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tips for 3A*

for AS I achieved AAAC in maths, physics, chemistry and further maths respectively. For my A2 year, I will be studying maths, physics and chemistry and retaking AS FM. I hope to get 3A* and an A. Do you have any tips on doing this task, plus are A2's harder than AS?

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Revise. Forget your social life. And yes they are.
You need to revise from the start to the end. Be exam ready AT LEAST a month and a half before exams. Do every practice paper you can find. If I were you, I wouldn't redo further as it's meaningless in terms of uni offers- focus on your A2's as the work load is often 2x harder at least. Don't ever hesitate to ask for help if you're stuck- you've gotta be selfish if you wanna achieve the best you can. Don't think because you got good AS results, it means that you'll be fine- remember your AS results for the sciences don't matter, you NEED 90ums in A2 exams. Don't overwork and make sure you get a rest- before exams, you shouldn't be at all stressed as you should be ready from prior preparation.
Good luck.


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Reply 3
Original post by RDKGames
Revise. Forget your social life. And yes they are.

very harsh but true lol. I'm ready to delete my facebook , snapchat etc you name it :biggrin:
Reply 4
Original post by Accountingggo
You need to revise from the start to the end. Be exam ready AT LEAST a month and a half before exams. Do every practice paper you can find. If I were you, I wouldn't redo further as it's meaningless in terms of uni offers- focus on your A2's as the work load is often 2x harder at least. Don't ever hesitate to ask for help if you're stuck- you've gotta be selfish if you wanna achieve the best you can. Don't think because you got good AS results, it means that you'll be fine- remember your AS results for the sciences don't matter, you NEED 90ums in A2 exams. Don't overwork and make sure you get a rest- before exams, you shouldn't be at all stressed as you should be ready from prior preparation.
Good luck.


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Ive already started A2 maths C3. it isn't as bad as I thought but doesn't give me a reason to underestimate A2. I think I will retake AS FM to help my application as my personal statement is not the strongest
Original post by Chemgawd99
for AS I achieved AAAC in maths, physics, chemistry and further maths respectively. For my A2 year, I will be studying maths, physics and chemistry and retaking AS FM. I hope to get 3A* and an A. Do you have any tips on doing this task, plus are A2's harder than AS?


Focus on maths - get 2 A*s no probs and just Ace your physics by any means.

Good lucky with chemistry 😂😂

AAAC is brilliant for AS

This is all very vague but getting 3 As at AS shows you already know what you're doing.

How well you want to do in a specific A level is dependent on what you want to at Uni.

You will no doubt work harder next year so there's no doubt you have the ability to get 4 A*s
I cut out my social life in A2, as I kept telling myself if I ace my a levels and get to uni then I can socialise as much as I want
Don't have friends at sixth form
You can get A*A*A* without 'ditching your social life' as some people here seem to be suggesting.

Its all about mastering the individual exam and making sure you micromanage and get an A* in each of them. The amount of work you need to do varies massively depending on the individual, ie - for me it took a lot of work to get them, for others it might be a lot easier.
It's not about how many distractions you have. It's about your will power to ignore them.

From experience I can tell you that you will feel depressed and bored without social media even with part-time jobs and gym.

That iPhone could have really helped you with your subjects in terms of a quick device for past papers and research - even student room.

In terms of your PS4 - yeah you are addicted to cod 😂😂
(edited 3 years ago)
Reply 10
Original post by Maths is Life
Focus on maths - get 2 A*s no probs and just Ace your physics by any means.

Good lucky with chemistry 😂😂

AAAC is brilliant for AS

This is all very vague but getting 3 As at AS shows you already know what you're doing.

How well you want to do in a specific A level is dependent on what you want to at Uni.

You will no doubt work harder next year so there's no doubt you have the ability to get 4 A*s

Thank you. However, I'm only doing 3 A2 because I think Cambridge and imperial are out of my sight because my C at AS. So I think i'll apply for bath Birmingham etc so 4A2's would be a bit unnecessary
Original post by Chemgawd99
very harsh but true lol. I'm ready to delete my facebook , snapchat etc you name it :biggrin:


Yeah delete them but have a social life with friends/family or else you're going to burn yourself out when the exams come and not only that, you'll become a social outcast.
Start very early and do plenty of exam papers, understand all the knowledge thoroughly and understand the markscheme so you know exactly what the examiners are after. Just work very hard and it will be possible to get A* in A2 level.
Reply 13
Original post by Chemgawd99
very harsh but true lol. I'm ready to delete my facebook , snapchat etc you name it :biggrin:


I am not sure you need to do this. Year 13 was probably one of my most social years lol. Put in lots of work at home, but you don't have to work flat out, you can be checking facebook or whatever as you work. In general, practice questions from textbooks and past papers are the way forward, but you probably know this. Focus on understanding the material. Become familiar with how marks are allocated. Check the specifics of the syllabus. Time yourself and mark yourself on papers. Especially in Maths, check your working as you go along, rather than leaving all checking to the end when the questions aren't fresh in your mind.
Reply 14
Original post by 1 8 13 20 42
I am not sure you need to do this. Year 13 was probably one of my most social years lol. Put in lots of work at home, but you don't have to work flat out, you can be checking facebook or whatever as you work. In general, practice questions from textbooks and past papers are the way forward, but you probably know this. Focus on understanding the material. Become familiar with how marks are allocated. Check the specifics of the syllabus. Time yourself and mark yourself on papers. Especially in Maths, check your working as you go along, rather than leaving all checking to the end when the questions aren't fresh in your mind.


thank you so so much for this advice, but facebook ate up a lot of my time during year 12 XD
Reply 15
Thos are some amazing grades considering you had some tough times with C3 and the electronics exam. May I ask what do you study and where and good luck :smile:
Reply 16
Hi, I ended up with A*A*A (maths, electronics, physics respectively) and this was unexpected so I didn't anticipate to be able to give people advise

For me, the best example is with Electronics, where I got 30/110 in the mock but now have A*. This is because I really, really really tried to come to complete terms with the course 2 months before the exams, questioning whether I understood things that were in the textbook and making sure that I understood how everything fits together and leads on from one another. Following this, I did all of the past papers which refined and clarified the parts of the course that I need to know, and the types of questions I should practise and redo multiple times.

For Maths, the last part of that is more significant; I got an E in the first C3 paper but 96/100 on he day of the exam. It's a case of doing as many questions as possible during and after the teaching of the methods, in order:
- to increase the chances of not messing up in the exam (the whole system is deeply flawed, so much of it is based on how the exams happen to go on the day of the exam)
- to encounter questions that don't spoon-feed you the way in which to go about solving them

I didn't get an A* in Physics but I think that an A is absolutely good enough - although your question is asking about tips for an A* so I can't say anything about that for this subject! Although I'm sure the above is still applicable to it

I wouldn't use the word 'harder' when comparing A2 with AS, but I'd say that they are generally more complex, resulting in more work needing to be done to adapt to them. Whether this is in fact the precise definition of 'harder' is a possibility, but I believe that my description is far more useful.

Nice results
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by Chemgawd99
Thank you. However, I'm only doing 3 A2 because I think Cambridge and imperial are out of my sight because my C at AS. So I think i'll apply for bath Birmingham etc so 4A2's would be a bit unnecessary


What course are you doing at Uni?!!

Universities only look at 3 A levels so in this case AAA which is pretty much the highest they consider.

That C shouldnt bring you down since you are resitting maths units.

What are you dropping?

4 A2s may be unecessary but you may regret only taking 3 - lol in the future you can tell people you did 4.

When I took 3 this year - although I found I had alot of extra time - I felt mad focusing on a couple subjects and thought I could spread myself more...
Original post by RDKGames
Revise. Forget your social life. And yes they are.


Would this still be the case for me? I'm not doing "hard" subjects like the thread starter?
good lad, dedication right there. I've not touched my xb1 in over 2 months and not going to renew my phone contract anytime soon:biggrin:

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