually productively used my frees. The library is your friend. Find a table, get out your work, stick in your headphones, block out the world and WORK YOUR ARSE OFF.

Get yourself organised. File your notes in order. Date your work, it makes life easier when your over-used, over-full ringbinder suddenly explodes all over the floor of the German classroom and you have no clue what goes where. Trust me, I speak from experience here...

Use a planner. Sixth form doesn't give you one? Buy one. They're a quid in Poundland and will save your life. Write down deadlines, test days and homework assignments. If you fall back on work, your grades will suffer.

You're also allowed to breathe. If you stay on top of work, reward yourself with a party on the weekend or going shopping. Sixth form is hard, hard work but if you learn to juggle your time right, it can be an incredible year.

It's not easy and you won't get it right the first time. September will b a bit of a shock. It's okay, don't panic. I got 20% in my first maths test and cried my eyes out all evening because I was convinced I'd fail. Everyone has that one day where it hits them. Rock bottom. But everyone recovers. Take the little fails as a kick up the backside to motivate you for the road ahead.

The bottom line is that hard work pays off. It's not about how many hours you spend revising, it's about making the hours that you do spend count. An hour making flashcards and testing yourself on a topic is more useful than staring blankly at an open textbook for two hours. I really wish I'd known this because my entire Easter was a colossal waste of time and the stress study leave was horrific.

I wish you all the best in Year 12! I did biology (AQA), chemistry (AQA), maths (Edexcel) and German (Edexcel). If you need specific help with any of those subjects or want advice in general about your AS year, feel free to drop me a PM and I'd be more than happy to help! Good luck!

Thank you! Wasn't expecting it and I'm still in shock to be perfectly honest!

I want to study biochemistry at uni, and I'm hoping to apply to York, Birmingham, St Andrews, Edinburgh and Leicester (in order of preference)

I applied to york for biochem :P rejected, they haters

What were your AS grades and A2 predictions when you applied?

Okay, here are my tips for AS levels. Things that worked for me, and things I wish I'd known this time last year. Here we go!

Set yourself a goal and wrote it big on a piece of paper. Stick this up where you work. I just finished AS, and my paper said "GOAL = AAAA" and I saw it every. single. time. I worked and in those moments where all you want to do is crawl back into bed and forget revision, it reminds you why you're doing this and it keeps the end in sight. It really helped me!

Revise for your mocks. They're not a joke. They're there for a reason. Write down what chapters you need to work on and work on understanding them again. Stuck? ASK YOUR TEACHERS. That's what they're there for.

Practice, practice, practice makes perfect. And past papers are the only way you'll learn. DO THEM ALL. And then go back, make a list of every question you got wrong and do it again. Look at the markschemes and find patterns between similar questions. Get in the examiner's head so that when you're in that exam hall in May staring at the first question of the paper, you're attacking the question and answering it in a way that it's easy for you to get marks.

Yes, it's a drizzly November morning and you have a double free and a tear-inducing pile of work. But please for the love of god DO NOT be tempted by the common room with it's endless cups of tea/coffee, friends to talk to and comfy sofas. I would have been a LOT less stressed during exam time if I had actually productively used my frees. The library is your friend. Find a table, get out your work, stick in your headphones, block out the world and WORK YOUR ARSE OFF.

Get yourself organised. File your notes in order. Date your work, it makes life easier when your over-used, over-full ringbinder suddenly explodes all over the floor of the German classroom and you have no clue what goes where. Trust me, I speak from experience here...

Use a planner. Sixth form doesn't give you one? Buy one. They're a quid in Poundland and will save your life. Write down deadlines, test days and homework assignments. If you fall back on work, your grades will suffer.

You're also allowed to breathe. If you stay on top of work, reward yourself with a party on the weekend or going shopping. Sixth form is hard, hard work but if you learn to juggle your time right, it can be an incredible year.

It's not easy and you won't get it right the first time. September will b a bit of a shock. It's okay, don't panic. I got 20% in my first maths test and cried my eyes out all evening because I was convinced I'd fail. Everyone has that one day where it hits them. Rock bottom. But everyone recovers. Take the little fails as a kick up the backside to motivate you for the road ahead.

The bottom line is that hard work pays off. It's not about how many hours you spend revising, it's about making the hours that you do spend count. An hour making flashcards and testing yourself on a topic is more useful than staring blankly at an open textbook for two hours. I really wish I'd known this because my entire Easter was a colossal waste of time and the stress study leave was horrific.

I wish you all the best in Year 12! I did biology (AQA), chemistry (AQA), maths (Edexcel) and German (Edexcel). If you need specific help with any of those subjects or want advice in general about your AS year, feel free to drop me a PM and I'd be more than happy to help! Good luck!

got ABCC, A2 prediction A*AA, achieved AAA

Damn! Why did they reject you!? I'm scared now...

Damn! Why did they reject you!? I'm scared now...

Great tips!

How did you find AQA Chemistry and did you do the chemistry olympiad?

amazing advice !!!
i'm worried about biology, though, as it seems to be the one a lot of people at my school who got A's in everything else got a low mark in.
what is it that's most difficult part of it ??

When did you start doing past paper questions, also what was majority of your revision based upon? Past papers or revision guid or notes?
Cheers

This is actually helpful advice. Thank you. Will re-read these once more before I start college as I plan to follow this advice.
Thanks.

I found AQA chemistry really interesting - the course is brilliant and covers some great stuff. What I found most difficult was the organic chemistry because my teacher was awful so I had to teach it to myself, which was NOT fun. If you have the proper AQA textbook from school, use it, it's a lifesaver. If you don't get it, I really would recommend buying one. Overall though, I loved the course and am excited to be continuing it to A2



I was really worried about biology too. I think what I found most difficult were the application questions that you couldn't really revise for. More often than not you'll get a question where you're given information about some biological trial and the data from the investigation, and then the questions ask you to evaluate that. That is where I always lost my marks, and to be quite honest I never really improved on that. Instead I decided to make sure I knew my content so I could maximise marks on the rest of the paper.



I started doing past paper questions towards the end of Easter and the start of study leave. Most of my revision was past papers and questions from the textbooks and revision guides.

Having said that I spent the first week and a half of Easter typing up revision notes because the way I see it, there's no point doing past papers unless you actually know what the questions are asking never understood people who start with ast papers from day 1 of revision, but that's just me!



Oh I'm so glad you found it helpful! Good luck in whatever you go on to study

Bump!

Okay, here are my tips for AS levels. Things that worked for me, and things I wish I'd known this time last year. Here we go!

Set yourself a goal and wrote it big on a piece of paper. Stick this up where you work. I just finished AS, and my paper said "GOAL = AAAA" and I saw it every. single. time. I worked and in those moments where all you want to do is crawl back into bed and forget revision, it reminds you why you're doing this and it keeps the end in sight. It really helped me!

Revise for your mocks. They're not a joke. They're there for a reason. Write down what chapters you need to work on and work on understanding them again. Stuck? ASK YOUR TEACHERS. That's what they're there for.

Practice, practice, practice makes perfect. And past papers are the only way you'll learn. DO THEM ALL. And then go back, make a list of every question you got wrong and do it again. Look at the markschemes and find patterns between similar questions. Get in the examiner's head so that when you're in that exam hall in May staring at the first question of the paper, you're attacking the question and answering it in a way that it's easy for you to get marks.

Yes, it's a drizzly November morning and you have a double free and a tear-inducing pile of work. But please for the love of god DO NOT be tempted by the common room with it's endless cups of tea/coffee, friends to talk to and comfy sofas. I would have been a LOT less stressed during exam time if I had actually productively used my frees. The library is your friend. Find a table, get out your work, stick in your headphones, block out the world and WORK YOUR ARSE OFF.

Get yourself organised. File your notes in order. Date your work, it makes life easier when your over-used, over-full ringbinder suddenly explodes all over the floor of the German classroom and you have no clue what goes where. Trust me, I speak from experience here...

Use a planner. Sixth form doesn't give you one? Buy one. They're a quid in Poundland and will save your life. Write down deadlines, test days and homework assignments. If you fall back on work, your grades will suffer.

You're also allowed to breathe. If you stay on top of work, reward yourself with a party on the weekend or going shopping. Sixth form is hard, hard work but if you learn to juggle your time right, it can be an incredible year.

It's not easy and you won't get it right the first time. September will b a bit of a shock. It's okay, don't panic. I got 20% in my first maths test and cried my eyes out all evening because I was convinced I'd fail. Everyone has that one day where it hits them. Rock bottom. But everyone recovers. Take the little fails as a kick up the backside to motivate you for the road ahead.

The bottom line is that hard work pays off. It's not about how many hours you spend revising, it's about making the hours that you do spend count. An hour making flashcards and testing yourself on a topic is more useful than staring blankly at an open textbook for two hours. I really wish I'd known this because my entire Easter was a colossal waste of time and the stress study leave was horrific.

I wish you all the best in Year 12! I did biology (AQA), chemistry (AQA), maths (Edexcel) and German (Edexcel). If you need specific help with any of those subjects or want advice in general about your AS year, feel free to drop me a PM and I'd be more than happy to help! Good luck!

Thanks for the really helpful post. Great advice. Ill definitely do this when i start in september.

Also if you dont mind me asking what AS levels did you take?