The Student Room Group

Restarting A levels after a long break

Hi guys just wanted some advice,

I'm planning on going back to (a different) college this September to do A Levels having quit college 2 years ago a few months after starting my first year. I made a big mistake with my choices way too academic and boring; Maths, Further Maths, Computing and English Language. I enjoyed Maths though, and now I'm planning to do Maths, Biology, Spanish and either Ancient History or Geography.

I've been for my interview and I've been offered a place, however the Principal has serious doubts about me doing Spanish as I didn't do it for GCSE, even though the college lets people do Italian A Level without GCSE... , but I really like languages I got an A in German for GCSE and I'm going to be revising and reading over a CGP GCSE Spanish book until September, I've been showing an interest in Spanish over the past few months doing Duolingo learning a few words here and there but now I want to seriously start doing it and prepare for A Level, do you think I will be able to cope? Also the way the principal said it to me, he said there's a lot of bilingual people who do it, so I thought maybe he only wants them to do it to make his results look good...

Also quite worried about Geography and Ancient History they're both essay type subjects right? I struggle with essay writing is there any way I can improve, but I'm really interested in Ancient Greece and Rome etc. and I would actually really enjoy learning it and wouldn't find revising boring.

If anyone has any advice I would really appreciate it, thanks

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Hey :smile:

I'd say get a copy of the textbooks for Geography and Ancient History and have a look through them over summer to get you back into the swing of things. I wouldn't necessarily worry too much if essays aren't your strong point at this moment, as from what I've heard from my friends, you'll do loads of essays and essay practice at college so the teachers will be able to show you how to improve.

I do A- Level French, and it was a huge step up from GCSE. Having said that, the first few weeks of AS was recapping a lot of GCSE grammar as we'd all forgotten it anyway. If you genuinely like languages, I'd say go for it - you're obviously going to work hard for it and it is so worth it by the end!! I'd definitely make sure to revise basic grammar more than vocab over summer though - things like the most common conjugations (to be, to have, to be able to) and have an understanding of the basic past and future tenses at least (not sure which those are as think they're different to French). We had people who were on a U in September but who came out with B / A in Summer, so it's doable.

Good luck :smile:
Reply 2
Original post by boods8897
Hey :smile:

I'd say get a copy of the textbooks for Geography and Ancient History and have a look through them over summer to get you back into the swing of things. I wouldn't necessarily worry too much if essays aren't your strong point at this moment, as from what I've heard from my friends, you'll do loads of essays and essay practice at college so the teachers will be able to show you how to improve.

I do A- Level French, and it was a huge step up from GCSE. Having said that, the first few weeks of AS was recapping a lot of GCSE grammar as we'd all forgotten it anyway. If you genuinely like languages, I'd say go for it - you're obviously going to work hard for it and it is so worth it by the end!! I'd definitely make sure to revise basic grammar more than vocab over summer though - things like the most common conjugations (to be, to have, to be able to) and have an understanding of the basic past and future tenses at least (not sure which those are as think they're different to French). We had people who were on a U in September but who came out with B / A in Summer, so it's doable.

Good luck :smile:


Hey thanks for the reply, ok ill look into getting them. Note Ive never done geography or ancient history but I think I would find ancient history really interesting, also I should probably be looking at refreshing my maths and biology right and looking at maybe some cgp books for them? Seeing as I haven't used them at all for almost 2 years do you think I would have forgotten alot?
Original post by spanielears
Hey thanks for the reply, ok ill look into getting them. Note Ive never done geography or ancient history but I think I would find ancient history really interesting, also I should probably be looking at refreshing my maths and biology right and looking at maybe some cgp books for them? Seeing as I haven't used them at all for almost 2 years do you think I would have forgotten alot?


It could help! Do you know what exam board you will be studying? Could always try starting off with a couple of GCSE past papers to see what you know.

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Reply 4
Original post by boods8897
It could help! Do you know what exam board you will be studying? Could always try starting off with a couple of GCSE past papers to see what you know.

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Not sure of the exam boards but i can always ring the college and find out
Reply 5
Also guys what does everyone think of bitesize? Do you think that would be a good place to give me a refreshing had start for September??
Good for revising GCSE but don't think covers anything beyond that. If you like YouTube videos, Mr Pollock Biology has some quite good videos for both AS and A2 topics :smile:

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Not going to lie, those are still 4 very academic, boring subjects.
I'm from the States, but gonna be taking A levels the next 2 years

I took about 10 years off, after going into business. You'll be fine, just focus
Reply 9
Original post by spanielears
Hi guys just wanted some advice,

I'm planning on going back to (a different) college this September to do A Levels having quit college 2 years ago a few months after starting my first year. I made a big mistake with my choices way too academic and boring; Maths, Further Maths, Computing and English Language. I enjoyed Maths though, and now I'm planning to do Maths, Biology, Spanish and either Ancient History or Geography.

I've been for my interview and I've been offered a place, however the Principal has serious doubts about me doing Spanish as I didn't do it for GCSE, even though the college lets people do Italian A Level without GCSE... , but I really like languages I got an A in German for GCSE and I'm going to be revising and reading over a CGP GCSE Spanish book until September, I've been showing an interest in Spanish over the past few months doing Duolingo learning a few words here and there but now I want to seriously start doing it and prepare for A Level, do you think I will be able to cope? Also the way the principal said it to me, he said there's a lot of bilingual people who do it, so I thought maybe he only wants them to do it to make his results look good...

Also quite worried about Geography and Ancient History they're both essay type subjects right? I struggle with essay writing is there any way I can improve, but I'm really interested in Ancient Greece and Rome etc. and I would actually really enjoy learning it and wouldn't find revising boring.

If anyone has any advice I would really appreciate it, thanks


I do Geography, Spanish and Biology, currently in A2. Geography was incredibly fun for me... I love learning about the world and having cool experiences from geo trips haha. Spanish was definitely a big step up. But I still love it. Biology is tough but enjoyable!
Reply 10
At the moment i can't decide between ancient history and geography, i did history gcse but dopped it halfway through i found it incredibly boring and got baad marks in past paper because of my poor essay technique, however if ancient history involves learning about ancient Greece and Byzantine empire and the like i would find that very interesting which would motivate me, would i pick up essay technique along the way? I didn't do geog for gcse but all my friends that do it say it's interesting and straightforward just a lot to remember
Reply 11
Original post by boods8897
Good for revising GCSE but don't think covers anything beyond that. If you like YouTube videos, Mr Pollock Biology has some quite good videos for both AS and A2 topics :smile:

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Just for getting me up to the same level as everyone else starting in September though will it be ok?
Languages generally have high grade boundaries
Reply 13
Essay technique is my one big worry here, like with ancient history id have no problem revising dates and events and names and stuff but actually bringing ot all together in an exam question...
Original post by spanielears
Just for getting me up to the same level as everyone else starting in September though will it be ok?


For that, yep. If anything, you'll end up ahead in a way as you'd have been revising all summer whereas they'll have done no work since June so will forget a lot of it!

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I did A levels at 16-18 in P.E, psychology and dance and got EUU.

I did A levels at 21-23 in French, Eng lit and Eng lang and got AAB.

Literally the only thing that matters here is a serious interest and an understanding of why you want these subjects. The only reason I got those grades is that I needed them to do my chosen career and I genuinely enjoyed every day studying them. At 16-18 I didn't care watsoever because I didn't have a future planned. You'll do great.
With A-Level Spanish they're going to be starting from a particular level and you don't have anything thus far for it. Spanish is obviously very different to German, and it was so long ago you did that that it is likely to be one hell of a struggle. Before you start you ought to be making sure you understand the basic tenses and vocabulary - do GCSE papers. There's a lot of writing in the language at A-Level from the off so honestly, you need to get to a certain point beforehand to ensure you won't fail it, you won't be able to play catch-up all year.
Reply 17
Just finished Geog at AS, by far the most enjoyable subject I do, lots of trips and stuff :smile:. I do edexcel which has 2 papers, one with 2 'essay' type question (10 &15 mark) with the rest of the paper being 1,2,4 and 6 markers and the second paper consists of two 15 markers and four 10 markers!

You'll love it :biggrin:
Reply 18
I keep hearing good things about it lol, think I'm gonna stick with geog
Reply 19
Original post by TheTipsyTarsier
I did A levels at 16-18 in P.E, psychology and dance and got EUU.

I did A levels at 21-23 in French, Eng lit and Eng lang and got AAB.

Literally the only thing that matters here is a serious interest and an understanding of why you want these subjects. The only reason I got those grades is that I needed them to do my chosen career and I genuinely enjoyed every day studying them. At 16-18 I didn't care watsoever because I didn't have a future planned. You'll do great.


Ah thank you that has made me feel alot better

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