How many hours a day do you spend on studying over the half term for AS subjects?

I had half term last week and it was less of a "I should do x hours per day", more of a "By Sunday I want to have completed my homeworks and written more notes for Chemistry and Biology".

I think it's better to say that you'll do 3 lots of mini 20 minute revision sets (20 minutes of writing chemistry notes in the morning, 20 minutes of mymaths homework in the afternoon, 20 minutes of biology exam questions before I go to bed) rather than a whole hour of a subject! At least I feel very daunted when I have an hour of work to do outside of a free.

Reply 3

Original post by noshahmad

None, I'm starting mid November, I wanna take things easy before A Levels start to get more intense

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Are you sure that's a good idea? I saw that you're doing biology and chemistry too, they're pretty intense subjects. Are you doing any extra work at all like rewriting notes up neat?

Reply 4

crayolaguy

7

Well i'm in A2 now... but in AS I did next to nothing at this point. You should do some work but not much at all you don't want to burn yourself out and that will happen if you're not careful.

Reply 5

rakib567

15

You can spend hours licking the textbook or 10 minutes learning something. which one it better?
for now i would recommend finishing any hw and start reviewing things you have done in class. if that is finished read ahead of class.

Reply 6

loperdoper

15

Original post by suirrel

Are you sure that's a good idea? I saw that you're doing biology and chemistry too, they're pretty intense subjects. Are you doing any extra work at all like rewriting notes up neat?

As an A2 student who did two sciences at AS, I can assure you that you will be fine if you just take the holiday. I think your OP is incredibly sensible in taking time off - A-levels are a lot of work and you need to relax now as you won't be able to later in the year.

To answer the original question: none, except for finishing up homework.

Reply 7

aristocats_

6

None, just doing homework and going over stuff I'm not sure about

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Reply 8

Puddles the Monkey

21

Original post by watchmen98

Just curious.

I've added a poll, I hope you don't mind :ninja:

Reply 9

lol, I don't think we should take advise from others saying to relax. I go to a grammar school and we are meant to start revising now.

I'm just typind/writing notes and have been doing some bio and chem exam papers from 2001. Better safe than sorry. I'm not a smart person and I can't leave it last minute.

Reply 10

interstitial

18

lol none, keep up to date with all my homework and finished it all + notes before half term so i can chill :cool:

Reply 11

Puddles the Monkey

21

Original post by Arithmeticae

lol none, keep up to date with all my homework and finished it all + notes before half term so i can chill :cool:

I admire your forethought and time management! :cool:

Reply 12

Original post by xoflower

lol, I don't think we should take advise from others saying to relax. I go to a grammar school and we are meant to start revising now.

I don't go to a grammar school, mine's just a regular comp 6th form, but my teachers are also stressing that we should be doing 4hrs per subjects per week of revision, and revising etc over half term.

I wouldn't say I was stupid but I missed a lot of things that almost all my peers did at their schools, so I really can't afford to spend a whole week without looking at my notes. I only did 5 GCSEs and most of my peers did at least 10, it's not fair that I have to work so much harder to get to their standard but that's just how the world works.

Reply 13

TheGreatImposter

19

Original post by suirrel

Are you sure that's a good idea? I saw that you're doing biology and chemistry too, they're pretty intense subjects. Are you doing any extra work at all like rewriting notes up neat?

I don't want to stress myself out at such an early stage because I know when I do start revision, ill be doing it quite hardcore. We've done a topic for every subject which I've had an assessment for so I've revised for them so its not like I don't understand my work. I haven't started rewriting notes but im not sitting idle atm, I have comittments thats why I haven't started, when i finish (mid November) ill start :smile:

Wbu?

Reply 14

TheGreatImposter

19

Original post by xoflower

lol, I don't think we should take advise from others saying to relax. I go to a grammar school and we are meant to start revising now.

I'm just typind/writing notes and have been doing some bio and chem exam papers from 2001. Better safe than sorry. I'm not a smart person and I can't leave it last minute.

How many hours are you doing?

I think the best way to revise is in small chunks but try and start memorising your stuff now rather than covering a lot and just vaguely doing stuff because when it comes to exams you'll still be stressed. Cramming works when your brain pretty much knows the material not when you learn stuff from scratch, that's where most students go wrong

Reply 15

Original post by noshahmad

How many hours are you doing?

I think the best way to revise is in small chunks but try and start memorising your stuff now rather than covering a lot and just vaguely doing stuff because when it comes to exams you'll still be stressed. Cramming works when your brain pretty much knows the material not when you learn stuff from scratch, that's where most students go wrong

I don't do hours anymore. That was a big mistake for gcse. For example, I would say do ''2 hrs chemistry'', I didn't get as much done and I didn't have an idea in my head of what I need to do.

Now my strategy is to write lists of what I need to do for each topic. It gives an idea of what to do. I make sure I complete as much tasks as possible in a day.

For bio and chem, I've been doing exam papers from 2001-2007 which I found online. That is because I have tests next week. I found with A-level the questions are more complex than gcse and I'm making more mistakes so it's best I practice now.

Yeah, I agree with learning in small chunks but also trying to make sure you know exam technique.

Reply 16

Original post by suirrel

I don't go to a grammar school, mine's just a regular comp 6th form, but my teachers are also stressing that we should be doing 4hrs per subjects per week of revision, and revising etc over half term.

I wouldn't say I was stupid but I missed a lot of things that almost all my peers did at their schools, so I really can't afford to spend a whole week without looking at my notes. I only did 5 GCSEs and most of my peers did at least 10, it's not fair that I have to work so much harder to get to their standard but that's just how the world works.

Just make sure you do exam papers. And just because you did less GCSE's means yyou are not as smart or that your peers will do better. For example, this girl I know got A's and A*s in 10 GCSE's yet shes retaking year 12 because she thought that made her smart and did not bother revising much.

Reply 17

Original post by noshahmad

How many hours are you doing?

I think the best way to revise is in small chunks but try and start memorising your stuff now rather than covering a lot and just vaguely doing stuff because when it comes to exams you'll still be stressed. Cramming works when your brain pretty much knows the material not when you learn stuff from scratch, that's where most students go wrong

I study 4 hrs per subject per week but most (11/16) of the hours I do during my frees at school. It helps to make a weekly timetable and get into a habit of always doing biology revision on Monday period 3, etc etc.

I agree about the revision! Over each 1hr session, I do a bit of note taking, some homework, some exam questions. I put on music and I try to study in different places to keep myself entertained. Studying in a public library is different to studying in academic support which is different to studying in the school library.

I dislike the idea of cramming. I think it's a cop out for lazy people. I revise long-term, and then the day/morning before the actual exam I will do ultra-revision on things I still don't feel 100% confident about so they're in my short-term memory. I think some people take cramming to mean that they don't have to do any work like they might have done at GCSE, but lol they're the ones who are going to get BBCC.

Reply 18

Original post by xoflower

Just make sure you do exam papers. And just because you did less GCSE's means yyou are not as smart or that your peers will do better. For example, this girl I know got A's and A*s in 10 GCSE's yet shes retaking year 12 because she thought that made her smart and did not bother revising much.

Yes, I am doing exam papers and looking through the markschemes. For some subjects, it's not the information that's the hard bit, it's wording it right in the exam (cough cough biology cough cough).

I have to admit I feel a bit sorry for the people who got 12 A*-As at GCSE because sooo much is going to be expected from them at A level which must be so stressy. At least when teachers look at my GCSE grades they don't expect a lot from me so I can pleasantly surprise them!

Reply 19