The jump between B and A grades.

Hi

I'm just wondering how much of a jump there is between an B grade and an A grade, in terms of attainability. Im self-studying A-Level Economics, History and Biology over the period of a year.

Lots of people have told me that achieving 3 A's via self-study in just a year is extremely difficult.

But i only need 3 B's for the degree i want. Does this make my plan to self-study much more viable, given that I dont actually need A's? (although i am still aiming for 3 A*s ) I have been so committed to this whole self-study thing from the onset, but I cant help but think my commitment and effort will not be enough!

What do you guys think?


Thanks for your help!

Hi

I'm just wondering how much of a jump there is between an B grade and an A grade, in terms of attainability. Im self-studying A-Level Economics, History and Biology over the period of a year.

Lots of people have told me that achieving 3 A's via self-study in just a year is extremely difficult.

But i only need 3 B's for the degree i want. Does this make my plan to self-study much more viable, given that I dont actually need A's? (although i am still aiming for 3 A*s ) I have been so committed to this whole self-study thing from the onset, but I cant help but think my commitment and effort will not be enough!

What do you guys think?


Thanks for your help!

I believe self teaching is the best way to be educated - eventhough i attend a state school. You can get through content much quicker.

I'm going into A2 this year and in AS Economics we spent 9 months learning the content and last week i self taught AS and A2 in 5 days and i'm pretty confident about it all.

The difference between B's, A's and A*'s is all about your level of understanding. It's one thing knowing the information, but do you know why? I've had straight A's all year and i believe the only way i have achieved this is by following the specification religiously, it tells you the minimum amount you need to understand to get the top grade. Before the exam you should be able to annotate all the subject specifications off by heart and be able to appreciate any links between topics learned.

Sorry this isn't too relevant, but if you don't mind me asking, what degree are you aiming to take? I'm interested in very similar subjects

I feel like you are definately right about following the specification. Within a week of my foray into self-study I realised that blindly studing from the textbooks would be very ineffective and time consuming. I soon found that many people (including yourself, it seems) shared my opinion. Which i thought was great!

But the logistics of actually studying using the specification was an enigma to me. So I started to use the specification to make prompts or questions that help to guide my study. Take history for example, each topic is divided into bullet-points which are all roughly a paragraph long. So I divide each paragraph into three or four questions or headings and then wrote my notes accordingly.

What are your thoughts on this method of study? Do you think this method would be enough to squeeze three B's (or even A's?). The hardest thing I've found about self-study is knowing whether or not i am on the right track haha.

Thats what i did at first and it worked great for this year, but for A2 i'm taking a different approach.

First i'll pull up the spec and get the first topic and i'll google the topic and write down a brief summary.

Then i'll youtube the topic develop my notes and revise it by annotating the specification.

I don't have any textbooks because i lose focus after about 10 words. But for economics i use the physics and maths tutor website and that's what i go through to self teach.

And B's aren't too difficult to get at A-level you just need to have an understanding of the topics and be able to apply it to exam structure.

That sounds like a great routine you have going there ! But what made you change your approach from that of your first year?

Also, how do you exactly how indeph your knowledge should be on each of the points in the specification? Its proving quite difficult for me to know when my notes are complete enough for me to move on- particularly for history