Advice for beginning A-Levels

I'll have finished all my GCSE's by next week and I'll be starting A-Levels in Mathematics, Further Maths, Chemistry, and Physics, in September. Firstly, I'd like to ask about this 'new type of A-Level' where all exams are in Year 13 -- which A-Levels does this apply to and how would this affect the way to revise/study? And secondly, I'd like to ask just any general advice for making the transition to A-Level or just generally about Sixth Form.

Many Thanks.

Reply 1

Audrey18

21

@benjaminfinch

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download the syllabus guides, read and understand it

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buy the recommended textbooks

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download past year exam papers (oh and don't make the silly habit of only doing exam papers from your board alone. There are other exam boards that may also cover the same topics that you're doing so download the exam papers from the other boards too. The more practise you do, it will only benefit you.)

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if you have questions on areas that you don't understand, ask your teachers

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if your teachers are useless then ask those questions here

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your post should state which exam board you're doing, what your question is and what have you done to arrive at an answer (people can also help you if you have done some work of your own first before asking others so help yourself first before others can help you)

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finally practise exam questions under timed conditions and get them marked

If you ever lose motivation or need inspiration, read on. Good luck!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Moeen_Nawazish

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/4398668/Teenager-gains-22-A-levels-in-12-months.html

[video="youtube;EbH_dWWIE1Q"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbH_dWWIE1Q[/video]

Reply 2

benjaminfinch

OP

9

Do you know anything about the new specs and where I could find them? Or aren't the newest ones written/published yet?

Thanks

Reply 3

gdunne42

21

Original post by benjaminfinch

I'll have finished all my GCSE's by next week and I'll be starting A-Levels in Mathematics, Further Maths, Chemistry, and Physics, in September. Firstly, I'd like to ask about this 'new type of A-Level' where all exams are in Year 13 -- which A-Levels does this apply to and how would this affect the way to revise/study? And secondly, I'd like to ask just any general advice for making the transition to A-Level or just generally about Sixth Form.

Many Thanks.

Only chemistry and physics have changed to the new linear format. The specifications are on the examiners web sites. Maths has not and will not this year. As you are doing 2 maths a levels that you will study at a fast pace it might be worth making an early start either by using the CGP quick start book or getting the c1 text book and doing some self study. But my main advice would be take a break and enjoy the summer.

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Reply 4

cmcdonald

10

Original post by benjaminfinch

I'll have finished all my GCSE's by next week and I'll be starting A-Levels in Mathematics, Further Maths, Chemistry, and Physics, in September. Firstly, I'd like to ask about this 'new type of A-Level' where all exams are in Year 13 -- which A-Levels does this apply to and how would this affect the way to revise/study? And secondly, I'd like to ask just any general advice for making the transition to A-Level or just generally about Sixth Form.

Many Thanks.

I would say that there is a big transition from GCSE's to A-levels and it is so important that you are able to recognise this and adapt to it at an early stage, it will make the rest of your studying so much easier. e.g. we had mocks in Feb and most of my friends were getting like E's and U's because i dont think they realised that for A-levels it is so hard to just wing it, which some of them did for GCSE's. If I could do my first year again I would definitely acknowledge sooner of how much more work that there is, I recommend having folders for each of your subjects at home with all the work in and then bringing in smaller folders into school to put your current work in (like the topic you are doing at that time). Finally, I would strongly recommend just doing little bits of revision right from the start of the year, e.g. for every hour you do in school for a subject do an hour at home just going over it and making sure you really understand it (it can be less than that tho obvs, what ever feels right for you) because if you leave it until a few weeks before your exams then all that work is just going to pile up and you simply wont have enough time to go through all the content.
Hope that helped, good luck!

Advice for beginning A-Levels

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