Is AS/ A level difficulty over-rated?

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Ah yeah I am in year 11 and all I have heard about is how difficult alevels are going to be and its scary :frown:

can anyone actually tell me what is the difference between gcses and AS for these subjects? Like is it more content, exam technique, what do you need to learn etc :smile:

Maths
Biology
Chemistry
English lit/Lang
Physics
And if anyone does psychology I am considering it so what is it like? :smile:

Maths - not too bad but requires a very strong GCSE understanding, much more of a practice makes perfect subject, those who cruise through at GCSE often find it tough because they haven't needed to 'revise' maths before.
Biology - a lot of content and exam technique, they are much more picky than with GCSE. I wouldn't say it's difficult as such though.
Chemistry - I found this very different from GCSE, much more on structure and mechanisms. You really need a lot of motivation to do well at this compared to biology or psychology.

I don't do English but I understand that it's fairly similar to GCSE, you're just developing your skills further. Also, physics is on par with the other science.

Psychology is a great subject from my perspective, but it depends how you're taught it. I got an A at AS with much less effort than my other subjects- it is heavily content based, like biology, but I found it really interesting and hence easy to remember. There are case studies and short essay questions, but they are very logical and just about hitting marking points. I felt like revising for the exam wasn't my focus, like the other subjects, I just really enjoyed doing my own reading and research all year :smile:

(just a little biased)

Reply 81

geogenius5000

Think A-Levels are hard?? You guys should try the IB...seriously, then you'd stop moaning!

Reply 82

Izzyyyyy

Original post by Planckton

What do you want to do after A levels?

Medicine

Reply 83

L'Evil Fish

Original post by AlphaNick

I think physics and chemistry was overrated in terms of difficulty but maths wasn't

Maths is like the easiest one

Reply 84

L'Evil Fish

Original post by AlphaNick

yeah well my brain isnt the same as yours

So we can't say its difficulty was overrated

Reply 85

Lularose83

I think I'll wait until next year to answer that question :wink:

Reply 86

Planckton

Original post by Izzyyyyy

Medicine

Ah fab, where at? Tbh with maths, chem and bio your fourth one doesn't matter that much!

As a side note, what did you get at GCSE? Have you considered further maths? (Just cause I love it, but it's a lot of maths haha)

Reply 87

The Clockwork Apple

Original post by amamsy

Thank you for the advice :smile:

I'm doing CIE...I don't think it's a common exam board in the UK

Posted from TSR Mobile

I did CIE for Maths, Chemistry, Physics, Applied ICT and English at AS and now I'm doing the first 3 + Further Maths at A2. Feel free to ask me any questions!

Reply 88

Izzyyyyy

Original post by Planckton

I am still actually doing my gcses (year 11, just choosing alevels now) so yeah I can't tell ya that yet :smile:

and some of my friends are doing it, never really thought about it really. I mean I am getting A*s in maths currently I just have heard so many further maths horror stories :frown:

Reply 89

Planckton

Original post by Izzyyyyy

I am still actually doing my gcses (year 11, just choosing alevels now) so yeah I can't tell ya that yet :smile:

and some of my friends are doing it, never really thought about it really. I mean I am getting A*s in maths currently I just have heard so many further maths horror stories :frown:

Oh of course hahah my bad! :lol:

honestly it's not that bad, it's just fast paced, but I wouldn't do it unless you actually like maths :biggrin:

Reply 90

amamsy

Original post by The Clockwork Apple

I did CIE for Maths, Chemistry, Physics, Applied ICT and English at AS and now I'm doing the first 3 + Further Maths at A2. Feel free to ask me any questions!

Ooh, thanks! I might take you up on that offer anytime this year :biggrin:

Reply 91

PointDexter

Alevels are easy...its like riding a bike...only the bikes on fire...and the grounds on fire and everything's on fire because you're in hell

Reply 92

PointDexter

Original post by L'Evil Fish

Maths is like the easiest one

Yeah that's quite a fair statement...out of all my subjects: Chemistry, I think is the hardest due to the time I have to devote to fully understand it all!

Reply 93

KL-RC

I absolutely agree with kingdoo
The content is not what is hard in A level, I didn't really read the whole thread so I don't know which board you're following whether thats CIE or Edexcel but from the experience application is what is really hard to do.

and YES A2 is a disaster :/

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 94

zoeamanda

I just found the work load at AS to be a lot more and way more in depth than GCSE. At GCSE you're covering like 12 subjects but not in a lot of depth and the syllabus is a lot smaller. There's just so much more to remember at AS/A2 which I found was the main difficulty. And the course is a lot faster paced than GCSE, you only go over things once.

Reply 95

HannahLouAndrew

Original post by amamsy

I started my AS recently (September), and it's been going okay. I take sciences...no maths :ahee:

At GCSE, all everyone talked about was how horrible A level sciences are, how you fail stuff even if you study loads, how it's a huge and shocking jump from GCSE, etc.
But I think it's not that bad...?
Admittedly, we are doing semi-basic topics atm (Bio: DNA structure, genes, mutation. Chem: shapes of molecules and bond angles. Phys: moments, torques) but still, I was expecting it to be really tough right from the start...
Are A levels just over rated, or is that "huge, shocking jump from GCSE" going to come later?
Also, any advice for sciences would be appreciated :biggrin:

Posted from TSR Mobile

The knowledge isn't too bad, there's just a lot of it and the exams are more of a challenge. The grade boundaries are much more tough at A level. At GCSE if you got half marks you might have a C or a D, and at A level you'd have an E or a U :smile:

Reply 96

HannahLouAndrew

Original post by Izzyyyyy

Ah yeah I am in year 11 and all I have heard about is how difficult alevels are going to be and its scary :frown:

can anyone actually tell me what is the difference between gcses and AS for these subjects? Like is it more content, exam technique, what do you need to learn etc :smile:

Maths
Biology
Chemistry
English lit/Lang
Physics
And if anyone does psychology I am considering it so what is it like? :smile:

My English Lit friends say it's really quite tough and there's a LOT of essay writing involved each week, but they all adore it nevertheless :smile:

AQA Biology has really mean exam papers but the knowledge isn't too bad. I don't know about other exam boards.

Physics at my school didn't have many people doing it to start with (5) but now it's dropped down to 2 because many people did worse than expected.

Chemistry is fine if you can grasp obscure concepts quite easily.

Maths was the only exams I panicked in, but it was just because I wasn't prepared enough. Maths is fine as long as you practice throughout the year :smile:

My advice is to maybe start out doing 5 subjects at first if you're really stuck on choosing and then drop the one you least like in the first few weeks back at school :smile:

Reply 97

Sandtrooper

Volunteer Team

Nope. Not at all.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 98

Izzyyyyy

Original post by HannahLouAndrew

My English Lit friends say it's really quite tough and there's a LOT of essay writing involved each week, but they all adore it nevertheless :smile:

My advice is to maybe start out doing 5 subjects at first if you're really stuck on choosing and then drop the one you least like in the first few weeks back at school :smile:

Alright thanks for the tips, I don't think english will be for me as I find the essays quite tedious at gcse level :biggrin:

Will probably take it along with psycology and see which I prefer (I know I spelt psycology wrong but autocorrect not working :frown:

)

Reply 99

Fawkesgirl33

I think the jump is exaggerated- it depends on the person, of course- but there is the shock of 'I'm doing less subjects! This is great!' followed by 'Ok, there's about 4x the content in each subject.' :s-smilie: