just moved into uk curriculum from American..starting year 12 super confused

just moved from american curriculum into a british curriculum, starting year 12 this september. ive taken business, media studies, psychology, and math (going into business for uni). but idk which to study for and prioritize more. math is my top priority since i struggled a bit last year (im taking extra classes this summer). ive downloaded pdfs for psychology and business and im studying business as well rn since it is my top priority along with maths. im not sure if i should be studying for psychology or not since a lot of people are telling me that taking an a-level subject with no prior experience is alright (ive also heard that they teach everything in a-levels from scratch so that if a gcse student who has never taken that subject before tkes it for a levels, he/she doesnt face a struggle). im not stuyding for media studies as it is not my priority as of now, but i need help in deciding if i should spend time for psychology or not (im covering 4 business topics a day to get through the two textbooks my school did last year, and my tutor is teaching year 11 material that ive missed extremely quickly so that he can start covering year 12 material). help!

You are more likely to find maths hard. I have been doing maths in year 12 and it was ok for me. I got the highest grade which can u get is an A. But did I have to work for it? Hell yes. You will need to practice quite a lot of textbook questions to make sure you know the stuff.

Regarding business studies, it isnt really hard. It is all about memorizing the key terms, understanding basic concepts and connect them altogether to answer the question. U shld be ok with it.
Media studies is generally not considered hard so hopefully u will be ok with it.

Psychology is again not the hardest but still I think you are doing the catch-up work and more likely need further help in it.

There isnt really a single ans. Just keep on doing ur A levels and their tests to see in which subject u would need help. In the first few months, u would find maths easy but if u find it hard afterwards, u should make that the priority and same for other subjects.

Hope it helps!

got it, if i read up basic psychology and go in depth for maths and business would that be enough to make sure at least the first few months of a levels are smooth?

just moved from american curriculum into a british curriculum, starting year 12 this september. ive taken business, media studies, psychology, and math (going into business for uni). but idk which to study for and prioritize more. math is my top priority since i struggled a bit last year (im taking extra classes this summer). ive downloaded pdfs for psychology and business and im studying business as well rn since it is my top priority along with maths. im not sure if i should be studying for psychology or not since a lot of people are telling me that taking an a-level subject with no prior experience is alright (ive also heard that they teach everything in a-levels from scratch so that if a gcse student who has never taken that subject before tkes it for a levels, he/she doesnt face a struggle). im not stuyding for media studies as it is not my priority as of now, but i need help in deciding if i should spend time for psychology or not (im covering 4 business topics a day to get through the two textbooks my school did last year, and my tutor is teaching year 11 material that ive missed extremely quickly so that he can start covering year 12 material). help!

(ive also heard that they teach everything in a-levels from scratch so that if a gcse student who has never taken that subject before tkes it for a levels, he/she doesnt face a struggle)

just moved from american curriculum into a british curriculum, starting year 12 this september. ive taken business, media studies, psychology, and math (going into business for uni). but idk which to study for and prioritize more. math is my top priority since i struggled a bit last year (im taking extra classes this summer). ive downloaded pdfs for psychology and business and im studying business as well rn since it is my top priority along with maths. im not sure if i should be studying for psychology or not since a lot of people are telling me that taking an a-level subject with no prior experience is alright (ive also heard that they teach everything in a-levels from scratch so that if a gcse student who has never taken that subject before tkes it for a levels, he/she doesnt face a struggle). im not stuyding for media studies as it is not my priority as of now, but i need help in deciding if i should spend time for psychology or not (im covering 4 business topics a day to get through the two textbooks my school did last year, and my tutor is teaching year 11 material that ive missed extremely quickly so that he can start covering year 12 material). help!

Why are you taking 4 A levels? What do you want to study after school?

Most people take 3 subjects in year 12 and 13.

UK University offers almost always need 3 A Levels only and don't need a fourth. If your school/sixth form will allow, I would advise dropping a subject to make things more manageable for you.

Whether you'll struggle with Maths or not depends on how advanced or behind the US curriculum is compared to UK.


This will be true for Psychology and perhaps Media. Potentially to some extent for business too. Maths is compulsory for all school pupils to GCSE level anyway, so everyone will have done GCSE Maths.

Unless your school requires it, I'd suggest dropping one of the four subjects as you don't get "bonus points" for doing four A-levels instead of just the required three. If you do drop one I would strongly recommend keeping psychology and maths, as business studies and media studies are sometimes considered "non traditionally academic", and some unis (mostly the "top" ones e.g. Oxbridge, LSE, UCL) prefer you to be taking at least two "traditionally academic" subjects (although saying that, I believe UCL actually considers business studies one of their preferred subjects - but I know LSE do not).For business studies, media studies, and psychology the material will be taught from scratch and they won't assume any prior knowledge.

A-level Maths however will assume competence with the equivalent of GCSE Maths (from the US perspective this would probably be roughly algebra, geometry, trig, and maybe a couple topics from algebra 2 and precalculus, although a lot of that is covered in A-level Maths; it's hard to make exact comparisons though as the "later" topics in trig would probably be taught in A-level for example). Definitely go over the GCSE Maths syllabus (you can find this on the exam boards websites - search e.g. "Edexcel GCSE Maths syllabus" or other exam boards too) over the summer and see what you've covered before and what you haven't and brush up on any bits you are less familiar with.

Generally you mostly want to be very confident with your algebra and trig work covered in the GCSE syllabus and also with any functions/graphs related topics. Note also A-level Maths includes some sections on statistics and mechanics; the latter probably assumes familiarity with the mechanics content of GCSE Combined Science, although teachers might assume a bit less ability in that area going into it (if you know f=ma then that's probably sufficient to get you started off!). The former will assume familiarity with the statistics topics taught in GCSE.

Fortunately there are lots of revision tools available - I did my GCSEs a long time ago (I am begrudgingly admitting) so there are probably others better placed to recommend current revision resources online, although I think BBC Bitesize is still going and might help you with some GCSE specific materials. There are obviously also many other non-GCSE specific materials you can use to supplement your understanding of the topics covered (e.g. Khan academy and similar).

yes i am dopping media. sorry for not speicfying as ive gotten many comments related to this, but business, psych, and maths are my a levels where as media studies is my as level.

in terms of what ive covered, ive done grade 11 maths but have not done pre-calc. and yes im going over the syllabus rn and theres almost two entire textbooks (out of 6) my school has done which i have no idea about (in terms of content)

im not sure what gcse combined science is, is that something i need go over as well?? im doing the year 11 textbook for now (i only have less than a month left and 3 subjects to cover) so im trying to keep my learning as quick but detailed as possible. i am covering the mechanics part with my tutor soon as it falls under the category of textbooks my school has covered.

Only the mechanics part of GCSE Combined Science may be relevant and if you're already covering some mechanics in preparation you're fine on that front.

Most of the pre-calc topics are covered in the first year of A-level Maths to be fair, but I think there might be a couple of the more basic topics that get covered at GCSE here. That's probably a trend you'll see in that GCSE might cover a good chunk of those classes I mentioned, but some of the later/more complex topics are actually covered in the A-level (so you might have covered some of the material from the first year of A-level Maths already, but other topics you haven't).

I'd say maybe try and focus on more targeted preparation rather than just everything from GCSE Maths that you haven't covered - while it's a nice thought to bring yourself to exactly the same background as everyone else, you only have so much time and there are some which are probably more important than others to make sure you have a good grasp of them beforehand. As I mentioned the most important ones are probably all the algebra, trigonometry, and functions/graphs topics from GCSE Maths as that's pretty foundational for everything else.

i currently have the pure maths 1, pure maths 2, mechanics 1, pure maths 3, pure maths 4, and decision 1 textbook. i have covered pure maths 1+2 last year, and am revising 3+4 with my tutor (covering mechanics myself) which concepts from each of these textbooks do you consider more important to be revised and have a better grasp for? i'll try revising those as currently im doing everything and its super time consuming.
hoping for a quick response thank u!

Have you seen these: https://www.pearson.com/uk/educators/schools/subject-area/mathematics/unrivalled-support/support-from-pearson/gcse-maths-transition-to-alevel.html

Which board are you taking for Maths?

just saw this resource (so useful thanks!!!!)
im not sure which board my school is doing, but i believe it is edexcel.

Unless your school requires it, I'd suggest dropping one of the four subjects as you don't get "bonus points" for doing four A-levels instead of just the required three. If you do drop one I would strongly recommend keeping psychology and maths, as business studies and media studies are sometimes considered "non traditionally academic", and some unis (mostly the "top" ones e.g. Oxbridge, LSE, UCL) prefer you to be taking at least two "traditionally academic" subjects (although saying that, I believe UCL actually considers business studies one of their preferred subjects - but I know LSE do not).For business studies, media studies, and psychology the material will be taught from scratch and they won't assume any prior knowledge.

A-level Maths however will assume competence with the equivalent of GCSE Maths (from the US perspective this would probably be roughly algebra, geometry, trig, and maybe a couple topics from algebra 2 and precalculus, although a lot of that is covered in A-level Maths; it's hard to make exact comparisons though as the "later" topics in trig would probably be taught in A-level for example). Definitely go over the GCSE Maths syllabus (you can find this on the exam boards websites - search e.g. "Edexcel GCSE Maths syllabus" or other exam boards too) over the summer and see what you've covered before and what you haven't and brush up on any bits you are less familiar with.

Generally you mostly want to be very confident with your algebra and trig work covered in the GCSE syllabus and also with any functions/graphs related topics. Note also A-level Maths includes some sections on statistics and mechanics; the latter probably assumes familiarity with the mechanics content of GCSE Combined Science, although teachers might assume a bit less ability in that area going into it (if you know f=ma then that's probably sufficient to get you started off!). The former will assume familiarity with the statistics topics taught in GCSE.

Fortunately there are lots of revision tools available - I did my GCSEs a long time ago (I am begrudgingly admitting) so there are probably others better placed to recommend current revision resources online, although I think BBC Bitesize is still going and might help you with some GCSE specific materials. There are obviously also many other non-GCSE specific materials you can use to supplement your understanding of the topics covered (e.g. Khan academy and similar).

i currently have the pure maths 1, pure maths 2, mechanics 1, pure maths 3, pure maths 4, and decision 1 textbook. i have covered pure maths 1+2 last year, and am revising 3+4 with my tutor (covering mechanics myself) which concepts from each of these textbooks do you consider more important to be revised and have a better grasp for? i'll try revising those as currently im doing everything and its super time consuming.
hoping for a quick response thank u!