(Still an A-Level student here) It will be interesting to see the difference with the new A-Levels. In the science A-Level you don't do EMPA's/ISA's now, instead you have a lab book and there are specific required practical techniques that you have to meet to pass science practical, which is a condition of a lot of uni offers now. I'd say the content isn't too bad it just takes a while to get used to, but the grade boundaries seem to be lower, we've just done last year's AS papers as a mock exam (AS exams don't count towards the final grade, all exams are at the end of year 13, with one paper on year 1 content, 1 on year 2 and the last one is different depending on which science.) but in the papers for last years AS in biology, you only needed 88/150 for an A.
It will be interesting to see the difference between the new A-levels and uni, but I'm expecting uni to be a lot harder.