Self teaching AS-Level Maths, Chemistry and Physics

This is a thread for people who have chosen these A-Levels and would like to get a head-start to the courses by learning it over the long summer holidays we have ahead of us. :rolleyes:

Post how your revision is going, any questions you have or anything related to the courses.

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Reply 1

Faye_m

Self teaching Maths, c1 was fine. C2 book is a little more difficult but exam questions I find a lot easier then book questions. (Middle of c2) Will see what c3 brings in a week or 2.

Reply 2

Elcor

Original post by Faye_m

Self teaching Maths, c1 was fine. C2 book is a little more difficult but exam questions I find a lot easier then book questions. (Middle of c2) Will see what c3 brings in a week or 2.

What A-Levels have you chosen? :smile:

I have a C1 revision guide and I've skimmed over it but I don't think that alone is enough to really learn the methods you need. How did you learn it?

Reply 3

Red Fox

I'm going to learn all of physics and chem but also C1 C2 M1 S1 FP1, possibly M2. I've been reading my chem book and Unit 1 for OCR A seems very nice and simple for anyone who did OCR gateway science (separate sciences for C5 and C6). I love that the first physics unit is mostly calculations.

Reply 4

Elcor

Original post by Red Fox

I also find that the Chemistry and Physics AS courses have a lot of overlaps with the GCSE OCR Gateway content - usually in more detail than before.

What are you using to self teach the Maths modules?

Reply 5

Cluck

Doing double maths, chemistry, physics and history next year. I already know most of Core 1, so I'm planning to do C2 and M1 over the summer. As for the sciences, I have some textbooks to look over and chemistry especially I need to start learning as much as possible (I'm going 21st Century Science at GCSE which is useless). Ignoring history for the time being, I'll leave than one until college.

Reply 6

Red Fox

Original post by andersson

CGP revision guide and past papers from AQA website. It's not the method everyone but it work for me. I also have module textbooks for S1 and FP1, these go into more detail but it's not really necessary.

Reply 7

Red Fox

Original post by Cluck

Was gonna do History but then thought f*ck that I will fail and decided to do Further Maths instead :biggrin:

Reply 8

Knowing

I'll be doing Maths and Physics out of these subjects - not sure which exam boards however (definitely have Statistics 1 for OCR for Maths though)

Reply 9

Elcor

Original post by Red Fox

I have the CGP guide for C1 too, it's good but I don't think it's enough to really understand it. Have you used Maths Watch before for GCSE Maths? I sat GCSE Maths early using that and got an A* so it would be amazing if there was something like that for A-Level.

Reply 10

Elcor

Original post by Knowing

I'll be doing Maths and Physics out of these subjects - not sure which exam boards however (definitely have Statistics 1 for OCR for Maths though)

Check the prospectus or website for the sixth form/college you're going to and it should say what exam boards the subjects are on. :smile:

Reply 11

Red Fox

Original post by andersson

I have a big guide with C1, C2, S1, M1 and D1 in. I think it will be enough for the AS modules. A2 will need more detail. Not Maths Watch :frown:

, my teacher in year 8 and 9 used to put that on and not bother teaching us :biggrin:

. Luckily we got a new teacher in year 10 and sat my GCSE in June 2012 and got an A*.

Reply 12

Faye_m

I used CGP complete course book for c1, thought it was pretty good. C2 I'm using the official edexcel modular book. Past papers are really the key and practice!

Reply 13

Cluck

Original post by Red Fox

Was gonna do History but then thought f*ck that I will fail and decided to do Further Maths instead :biggrin:

That's exactly what I thought, but then I found out I could do both :smile:

Maths are the important ones!

Reply 14

Faye_m

Original post by andersson

What A-Levels have you chosen? :smile:

I have a C1 revision guide and I've skimmed over it but I don't think that alone is enough to really learn the methods you need. How did you learn it?

I'm just doing Maths, I already have APs from America which are equivalent to 2 a levels...

Reply 15

Westeros

I'm doing AS and A2 Chemistry next year, got my books ready for summer reading :biggrin:

Also A2 Maths (C3, C4, M1)

Reply 16

Red Fox

Original post by Cluck

That's exactly what I thought, but then I found out I could do both :smile:

Maths are the important ones!

I love learning about History but I hate writing essays. I picked it then told them I didn't want to do it. Then I had this period of regret thinking I should have stuck with History but then came to the realisation that I would probably fail anyway :redface:

Reply 17

Knowing

Original post by andersson

Check the prospectus or website for the sixth form/college you're going to and it should say what exam boards the subjects are on. :smile:

OK, from what I've checked from my prospectus so far, my subjects are:

Maths: OCR - Exam code 3890 (AS) 7890 (A2)
Further Maths: OCR - Exam code 3892 (AS) 7892 (A2)
Economics: OCR
Music: OCR
Physics: Unknown. (although the book we were told to buy is "Advanced Physics (Steve Adams, Jonathon Allday) but I'm not sure what exam board that is (hopefully it's the same as yours! :wink:

)

Reply 18

Red Fox

Original post by Westeros

I'm doing AS and A2 Chemistry next year, got my books ready for summer reading :biggrin:

Also A2 Maths (C3, C4, M1)

Good luck. I'm guessing you're a Year 13 in September?

Reply 19

JSHawkins

Original post by Red Fox

I love that the first physics unit is mostly calculations.

Not for the last year or two, OCR have taken to putting 4 or 5 mark wordy questions in. G481 in January included about 4 or 5 calculations and they were only worth 2 or 3 marks each.

I'd make sure you definitely know your stuff, it's a huge step up from GCSE, the fact you're already revising shows you'll probably do very well though. If there's one thing to get your head round, it'd be vector triangles. They help in pretty much every physics module over the two years.