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Is anyone doing 5 AS/A2 levels?

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I got 8A* at GCSE(also did latin as an afterschool thing too) but I still found 5AS a lot of work. You get no study periods so you have to do all your work at home, plus an extra subject on top. I took pretty heavy subjects- 3 sciences, history and english. I couldn't decide between them. I'm glad I did beacuse I enjoyed the courses but I dropped 2 for A2 because I wanted to concentrate on 3 subjects and get good marks, rather than 5 not so good ones. I could have got better at AS i reckon if I'd done 4 not 5, but ah well.

So yeah, if it can be timetabled and you are really keen, go for it, just bear in mind you may do better with only 4.

Anyway, good luck :smile:

Reply 21

SouthernFreerider

anyarian

they put that in the recommended time spent on h/w in 6th form. it's ridiculous, they put that in because they've recently been accepting loads and loads of pupils into 6th form who scraped c-grades at gcse in their AS subjects and will probably need to do that much work just to get a D or something.
they say in year 11 you should spend between 1.5 and 3 hours per night doing homework. apart from the few days before some graphics coursework deadlines, i have NEVER spent more than about 45 mins... and i don't inted to do 10 hours per subject per week at AS.

thats 5 hours including all lessons AND homework... per subject

Reply 22

SouthernFreerider

Caliowin

whatever. i have 6h of frees a week doing 5AS.

why is everyone saying they have no frees?

Reply 23

AnonyMatt

I'm taking 5, for two reasons:

I want to prove myself (I only did 9 GCSEs, with only 2 A*s I think) by doing more AS, just incase I want to go through with studying Medicine. Every little helps?

I'm completely undecided on what I want to do in university. I'm thinking either a maths course, a psychology course, or study medicine. That's why my AS subjects are:
Maths
Further Maths
Biology
Chemistry
Psychology

It might be naive of me, but I fully intend to take all 5 to A2. Obviously, I'll decide that after I complete the AS units!
Which reminds me, I think I have to phone the college tomorrow to check if I'm down for those subjects. The form I filled in only allowed me to tick 4 boxes, even though I discussed my options with a college representative and he said it was fine. Best to be safe though!

Reply 24

jgupta

I dont know why everyone raves on about five A-Levels being super hard or anything...I'm doing chem, bio, maths, philosophy and economics + CT / Gen studies at AS (just finished) and it was no real problem...

Self-teaching sounds a good option?

Reply 25

Lukins

I done 5 AS's and, if imj honest, was pretty straight forward.
However it shoujld be noted that i done all maths and sciences (if you consider psychology a science) and i am aware that some subject require more essays and stuff to be done, which will make them harder

Reply 26

Lukins

SouthernFreerider

whatever. i have 6h of frees a week doing 5AS.

why is everyone saying they have no frees?

Someone doing 5AS's surely must be smart enough to know that, it's pretty simple, really

Reply 27

Kelly^2

5 timetabled AS subjects IS HARD WORK PEOPLE.
Depending on how many hours you get timetabled I suppose :/
I did 5 to begin with, and had 9 hours each per fortnight + 1 hr key skills + 1 hr tutorial = 47 hrs a fortnight (our day does not include a set lunch break) so we had a 6 period day each day. I was therefore in lessons for 47 out of the 60 hours available. This only left 3hrs "extra" frees if you say I'd have an hour for lunch a day, over the fortnight, plus the extra work.
Honestly it is not easy. I would not reccomend doing it, universities would rather you swallowed your pride and got 3 strong As. Having said that though, you go to a grammar and I'm at a state school so perhaps it's easier or whatever, I don't know.

Reply 28

gypsieking

by the looks of things on some peoples spoilers it looks like theyve already done about 15 a levels and got all As

Reply 29

Moogen

Totally depends on your work ethic. One guy in my year has comfortably completed 4 very tough AS's (Latin, Biology, Chemistry, Physics) and then in his own time completed 12 maths modules this year. Thats the entirety of A2 maths and further maths. (I can't help but wonder how relaxed he's going to find next year without all the extra work to do - either that or what subject he's going to take on instead).

I on the other hand have a rather crappy work ethic and my 4 AS's are enough to be getting on with.

Reply 30

alex_hk90

I'm doing 5 A2s (Maths, Further Maths, Economics, Physics and Computing) and it has been completely manageable.
If you are willing and capable then I see no reason why you shouldn't do it. :smile:

Reply 31

screenager2004

You guys are lucky. I go to a comprehensive and they assume everyone is too stupid to take a fifth AS level. You don't get a choice. Even those who got 12A's at GCSE didn't.

Then I got AAAB (7 marks off in sociology, garrr) and they suddenly try and lick my bumholey, saying "ooh we could give you extra help! represent us at these oxbridge preparation courses"

I'd have taken a fifth if I could, I don't feel particularly stretched at A2 doing four subjects. I took GCSE Japanese in my own time last year but stopped doing it this year to concentrate on my A2's.

Reply 32

Caliowin

SouthernFreerider

whatever. i have 6h of frees a week doing 5AS.

why is everyone saying they have no frees?

depends on your school timetable i guess. I have five 1hr lessons a day, so 5 subjects, fills those 5 hours.

Reply 33

SouthernFreerider

Caliowin

depends on your school timetable i guess. I have five 1hr lessons a day, so 5 subjects, fills those 5 hours.

well in your case you have your "frees" after school then cause it sound like your day is real short.

we have 4 1.5h lessons each day.

Reply 34

Miss Monkey

AS wise I did Biology, Chemistry, Maths, History, ICT, Spanish (but didn't sit the exams in the end due to mega clashes!), Critical Thinking and General Studies. I managed but it was a LOT of work. Felt relatively easy when I got to A2 and only carried on five. But if your school won't let you do five, I'd imagine 4 solid subjects would be perfectly fine.

Reply 35

stordoff

Depends on timetabling / work ethic, but totally possible. I have done:

A2:
Maths (C1, C2 done in Y11, finished in Y12)
Further Maths (2 Modules Y12, 4 Modules Y13)
Additional Further Maths (All in Y13 - Self Taught)
Physics (AS Y12, A2 Y13)
Computing (All in Y13)
General Studies :rolleyes:

(AS in Y11, A2 in Y12)

AS:
Statistics (Y13 - Self Taught)
ICT (Y12)
Systems and Control (Y12)

Reply 36

Mithra

I did 5 AS levels, and I'm carrying them all on to A2 (although my school wants people to only do three, I refused :smile:

). Although my Maths and Statistics I did the entire A2 this year, so next year I do the whole A2 further maths and then Physics, Chemistry and Philosophy. I think if you did 5 AS levels which were all essay subjects it might be difficult, but I managed to get all my homework done in my 6 frees a week 90% of the time anyway :smile:

Reply 37

Caliowin

SouthernFreerider

well in your case you have your "frees" after school then cause it sound like your day is real short.

we have 4 1.5h lessons each day.

I wish, don't get home until about 6. Travelling and very bad traffic, but I see your point.

How do you manage to have 6hours of lessons in a day? Just curious.

reg 8:40, lessons start at 9:10. we have 25mins break at 10:10 and then a 1hr 15 lunch break, and we finish at 4.

Reply 38

Vjyrik

stordoff

(AS in Y11, A2 in Y12)

AS:
Statistics (Y13 - Self Taught)
ICT (Y12)
Systems and Control (Y12)

YEY, someone doing Y13 Additional Further Maths! :biggrin:

Reply 39

moody28028

Eggimily

I've nearly finished 4AS and 1 A2 I did my Maths AS a year early so a lot of people in my class get 4 full a levels but with 3 subjects in the last year, but I'm doing 5 with 4 in my last year....

It's a slightly less stressful way of doing it.. but still getting 5

I'm doing exactly the same thing next year, maths A2+4 other ASs. Might end up doing further maths as in yr 13 though.

OP: How long do you get per subject? I go to a grammar school, we get 4 hours of lessons a week, 25 hours in a week. This means 20/25 hours working, 1 hour of general studies, so I'll still have 4 hours of frees.