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Can you skip AS levels?

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Uhmm, I think I once heard somewhere that an A* in GCSE is kind of equivalent to the work needed for a C/D in A level.

I don't think I can explain to you just how different and hard it is.. In GCSE they spoon feed you all the stuff you need to know whereas in A level you have loads of independent reading and stuff to do. You've angered a lot of people here lol but I don't think any of us knew much about A levels when we were doing GCSE :/ it's good that you're thinking ahead.

Trust us though; my friend who got straight A's and A*'s is having to resit the year because they got too complacent. One way to challenge yourself could be to see if you could do an extra A level I guess, you might have to teach yourself some of the stuff if it doesn't fit in the timetable though.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 61

stuckinthemud2

Original post by rainbowmagpie

dont appli to meh im 2 advanced for a level
my teacha told me :wink:

im going oxford uni tomorrow to dissect an ant

Reply 62

master_blaster66

well done to thread starter of making such a stupid thread and achieving 61 neg reps uptill now :smile:

...i hope you get more :smile:

Reply 63

Lol_Fish

You can't because firstly an a level is composed of AS unit + A2 units, to form the overall A level. Second of all, A2 is building on from AS knowledge, if you skip the AS... well, you can't build on knowledge that isn't there? : P

Reply 64

Lol_Fish

Original post by Wodeford

They've always seemed pretty pointless to me. I'm looking for a challenge, and I'd love to skip straight to A levels. I'm set to get mainly A*'s at GCSE having achieved A*'s in all of my exams so far. Would I be able to do, for instance, History, Ancient History and Classical Civilisation A2 and an AS in Maths for my first year in college and then go on to do A2's in Geography, Philosophy, Maths and Economics in the second year?

Want a challenge? How about you do the following. "Chemistry" "Physics" "Biology" "Further mathematics" and "Thinking and reasoning, I'm pretty sure 6 AS's should be easy, for "You".
:lies:

Reply 65

Like_A_G6

You may have done well at GCSE, but that's no guarantee for A Levels. I doubt you're getting A*s if you haven't figured out AS + A2 = A Level. GCSE grade boundaries - 55% for an A*; Maths A level grade boundary - 72/75 for an A*

Reply 66

Wodeford

Original post by James A

quit embarrassing yourself, go stick to your general certificate of secondary education before progressing to AS (advanced subsidary) incase you didn't realise.

I did realise actually, the whole idea of something being subsidiary is to prepare you for something else, which in my mind separated it from the actual thing. Y'know.

Reply 67

abc:)

Original post by Wodeford

No because your grade in your AS goes towards your A-level overall. Plus how stuck up. AS is most definitely a challenge, you think you're the only person ever to have got all A*s?

Reply 68

amirlad

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1675050

you couldn't handle gcse english, yet you think you're god enough for A2s without ASs? makes sense, go for it :clap2:

Reply 69

Wodeford

Original post by amirlad

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1675050

you couldn't handle gcse english, yet you think you're god enough for A2s without ASs? makes sense, go for it :clap2:

Firstly, I'm not taking English
Secondly, you're a creepy **** for going through my posts.

Reply 70

Intriguing Alias

Aw I feel sorry for the kid, he wasn't even trolling and was genuinely mistaken, gets insulted and 70+ negs, hang in there! :tongue:

Reply 71

Mission

Original post by amirlad

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1675050

you couldn't handle gcse english, yet you think you're god enough for A2s without ASs? makes sense, go for it :clap2:

He wants to do two degrees as well bless.

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?p=34704675

Reply 72

El Guerrouj

Original post by Wodeford

Firstly, I'm not taking English
Secondly, you're a creepy **** for going through my posts.

But you do want to take History, and generally people who are good at English are good at History and vice-versa because they use the same skill set.

Also he is not a creepy **** for going through your posts, that's what the function is there for. :rolleyes:

Reply 73

sabik123

So you thought you just do Advance Subsidiary for the sake of it?

Reply 74

username445084

76 negs in the space of a day, impressive.

bump

Trololololololol

Original post by franzk

bump

Why are you bumping this? You didn't even start the thread? :s-smilie:

Reply 78

Jack Dolan

Original post by Wodeford

I did realise actually, the whole idea of something being subsidiary is to prepare you for something else, which in my mind separated it from the actual thing. Y'know.

I think this is more than fair enough. If it had never been explicitly explained to me then I would find it easy to assume that the qualification revolves around the second year exams. Certainly it used to be the case that all exams were sat in the second year and some qualifications such as pre-U (which are deemed more rigorous than A-Level) still have all of their exams at the end of the course. Needless to say, I didn't know the format of the A-level when I was doing GCSEs, and to all of you posting saying that you do, I'd guess it's only because you've actually experienced the A-level system. When you were 14/15/16 I'm sure that the majority of you had no idea.

On topic, A-Levels are difficult for I'd say 95% of people. From what I've found of people in my age group, there are a 5% or so who achieve consistent high grades at A-level with little work. I got straight A*'s at GCSE and have worked maybe a little harder for A-levels but ultimately don't find I have to put much work in to achieve top grades. There are a lot of people who get great grades at GCSE then do badly at A-level however, so bear this in mind.

Regardless, I'd agree with what another poster put; rather than take everything over a year, span it out over the two years, take 5 or 6, or even 7 subjects if you're finding you're not pushed hard enough, read around the subject, get work experience, maybe a part time job, then you'll have a good idea of your plans for the future. Remember that ultimately you'll only need three/four A-Levels to get into university, so don't feel that you need to push yourself unnecessarily hard.