Hardest A Levels?

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To be honest, the general view, of the hardest A level, is Physics, or so I have been told.

Nah, I think chem is much harder. Entire classes fail the AS for chem at my schoo!

Why, so many, pauses, in your, sentence, ?

:wink:

Reply 21

RogueTrader

generally, Id say maths (fm)/chem/physics are considered the hardest

Reply 22

mtbab

threepiecesuit

Personally, I found Edexcel History to be an ABSOLUTE BITCH to do, whereas I just swanned through English Literature and Politics on natural ability. I only got 512/600 (pending remark of suspiciously low unit) on that, as opposed to 550 for Eng Lit and 556 for Politics.

lol seriously, u got ure A and ure uni place lol i wouldnt bother wiht the remark and jsut tell people you got like 552 or sumthin lol

Reply 23

Meltdown30

I think it definitely depends on the person. I did maths, chemistry, physics and biology for AS and got 4 As (with 293/300 being my lowest mark). If I'd taken subjects like English and drama, I doubt I'd even have passed!

Reply 24

mtbab

Meltdown30

wow congrats on ure marks! and also for recognising the art that is English and Drama lol!

lol i look at that combination and shudder i coulda prob coped with maths coz i used to love it and almost picke dit but chose politics instead coz its fitted more but the science, sheesh-louise is all i can say to gettin those amazing marks!!

Reply 25

silent ninja

AisAis

Nah, I think chem is much harder. Entire classes fail the AS for chem at my schoo!

:wink:

I find Chemistry the easiest of the sciences, Physics the hardest but still doable.
Personally, I feel I can do well at any subject if i put my mind to it, and this question of 'which is the hardest' is certainly subjective :biggrin:

Reply 26

Purple

Anyway it all depends on a persons strengths and weaknesses, someone may find Maths easy but History hard.

Reply 27

tanusha-tomsk

No body knows what the hardest A-Level is, there are 2 reasons:

1) No one has done every single A-Level so no one is in the position to judge.

2) Even if someone had done all A-Levels, the level of ability makes some A-Levels easier and some harder for each individual. There is no universally hardest A-Level.

KIRSTINX

Anyway it all depends on a persons strengths and weaknesses, someone may find Maths easy but History hard.

ME!!! I put the very minimum of effort into Maths and did hardly anything for German; Economics was more of a challenging hobby, but about 70% of work I did at AS (and up to 90% at A2) was for History. I have never been awarded an A in any of my essays in History (an essay each week), but I secured a 500/600 A at A-Level, the proudest achievement yet :biggrin:

I love sciences but I didn't pick any for A-Level because they were too easy for my liking. I came to England before GCSE's and all the stuff I studied for Double Award Science GCSE I have done in Russia in years 5 and 6, what a joke. So obviously it varies greatly from person to person.

Reply 28

ssmoose

512/600 = an A. Why get a remark? I think the hardest A level is completely subjective to opinion, therefore it is impossible to say which is hardest and which is easiest.

Reply 29

mousy

When I was choosing my A levels, my teacher told me that the hardest a level was chemistry, but despite that, i know i would do better in chemistry than drama for instance, because my strength doesn't lie with drama. And drama is considered a soft subject!

Reply 30

A Y A Z

I've done the 3 Sciences and Math (pure and applied); I'd have to say I found Chem to be the hardest. But it's different for different people. Maybe you're really good in Chem whilst I'm not!

Reply 31

A Y A Z

No A level in my opinion is 'soft'; it's up to you really! If you work hard, even the 'toughest' of the A levels will appear easy... if you don't, you'll have trouble in even the 'softest'.

Best of luck!

Reply 32

Botticello

Our chem teacher said that for Biology "all you have to do is draw a heart and label it and you'll get an A" I really dont agree, as it's like learning another language!!

Reply 33

tanusha-tomsk

A Y Z

I disagee with that. This is a common opinion for someone who excels academically (I used to believe that as well). For some people, no matter how hard you work you will not get an A in a particular subject in 2 years. If you are naturally good, you do your work, do your homework, listen in class and you get an A. If you aren't, you might do tonnes of work and try your very hardst every day in class and at home, and still no A. It's not possible to work harder for History A-Level than I did, and contrary to what you say it didn't appear easy. 3-4 hours on every single essay (incl. 2 hours to read the necessary chapters in the books), and still no A. I did get an A at A-Level eventually ( :biggrin:

) but there is no way it was easy for me.

To generalise, an A-Level is "soft" (=easy) if you are a natural at it, and "hard" if you aren't. Amount of work you do is irrelevant; if you do lots of work and get an A easily it doesn't make the subject "soft", it just makes you hard-working and dedicated!

Reply 34

AisAis

Our chem teacher said that for Biology "all you have to do is draw a heart and label it and you'll get an A"

Well as I memorised an A-level heart diagram in year ten, I feel very confident about taking it. :p:

Reply 35

A Y A Z

tanusha-tomsk

There are no 'naturals'; you can put your A level results down to dedication and hard work ONLY. Even if someone else maybe able to grasp things a little better than you, that doesn't mean you're an 'un-natural' or plain 'stupid'. Chemistry has always been my worst subject; I find it the hardest, the most boring, and fail to understand even simple concepts, like the Mole. But that doesn't mean that I give up coz I'm not a 'natural'. I worked HARD; but in a lot of EFFORT, and it paid off! I got an A in my A levels.

It's really up to you to decide. But I have to say that you're 'natural' theory is just plain rubbish. Plus, how do you KNOW that you're a natural?!

Reply 36

A Y A Z

If you say that the amount of work done is irrelevant, then I DEF disagree with you!
Do you expect a student who works and studies for 3 hours a day to get teh same result as one who STARTS studying a day before the exam?
There is no 'luck and no 'ability' involved in A Levels. HARD WORK PAYS OFF!

Reply 37

A Y A Z

AisAis

Well as I memorised an A-level heart diagram in year ten, I feel very confident about taking it. :p:

Reply 38

cabeza_loca

I do think that it has something to do with natural ability as well. I'll be honest - I'm TERRIBLE at english. I'm dyslexic, hate "reading between the lines" and writing essays. I HATE it so much. I still redrafted essay after essay and made my teacher read every single practice english paper that I did (and at one point I was doing 2 a week). I put in so much effort, read around my novels for lit like there was no tomorrow etc etc. I got an A*.. just. (The mark for A* was 167, I got 168 :P) My friend did no practice papers, read the novels the night before and swanned into the exam and got 197/200. So doing A-level english was totally out of the question for me. It would have been almost impossible for me to do well in it. Natural ability does count. Like I have an ability to understand maths problems. That same friend is retaking GCSE Maths (she got an E)... know what I mean?

Reply 39

The Strangest Quark

A Y Z

I'm not sure if I agree here. My A in chemistry was despite regularly sleeping in lessons, and never doing the homework. I hated chemistry, in fact, and did no work for two years and only minimal revision. Further maths, however, I found myself working on pretty much every night, and if I got behind with the work, my marks dropped. I put this down to the fact that maths requires practise, much like playing a musical instrument, and is in some ways as much an art as a skill - you have to almost instinctively be able to see which way an equation can be solved. In chemistry, if you understand the basic concepts, then you will be able to do questions easily without practise, but in maths you can understand in theory but still be helpless when faced with an actual problem if you aren't completely familiar with every technique. There is also a much greater amount of material covered in further maths than in physics or chemistry, with several new concepts being taught every lesson.

So, I would say that I was probably 'natural' at chemistry, since nothing else could explain my grade in the absence of work or interest. And maths I think is an inherently harder subject. Although I think this also depends to a degree on natural ability, as I know a lot of people who could work as hard as they liked but probably still be unable to ever grasp mathematical concepts, even if they are otherwise academic.