Current Year 13 thread Mark I (2014-2015)

First A level (except for Spanish oral) is literally 2 weeks today.
Chemistry Paper 41 (the one worth most marks with CIE). So nervous. I need to get a bit over an A* because I got a low A at AS and CIE averages out between AS and A2 for an A*, not only A2.

Good luck . Oh wow, that's a cool system. Well it could be I mean.

Hmm it depends
If you had a bad day (like I did) it's going to consequence for 2 years, not one. It's good for very very top students who achieve 93-4% or more

Good luck . Oh wow, that's a cool system. Well it could be I mean.

What I mean it's good as AS is generally easier so if you do well in the first year, it reduces the pressure. But then if you get a surprising A* offer, you'll have to do extremely well to get an overall 90+% average. Imagine having just 80 UMS% at AS and having to get 100 at 2nd year .

I'm constantly getting 89% raw marks in all my physics papers (which in UMS is a bit higher I believe). No matter how hard I try, always the same marks.

I'm constantly getting 89% raw marks in all my physics papers (which in UMS is a bit higher I believe). No matter how hard I try, always the same marks.

Tbf, that's not the worst situation to be in. To improve try to keep learning rather than revising. What I mean by this go slightly beyond the syllabus to gain a deeper understanding of topics and maybe look at examples of how physics relates to real life. You obviously know the theory so just going over it repeatedly won't really help. Keep leaning


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If you're unhappy you can always swap grades with me
The mechanics/fields module in physics suddenly just became very difficult for me. I can apply formula and stuff but I don't know what the questions are asking me most of the time... Your grade is obviously very good- do you have any idea on how to understand what questions are asking you?

Hahaha Physics comes down to regurgitation and knowing when to apply formulae, which is the reason for why I prefer Chemistry over Physics (I like reasoning better than memorising). Do past papers but remember to go over the small things in your textbook you'd normally ignore. Past papers like asking you 'why' for the stuff you answer (or at least with CIE). In most cases, your textbook has a generic answer for those kind of questions.

That's the biggest problem with A Level physics, it's nothing like actual physics! That's why I took all the further pure maths modules and mechanics modules I could in maths, as I knew they would be far more useful for actual physics at uni

I agree. The mechanic modules I do in FM are a lot more interesting.
The Spanish Baccalaureate's Physics (I have friends doing it) is a lot more like Mechanics.

That's the biggest problem with A Level physics, it's nothing like actual physics! That's why I took all the further pure maths modules and mechanics modules I could in maths, as I knew they would be far more useful for actual physics at uni

Hahaha Physics comes down to regurgitation and knowing when to apply formulae, which is the reason for why I prefer Chemistry over Physics (I like reasoning better than memorising). Do past papers but remember to go over the small things in your textbook you'd normally ignore. Past papers like asking you 'why' for the stuff you answer (or at least with CIE). In most cases, your textbook has a generic answer for those kind of questions.

Thank you for your advice. I'm about to do another past paper now haha wish me luck.