Can I teach myself A Level Biology in one year?

Hi, I am in y12 and currently having a minor crisis over my A Levels. I took maths, chemistry and history. I want to do pharmacology or biomedical sciences at university. History is causing me a great deal of stress and, while I’m not failing it, I do feel that I would do much better with much less stress if I just dropped it and took biology.

Is it possible to teach myself the year 1 content over the summer? The exam board is SNAB and there are about four modules. I got nine 9s and an 8 at gcse and am a quick learner. Am I being ridiculous or could I actually just use the lockdown to teach myself year 1 biology and join year 2 classes in September?

Reply 1

Pandaandme

13

I’m facing the same problem, in year 13 I’m scheduled for a necessary surgery at around Januaryish and I need to take three weeks off to rest, I know this isn’t much but I’m one of them people who hate taking days of school and missing work idk if my friends or teachers will tell me what I missed and if they do idk if I’d understand it without them teaching me 😭😭😭😭😭

Reply 2

Jamie_1712

17

My friend took up chemistry over the summer of year 12 to 13 and taught himself all the content of first year. He ended up getting a C in chemistry, along with A* A B in maths, physics and further maths respectively. So yes it’s possible. Is it easy? No, this guy is really really smart.

Reply 3

Keon_J

12

Original post by eleanaaah

Hi, I am in y12 and currently having a minor crisis over my A Levels. I took maths, chemistry and history. I want to do pharmacology or biomedical sciences at university. History is causing me a great deal of stress and, while I’m not failing it, I do feel that I would do much better with much less stress if I just dropped it and took biology.

Is it possible to teach myself the year 1 content over the summer? The exam board is SNAB and there are about four modules. I got nine 9s and an 8 at gcse and am a quick learner. Am I being ridiculous or could I actually just use the lockdown to teach myself year 1 biology and join year 2 classes in September?

It is definitely possible but god d*** is it going to be hard work

Reply 4

Compost

19

The subjects you want to study at university would probably require you to have a pass in the assessed practicals so you'd have to find a way of competing any of those that had been done in Y12.

Reply 5

eleanaaah

OP

11

Original post by Compost

The subjects you want to study at university would probably require you to have a pass in the assessed practicals so you'd have to find a way of competing any of those that had been done in Y12.

That’s all fine. My teachers will let me join the y12 lessons to complete the practicals.

Reply 6

Compost

19

Original post by eleanaaah

That’s all fine. My teachers will let me join the y12 lessons to complete the practicals.

If your teachers are onside and you have the work ethic then I think it's very doable - I've known people do it in the past for subjects (Further Maths, Computer Science, Physics, German..) without the benefit of the current situation. The 2 I can think of who did this and competed their A levels in 2019 achieved an A* (Comp Sci) and an A (German) - and they were doing more than 3 A levels.

Reply 7

username1625799

15

Original post by eleanaaah

Hi, I am in y12 and currently having a minor crisis over my A Levels. I took maths, chemistry and history. I want to do pharmacology or biomedical sciences at university. History is causing me a great deal of stress and, while I’m not failing it, I do feel that I would do much better with much less stress if I just dropped it and took biology.

Is it possible to teach myself the year 1 content over the summer? The exam board is SNAB and there are about four modules. I got nine 9s and an 8 at gcse and am a quick learner. Am I being ridiculous or could I actually just use the lockdown to teach myself year 1 biology and join year 2 classes in September?

if you were good in biology at gcse's then yes you could definitely do year 1 content over summer, granted this means consistently revising at least 2 hours each day, minimum. I did all my AS and A2 exams together in year 13 in chem, bio and maths since i had flopped AS and managed to get A*AA. So anything is possible. Plus, at A level as long as you give yourself enough time to do loads of practice papers and are comfortable and anticipate what type of questions are going to come then it should be manageable. Good luck