Edexcel IAL difficulty?

Hi,I am about to start my international A2 and I am going to be doing 3 A levels.Biology,chemistry and physics.I just got my AS results a few days ago.I was 1 mark away from an A in chemistry and 2 marks away from a B in biology and 3 marks away from a C in physics (granted I had no teacher at all for physics).I did really well and I only need a D in A level and I was wondering how hard are biology,chemistry and physics A levels?Like I heard that biology unit 4,chemistry unit 5 and biology unit 6 are really difficult but should I worry about that?

Reply 1

Presto

Bump.
I'd like to know too about phys and chem

Reply 2

RAMZI961

Original post by Presto

Bump.
I'd like to know too about phys and chem

Like Thank god I'll have a physics teacher in A2,my school couldn't offer me 3 sciences so I took physics by myself and got 2 C's and a D

Reply 3

Presto

Original post by RAMZI961

Like Thank god I'll have a physics teacher in A2,my school couldn't offer me 3 sciences so I took physics by myself and got 2 C's and a D

My physics teacher was terrible; she couldn't explain things well so anytime someone would ask her a question, she'd either say "You weren't paying attention when I taught this so now I won't tell you" or she would tell us to discuss among ourselves or with the toppers. Almost our entire grade hated physics, kudos to you for having the courage to do it privately, a good number of people from our school got Us and Es despite taking tuition.

I actually wanted to know bcs I'm going to self study all of A2 physics, chem and maths on my own and I'm worried ;-;

Reply 4

RAMZI961

If you are going to self study like I had to do because I had a really bad private teacher that wasn't good because he normally didn't teach edexcel,he taught Cambridge.If you are going to self study,I highly highly highly recommend you check out https://www.revisely.co.uk because they've got some decent notes for physics But they have video tutorials that explain things.

Reply 5

RAMZI961

It is insanely good for revising because in the video tutorials they explain concepts,so you can watch again and again.I found this website a few months before unit 2.I got 63 in unit 1 But after using this over and over,I got a 74 in unit 2 and that's amazing because my private teacher missed covering a good portion of the syllabus,and this helped explain everything soo much.Best thing to do,study a topic,then watch the video tutorials and then go to past papers and solve all questions related to the topic and make notes for what you see,because in edexcel they tend to ask similar questions for topics over and over.

Reply 6

RAMZI961

This website isn't the best for notes,but it is absolutely amazing for explaining everything.You still need notes and it still misses some tiny concepts,like the use of pulse echo technique using ultrasound for fetuses,but you can compensate for that by just solving past papers and look what the marking scheme says because it gives you an idea about the topics,so you can compensate for that by just looking at marking schemes.

Reply 7

RAMZI961

Btw,for chemistry this website is perfect.Best notes,best videos which explain everything.I used this website primarily for unit 2 and 3.I got 88/120 in unit 1,and after using this website and its notes,I got 94/120 in unit 2 and i almost got a full mark in chemistry unit 3 57/60.Granted i had a good chemistry teacher,but the website compensated for any mistakes or poor explaining the teacher did.

Reply 8

Presto

I did know about this site for a long time but I almost never used it because it's notes and videos were from all the sites and channels I used to visit often but after reading your comments, I actually checked it out and damn it looks so good since everything a person needs (with a few exceptions) is in one place and I'm now kinda regretting not using it when I had the chance but thanks sooo much for sharing, this is honestly so cool of you :smile:

I don't know why but I always find chemistry's content really difficult to digest or remember like it would take a real miracle worker of a teacher to actually get me to understand it all. For me studying and solving chemistry past papers was a real pain and nothing short of a torture session XD I still thought that I studied well enough to scrape an A but nope, got a C .-.

Reply 9

Presto

Btw will you resit any units any AS units in oct or jan?

Reply 10

RAMZI961

I am not going to be resitting any units Like my 2 worst units were biology unit 3 and.physics unit 1 But I still got the grade i got.I had amazing teachers,I always struggled with repeat questions in biology Because they are frequent enough to get you marks in the exam But the frequency of each repeat question is low to the point where it is hard to tell whether it is a repeat question Or not.Chemistry is soo easy for me,the thing that's important in chemistry is to truly understand the syllabus.Like you need to understand every single detail,and not just memorize it.I don't know why people find chemistry hard,maybe because I had really good teachers,but the website is more than enough to cover everything for chemistry.Like I studied for chemistry unit 3 using the website alone.The thing with chemistry is that you need a solid foundation and understand each simple detail and build your understanding up to the complex concepts.Like a good amount of people doing chemistry wouldn't know the difference between a molecule and a compound,or that the difference between covalent and ionic bond is based off of the charges of the atoms being attracted and not how they are being attracted to each other

Reply 11

Presto

Original post by RAMZI961

My 2 worst were chemistry unit 2 and physics unit 2. I'm going to resit chem unit 2 in oct/nov, pray for me XD
I felt the exact same way for physics unit 2 repeat questions.
Yeah you're right, chemistry is actually very concept-based and more straightforward than the other subjects but I just don't care about it yaknow? Sometimes I feel like my brain just isn't wired for chemistry.
Really? I thought most people found chemistry easy bcs the threshold's always so high.

Also sorry for the late reply, we were travelling

Reply 12

RAMZI961

Original post by Presto

It's ok,in chemistry They don't tend to ask fixed questions where you know the answer just by memorizing previous marking schemes like in biology.

Reply 13

Presto

Original post by RAMZI961

It's ok,in chemistry They don't tend to ask fixed questions where you know the answer just by memorizing previous marking schemes like in biology.

They tend to ask similar-ish qs from what I've noticed. Different contexts, similar concepts but yeah no fixed qs

Reply 14

Fathima marzs

Original post by RAMZI961

Is the website fine for physics unit 1 and unit 4 .as I am doing privately and no teacher helping me out? Plz help!!

Reply 15

The Funky Bot

Hey, there. I recently got done with Biology A2 and studying chemistry and maths A2 units. However, my dumbass had to register for all the 3 units of chemistry (unit 4, 5 & 6) and maths (P3 & P4), and I am hardly able to function.
If anyone who is studying or has studied the above mentioned units, could you please let me know which topics are the most difficult ones, and which ones should I start and finish off first? :smile:

(edited 2 years ago)