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How is Chemistry & Biology A level ??

I heard that they are challenging and hard ..

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I take Chem. It is quite challenging but I guess its how well your memory is and how much you revise etc.

As long as you put the effort in you should be fine (if you enjoy it then that helps too)
Reply 2
Original post by SilverWater
I take Chem. It is quite challenging but I guess its how well your memory is and how much you revise etc.

As long as you put the effort in you should be fine (if you enjoy it then that helps too)

Oh wow isit, thanks. I only enjoy chemistry sometimes tbh.
Original post by sarahyi
Oh wow isit, thanks. I only enjoy chemistry sometimes tbh.


What else are you going to take? I took Geography and Economics and I kinda regret taking Geography instead of Biology :s-smilie:

Imo Chem got a lot more interesting vs GCSE and I kinda assume the same would be for Biology.
Reply 4
Original post by SilverWater
What else are you going to take? I took Geography and Economics and I kinda regret taking Geography instead of Biology :s-smilie:

Imo Chem got a lot more interesting vs GCSE and I kinda assume the same would be for Biology.

Well I'm thinking of doing English lit., chemistry and biology
Biology is quite hard to be honest, you need to have the willpower to keep on top of it as there is a lot to take in. I presume it will be similar with chemistry.
Reply 6
Original post by jess_the_hobbit
Biology is quite hard to be honest, you need to have the willpower to keep on top of it as there is a lot to take in. I presume it will be similar with chemistry.

Omds I'm contemplatimg chemistry and biology now lol, do I even have the willpower for GCSE's now. Thanks though
Biology has a lot of stuff to memorize and understand blarghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!
Reply 8
Original post by TheYearNiner
Biology has a lot of stuff to memorize and understand blarghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

Oh noo
Reply 9
Both are very boring.
Chemistry obviously has more calculation questions than biology e.g. moles calculations e.t.c, I myself only do chemistry and there is a fair bit of content that you have to memorise (ideally understand), unlike physics some things seem counter intuitive and unexpected i.e. there are quite a few exceptions to learn such as sulphur being able to "expand the octet." If you are willing to revise the content frequently you will have no problems with it as a lot of the AS course that I have done so far is just remembering facts.
Reply 11
Original post by haarithiop
Chemistry obviously has more calculation questions than biology e.g. moles calculations e.t.c, I myself only do chemistry and there is a fair bit of content that you have to memorise (ideally understand), unlike physics some things seem counter intuitive and unexpected i.e. there are quite a few exceptions to learn such as sulphur being able to "expand the octet." If you are willing to revise the content frequently you will have no problems with it as a lot of the AS course that I have done so far is just remembering facts.

Yeah that's true, thanks for the information
Reply 12
Original post by cleggj88
Both are very boring.


Lol I totally understand that
I don't do chem, but I do bio and believe me it is solid. I got an A at GCSE and I really enjoyed it, but there is so much necessary content to learn and understand at A level it is definitely a difficult subject to take. I actually regret choosing Biology over Maths, the papers for bio are something like 10% maths, 20% content you've learned and then 70% application where you have to basically understand your content and apply that to unknown situations with weird molecules you've never even heard of before. It's very difficult but rewarding when you get the answer I guess
Original post by sarahyi
I heard that they are challenging and hard ..
Yeah all three of the sciences are in my opinion the hardest A-levels to do as I take two of them but it depends on your strengths as to how well you do and how much effort you need to put in. They're both heavily definition based so you have to have a good memory. It obviously helps if you already interested in the topics on your specification so I'd suggest considering what you want to do in the future, what A-levels you'll need and if you enjoy learning about those kind of topics. It may also be helpful to you to look up what certain specification involve so you ahve a rough idea of how the course is assessed- exam based or coursework based etc...
Hope this helps :smile:
Reply 15
Original post by Zozaaaa
I don't do chem, but I do bio and believe me it is solid. I got an A at GCSE and I really enjoyed it, but there is so much necessary content to learn and understand at A level it is definitely a difficult subject to take. I actually regret choosing Biology over Maths, the papers for bio are something like 10% maths, 20% content you've learned and then 70% application where you have to basically understand your content and apply that to unknown situations with weird molecules you've never even heard of before. It's very difficult but rewarding when you get the answer I guess

Thanks. I'd probably struggle initially because I'm not doing triple science
Reply 16
Original post by Anon-mouse
Yeah all three of the sciences are in my opinion the hardest A-levels to do as I take two of them but it depends on your strengths as to how well you do and how much effort you need to put in. They're both heavily definition based so you have to have a good memory. It obviously helps if you already interested in the topics on your specification so I'd suggest considering what you want to do in the future, what A-levels you'll need and if you enjoy learning about those kind of topics. It may also be helpful to you to look up what certain specification involve so you ahve a rough idea of how the course is assessed- exam based or coursework based etc...
Hope this helps :smile:

Thanks for the tips but guess I need to work on my memory skills now lol
I do both biology and chemistry at A level. I only got a B in both at GCSE and when I first started everyone else in my class got A/A* at GCSE so I was worried I would struggle but I find the content in both subjects really interesting and currently working at an A grade. My advice if you want to take these subjects is to make sure after every lesson that you read over and re write notes using the text book as this helps you to condense the information better as especially biology uses some advanced terminology. But they are both great subjects and if you enjoy them you will still enjoy at A level. Best of luck!:smile:
I did both last year, only do chemistry now (had to drop from 5 to 4), bio is a lot of rote memorisation of stuff from what I remember. Chemistry is a lot of calculations with some memorisation mixed in (organic chem is a *****)
Very different subject imo, biology is purely learning with a lot more content where as chem is very light in terms of content but the content is slightly harder overall I'd say bio is harder


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