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Any tips on revising for A-Levels in Y12

Hi I am in Y12 doing Maths, Chemistry and Economics.
My strongest is probably maths, the economics then chemistry. I really want to improve in them all to hopefully get predicted A*A*A for UCAS. Does anyone have any tips (especially for chemsitry)
Original post by justwanttodowell
Hi I am in Y12 doing Maths, Chemistry and Economics.
My strongest is probably maths, the economics then chemistry. I really want to improve in them all to hopefully get predicted A*A*A for UCAS. Does anyone have any tips (especially for chemsitry)

@MP_25 - perhaps you could help with maths and chem?
@Nice_100 - you could help with economics? :smile:
For economics, just memorise definitions of important terms, perhaps by using flashcards like me. As for essays, use the resources below to understand how to write essays. You will notice that essays are repeated so for each repeated essay (for example, an essay about externalities) note down common analysis points and evaluation points. Here are the resources:

https://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/economics-revision/

https://studyrocket.co.uk/revision - scroll down this website and choose "A levels Edexcel economics A"

https://www.economicshelp.org/ (this website is for notes and guides for writing essays)

https://www.savemyexams.co.uk/a-level/economics-a/edexcel/17/revision-notes/

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/63tmfqty2syk5dv/AABURfjfg29o-rNufXLjVM-5a?dl=0 (This has essay samples which really helped me)

https://www.tutor2u.net/economics/topics (for notes and you might even find some essay samples)

As for youtube channels, "EconplusDal" is really good. These are the 3 important playlists of his for AS:

1. For microeconomics (unit 1) - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWeicFreBUYCOFC2A0SlKrpEYgwaSF63t

2. For macroeconomics (unit 2) - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWeicFreBUYDlaLppnRTZpwgBASflf4lU

3. For writing essays (really useful!) - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWeicFreBUYD-AhJtDQ8q-hO7U5Bwd1J4


Surf the websites thoroughly; some of these websites may have more than just revision notes or just essay samples. And even though I mentioned which ones were useful for me, this may not be true for you. You may find those websites useful that I found less informative (for example, I didn't like the revision notes from physics and maths tutor).
Original post by NazifaNawer
For economics, just memorise definitions of important terms, perhaps by using flashcards like me. As for essays, use the resources below to understand how to write essays. You will notice that essays are repeated so for each repeated essay (for example, an essay about externalities) note down common analysis points and evaluation points. Here are the resources:

https://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/economics-revision/

https://studyrocket.co.uk/revision - scroll down this website and choose "A levels Edexcel economics A"

https://www.economicshelp.org/ (this website is for notes and guides for writing essays)

https://www.savemyexams.co.uk/a-level/economics-a/edexcel/17/revision-notes/

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/63tmfqty2syk5dv/AABURfjfg29o-rNufXLjVM-5a?dl=0 (This has essay samples which really helped me)

https://www.tutor2u.net/economics/topics (for notes and you might even find some essay samples)

As for youtube channels, "EconplusDal" is really good. These are the 3 important playlists of his for AS:

1. For microeconomics (unit 1) - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWeicFreBUYCOFC2A0SlKrpEYgwaSF63t

2. For macroeconomics (unit 2) - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWeicFreBUYDlaLppnRTZpwgBASflf4lU

3. For writing essays (really useful!) - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWeicFreBUYD-AhJtDQ8q-hO7U5Bwd1J4


Surf the websites thoroughly; some of these websites may have more than just revision notes or just essay samples. And even though I mentioned which ones were useful for me, this may not be true for you. You may find those websites useful that I found less informative (for example, I didn't like the revision notes from physics and maths tutor).

Thank you so much!
I also didn't like the notes from PMT. I definitely needed resources for essays, so I will definitely look into these websites. Would you suggest just making flashcards for Economics? or for essays should I make mindmaps?

Thanks once again
Reply 4
Original post by justwanttodowell
Hi I am in Y12 doing Maths, Chemistry and Economics.
My strongest is probably maths, the economics then chemistry. I really want to improve in them all to hopefully get predicted A*A*A for UCAS. Does anyone have any tips (especially for chemsitry)


hey, i'm in yr 13 doing chem (OCR A) and maths (edexcel) and honestly as annoying as it's going to sound, for chem the thing i find best is just constantly going through past paper questions, and specifically reading through them to make sure you're doing the right thing cause the wording is going to catch you out so much.

as for learning content, i always find the definition booklets super useful (on PMT each alevel topic has a definition notes section) since there's a lot of particular definitions in physical chem - rates of reaction, enthalpy and entropy etc and those even if they don't specifically come up always help with constructing equations as well

for organic chem i recommend finding/making a mind map of all the synthesis routes all the reactants + conditions and making sure you memorise them as there are SO MANY "describe the reaction that may happen to get from compound X to compound Y (sometimes with an intermediate for which they'll tell you something about it, eg IR spec or if it's an alcohol etc) and they love doing flow chart questions with 'fill in the blanks'
Reply 5
Original post by MP_25
Original post by justwanttodowell
Hi I am in Y12 doing Maths, Chemistry and Economics.
My strongest is probably maths, the economics then chemistry. I really want to improve in them all to hopefully get predicted A*A*A for UCAS. Does anyone have any tips (especially for chemsitry)


hey, i'm in yr 13 doing chem (OCR A) and maths (edexcel) and honestly as annoying as it's going to sound, for chem the thing i find best is just constantly going through past paper questions, and specifically reading through them to make sure you're doing the right thing cause the wording is going to catch you out so much.

as for learning content, i always find the definition booklets super useful (on PMT each alevel topic has a definition notes section) since there's a lot of particular definitions in physical chem - rates of reaction, enthalpy and entropy etc and those even if they don't specifically come up always help with constructing equations as well

for organic chem i recommend finding/making a mind map of all the synthesis routes all the reactants + conditions and making sure you memorise them as there are SO MANY "describe the reaction that may happen to get from compound X to compound Y (sometimes with an intermediate for which they'll tell you something about it, eg IR spec or if it's an alcohol etc) and they love doing flow chart questions with 'fill in the blanks'


as for maths, honestly the only way you can really revise and improve is doing questions, past papers but also the textbook questions are super useful,lots of people tend to not really pay attention to them but there's so many different types of questions per chapter and some of the harder ones are the exact types of "hard questions" you get in the exam.
If you can't get a question, try not to just look through the answers but also looking up question walkthroughs on youtube since they actually explain where bits of the question come from and what content they're referring to :smile:
(im guilty of looking at answer schemes and just saying "id kno
w that in the exam" spoiler : you will forget about it 😅)
Reply 6
Original post by MP_25
Original post by MP_25
Original post by justwanttodowell
Hi I am in Y12 doing Maths, Chemistry and Economics.
My strongest is probably maths, the economics then chemistry. I really want to improve in them all to hopefully get predicted A*A*A for UCAS. Does anyone have any tips (especially for chemsitry)


hey, i'm in yr 13 doing chem (OCR A) and maths (edexcel) and honestly as annoying as it's going to sound, for chem the thing i find best is just constantly going through past paper questions, and specifically reading through them to make sure you're doing the right thing cause the wording is going to catch you out so much.

as for learning content, i always find the definition booklets super useful (on PMT each alevel topic has a definition notes section) since there's a lot of particular definitions in physical chem - rates of reaction, enthalpy and entropy etc and those even if they don't specifically come up always help with constructing equations as well

for organic chem i recommend finding/making a mind map of all the synthesis routes all the reactants + conditions and making sure you memorise them as there are SO MANY "describe the reaction that may happen to get from compound X to compound Y (sometimes with an intermediate for which they'll tell you something about it, eg IR spec or if it's an alcohol etc) and they love doing flow chart questions with 'fill in the blanks'


as for maths, honestly the only way you can really revise and improve is doing questions, past papers but also the textbook questions are super useful,lots of people tend to not really pay attention to them but there's so many different types of questions per chapter and some of the harder ones are the exact types of "hard questions" you get in the exam.
If you can't get a question, try not to just look through the answers but also looking up question walkthroughs on youtube since they actually explain where bits of the question come from and what content they're referring to :smile:
(im guilty of looking at answer schemes and just saying "id kno
w that in the exam" spoiler : you will forget about it 😅)


also for content the PMT cheat sheets on each maths topic are also really useful to brush up on content as well before exams or to refer to whilst revisiting content if something just seems to slip your mind as they have the step by step method and any notations you might need too :smile:

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