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What's the most important tip you would give an AS student?

Hey, I'm starting sixth form in september; title says it all :smile:
By all means, elaborate

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Original post by vd12345
Hey, I'm starting sixth form in september; title says it all :smile:
By all means, elaborate


unless you are doing an arts subject at uni, take further maths.
Actually study :tongue: Personally I messed up my AS levels because I crammed like I did for GCSE. It didn't work (for me anyways..). Study and revise throughout the year, actually doing homework on time, asking questions, making sure you understand and know as you go along.
Study from day one - don't leave it till the last minute. You can just about get away with that on GCSEs, but not a levels. Get as much coursework out the way as soon as possible, so you have time to study for exams later on.
organise yourself from the start! get folders and sort your notes, when you get to christmas and have one pile on your desk of home of everything you've done, it's a mammoth task to sort it all out :wink:
Original post by vd12345
Hey, I'm starting sixth form in september; title says it all :smile:
By all means, elaborate


TRY!!! Whatever people say, your AS year is VERY important as it forms your 'predicted grades', which is what universities look at!!

Put effort into each and every lesson. Try to avoid missing any lessons. Anything you miss will have to be caught up on, which you just won't have time for if you want to enjoy an adequate life outside of school.

That being said, subjects go into a lot more depth and are way more interesting than GCSE. Try and find magazines or articles that give you some wider background knowledge, it'll really help.
Original post by vd12345
Hey, I'm starting sixth form in september; title says it all :smile:
By all means, elaborate


The best advice I'd give is to not waste these "6 weeks" holidays, depending on what subjects you're taking. It's a big jump from GCSE; an A grade student at GCSE is capable of getting an E or even a U and vice versa - so put in handwork and it shall pay off!! Just don't ever think it's the same as gcses cuz it really is not, but I'm sure you'll do great as long as you spend time revising.

And it would be helpful if you could give yourself a head start by researching your subjects - reading extra bits as you may not have enough time once you start your AS due to the workload!! Make best use of these holidays :-)

Hope that helps! :-)
You don't need to study every day and night, just do what you think is required, and self-assess yourself regularly, eg, once every month or so. Set yourself a mock paper for what you've done so far in the year, cram revise for a day, and see how effective your study routine is. Increase or relax the intensity of studying you do accordingly.

If you're doing sciences, then this applies:

You do not need to learn Biology/Chemistry/Physics, or even have more than a superficial understanding of the topics you're covering. What's far more important is knowing how the exams are structured, reading through past papers and mark schemes many times over, learning the phrases that always get marks, learning the perfect responses to stock questions, and acceptable alternative words.

Learn to the mark scheme. This will get you high marks. Sure there is some thinking required for many questions in the exam, but pretty much all exam questions fall into one of these categories for science:

Regurgitate fact or definition; <-- Look at mark schemes for the approved version and the 'vital' words in it.

Apply rule to situation; <-- You learn laws and rules for science. If you know these by heart and have basic logical cognition, you can do these questions. May require factual knowledge too. Very basic maths ability required sometimes.

'Stretch' questions; <-- You apply a rule or law to a situation which is similar to what the rule is normally used for, but is disguised. These are normally easier than they seem and just require you to replace words in your factual knowledge or laws with the situation given in the question. The mark schemes show alternative approaches and let you get used to these.

Science A-Levels are a memory game. Learn off the past papers and mark scheme and specification. Don't get fooled into thinking you need genuine understanding.
Start early. Really can't emphasise how important this is. Make sure you've covered most/all your material for each of your subject in good time so come exams you don't become stressed. Don't leave everything to the last minute!! Good luck :h:
Reply 9
Original post by Raven of the Sun
unless you are doing an arts subject at uni, take further maths.


My school doesn't offer it, since not enough people chose the subject...
Should I do it as an extra AS, with private tuition?
I'm doing maths/medicine/dentistry at uni

Original post by longsightdon
Actually study :tongue: Personally I messed up my AS levels because I crammed like I did for GCSE. It didn't work (for me anyways..). Study and revise throughout the year, actually doing homework on time, asking questions, making sure you understand and know as you go along.

Thank you :smile:
How would you say you should keep track of, and plan revision?

Original post by XMaramena
Study from day one - don't leave it till the last minute. You can just about get away with that on GCSEs, but not a levels. Get as much coursework out the way as soon as possible, so you have time to study for exams later on.


There are no courseworks anymore. Would you recommend starting early?


Original post by rachel6914
organise yourself from the start! get folders and sort your notes, when you get to christmas and have one pile on your desk of home of everything you've done, it's a mammoth task to sort it all out :wink:


I already have folders, althought i have blue, green and orange lined paper (for maths, biology and chemistry respectively). Should i just use 1 note pad of paper at a time, or colour code it?

Original post by Blue101010
TRY!!! Whatever people say, your AS year is VERY important as it forms your 'predicted grades', which is what universities look at!!

Put effort into each and every lesson. Try to avoid missing any lessons. Anything you miss will have to be caught up on, which you just won't have time for if you want to enjoy an adequate life outside of school.

That being said, subjects go into a lot more depth and are way more interesting than GCSE. Try and find magazines or articles that give you some wider background knowledge, it'll really help.

Thank you :smile:
If you're doing Maths, make sure you stay a few sections ahead of the class. Me and a few friends did this in the AS year, which was a massive help, because it helps you learn independently, and means if you have any problems, you can ask your teacher.
If you're doing Further Maths, this is even more important because you'll have six modules to juggle, so you cannot afford to fall behind.

For essay subjects, like Economics or History, understanding content is your first port of call. If you know the content, the exam becomes easier. Later on in the year, say, the end of March/April or post mocks, start doing exam practice, so you've got the technique down too.
Original post by vd12345
My school doesn't offer it, since not enough people chose the subject...
Should I do it as an extra AS, with private tuition?
I'm doing maths/medicine/dentistry at uni


If you want to do maths at university, no surprises here, further maths is extremely, extremely important.
For medicine and dentistry further maths is not as vital but still not a bad option.

If your school doesn't offer it it is not a big deal if you are leaning more towards medicine/dentistry but just forget about doing maths at uni if you're not going to do further maths. If you really do want to do maths at uni then you must do the further maths modules even if that means self studying them (they are not that hard)
Original post by vd12345
My school doesn't offer it, since not enough people chose the subject...
Should I do it as an extra AS, with private tuition?
I'm doing maths/medicine/dentistry at uni


Thank you :smile:
How would you say you should keep track of, and plan revision?



There are no courseworks anymore. Would you recommend starting early?




I already have folders, althought i have blue, green and orange lined paper (for maths, biology and chemistry respectively). Should i just use 1 note pad of paper at a time, or colour code it?


Thank you :smile:


I took bio chem maths phys and all you havs to do is revise and understand as you go along. For bio its just learning. For chem learning. Maths and physics is where i really screwed up. I didng understand the material so it became hard to cram.
Reply 13
Original post by RadioStudent007
The best advice I'd give is to not waste these "6 weeks" holidays, depending on what subjects you're taking. It's a big jump from GCSE; an A grade student at GCSE is capable of getting an E or even a U and vice versa - so put in handwork and it shall pay off!! Just don't ever think it's the same as gcses cuz it really is not, but I'm sure you'll do great as long as you spend time revising.

And it would be helpful if you could give yourself a head start by researching your subjects - reading extra bits as you may not have enough time once you start your AS due to the workload!! Make best use of these holidays :-)

Hope that helps! :-)


Asides the extra research, should I make a start on my AS books? Thanks :smile:

Original post by Star Light
You don't need to study every day and night, just do what you think is required, and self-assess yourself regularly, eg, once every month or so. Set yourself a mock paper for what you've done so far in the year, cram revise for a day, and see how effective your study routine is. Increase or relax the intensity of studying you do accordingly.

If you're doing sciences, then this applies:

You do not need to learn Biology/Chemistry/Physics, or even have more than a superficial understanding of the topics you're covering. What's far more important is knowing how the exams are structured, reading through past papers and mark schemes many times over, learning the phrases that always get marks, learning the perfect responses to stock questions, and acceptable alternative words.

Learn to the mark scheme. This will get you high marks. Sure there is some thinking required for many questions in the exam, but pretty much all exam questions fall into one of these categories for science:

Regurgitate fact or definition; <-- Look at mark schemes for the approved version and the 'vital' words in it.

Apply rule to situation; <-- You learn laws and rules for science. If you know these by heart and have basic logical cognition, you can do these questions. May require factual knowledge too. Very basic maths ability required sometimes.

'Stretch' questions; <-- You apply a rule or law to a situation which is similar to what the rule is normally used for, but is disguised. These are normally easier than they seem and just require you to replace words in your factual knowledge or laws with the situation given in the question. The mark schemes show alternative approaches and let you get used to these.

Science A-Levels are a memory game. Learn off the past papers and mark scheme and specification. Don't get fooled into thinking you need genuine understanding.

Thank you :smile:
What A levels did you do?


Original post by samboosa0
Start early. Really can't emphasise how important this is. Make sure you've covered most/all your material for each of your subject in good time so come exams you don't become stressed. Don't leave everything to the last minute!! Good luck :h:

Thank you :wink: good luck to you too


Original post by H0PEL3SS
If you're doing Maths, make sure you stay a few sections ahead of the class. Me and a few friends did this in the AS year, which was a massive help, because it helps you learn independently, and means if you have any problems, you can ask your teacher.
If you're doing Further Maths, this is even more important because you'll have six modules to juggle, so you cannot afford to fall behind.

For essay subjects, like Economics or History, understanding content is your first port of call. If you know the content, the exam becomes easier. Later on in the year, say, the end of March/April or post mocks, start doing exam practice, so you've got the technique down too.


Thank you :smile:
Do you think that I should do do fm privately, with a tutor?
Did you do both maths/fm?
What did you get for maths/fm a level?
Reply 14
Original post by vd12345
Hey, I'm starting sixth form in september; title says it all :smile:
By all means, elaborate


Asking questions is extremely important. With GCSE's, it's easy to get by without doing so, but it becomes increasingly important.
Reply 15
Original post by longsightdon
I took bio chem maths phys and all you havs to do is revise and understand as you go along. For bio its just learning. For chem learning. Maths and physics is where i really screwed up. I didng understand the material so it became hard to cram.


I don't really want to have to do physics tbh. :frown: i hateeee it, although i was good at gcse, I don't think I'll ever be able to motivate myself at a level
Reply 16
Original post by SH0405
Asking questions is extremely important. With GCSE's, it's easy to get by without doing so, but it becomes increasingly important.


Thank you :wink:
Reply 17
Original post by Raven of the Sun
If you want to do maths at university, no surprises here, further maths is extremely, extremely important.
For medicine and dentistry further maths is not as vital but still not a bad option.

If your school doesn't offer it it is not a big deal if you are leaning more towards medicine/dentistry but just forget about doing maths at uni if you're not going to do further maths. If you really do want to do maths at uni then you must do the further maths modules even if that means self studying them (they are not that hard)


Hey, what AS/A2 modules should I pick for fm?
i'm doing c1/c2/m1/c3/c4/s1 for maths
Thanks :wink:
Original post by Raven of the Sun
unless you are doing an arts subject at uni, take further maths.


Should I do Further Maths or German? :confused:
Work consistently well throughout.

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