I recently finished my GCSE'S and I shall be starting A-levels in September. I have mixed feelings about it as I've heard some people say they are so hard (like throwing a Y7 to fight against a wrestler). I've been strongly thinking on whether to do some GCSE revision work to keep my brain in shape or just forget it.
I am going to do: Maths, Chemistry or Psychology, Physics and D.T. Do you have any tips that would help me achieve the very best in A-levels? If you have any tips for individual subjects then that would help me alot I'm aiming for 4A's and I also need help in deciding whether to pick Psychology or Chemistry. I don't have an Interest in Psychology but people have told me it is the easy topic.... Help!?
I recently finished my GCSE'S and I shall be starting A-levels in September. I have mixed feelings about it as I've heard some people say they are so hard (like throwing a Y7 to fight against a wrestler). I've been strongly thinking on whether to do some GCSE revision work to keep my brain in shape or just forget it.
I am going to do: Maths, Chemistry or Psychology, Physics and D.T. Do you have any tips that would help me achieve the very best in A-levels? If you have any tips for individual subjects then that would help me alot I'm aiming for 4A's and I also need help in deciding whether to pick Psychology or Chemistry. I don't have an Interest in Psychology but people have told me it is the easy topic.... Help!?
Just don't get distracted, especially when there's nothing left until finals start. If you have an interest in chemistry, choose it because I didn't find it that difficult, people exaggerate a lot.
If I was you, I would choose chemistry instead of psychology. All psychology is memorising full pages of work. Also chemistry is kinda easy. Make sure you understand the work, never just go about answering questions for the sake of it and memorising the past paper answers.
Just don't get distracted, especially when there's nothing left until finals start. If you have an interest in chemistry, choose it because I didn't find it that difficult, people exaggerate a lot.
Hmm thanks for the reassurance as people do claim chemistry to be the hardest. I never used to like it, but I grew fond of it, however I may only be taking Chemistry up to AS.
At AS there's a lot of memorising. Also do not leave revision too late, AS if very important and some students don't take it seriously enough.
I'm thinking of going through everything from the beginning of September and I shall be making notes as I go along. Also I shall start revision in December/January, is this okay?
If I was you, I would choose chemistry instead of psychology. All psychology is memorising full pages of work. Also chemistry is kinda easy. Make sure you understand the work, never just go about answering questions for the sake of it and memorising the past paper answers.
Thanks, Apparently there is alot of Case studies to remember as well.
Hmm thanks for the reassurance as people do claim chemistry to be the hardest. I never used to like it, but I grew fond of it, however I may only be taking Chemistry up to AS.
I'm thinking of going through everything from the beginning of September and I shall be making notes as I go along. Also I shall start revision in December/January, is this okay?
Thanks, Apparently there is alot of Case studies to remember as well.
I recently finished my GCSE'S and I shall be starting A-levels in September. I have mixed feelings about it as I've heard some people say they are so hard (like throwing a Y7 to fight against a wrestler). I've been strongly thinking on whether to do some GCSE revision work to keep my brain in shape or just forget it.
I am going to do: Maths, Chemistry or Psychology, Physics and D.T. Do you have any tips that would help me achieve the very best in A-levels? If you have any tips for individual subjects then that would help me alot I'm aiming for 4A's and I also need help in deciding whether to pick Psychology or Chemistry. I don't have an Interest in Psychology but people have told me it is the easy topic.... Help!?
Don't give tourself work to do over summer! Honestly, A-levels are already hard, give yourself time for your brain to rest and relax. The summer should be the time for you to chill out and enjoy it, and mentally prepare yourself for your A-levels. As for choices, if you're not interested in psychology don't do it. I do it because I love it, and it maybe be easier than say chemistry but it is not easy by any means. Also, if you chose a subject that you don't enjoy it automatically becomes much harder as you don't have the motivation or will to study it!
Now for my tips (I got AAAA at AS, and I am predicted A*AA at A2): 1) do little often. DONT think that you can just cram it in a few days before the exam. In GCSE I could basically do no revision and come out with decent grades, but because A levels are so demanding, that won't work. Now I'm not saying start revising from the first day of school for your exams, but say if you have an end of topic yet coming up, do actually put the time and effort in to making revision materials and properly revising for it, because it makes revising SO much easier when it comes to the real thing.
2) DON'T stress yourself out too much - I'm not saying not to stress at all, stress is natural, but I mean do everything to reduce stress. So get your work done on time, have time to relax etc etc
3) stay organised! I can't stress this enough! Have a folder where you keep all of your notes in chronological order, because you really will regret not doing so once you get to exams! I didn't do it as much in year 12, really regretted it so I kicked myself up the butt for year 13.
4) look at the specification! Your specification will become your holy grail as it tells you exactly what you need to know, and what you DONT need to know! Making your life so much easier!
5) Mark schemes are great to look at for revision! After all they show you exactly what you need to say to get the marks! Especially with subjects where there are many short answer questions, like the sciences, Mark schemes saved my grades
6) past papers will become your best friend! Whilst looking over revision notes is a great way to revise, practice makes perfect, so doing past papers is the best way to help with your exam skills and revision.
7) this may sound stupid but always ask about something toure unsure of! Otherwise you're left not truly understanding a topic so once it gets back to actually having revising you will feel like you're learning it over again, rather than looking back over it.
Don't give tourself work to do over summer! Honestly, A-levels are already hard, give yourself time for your brain to rest and relax. The summer should be the time for you to chill out and enjoy it, and mentally prepare yourself for your A-levels. As for choices, if you're not interested in psychology don't do it. I do it because I love it, and it maybe be easier than say chemistry but it is not easy by any means. Also, if you chose a subject that you don't enjoy it automatically becomes much harder as you don't have the motivation or will to study it!
Now for my tips (I got AAAA at AS, and I am predicted A*AA at A2): 1) do little often. DONT think that you can just cram it in a few days before the exam. In GCSE I could basically do no revision and come out with decent grades, but because A levels are so demanding, that won't work. Now I'm not saying start revising from the first day of school for your exams, but say if you have an end of topic yet coming up, do actually put the time and effort in to making revision materials and properly revising for it, because it makes revising SO much easier when it comes to the real thing.
2) DON'T stress yourself out too much - I'm not saying not to stress at all, stress is natural, but I mean do everything to reduce stress. So get your work done on time, have time to relax etc etc
3) stay organised! I can't stress this enough! Have a folder where you keep all of your notes in chronological order, because you really will regret not doing so once you get to exams! I didn't do it as much in year 12, really regretted it so I kicked myself up the butt for year 13.
4) look at the specification! Your specification will become your holy grail as it tells you exactly what you need to know, and what you DONT need to know! Making your life so much easier!
5) Mark schemes are great to look at for revision! After all they show you exactly what you need to say to get the marks! Especially with subjects where there are many short answer questions, like the sciences, Mark schemes saved my grades
6) past papers will become your best friend! Whilst looking over revision notes is a great way to revise, practice makes perfect, so doing past papers is the best way to help with your exam skills and revision.
7) this may sound stupid but always ask about something toure unsure of! Otherwise you're left not truly understanding a topic so once it gets back to actually having revising you will feel like you're learning it over again, rather than looking back over it.
Hope this helps!
This is the list you need to follow, especially 6 and 7
Don't give tourself work to do over summer! Honestly, A-levels are already hard, give yourself time for your brain to rest and relax. The summer should be the time for you to chill out and enjoy it, and mentally prepare yourself for your A-levels. As for choices, if you're not interested in psychology don't do it. I do it because I love it, and it maybe be easier than say chemistry but it is not easy by any means. Also, if you chose a subject that you don't enjoy it automatically becomes much harder as you don't have the motivation or will to study it!
Now for my tips (I got AAAA at AS, and I am predicted A*AA at A2): 1) do little often. DONT think that you can just cram it in a few days before the exam. In GCSE I could basically do no revision and come out with decent grades, but because A levels are so demanding, that won't work. Now I'm not saying start revising from the first day of school for your exams, but say if you have an end of topic yet coming up, do actually put the time and effort in to making revision materials and properly revising for it, because it makes revising SO much easier when it comes to the real thing.
2) DON'T stress yourself out too much - I'm not saying not to stress at all, stress is natural, but I mean do everything to reduce stress. So get your work done on time, have time to relax etc etc
3) stay organised! I can't stress this enough! Have a folder where you keep all of your notes in chronological order, because you really will regret not doing so once you get to exams! I didn't do it as much in year 12, really regretted it so I kicked myself up the butt for year 13.
4) look at the specification! Your specification will become your holy grail as it tells you exactly what you need to know, and what you DONT need to know! Making your life so much easier!
5) Mark schemes are great to look at for revision! After all they show you exactly what you need to say to get the marks! Especially with subjects where there are many short answer questions, like the sciences, Mark schemes saved my grades
6) past papers will become your best friend! Whilst looking over revision notes is a great way to revise, practice makes perfect, so doing past papers is the best way to help with your exam skills and revision.
7) this may sound stupid but always ask about something toure unsure of! Otherwise you're left not truly understanding a topic so once it gets back to actually having revising you will feel like you're learning it over again, rather than looking back over it.
Hope this helps!
It really does help. Thanks
Only problem is they are changing the spec and stuff for me, so I shall have very little papers to revise over.
Bringing up you're first point about "do little often", Does this mean everything I come back from school I should go over what I did and make notes for it?
I recently finished my GCSE'S and I shall be starting A-levels in September. I have mixed feelings about it as I've heard some people say they are so hard (like throwing a Y7 to fight against a wrestler). I've been strongly thinking on whether to do some GCSE revision work to keep my brain in shape or just forget it.
I am going to do: Maths, Chemistry or Psychology, Physics and D.T. Do you have any tips that would help me achieve the very best in A-levels? If you have any tips for individual subjects then that would help me alot I'm aiming for 4A's and I also need help in deciding whether to pick Psychology or Chemistry. I don't have an Interest in Psychology but people have told me it is the easy topic.... Help!?
Don't get disheartened when you don't know what's happening at the start especially with physics, keep at it and it'll get better with time.
Don't always do all the Qs in the book, many are just copies of each other but if you need the confidence in a particular topic, do it. Not being confident with your ability will rekt you a whole lot.
Move forward if you're stuck. Sometimes another topic may spark what is needed in the previous plus you don't always have to follow the book. Pretty sure it's mentioned which topics are prerequisites for others.
Work your way up gradually - don't start revision bang dead on. Start early with like 30 - 45 mins per subject. Eventually you'll be so engrossed you won't know where 6 hours went (this is if you enjoy your subjects). They'll be some days however you won't do anything but play with your pen and beating yourself up over that is pointless.
Only problem is they are changing the spec and stuff for me, so I shall have very little papers to revise over.
Bringing up you're first point about "do little often", Does this mean everything I come back from school I should go over what I did and make notes for it?
Totally forgot about the spec change! However they did release a few specimen papers, which are essentially past papers of the new spec, so I think you'll be fine. Also you can still use some of the past papers from the old spec because certain types of questions haven't changed, but you can enquirer about that more when you're at school with your teachers.
And I mean, if you want to be that dedicated you can. I know I certainly wasn't, however I did revise thoroughly for each end of tooic assessment, and when it came to actual exams, I started revising in like March, so instead of doing 6 hours a day of revision, I was doing 1-3 depending on the topics (I made a timetable to keep me on top of what I had revised).