How to be ready for the final year of your A-levels
With Year 12 finished, you’re already halfway through your A-level journey.
So what will year 13 be like?
To find out, we spoke to Sally Evans, who works as a school and college progression and engagement co-ordinator at Chichester College, as well as picking out some essential nuggets of advice from members of The Student Room who have now finished their A-levels.
Take a look at the pointers below for some first-hand insight into what’s coming in your final year of A-levels – and how you can be ready.
Independent study is a really big deal
Your first year of A-levels was already a step up. In Year 13, you need to move on even further.
Most teachers will expect you to do more than simply follow along with their lessons. They’ll want you to show your understanding of how the different areas of the subject come together. And they’ll want you to be building that knowledge with your own independent work, outside of the classroom.
"Our college does tend to ramp up the expectations for independent study towards the end of Year 12," says Sally from Chichester College. “Students are advised of the expected time they need to spend on independent study,"
This is year-round work. If you can keep a steady focus throughout Year 13 it will put you in great shape for the exams that come at the end.
"I have learnt that all the effort you put into Years 12 and 13 all go towards your final grades and it's not a case of doing two months of revision before your exams,” says The Student Room member username6182647, who finished their A-levels in 2023.
“I would recommend that you make sure you have a good revision/study method. Make sure in every lesson you understand the topic as this will help you remember things better."
“Academically it is a challenging year,” adds The Student Room member CatusStarbright. “Try your best to keep on top of your work throughout and ensure you keep your notes in order to help make revision as painless as possible.”
Read more: one student explains their tips on starting Year 13
But you can find a balance between studying and taking enough time for yourself
Building your academic knowledge is obviously key to doing well in Year 13, but making time for things outside of the classroom will help keep your head straight.
“You don’t have to be studying all the time,” says The Student Room member losientolizzy, who got A*A*A in English literature, English language and history in 2022. “You’ll see a bunch of students online doing those daft ‘Study with me for 12 hours’ videos, but you’ll just burn yourself out doing that.
“Short but frequent bursts are your best friend, as sitting down for hours will just make it harder to process information if you’re staring at it all day.”
“Take care of yourself!” adds The Student Room member Elisabeth Hughes. “Grades are not everything and you are more important than any piece of paper.
“It sounds cheesy, but A-levels will end so you want to make sure they're not your whole life. Take up a hobby, go out.
“I did guitar and screenwriting throughout my A-levels, and whilst I haven't picked up my textbook since, I've been performing live with my guitar and have made short films. Invest in yourself”
Read more: how to make a half-decent revision timetable
Ask for help wherever and whenever you need it
One of the things about A-level study is that teachers don’t treat you like a kid any more. But with less hand-holding comes the need to ask questions if there’s something you don’t get.
“Don’t be afraid to ask your teachers for help!” says losientolizzy. “It’s better to feel slightly awkward asking them about something you’re unsure about instead of not getting the grades you want on results day.”
“So many of my peers struggled with some of the content they were being taught and didn’t ask their lecturers for clarification,” says Squiggles1238. “If you’re struggling or stuck with some of the work, don’t struggle in silence. Ask your teacher, it’s what they’re there for!
“It’s much better to ask the questions while the topic is being taught, than to ask them when you come to revise it and find yourself stuck."
If you're really lucky, you might have some of those teachers who want to help so much, it's actually getting kind of irritating...
"If you have those annoying teachers hassling you to do homework or hella worrying when you do bad in a mock, be grateful for them as they GENUINELY CARE and want to see you do well,” says The Student Room member cloud_9_. “On results day, when you come out with amazing grades, they'll be the first ones you thank."
Friends can also be a great help during tough study times.
“Ask peers for help too,” says Squiggles1238. “You can work together to teach each other the parts you don’t understand about the content.”
“Remember everyone's in it together,” adds Bookworm_88. “There's a weird sort of bonding-over-mutual-suffering vibe in year 13, especially as you get closer to exam season and everyone starts to hunker down for exams.”
Review your work and keep testing yourself
If you can think of revision as something you're doing throughout your course – rather than just in the final six weeks – you’ll be saving yourself a whole heap of stress further down the line.
"My advice would be to start small with revision, such as 30-minute consolidation or making some flashcards from the lesson," says mollymop902. “Always stay on top of making revision material. Begin increasing the home workload, an hour, hour-and-a-half even.
“Don't underestimate the usefulness of revising in the holidays. February holiday may seem ages away from your exams, I felt the same. You may feel like it’s okay to spend the entire week doing anything but revision, but I plead you not to.
“Holidays are the most useful thing for making sure you get everything nailed before exam season comes up. Me personally, I spent the entire first week of Easter playing video games and regretted it once exam season came around.”
The Student Room member jc112 also recommends keeping revision ticking along. “Do revision little and often throughout the year - making sure to up it when you are doing mocks.
“However, coming up to your final exams do not start revising flat out too early: you will burn out. You need to find a balance between revising sensibly for how far away your exams are and then not revising at all. I would say step it up about Easter and then step it up again a few weeks before they start.
“Once you are in exam period give it your all. It is such a short period of time and the feeling of getting into your firm uni on results day is amazing.”
To help you focus on the right work, Muttley79 recommends a traffic light system for prioritising your ongoing revision. "Use every test formatively using the traffic light system to target revision” they say. “RED - got no or few marks - need to re-learn; AMBER - got at least half marks - focus on this area first as it will lead to rapid improvement; GREEN - got full marks or nearly full marks - just keep this topic ticking over."
You can make a start by getting prepared during the summer before Year 13
So there’s going to be lots to do. And while the summer holidays are great for decompressing from a busy Year 12, you can do yourself a favour by keeping on top of any work you’ve been set for the break.
“As workload increases in Year 13, it is worth making sure you are as up to date with your work as possible; using the summer to complete your summer projects,” says Sally from Chichester College.
“If you do not complete this work in the summer, it will add to what you have to do in the autumn term.”
Manage that and it will help you out in more ways than one.
“This has the added benefit of keeping you in a study mode, making it not so much of a shock making the transition into Year 13,” says Sally.
Read more: study, learning and revision tips from students who got A*s
The summer’s also good for getting through non-study tasks such as university applications
You can also use the summer to get the jump on things that could otherwise stress you out during this final year.
If you’re going to be making a university application, moving ahead with that will make your life easier later on.
"If you are going to university in 2025, it might feel early, but the more preparation you can do in the summer will save on time when you are really busy at the start of term," says Sally.
"Research as to the university courses take a lot of time, so investigate and try and you can attend summer open days. Your personal statement for university will take some time to complete, you could do this through the summer, so it is ready for review upon your return to college.
“It is worth looking at the relevant summer schools at universities; these will give you a good idea as to what university is like, and whether the subject you have chosen is for you. You could get work experience in the field you are looking to study to find out more about the subject and add this to your personal statement."
Keep going and you will get there
Year 13 is hard work - there’s no getting away from it. But stick with it and you can get to where you want to be.
“There will be many moments during Year 13 where you will fall down in a mock exam, or not understand something, or feel that time is running out,” says Tab_123, who got A*AA in their A-levels in 2022.
“But if you keep doing all the right things - finding a way of learning that works for you, having the resources…and creating realistic outlooks on universities and grade requirements - then things should fall into place.”
You might find it helps your focus to visualise what you want to get from A-levels. “The best motivation I got from school was you don’t want to be standing there on results day wishing you had done more,” says The Student Room member jc112. “You want to be standing there going ‘well, I gave it everything I could.’ ”
"At the end of the day, year 13 is a very important year and it’s a very work, work, work year, but it PAYS OFF," adds mollymop902. “Just stick to it and fantasise about the amazing university or apprenticeship you'll get once it’s all over."
