advice on picking chemistry alevel?

i need chemistry alevel for what i want to do (vet med), and i also need to do well in it, i think a B at the lowest but most ask for an A. I'm doing decent in chemistry now, 9s in paper 2 chem and 7s and 8s in paper 1 but i'm scared it'll be too hard? my school did a taster session for it and not even 5 minutes in i was lost and completely lost track of what was happening. i find the gcse pretty difficult - i can manage it but it takes me a while, and with the massive jump to alevel i don't know how i'll handle it, i've also only heard bad things about it lol; out of all my alevel options thats the only one im second guessing so basically my question is, am i overthinking it? will it be fine if i just stay consistent or should i be more realistic and not be overly ambitious by picking an extremely difficult alevel for one of my weaker subjects. (also i get basically no support in my independent learning, no tutors or anything so that might make it harder as well.)

Reply 1

jasmineflowers

3

Original post by nmegan1

i need chemistry alevel for what i want to do (vet med), and i also need to do well in it, i think a B at the lowest but most ask for an A. I'm doing decent in chemistry now, 9s in paper 2 chem and 7s and 8s in paper 1 but i'm scared it'll be too hard? my school did a taster session for it and not even 5 minutes in i was lost and completely lost track of what was happening. i find the gcse pretty difficult - i can manage it but it takes me a while, and with the massive jump to alevel i don't know how i'll handle it, i've also only heard bad things about it lol; out of all my alevel options thats the only one im second guessing so basically my question is, am i overthinking it? will it be fine if i just stay consistent or should i be more realistic and not be overly ambitious by picking an extremely difficult alevel for one of my weaker subjects. (also i get basically no support in my independent learning, no tutors or anything so that might make it harder as well.)

For vet med you definitely need to do chemistry and I think almost always need to get an A unfortunately. I didn't find year 1 chemistry to be too much of a jump from GCSE as we did a lot of recap and mainly maths. Year 2 was a little bit more of a jump but as long as you stay on top of it it shouldn't be too hard and it already sounds like you're doing well at GCSE! Also the taster our school gave us was also really hard for some reason and then I swear we didn't even cover some of the stuff until year 2!

Reply 2

softwd

12

Original post by nmegan1

i need chemistry alevel for what i want to do (vet med), and i also need to do well in it, i think a B at the lowest but most ask for an A. I'm doing decent in chemistry now, 9s in paper 2 chem and 7s and 8s in paper 1 but i'm scared it'll be too hard? my school did a taster session for it and not even 5 minutes in i was lost and completely lost track of what was happening. i find the gcse pretty difficult - i can manage it but it takes me a while, and with the massive jump to alevel i don't know how i'll handle it, i've also only heard bad things about it lol; out of all my alevel options thats the only one im second guessing so basically my question is, am i overthinking it? will it be fine if i just stay consistent or should i be more realistic and not be overly ambitious by picking an extremely difficult alevel for one of my weaker subjects. (also i get basically no support in my independent learning, no tutors or anything so that might make it harder as well.)

im now in year 13 but i remember that i absolutely hated gcse chemistry and didn’t understand it at ALL and was working around a 7, so was really against taking it at alevel (especially with all the negative things i heard about it online!). i ended up taking it anyways bc i also wanted to apply for vetmed and now absolutely love it and have even applied to do a chemistry degree, so i definitely wouldn’t let anything discourage you from taking it!

you also mentioned not getting much support/tutors, and i can definitely relate to this but it’s not that bad because there’s so many resources online that can help you :smile:

Reply 3

Ðeggs

22

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Head-Start-level-Chemistry-Level/dp/1782942807/ref=sr_1_1?crid=17RP5F2N4DECI&keywords

Reply 4

TypicalNerd

18

Original post by nmegan1

i need chemistry alevel for what i want to do (vet med), and i also need to do well in it, i think a B at the lowest but most ask for an A. I'm doing decent in chemistry now, 9s in paper 2 chem and 7s and 8s in paper 1 but i'm scared it'll be too hard? my school did a taster session for it and not even 5 minutes in i was lost and completely lost track of what was happening. i find the gcse pretty difficult - i can manage it but it takes me a while, and with the massive jump to alevel i don't know how i'll handle it, i've also only heard bad things about it lol; out of all my alevel options thats the only one im second guessing so basically my question is, am i overthinking it? will it be fine if i just stay consistent or should i be more realistic and not be overly ambitious by picking an extremely difficult alevel for one of my weaker subjects. (also i get basically no support in my independent learning, no tutors or anything so that might make it harder as well.)

Imo, the jump wasn’t that big from GCSE to year 12. The jump from year 12 to year 13 was bigger, but it is manageable if you have a revision/self-teaching method that works.

I’d first establish which exam board(s) the sixth form(s) you are applying to are with for chemistry. That way, you can establish whether you’ll have a lot of resources at your disposal (AQA and OCR A have many resources - Edexcel, OCR B and Eduqas have few) and you can look through the relevant specifications to establish whether the content will interest you.

If you are not interested, it’s generally best not to take A level chemistry- even if that means being made to look at a different career path altogether.

It sounds as though you are doing really well now with chemistry at the moment, so keep up the excellent work. The taster session shouldn’t indicate otherwise- especially if it was on a year 13 topic.

Reply 5

momo_basket

7

Original post by nmegan1

i need chemistry alevel for what i want to do (vet med), and i also need to do well in it, i think a B at the lowest but most ask for an A. I'm doing decent in chemistry now, 9s in paper 2 chem and 7s and 8s in paper 1 but i'm scared it'll be too hard? my school did a taster session for it and not even 5 minutes in i was lost and completely lost track of what was happening. i find the gcse pretty difficult - i can manage it but it takes me a while, and with the massive jump to alevel i don't know how i'll handle it, i've also only heard bad things about it lol; out of all my alevel options thats the only one im second guessing so basically my question is, am i overthinking it? will it be fine if i just stay consistent or should i be more realistic and not be overly ambitious by picking an extremely difficult alevel for one of my weaker subjects. (also i get basically no support in my independent learning, no tutors or anything so that might make it harder as well.)

Ahhh omg im a vet med applicant currently in y13 !!
Im guessing your in y12 now ? Did you pick chem, and how are you coping ?

My journey so far in chem has been quite the suprise to say the least. Back at gcse, i struggled and i had mitigating circumstances where i got a 6. I was gutted but luckily my sixth form were very supportive of my dream to study vet med so they let me on the course.
First month, not to bad then i plummetted. I vividly remember feeling so awkward in class and the horror when i got a U in my jan mock.Parents evening was horrible, i was told to just do btec science,was compared to another vet med applicant and told that i probs wasnt going to uni. I spent the rest of y12 crying and depressed and was so so close to giving up on vet med, i got a D in the summer mocks.

I knew it had to change, so over summer i refocused my goal, did some recap work on y12 and started y13 with my head held high, i was not going to let the fact that i was in the bottom 3 of my class stop me from having an academic comeback. In september i grinded hard, i had to convince my HOY and chem teacher to give me an A. I remember when i first talked about changing predicted grades, one of my chem teachers told me to not bother with vet med and that she honestly didnt think i would go past a C. I cried that day and i remember swearing to myself i would prove her wrong.
I had to take a re sit for the disaster of the summer mock, and after promising myself to work hard i came out with my very first A !!!

From that test way back in septemeber, im now proud to say im a A student in chem. My lowest grade has been an A and highest A*. Im no longer in the bottom 25% of my class, im now up at the very top of my class (currently i think im 2nd !!) and that same teachers who told me i was failing chem at parents evening and refused to change predicted now is constantly spewing prasies and treating me with kindness, and its fair to say ive shocked a whole department ;D
Even better yet, my dream vet school has offered me an interview !!

One of my chem teachers (horrible at teaching) was swapped for an amazing chem teacher now in y13, safe to say so far so good .

Keep believing in yourself and work hard, now y13 chem is beginning to make sense and chem is now my fav subject. If you need any advice about vet med or a levels please feel free to let me know :smile:

(edited 5 months ago)

advice on picking chemistry alevel?

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