A level physics in one year

Its possible mate, I know because I done it myself

I didn't do any resits alongside, I just done the whole physics a-level in 1 year, and got an A*.

My biggest heads up for you, is the practical assessment, which altogether counts for 20% of the A-level marks (I think this is correct for all exam boards, you can double check this). You would need to find somewhere to do the practical assessment, which is tough, not many schools/colleges/exam centres could facilitate this, but there are some though (they could be pricey, so bear that in mind). Before you set your mind on doing this whole a-level, sort out where you'll do the practical, because if you can't do the practical, then you're throwing away 20% of marks, which means that you would need to score full UMS in all your written units just to scrap an A grade.

I self studied, got myself a few textbooks and just worked through the pages, and occasionally I'd come on TSR or physicsforum to ask questions if I get stuck on something. There are also loads of youtube videos as well to help. You can really find a lot of resources and help online, the best thing is that they're FREE!

Be committed, and stick to a regular work schedule, trust me it'll help massively. I went off the rails for a while this year, got lazy, literally didn't do any physics work for 2-3 months and that made my life a whole lot tougher, as I had to cram loads of stuff in the weeks leading up to the exams.

PM me if you want further advice or info

Reply 2

Original post by Jack93o

Its possible mate, I know because I done it myself

I didn't do any resits alongside, I just done the whole physics a-level in 1 year, and got an A*.

My biggest heads up for you, is the practical assessment, which altogether counts for 20% of the A-level marks (I think this is correct for all exam boards, you can double check this). You would need to find somewhere to do the practical assessment, which is tough, not many schools/colleges/exam centres could facilitate this, but there are some though (they could be pricey, so bear that in mind). Before you set your mind on doing this whole a-level, sort out where you'll do the practical, because if you can't do the practical, then you're throwing away 20% of marks, which means that you would need to score full UMS in all your written units just to scrap an A grade.

I self studied, got myself a few textbooks and just worked through the pages, and occasionally I'd come on TSR or physicsforum to ask questions if I get stuck on something. There are also loads of youtube videos as well to help. You can really find a lot of resources and help online, the best thing is that they're FREE!

Be committed, and stick to a regular work schedule, trust me it'll help massively. I went off the rails for a while this year, got lazy, literally didn't do any physics work for 2-3 months and that made my life a whole lot tougher, as I had to cram loads of stuff in the weeks leading up to the exams.

PM me if you want further advice or info

i was just wondering what resources you used for example you said you used a lot of stuff online, do you have any links to the youtube pages and other resources? if so that would be a great help as i am doing the physics a level in one year i've done the practical unit 3 out of the way but isnt there another one in A2? thanks mate

Reply 3

OP

Original post by Jack93o

Its possible mate, I know because I done it myself

I didn't do any resits alongside, I just done the whole physics a-level in 1 year, and got an A*.

My biggest heads up for you, is the practical assessment, which altogether counts for 20% of the A-level marks (I think this is correct for all exam boards, you can double check this). You would need to find somewhere to do the practical assessment, which is tough, not many schools/colleges/exam centres could facilitate this, but there are some though (they could be pricey, so bear that in mind). Before you set your mind on doing this whole a-level, sort out where you'll do the practical, because if you can't do the practical, then you're throwing away 20% of marks, which means that you would need to score full UMS in all your written units just to scrap an A grade.

I self studied, got myself a few textbooks and just worked through the pages, and occasionally I'd come on TSR or physicsforum to ask questions if I get stuck on something. There are also loads of youtube videos as well to help. You can really find a lot of resources and help online, the best thing is that they're FREE!

Be committed, and stick to a regular work schedule, trust me it'll help massively. I went off the rails for a while this year, got lazy, literally didn't do any physics work for 2-3 months and that made my life a whole lot tougher, as I had to cram loads of stuff in the weeks leading up to the exams.

PM me if you want further advice or info

wow thanks alot for the info - I think the sixth I just left will let me do the practicals for a small fee, well I hope so anyway.

If you could specify the resources you used it would be really appreciated, it's good to speak to someone who's done this before.

With the new exam regulations, I'll have to do all the exams in June, do you think this will be a hindrance?

Reply 4

Original post by VSVP

i was just wondering what resources you used for example you said you used a lot of stuff online, do you have any links to the youtube pages and other resources? if so that would be a great help as i am doing the physics a level in one year i've done the practical unit 3 out of the way but isnt there another one in A2? thanks mate

This guy was particularly helpful:http://www.youtube.com/user/DrPhysicsA

I literally just typed in 'a level physics' on youtube, and thats how I found him

check these out as well:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF71B362214423F9D
http://www.youtube.com/user/diggitydev/videos?shelf_index=2&sort=dd&view=1

there are a load of websites listed here:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Physics_Websites

Theres so many, I used only about 1-2 of them, I used this one a bit: http://www.antonine-education.co.uk/

Quite often, if I get stuck on something, I'd just google it. If you search for something, and you're afraid google will turn up something too complicated, make sure you look only at past threads/questions from TSR, because questions on here are typically from people doing A-levels, so the explanation given here should be reasonably understandable. So for example, if you want to find out about lenz law, google: tsr lenz law, and click on the tsr links

and yeah, there another practical in A2, this is definitely true for AQA and edexcel. What exam board are you with?

also, in the run-up to the exams, make sure you do past papers, it should be on the exam board's own website

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 5

Original post by tr12

wow thanks alot for the info - I think the sixth I just left will let me do the practicals for a small fee, well I hope so anyway.

If you could specify the resources you used it would be really appreciated, it's good to speak to someone who's done this before.

With the new exam regulations, I'll have to do all the exams in June, do you think this will be a hindrance?

Online resources I used are in the post above, I went on youtube loads, mainly to consolidate my understanding. Some times I just can't be bothered to read, so I'd watch a few videos. I think I liked the variety, because it can be boring just sitting at a desk and reading/writing, but do what you're comfortable with.

I mostly used my exam board's textbooks, they were my main source of learning. Whats your exam board? I was with AQA-A, so maybe I could give you a few more pointers.

As for doing all the exams in june, I don't think its much of a hinderance. Apart from unit 1, I did all my exams in june, Theres a bit of extra pressure in knowing that theres no re-sits avaliable, but tbh when I did my unit 1 exam in january, in that moment in the exam room, it wasn't like I felt more comfortable than when I did my other exams in june. You've got to make sure you know your stuff and revise thoroughly, only that will give you the confidence to do well. It helps that this subject is pretty 'objective' in the sense that the answer is either right or wrong, its not like history or engligh lit for example. So if you've revised adequately and done past papers well enough, theres not a lot that can go wrong in the actual exam

I would add that doing all your exams in june, ensures that you won't completely forget the stuff in the earlier units. It forces you to learn the subject as a whole, rather than in fragmented parts, which is better because in unit 5 (for AQA, probably the same for other exam boards as well), it will draw on some content from previous units. So thats a little benefit.

Reply 6

OP

Original post by Jack93o

Online resources I used are in the post above, I went on youtube loads, mainly to consolidate my understanding. Some times I just can't be bothered to read, so I'd watch a few videos. I think I liked the variety, because it can be boring just sitting at a desk and reading/writing, but do what you're comfortable with.

I mostly used my exam board's textbooks, they were my main source of learning. Whats your exam board? I was with AQA-A, so maybe I could give you a few more pointers.

As for doing all the exams in june, I don't think its much of a hinderance. Apart from unit 1, I did all my exams in june, Theres a bit of extra pressure in knowing that theres no re-sits avaliable, but tbh when I did my unit 1 exam in january, in that moment in the exam room, it wasn't like I felt more comfortable than when I did my other exams in june. You've got to make sure you know your stuff and revise thoroughly, only that will give you the confidence to do well. It helps that this subject is pretty 'objective' in the sense that the answer is either right or wrong, its not like history or engligh lit for example. So if you've revised adequately and done past papers well enough, theres not a lot that can go wrong in the actual exam

I would add that doing all your exams in june, ensures that you won't completely forget the stuff in the earlier units. It forces you to learn the subject as a whole, rather than in fragmented parts, which is better because in unit 5 (for AQA, probably the same for other exam boards as well), it will draw on some content from previous units. So thats a little benefit.

thanks this is really reassuring! How many hours in total roughly do you think you spent on learning and revising the entire course? Were there any points you just felt like saying '**** it' and stopping? If so how did you remotivate(?) yourself? Sorry if it's like 21 questions but I could really benefit from your experience.

Reply 7

Original post by tr12

thanks this is really reassuring! How many hours in total roughly do you think you spent on learning and revising the entire course? Were there any points you just felt like saying '**** it' and stopping? If so how did you remotivate(?) yourself? Sorry if it's like 21 questions but I could really benefit from your experience.

Hard to put a number to the total hours I worked for this, but I'll give an account of my year:

So I decide around this time last year (maybe a bit later, towards late august?) that I would do A-level physics in one year to get into uni for my course.. But from that point, until some time in the middle of december, I didn't work. It was mostly due to complacency, I felt like I had absolutely ages to learn the stuff, considering it was only one A-level. I was also sorting out UCAS, so I kept on putting off the time when I'd start actually teaching myself. So it was about 3-4 months of not doing anything physics-wise.

then for about a month between the middle of december and the middle of january, I worked pretty much hard for my unit 1 exam, and got an A grade in it (90% of UMS to be precise). Average of about 6-7 hours each day I think, thats a very rough estimate.

then from the beginning February to the middle of march, I worked at a steady pace, normal level of intensity, about maybe 2-3 hours each day. It was pretty comfortable, chilled. I was learning unit 2 and unit 4 stuff. Unit 2 didn't take too long actually, mainly because a lot of it was mechanics, and I did A-level maths with mechanics modules, so that helped massively.

then from the middle of march to the each of april, I dozed off, done only a little work. Probably done less than 8 hours work in the whole of this period.

then from around the beginning of may onwards to my last physics exam in late june, I worked flat out, average of 6-7 hours each day, although obviously the nearer it got to the exams, the harder I worked, so for example between my unit 4 and unit 5 exam, I would work up to 12-14 hours for some days, but obviously I would break it up into chunks, have many breaks in between, rather than do 12-14 continuous hours. Still, it was a rather hellish experience though.

I do have to add, that I did my practical assessments right at the beginning of May. For these, I didn't think i prepared adequately, mainly because I was doing this subject independently and there didn't have the lab experience from you would if you went to class. There are past papers of these practical assessments, so I looked through those, and also in my textbooks, there was a small section on it, so I read that as well, that was all I did really. I really thought I bombed the assessment (tbh I was only aiming at getting 50% of marks, this would still give me a good enough chance at getting an A grade overall), but I actually done alright, getting an A and a B in the two units, so I ended up getting roughly 75% of the marks. IMO, the practicals are a bit of a hit and miss, particularly if you're not going to have regular lab sessions like when you're in school, which was why I wasn't so much counting on them to get my required grades, I was just hoping that I could limit how badly I'd do :lol:

so yeah, thats my personal account of doing A-level physics in one year

Were there any points you just felt like saying '**** it' and stopping?

Yeah when I was cramming loads of content in, especially during the frantic period of May. There were times in the early hours of the morning, when I can't help but think that I should just give up. But they were just fleeting moments, by that stage, I was just weeks from taking the exams, so giving up altogether would've been stupid. You could avoid all this and make you're life easier, by not wasting so much time in the year doing no learning/revision.

Sometimes simply not understanding something, or not having an important concept sink into my head, also made me think of quitting. But for each time this happened, I got there in the end, by simply spending more time thinking, or looking at other sources of explanation, which you find a lot on the internet. There are many helpful people in the physics part of tsr, and also on physicsforum.com who helped explain stuff to me. I guess this partly answers your question about how I maintained my motivation, I remained motivated, by increasing my understanding each time I got stuck. Theres an immense sense of relief and progression each time I got out of a jam with something which I didn't understand. So that kept me going. Its almost self-fulfilling, you have to start off being determined, and it is that determination which keeps you going when you're trying to understand something quite difficult, and once you do 'get it', theres a morale boost, and your motivation just feeds off that.

But you might ask, how do I start off being determined and motivated in the first place?

Well for me it was pretty simple, I wanted to go to uni, and the course that I wanted to do required physics at an A*-A grade. I tried to keep that in mind every time I felt like not being bothered. Still in my case, I had months when I wasn't doing any work. The beginning few months (from august to december) was due to a mixture of complacency, other distractions, doing my UCAS, and I suppose a bit of indecision with myself on whether I was really going to go for the course I chose and about doing this A-level in one year. Then from mid-march to end of april, I also slacked off, a major reason why I just suddenly stopped, was because I got rejected from the uni I really wanted to go to, that was a let down, kinda sucked my motivation and energy away. But to be quite frank, a large part was just sheer laziness :tongue:

Just to add as well, going to public libraries and seeing other people knuckle down on their studies can help get you motivated.

Holy ****, did I really write all this? a wall of text :lol:

Reply 8

OP

Original post by Jack93o

Hard to put a number to the total hours I worked for this, but I'll give an account of my year:

So I decide around this time last year (maybe a bit later, towards late august?) that I would do A-level physics in one year to get into uni for my course.. But from that point, until some time in the middle of december, I didn't work. It was mostly due to complacency, I felt like I had absolutely ages to learn the stuff, considering it was only one A-level. I was also sorting out UCAS, so I kept on putting off the time when I'd start actually teaching myself. So it was about 3-4 months of not doing anything physics-wise.

then for about a month between the middle of december and the middle of january, I worked pretty much hard for my unit 1 exam, and got an A grade in it (90% of UMS to be precise). Average of about 6-7 hours each day I think, thats a very rough estimate.

then from the beginning February to the middle of march, I worked at a steady pace, normal level of intensity, about maybe 2-3 hours each day. It was pretty comfortable, chilled. I was learning unit 2 and unit 4 stuff. Unit 2 didn't take too long actually, mainly because a lot of it was mechanics, and I did A-level maths with mechanics modules, so that helped massively.

then from the middle of march to the each of april, I dozed off, done only a little work. Probably done less than 8 hours work in the whole of this period.

then from around the beginning of may onwards to my last physics exam in late june, I worked flat out, average of 6-7 hours each day, although obviously the nearer it got to the exams, the harder I worked, so for example between my unit 4 and unit 5 exam, I would work up to 12-14 hours for some days, but obviously I would break it up into chunks, have many breaks in between, rather than do 12-14 continuous hours. Still, it was a rather hellish experience though.

I do have to add, that I did my practical assessments right at the beginning of May. For these, I didn't think i prepared adequately, mainly because I was doing this subject independently and there didn't have the lab experience from you would if you went to class. There are past papers of these practical assessments, so I looked through those, and also in my textbooks, there was a small section on it, so I read that as well, that was all I did really. I really thought I bombed the assessment (tbh I was only aiming at getting 50% of marks, this would still give me a good enough chance at getting an A grade overall), but I actually done alright, getting an A and a B in the two units, so I ended up getting roughly 75% of the marks. IMO, the practicals are a bit of a hit and miss, particularly if you're not going to have regular lab sessions like when you're in school, which was why I wasn't so much counting on them to get my required grades, I was just hoping that I could limit how badly I'd do :lol:

so yeah, thats my personal account of doing A-level physics in one year

Were there any points you just felt like saying '**** it' and stopping?

Yeah when I was cramming loads of content in, especially during the frantic period of May. There were times in the early hours of the morning, when I can't help but think that I should just give up. But they were just fleeting moments, by that stage, I was just weeks from taking the exams, so giving up altogether would've been stupid. You could avoid all this and make you're life easier, by not wasting so much time in the year doing no learning/revision.

Sometimes simply not understanding something, or not having an important concept sink into my head, also made me think of quitting. But for each time this happened, I got there in the end, by simply spending more time thinking, or looking at other sources of explanation, which you find a lot on the internet. There are many helpful people in the physics part of tsr, and also on physicsforum.com who helped explain stuff to me. I guess this partly answers your question about how I maintained my motivation, I remained motivated, by increasing my understanding each time I got stuck. Theres an immense sense of relief and progression each time I got out of a jam with something which I didn't understand. So that kept me going. Its almost self-fulfilling, you have to start off being determined, and it is that determination which keeps you going when you're trying to understand something quite difficult, and once you do 'get it', theres a morale boost, and your motivation just feeds off that.

But you might ask, how do I start off being determined and motivated in the first place?

Well for me it was pretty simple, I wanted to go to uni, and the course that I wanted to do required physics at an A*-A grade. I tried to keep that in mind every time I felt like not being bothered. Still in my case, I had months when I wasn't doing any work. The beginning few months (from august to december) was due to a mixture of complacency, other distractions, doing my UCAS, and I suppose a bit of indecision with myself on whether I was really going to go for the course I chose and about doing this A-level in one year. Then from mid-march to end of april, I also slacked off, a major reason why I just suddenly stopped, was because I got rejected from the uni I really wanted to go to, that was a let down, kinda sucked my motivation and energy away. But to be quite frank, a large part was just sheer laziness :tongue:

Just to add as well, going to public libraries and seeing other people knuckle down on their studies can help get you motivated.

Holy ****, did I really write all this? a wall of text :lol:

Jesus christ I think I'm going to be referring to this throughout the entire year! I don't really have anything else to ask you seem to have covered it all wow... Just a few more things (swear). What are you studying and where? Also where did you really want to go and why do you think you were unsuccessful? How did you recover from the rejection and finally (FINALLY you're probably thinking :colondollar:

) what one pieve of advice would you give to someone who's about to go through what you went through?

eternal thanks (highest form of gratitude)

Reply 9

I will also say thanks to you for that huge piece of text! I'm doing a level physics in one year too hope you can help during the year! :smile:

Reply 10

OP

Original post by VSVP

I will also say thanks to you for that huge piece of text! I'm doing a level physics in one year too hope you can help during the year! :smile:

Are you going to be doing any other modules or just physics?

Reply 11

Original post by tr12

Are you going to be doing any other modules or just physics?

I'm doing Maths too in one year... Did you teach yourself at home then? Really appreciate all your help from your messages above :smile:

Reply 12

OP

Original post by VSVP

I'm doing Maths too in one year... Did you teach yourself at home then? Really appreciate all your help from your messages above :smile:

I think you've got the wrong poster - I'm just the one asking for help! I'm going to be doing a level physics in this year as well fingers crossed. When are you going to get started? We could help each other out!

Reply 13

Original post by tr12

I think you've got the wrong poster - I'm just the one asking for help! I'm going to be doing a level physics in this year as well fingers crossed. When are you going to get started? We could help each other out!

oh my bad mate, sorry lol still getting used to TSR! ha i've had it for ages but never really used it till now... Yeah i'm starting September and finishing next June, when are you starting? Have you only just started A-Levels?... Yeah no doubt i dont mind helping out if you dont mind either! :smile:

Reply 14

OP

Original post by VSVP

oh my bad mate, sorry lol still getting used to TSR! ha i've had it for ages but never really used it till now... Yeah i'm starting September and finishing next June, when are you starting? Have you only just started A-Levels?... Yeah no doubt i dont mind helping out if you dont mind either! :smile:

I've just done my A levels and got AAB in chemistry maths and fmaths. I needed 1ums in either unit 4 or 5 of chemistry to get an A* and now awaiting remarks. Unfortunately I didn't get in either my firm/insurance and I don't want to go through clearing so I'm on an enforced gap year.

I plan on retaking c3/4 to get an a* in maths and resit fp3 to get an A in fmaths. I really don't want to resit an entire chem unit just for 1ums but if my remark comes back as I fear it will I guess I'll have to.

Depending on the workload and how much time I'm willing to put in I could be just doing as physics but atm I'm hopeful of doing the full a level. I'd be glad to exchange assistance!

Reply 15

Original post by tr12

Jesus christ I think I'm going to be referring to this throughout the entire year! I don't really have anything else to ask you seem to have covered it all wow... Just a few more things (swear). What are you studying and where? Also where did you really want to go and why do you think you were unsuccessful? How did you recover from the rejection and finally (FINALLY you're probably thinking :colondollar:

) what one pieve of advice would you give to someone who's about to go through what you went through?

eternal thanks (highest form of gratitude)

I'm off to bristol now

I initially really wanted to get into UCL for physics.

why I wasn't successful?

too much competition apparently, at least that was the official reason given to me when I phoned them up to ask. It could be any number of things in my application which let me down against the other applicants. The guy on the phone did make the point of saying to me that their don't just consider grades/predicted grades. So perhaps it was my personal statement that was a bit weak? don't know for sure tbh

I preferred to stay in london, and ucl was my top choice. But I grew more okay with the idea of moving out to another city. No-one gets everything they want, I just had to man the **** up really. Like I said, it wasn't just because of getting rejected by ucl which caused me to stop revising and slack off, although that did hit me hard. I got lazy, also I started thinking about changing my course at uni, so that was a major distraction. Tbh I was never 100% sure on physics, I just knew that I wanted to go into the maths-physics area, I considered a number of courses. Being able to apply to ucl and thinking I had a good chance of getting a offer from them pushed me over to apply for physics.

I 'recovered' from this set-back by eventually making a decision on my uni and course, and I just kinda got a grip of myself again. The sense that my first written exam was just over a month away shook me up, especially as I still hadn't even started learning unit 5 (in addition I had about a quarter of unit 4 to learn), and that was the urgency that brought me to action. But of course, this is NOT the ideal way to 'recover' a period of non-productivity, because by that stage, time was already short and I had to really start cramming. The later I started working again, the harder it was to actually start working, thats why you should make sure that you're always doing at least some work.

My biggest advice to you is first of all, be decisive - is this what you want? are you sure you want to study the course you chosen? Being indecisive and constantly putting off decisions until later, is a major distraction, you don't want that. Also, knowing what you're working towards and being certain about it, is a big help, because you have a fixed target to work towards.

Second, plan ahead and be realistic. So if you've took my first advice, and you're now sure about doing this A-level physics in one year to get into your desired course, the next most important thing you need to do, is make sure you complete the mission. Plan your work schedule, i.e. spend 3 hours every day for the rest of the year working on physics, or say you're going to spend x amount of weeks on unit 1/number of chapters. And then stick to it.

However, be realistic thought, 3 hours may be too much to stick to for every day. If so, just set a small task for yourself which is the minimum you'd have to do, i.e. I'll have AT LEAST to read through two pages of the textbook every day (just set yourself a small task like that). So even if you do get lazy, I'm sure you'll still manage such a small task as that, its only two pages to read. That way, you'll constantly maintain progression, even if it is very little, its quite satisfying to have completed a task. Its easier than simply not doing any work for days/weeks and then suddenly having to pick it up again. So yeah, being realistic about yourself helps, constant 3 hours of work for everyday throughout the whole year is tough to commit to, I know I didn't manage it, so you might just want to say to yourself, ''3-5 hours of solid work is what I'll like to do for most days, but if I can't manage it for whatever reason, getting through 2 pages in the textbook is the bare minimum I'll do''. So you have a lesser target to fall back on if you do get lazy on some days. Basically make sure that for pretty much every day of the year, you are doing at least some work. Since all your exams are in June, aim for finish going over the entire A-level with months to spare.

I cannot stress this enough, make sure that throughout the time, keep a note of any bits which you have difficulty with or something which you haven't understood. That way, you can go back and put an extra emphasis on strengthening those areas of weakness in your knowledge, this is the 'smart way' of learning IMO, so many people make the mistake of using so much of their time on things that they've already got the hang of. Don't get me wrong though, going over every topic, including things you understand, is totally fine, in fact you want to do this, so you don't get 'rusty' on them, but just keep in mind that your priority should be on patching on your weaknesses first. After you've done that, you can revise over everything else, do this again and again.... :tongue:

Thats it for now. I think I'll still be around TSR throughout this year if you or anyone else want more advice or tips. I know this feel of doing an A-level in one year :yes:

.

Reply 16

OP

You're a ****ing ledge

Reply 17

physicso

13

Original post by Jack93o

.

Alright dude, this isn't my thread but im also self teaching physics this year to get into an physics course at Bristol. Was sorry to hear about your rejection but Bristol is a much cooler city anyway! :wink:

I was wondering two things:
What books did you use? I was planning on using the official AQA ones and the internet, and also, does your A2 ISA mark count towards the A* grade? for example, do you have to get 90% over all three A2 modules?

Thanks, and awesome job on the A*

Reply 18

Original post by physicso

Alright dude, this isn't my thread but im also self teaching physics this year to get into an physics course at Bristol. Was sorry to hear about your rejection but Bristol is a much cooler city anyway! :wink:

I was wondering two things:
What books did you use? I was planning on using the official AQA ones and the internet, and also, does your A2 ISA mark count towards the A* grade? for example, do you have to get 90% over all three A2 modules?

Thanks, and awesome job on the A*

yeah bristol's alright, I'm looking forward to moving up there :biggrin:

My exam board was AQA-A, so I used these the two official textbooks mainly:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/AQA-Physics-AS-Students-Book/dp/0748782826/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376940987&sr=8-1&keywords=aqa+a+physics
http://www.amazon.co.uk/AQA-Physics-A2-Students-Book/dp/0748782818/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1376940987&sr=8-2&keywords=aqa+a+physics

I also used these as well:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Student-Support-Materials-AQA-Electricity/dp/0007343833/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376941089&sr=8-1&keywords=aqa+a+physics+unit+1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Student-Support-Materials-AQA-Physics/dp/0007343868/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376941132&sr=8-1&keywords=aqa+a+physics+unit+5 - this one was particularly useful, because in the official A2 textbook, it doesn't actually contain anything on unit 5 section B's optional topics, so thats like half of unit 5 it doesn't have, weird eh?

I used some other books for a bit which I took out from my local library, books like the CGP revision guides. Although not absolutely essential, you might want to check these out as well: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Advanced-Science-Ken-Dobson/dp/0007267495/ref=sr_1_34?ie=UTF8&qid=1376941518&sr=8-34&keywords=a+level+physics
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Advanced-Physics-Science-Steve-Adams/dp/0199146802/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1376941395&sr=8-17&keywords=a+level+physics

apparently they're pretty in-depth and good

Yeah, the A2 ISA mark does count towards the A*. Basically for all your A2 modules (two written units and the practical assessment), you need to average 90% or more to get the A*. Another way to think of it is this, this whole A-level is out of 600 UMS, the A2 half is out of 300 UMS, so you need to get at least 270 UMS (90% of 300) in it. It doesn't matter where you get the UMS's from in the A2 modules, you just need them to total to at least 270. But to get the A*, you also need to make sure that your overall UMS mark (out of 600) for the whole A-level is at least 480 (80% of 600).

For me personally, I only just scrapped the A*, I got 271 UMS in my A2, had I got 2 less, I would've got an A grade instead.

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