how hard is it to self teach 5 alevels
hi ive got mostly 8s and 9s at gcse and am considering teaching myself maths, physics, chemistry, economics and computer science at a level. how hard would it be to self teach these 5. im not aiming to get top grades, my goal is to gain general knowledge in as many fields as possible. mabey do better and try master two of the subjects. how hard would 5 be and how much time would it take up. is it possible to speed run alevels and how productive are lessons. am i being unrealistic.
Can I ask why you would want to self-teach?
My quick response is: A levels are very challenging; I'm doing 4 and can't comprehend self-teaching, because of the difficulty of content, the tricky mark schemes and exam technique, and mostly self-motivation. Even at school 5 A-levels (only very rarely seen) is a huge investment of time and largely futile, since unis only look for 3 A-levels. It probably is quite unrealistic, then.
You'll probably enjoy more taking only 3/4 so you can gain a greater depth of knowledge and take time to absorb the content instead of frantically scrambling to learn things. Why do you want general knowledge in all of these fields? If general knowledge is your aim, you can read a book, watch a documentary, or listen to lectures; A levels don't give you a broad range of knowledge anyway.
My quick response is: A levels are very challenging; I'm doing 4 and can't comprehend self-teaching, because of the difficulty of content, the tricky mark schemes and exam technique, and mostly self-motivation. Even at school 5 A-levels (only very rarely seen) is a huge investment of time and largely futile, since unis only look for 3 A-levels. It probably is quite unrealistic, then.
You'll probably enjoy more taking only 3/4 so you can gain a greater depth of knowledge and take time to absorb the content instead of frantically scrambling to learn things. Why do you want general knowledge in all of these fields? If general knowledge is your aim, you can read a book, watch a documentary, or listen to lectures; A levels don't give you a broad range of knowledge anyway.
Your enthusiasm is great, but honestly there's pretty much no point in doing 5 a levels. It's definitely possible, but very difficult and with very little reward.
Original post by mandyelicup
Can I ask why you would want to self-teach?
My quick response is: A levels are very challenging; I'm doing 4 and can't comprehend self-teaching, because of the difficulty of content, the tricky mark schemes and exam technique, and mostly self-motivation. Even at school 5 A-levels (only very rarely seen) is a huge investment of time and largely futile, since unis only look for 3 A-levels. It probably is quite unrealistic, then.
You'll probably enjoy more taking only 3/4 so you can gain a greater depth of knowledge and take time to absorb the content instead of frantically scrambling to learn things. Why do you want general knowledge in all of these fields? If general knowledge is your aim, you can read a book, watch a documentary, or listen to lectures; A levels don't give you a broad range of knowledge anyway.
My quick response is: A levels are very challenging; I'm doing 4 and can't comprehend self-teaching, because of the difficulty of content, the tricky mark schemes and exam technique, and mostly self-motivation. Even at school 5 A-levels (only very rarely seen) is a huge investment of time and largely futile, since unis only look for 3 A-levels. It probably is quite unrealistic, then.
You'll probably enjoy more taking only 3/4 so you can gain a greater depth of knowledge and take time to absorb the content instead of frantically scrambling to learn things. Why do you want general knowledge in all of these fields? If general knowledge is your aim, you can read a book, watch a documentary, or listen to lectures; A levels don't give you a broad range of knowledge anyway.
I want to self-teach because I think I could learn faster as lessons aren't that productive, I would rather gain knowledge than waste hours on things like exam technique. I've tried teaching myself a topic in physics(particle physics) and done pretty well, it took 5 hours whereas in class it would take 2 weeks. All I have to do now is exam practice. And i would get better at self teaching
if 5 is unrealistic I can change my mind later and stop at as level. I want general knowledge to gain a decent understanding of the world and take the subject further if I wanted to later. I understand that unis only look for 3 A-levels and any more won't help at all
what do you mean by 'A levels don't give a broad range of knowledge anyway'
I did bio chem maths physics and fmaths and it’s not worth it. I wish someone had told me that unis won’t look at you more favourably than someone doing 3. They’ll give you an offer based on 3 only and A*AAAB after spreading yourself too thin would look worse than A*A*A. You’d be putting yourself under too much stress for zero reward, I advise against it fully.
I think it would be do-able over two years if you have a lot of free time and are very disciplined with your study. Would you want to sit all the exams as a private candidate though? As that would be very expensive, especially the science practicals. Also if you want to go to university, you would be better doing just 3 or 4 and getting better grades in them.
Original post by larissaberry
I did bio chem maths physics and fmaths and it’s not worth it. I wish someone had told me that unis won’t look at you more favourably than someone doing 3. They’ll give you an offer based on 3 only and A*AAAB after spreading yourself too thin would look worse than A*A*A. You’d be putting yourself under too much stress for zero reward, I advise against it fully.
I don't care much about grades or impressing unis. So the reward for me would be actually gaining knowledge. If I later find it too stressful and not worth it ill stop at AS level.
How stressful is it and does it become boring because you end up memorizing for exams?
could you explain why a*a*a looks better than a*aaab
Original post by emmaltunis
I think it would be do-able over two years if you have a lot of free time and are very disciplined with your study. Would you want to sit all the exams as a private candidate though? As that would be very expensive, especially the science practicals. Also if you want to go to university, you would be better doing just 3 or 4 and getting better grades in them.
I'm not willing to become a full-time nerd. However, I'm willing to work, and learning to be disciplined is a reason I want to self-teach. is it necessary to pay for practicals, i never found them productive, couldn't i just read the method, watch youtube videos on them and do exam questions
Original post by ramz89
I don't care much about grades or impressing unis. So the reward for me would be actually gaining knowledge. If I later find it too stressful and not worth it ill stop at AS level.
How stressful is it and does it become boring because you end up memorizing for exams?
could you explain why a*a*a looks better than a*aaab
How stressful is it and does it become boring because you end up memorizing for exams?
could you explain why a*a*a looks better than a*aaab
Some topics are certainly boring and some topics you will struggle to teach yourself. It serves well having someone who has done it for decades guiding you along. Term time is manageable although you come home having done 5/6 hours straight of alevel content and you’re expected to do another 5/6 of revision on top of that. Exam season however is deathly. 2 2 hour exams a day is frankly inhumane.
And the last bit is common sense. A B just taints things. They’d much rather see a candidate who has fully understood all their subjects rather than an odd b. People with 3 A*s will look a lot better than a few As and a B with 4/5. I’ve heard this many times and wish I was told it sooner.
The ‘gaining overall knowledge’ is covered in GCSE. A levels are where you start to specialise. Get the fundamentals. Get yours maths, physics, chem (fmaths if your degree need it). It’s like how law degrees don’t want you to take law Alevel- it’s history and English they want. Fundamentals. Get those strong and don’t spread yourself too thin 
Original post by ramz89
I'm not willing to become a full-time nerd. However, I'm willing to work, and learning to be disciplined is a reason I want to self-teach. is it necessary to pay for practicals, i never found them productive, couldn't i just read the method, watch youtube videos on them and do exam questions
Sorry I didn't mean practicals in that sense, I meant the practical part of the exam (it costs about £1000 to do it privately I think). You can just take the normal exam papers, as the practical isn't graded it's like GCSE science practical either pass or fail. But if you want to study science at university you will normally need the practical endorsement.
If you want to learn more about how the world works, look beyond a levels. There are so many books, videos, podcasts and other resources out there that can help you gain knowledge in any field that interests you.
Personally I would advise against taking 5 A-levels. Even with dedicated teaching, very, very few students ever take 5 a levels and even fewer sweep all A*'s. You said you didn't really care about grades, but I'd wager that knowing 3 subjects to an A*/A standard is better than trying to teach yourself 5 to a B/C standard as you will thoroughly understand the material and be able to apply it better.
I have no experience self teaching A-levels but having done mine last year (Maths, Bio, Chem) and getting A*A*A I had to invest plenty of time on top of lessons and still wasn't able to fully grasp chemistry (what I got the A in). A levels are harder than they seem.
I have no experience self teaching A-levels but having done mine last year (Maths, Bio, Chem) and getting A*A*A I had to invest plenty of time on top of lessons and still wasn't able to fully grasp chemistry (what I got the A in). A levels are harder than they seem.
(edited 1 year ago)
At some point you have to ask yourself why no one would recommend taking 5, regardless of your motivations.
Original post by ramz89
hi ive got mostly 8s and 9s at gcse and am considering teaching myself maths, physics, chemistry, economics and computer science at a level. how hard would it be to self teach these 5. im not aiming to get top grades, my goal is to gain general knowledge in as many fields as possible. mabey do better and try master two of the subjects. how hard would 5 be and how much time would it take up. is it possible to speed run alevels and how productive are lessons. am i being unrealistic.
Heya!
Please don't underestimate the jump between GCSE and A-level content. The jump is quite huge as the content becomes more challenging and demanding. First of all, I would advise against taking 5 a-levels. I have done it and it caused me a lot of stress which affected my overall performance, so I had to drop 1 and even 4 was a lot of work. Unis only require 3 a-levels at a specific grade, you don't really need more than that unless maybe you take 3 a-levels +FM.
There are plenty of free courses you can take just to get general knowledge rather than taking them at an a-level (Coursera, Freecode, Futurelearn etc). For a-levels, it's best to concentrate on the work and aim to get high scores so that you can get accepted into a good uni. Self-teaching can be quite hard, especially if you just come out of GCSEs and go into a-levels (with which you aren't too familiar with). A-levels really challenge you and what you learn through it and how are you able to apply the knowledge, so it's important to learn/understand good exam techniques and how they work. Perhaps look into joining a sixth form or getting a tutor if possible. If you need some free resources to look at how a-levels work ahead of time, then do check out Study Mind.
I hope this helps!
Milena
UCL PFE
Study Mind
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