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How hard really are A-levels?

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A Levels themselves aren't hard; if you put the time and effort in, you'll be rewarded. If you doss about and do eff all then yah, it'll be much trickier to get the grades you want/deserve.
Original post by Wan Hury
Wagwan. I was wondering if I could get some honest feedback of how life is like whilst studying for your A-levels. I'm starting them in September (hopefully) and I wanted to know what people think of it. I already know it's one of the toughest things anyone could ever do, but other than that, is there anything else? Thanks


They are really easy. Ignore the students who say that language subjects or humanities subjects are hard. They probably have never done Chemistry, Physics or Biology. Social sciences (Humanities) and Language subjects are extremely easy.

Do not btw take subjects you enjoy/like to study. It is not that simple. Take subjects which are relevant to the course you plan to study at university. I highly recommend taking Maths, it is needed/appreciated for almost any course.
Original post by balanced
You can revise the whole geog course in like 3 days pretty well (this is aqa)


Is geography bad? arghh please dont say that its like the only subject I enjoy (well the physical side of things I dont like human very much)
Original post by willsp8
Is geography bad? arghh please dont say that its like the only subject I enjoy (well the physical side of things I dont like human very much)


By far the easiest a level for me, I allocated it 5% of my revision time in my timetable
Reply 124
Original post by sunshine774
I want to take Chemistry. What is so bad about it?:s-smilie:


don't let me stop u taking it! It's a massive step up from GCSE and the content is completely different. U are advised strongly to take maths along side it too because of the high maths content.... Basically it's incredibly difficult
As long as you don't leave your revision late and take opportunities from your college to help in learning then you will be fine. Seen many people who started revising later on and didn't ask teachers about things they didn't understand till the study leave and they got stressed out. I personally got massively stressed out but mostly at a subject I wasn't good at normally due to it being essay based and in mocks/past papers I either did well or badly, barely ever got a meh grade. I also did revision rather late for some subjects but wasn't that bad since I understood a lot of stuff.
I'm doing my AS maths alongside my GCSEs atm and I have had to put a lot of work into maths compared to other subjects so A-levels are much harder than GCSEs although I think it will be nice being able to focus on fewer subjects. Next year I am doing A2 maths as well as AS physics, chemistry then probably bio or geog (I wanted to do english but doesn't line up on my option block thing). Planning on doing all further maths in year 13. I'm not sure if the A-levels are going to be linear or AS, hopefully they'll be separated- IDK what my school is doing about that. Also people saying that languages are easier than sciences, it just depends where your strengths lie. I am going to be pretty lucky to get a B in french, perhaps even a C but I'm getting As or A*s in everything else.
Original post by balanced
By far the easiest a level for me, I allocated it 5% of my revision time in my timetable


oh good, is it interesting aswell? what did you study during your course? I think its different for mine but would be intrigued to know about your course :smile:
Original post by willsp8
oh good, is it interesting aswell? what did you study during your course? I think its different for mine but would be intrigued to know about your course :smile:


Physical:
Coasts
Rivers

I'm a sailor and kayaker so all the stuff was interesting and easy for me

Human:
Population
Health


I found human a little harder than physical on the longer questions, but because I did AQA it was all about the command words, if you knew HOW to answer the question you would do ok.
Reply 129
You know what, people completely over exaggerate the difficulty of alevels, yeah theyre a huge jump from GCSEs but you will adjust quickly and if you stay on top of your work youll be completely fine come exam time. It all depends on how seriously youre willing to take it
I find the pretty manageable? :dontknow: Physics doe :lol:
I'm taking History, Maths, Spanish and Latin, but I honestly don't see what the fuss is about for A Levels. I'm halfway through my AS exams, and the workload hasn't been too much, and I'm fairly confident that I've done quite well in my exams. I think their difficulty is greatly exaggerated.
Original post by Stringer8ell
I'm taking History, Maths, Spanish and Latin, but I honestly don't see what the fuss is about for A Levels. I'm halfway through my AS exams, and the workload hasn't been too much, and I'm fairly confident that I've done quite well in my exams. I think their difficulty is greatly exaggerated.


Are you taking Latin at A2? You'll understand what people are talking about if you do.

Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by *Stefan*
Are you taking Latin at A2? You'll understand what people are talking about if you do.

Posted from TSR Mobile


Haven't decided yet, depends on how I do in my exams, although the likelihood is that I won't.
Original post by Rajive
What subjects are you doing ?


English Lit
Biology
Psychology
Geography
Too hard
It all depends what subjects you are doing :smile: Biology they can mold the content into ANYTHING AQA's heart desires, in a graph, in a table, in a diagram so it's not so much the content that's hard it's applying it to an unknown image in the exam which i found out the hard way last thursday -_-.

I also do sociology which you can't really fail because the content isn't hard there's just ALOT but they can only ask you questions based on the content so it's easy in that respect. The hardest thing about sociology is structure in essays.

Psychology... i love psychology and the exam is a real variety some multiple choice some 2 markers some 3 some 4 and a few 8s and 12s it's good :smile: The only DIFFICULT thing about psychology i'd say are the studies you have to learn, content wise (what happened what they found). I know alot of people found the exams hard this year but honestly i'd be extremely surprised if i didn't get an A.
I'm doing geography, history and rs next year for a level. Can someone maybe suggest how hard this would be. I know it will be hard but how hard would this combination of subjects be?
You'll be fine. Stay away from history. (Language is super easy idk why people keep saying stay away??)
Original post by loveireandblog
You'll be fine. Stay away from history. (Language is super easy idk why people keep saying stay away??)


Because they are very hard:redface:

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