The Student Room Group

Too much to Learn not enough time?

For people studying new A level Biol and Chem (AQA or others) and in Yr13, how stressed/worried are you with the vast amount of learning and minimum amount of time having to revise AS and A2.
I need some reassurance ..

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Reply 1
Hey
I am taking maths ,physics and business
I have an insane amount of content I need to know , I'm also retaking 2 maths exams
So I'll have 5 maths exams , 3 physics exams and 3 business
I probably have more than you to do , but I'm finishing all of my notes by February half term , then going to just do past papers and make sure I know everything , if you use your time wisely you can deffo get good grades, you have 4 months left , that's more then enough time , focus on finding the most efficient method to revise that works for you
I'm also going to start waking up at 6am to do 2 hours revision before school.
There is shi* loads of content but it's do able , bare in mind the grade boundaries will be low for this new spec , so I'm assuming 60-70% is an A in the sciences , as it was last year , so there's not too much stress there , I'm sure if you get all of your notes done by feb/March , your in a great position , there should be more then enough time to be prepared for these exams if you start now , even if your behind , I'm sure you'll be fine , you will get what you deserve:smile:
I'm not stressed though , you shouldn't be either just focus on learning the content now , then exam technique later , you should be happy like I am as we get super low grade boundaries for this new spec ;D
(edited 7 years ago)
Very worried.
Reply 3
You reassure me. But I also have two maths resits C1 and C2 I find C3 quite nice but I hate M1 I get A and B in both in the past papers.
The stress is that we don't finish our Biology A2 stuff in class until June... Week before the exams.
I have to relearn all of AS and be pro at it whilst learning A2 at the same time etc.
I can see your point about making most of your time but I still can't not worry when just looking at the date everyday and seeing it get closer and closer to May/June..

Dahhhh

Oh and the number of exams I have.
C1 C2 resits. + A2 maths modules.
=5 exams in maths.
3 exams in both Biology and Chemistry.
So 11 exams
(so same number of exams as you)
Gulp. 11 exams that will either destroy me or don't...
(Gulp again.)
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 4
Original post by bobwibbles
You reassure me. But I also have two maths resits C1 and C2 I find C3 quite nice but I hate M1 I get A and B in both in the past papers.
The stress is that we don't finish our Biology A2 stuff in class until June... Week before the exams.
I have to relearn all of AS and be pro at it whilst learning A2 at the same time etc.
I can see your point about making most of your time but I still can't not worry when just looking at the date everyday and seeing it get closer and closer to May/June..

Dahhhh


Time? You have 4 months = 120 days = 2880 hours, 960 hours per subject. One lesson is an hour in your school right? 960 lessons per subject I think thats enough. Even if you half that due to leisure etc. 480 lessons isn't bad. You're overreacting. To save yourself time go over the stuff you completely do not know first and do that asap.
Reply 5
Original post by cero70
Hey
I am taking maths ,physics and business
I have an insane amount of content I need to know , I'm also retaking 2 maths exams
So I'll have 5 maths exams , 3 physics exams and 3 business
I probably have more than you to do , but I'm finishing all of my notes by February half term , then going to just do past papers and make sure I know everything , if you use your time wisely you can deffo get good grades, you have 4 months left , that's more then enough time , focus on finding the most efficient method to revise that works for you
I'm also going to start waking up at 6am to do 2 hours revision before school.
There is shi* loads of content but it's do able , bare in mind the grade boundaries will be low for this new spec , so I'm assuming 60-70% is an A in the sciences , as it was last year , so there's not too much stress there , I'm sure if you get all of your notes done by feb/March , your in a great position , there should be more then enough time to be prepared for these exams if you start now , even if your behind , I'm sure you'll be fine , you will get what you deserve:smile:
I'm not stressed though , you shouldn't be either just focus on learning the content now , then exam technique later , you should be happy like I am as we get super low grade boundaries for this new spec ;D


May the grade boundaries be in our favour.
Reply 6
Original post by bobwibbles
You reassure me. But I also have two maths resits C1 and C2 I find C3 quite nice but I hate M1 I get A and B in both in the past papers.
The stress is that we don't finish our Biology A2 stuff in class until June... Week before the exams.
I have to relearn all of AS and be pro at it whilst learning A2 at the same time etc.
I can see your point about making most of your time but I still can't not worry when just looking at the date everyday and seeing it get closer and closer to May/June..

Dahhhh

Oh and the number of exams I have.
C1 C2 resits. + A2 maths modules.
=5 exams in maths.
3 exams in both Biology and Chemistry.
So 11 exams
(so same number of exams as you)
Gulp. 11 exams that will either destroy me or don't...
(Gulp again.)


I have C1, M1, C3, C4, S1, Economics x3 and Psychology x3. I'm in the same position as you bro
Reply 7
Original post by Rtdsv
Time? You have 4 months = 120 days = 2880 hours, 960 hours per subject. One lesson is an hour in your school right? 960 lessons per subject I think thats enough. Even if you half that due to leisure etc. 480 lessons isn't bad. You're overreacting. To save yourself time go over the stuff you completely do not know first and do that asap.


Lol what about sleeping in the 960hours. And I don't know if I am overstressing. I'm just feeling very unprepared especially in Biology. I should probably concentrate on that more then.
And yeh my first exam is may 17th (Core1 resit) so 4 months and a bit..
480 still doesn't seem like enough...
Thanks for the input tho!
Reply 8
I'm sort of in the same boat as you. I'm doing psychology and although you could argue it's a lot easier than bio and chem, I'm doing both the AS and A2 exam in one year so there is a ton of stuff to learn. I wish you luck!
Reply 9
Original post by Rtdsv
I have C1, M1, C3, C4, S1, Economics x3 and Psychology x3. I'm in the same position as you bro


Well good luck man.
Seems like your confident for the upcoming life determining exams. I wish I was..
All the best.
Original post by FNugent
I'm sort of in the same boat as you. I'm doing psychology and although you could argue it's a lot easier than bio and chem, I'm doing both the AS and A2 exam in one year so there is a ton of stuff to learn. I wish you luck!


Wow! Full A level in one year! Good luck to you too man
Reply 11
Original post by bobwibbles
Lol what about sleeping in the 960hours. And I don't know if I am overstressing. I'm just feeling very unprepared especially in Biology. I should probably concentrate on that more then.
And yeh my first exam is may 17th (Core1 resit) so 4 months and a bit..
480 still doesn't seem like enough...
Thanks for the input tho!


**** I never knew that c1 was so early lmao. guess I need to revise for it now. I'm gonna be fasting for most my exams due to religious reasons too maybe I should be the one stressing!

How well did you do last year? In Econ and Psych I need to know content from last year but since I done well I know the AS content quite well, it helps that I have all my notes just to refresh my memory if needed.
Original post by Rtdsv
**** I never knew that c1 was so early lmao. guess I need to revise for it now. I'm gonna be fasting for most my exams due to religious reasons too maybe I should be the one stressing!

How well did you do last year? In Econ and Psych I need to know content from last year but since I done well I know the AS content quite well, it helps that I have all my notes just to refresh my memory if needed.


Haha Im muslim too. I got BCCD at AS :frown:

B in Biology , Cs in Chemistry and Physics and a D in Maths. :frown: :frown:
The D in maths was only due to flopping in C1 where I got a U after being too stressed and flustered due to c1 being my first exam. (I usually get 73 or above marks in the past papers I just forgot everything with stress - which I didnt think was possible)
Got 66 ums in C2 and 74 in S1 so I am resitting C1 and C2. To hopefully push my grades towards the A I need.
(In school we did a Core 1 and core 2 mock for resitters got 71/75 in c1 and 68/75 in C2 so I still need improving.. whilst core 3 and m1 im probably on a stable B) So yeh Im always stressing as none of my marks are good enough yet etc...

good luck tho
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 13
Original post by bobwibbles
Haha Im muslim too. I got BCCD at AS :frown:


loool salam. you're seriously underestimating the amount of hard work you can put in 4 months. During my mocks I got all D's, my teacher thought I was gonna fail and I turned it into AABD through hard work (C1 and M1 killed me lmao rip)

I gave up my social life, no friends, football, social media, etc. you're gonna have to make the same sacrifices and at the end of the day it made up for it with the grades.
Original post by Rtdsv
loool salam. you're seriously underestimating the amount of hard work you can put in 4 months. During my mocks I got all D's, my teacher thought I was gonna fail and I turned it into AABD through hard work (C1 and M1 killed me lmao rip)

I gave up my social life, no friends, football, social media, etc. you're gonna have to make the same sacrifices and at the end of the day it made up for it with the grades.


In my Mocks we did Core 1 Biol1 Chem1 and Phya1 I got ACUE in them respectively I pulled up my grades in chemistry biology and physics and went down and failed the one module I got an A in.. ironic isnt it.
haha salaam
Original post by Rtdsv
loool salam. you're seriously underestimating the amount of hard work you can put in 4 months. During my mocks I got all D's, my teacher thought I was gonna fail and I turned it into AABD through hard work (C1 and M1 killed me lmao rip)

I gave up my social life, no friends, football, social media, etc. you're gonna have to make the same sacrifices and at the end of the day it made up for it with the grades.


I have started by deleting social media and stuff but seriously this year it feels like its going too fast. And well done on that improvement very much well deserved.
I have mixed feelings. All I can do is pray :wink: and what are your views on fasting during A level exams will it affect you or not and should all muslims fast during exams? I keep all my fasts in general but I didnt last year due to being quite poorly ill + stressed (I have made up for the ones i missed recently)
One of my teachers told me on my recent parents' evening that I should be doing an hour of work at home for every hour of lessons at A level. Based on this I did some rough maths to give an estimate of how much AS work I haven't done and need to catch up on. The number I came to was 487 hours. Or just over 20 days. That's about 2.9 weeks

The total number of exams I'm doing is 13. At least one of them is 3 hours long, could potentially be 2 of them but I haven't checked fully. So far my maths work in C3 and C4 has been straight Us. I reached the end of my tether long ago.

Saying that, I haven't been finding the new A level biology that bad apart from uber pedantic mark schemes that want you to say things that weren't really even alluded to in the question (althought my AS exam didn't seem to do that so perhaps they'll be nice again).
There's enough time if you dedicate a few hours outside of school and use your free periods wisely. Focus on creating a routine and follow that. Write down deadline of which topics you need to study/ revise and by when. Initially it seems overwhelming but break everything down in manageable chunks.
Original post by Retired_Messiah
One of my teachers told me on my recent parents' evening that I should be doing an hour of work at home for every hour of lessons at A level. Based on this I did some rough maths to give an estimate of how much AS work I haven't done and need to catch up on. The number I came to was 487 hours. Or just over 20 days. That's about 2.9 weeks

The total number of exams I'm doing is 13. At least one of them is 3 hours long, could potentially be 2 of them but I haven't checked fully. So far my maths work in C3 and C4 has been straight Us. I reached the end of my tether long ago.

Saying that, I haven't been finding the new A level biology that bad apart from uber pedantic mark schemes that want you to say things that weren't really even alluded to in the question (althought my AS exam didn't seem to do that so perhaps they'll be nice again).


I know exactly where your coming from with the Biology mark schemes they are outrageous sometimes.
487 hours of revising AS! when A2 needs to be done and given more time aswell!!....

But Good luck and thank you for your input
Original post by Bubblyminty
There's enough time if you dedicate a few hours outside of school and use your free periods wisely. Focus on creating a routine and follow that. Write down deadline of which topics you need to study/ revise and by when. Initially it seems overwhelming but break everything down in manageable chunks.


Easier said than done but your advice is spot on.
I need to somehow get more into routine...

thank you for your time.

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