A Level Chemistry Biology Physics and Maths

Hi. I'm currently in year 11 and I my exams start in few days. I've applied to college to study chemistry, biology, physics and maths. I'm planning to continue chemistry, biology and physics to full A level and maths to AS. I heard that these subjects are very difficult and this makes me very nervous and stressed because I feel like I won't be able to pass them. Also, I'm only doing core and additional science in GCSE and one of the teachers said that I might struggle because I'm not doing triple science. I really like and enjoy these subjects and I want to do them.

Is anyone in a similar situation? What should I do in order to do well?

Reply 1

Faisalshamallakh

I was stuck in the Gaza Strip for 2 years. I missed all of Year 10 and 3/4 of Year 11. When I got back, I had 2 months till GCSE. I took additional science (without the core) and I got an A. (although I worked extremely hard). That's for Science.
For Maths, when I got back, they gave me a Maths past paper, I scraped a C. So they stuck me into bottom set. With dedication and hard work, within 2 months I worked myself up to an A* and achieved an A* in the real exam. (Overall I have 6 GCSEs with A*-A grades)

I was in the EXACT same position as you. I thought Maths was going to be hard like people said it would be etc. I was discouraged because I was bad enough at Maths as it is. But I sucked it up in the end and took it. And believe me when I say this, it is going to be the EASIEST AS-Level subject out of the ones you've chosen.

I'm taking Maths, Chemistry, Human Biology and Arabic AS Levels.

I don't take physics so I can't really comment on that.

Maths is the easiest amongst them, the content is straight forward and is very repetitive. If you get to grips with your basics, Maths will be a breeze. Don't look down to the people who find Maths hard. They probably find it difficult because they're simply lazy, or haven't practised past-papers and the list goes on. This is coming from a person who started off as a Grade C at Maths GCSE.

I've always been decent at biology. In fact Biology used to be my strongest subject at GCSE. I achieved 95% UMS in my Biology exam. However at AS, Biology is another ball game. It's not difficult by all means. But there is quite a lot to memorise and lots of knowledge to be applied. But don't let this put you off. It's not hard provided you make sure you dont forget things you've done at the start of the year by looking over work from time to time. The very good thing about Biology at AS is that because it is all about memorisation, the exam is done EASILY in 45 minutes. Which means you have 45 minutes to check your work, add in more information to your answers to increase chances of hitting those marks. So the exam is really in your favour.

For Chemistry. It is easier than biology. Quite a bit of Maths is involved which is good because it doesn't test memory AS much as other subjects. The formulae you need to remember are extremely straight forward. The good thing is many topics come up that are IDENTICAL to GCSE. Like describing Giant Covalent structures and Why diamond has a higher BP than Graphite etc. The good thing about this subject, is that it allows you to understand concepts in Biology that Biologists in your class would not understand. For example, in Biology they explain that water is polar molecule and briefly why. In Chemistry, you understand EXACTLY why and how a polar bond forms and it helps you know things you wouldn't have known otherwise. It's better than just accepting what the lecturers tell you, so you go into the exam more confident.

I didn't take Triple Science and I'm doing just fine. So don't listen to anyone let alone your teachers. My school teachers were the ones who put me in bottom set for Maths remember? My teachers for my subjects predicted me B's and C's. You're teachers know nothing, if you want to do something, you will do it.