A* A Level Students!

Hi, I just wanted to learn any tips or revision advice A* students at A level did to help them.

I’m going into year 13 in September and got an A (Religious studies) B (psychology), B (biology) for my AS mocks. I’m determined to get As and A*s next year so I just wanted to hear your tips and revision methods

Also, if anyone has specific advice for AQA biology, Edexcel psychology or OCR religious studies it would help!

I'm not speaking for my self here but for other hard working friends I know.

It depends on what revision you find best for yourself, and how much online stuff is available for what you do.
One of the subjects I done was maths, which probably is the easiest to self-study using online resources - ExamSolutions website is enough to guarantee you at least a B, or even an A* if you work hard, in Maths.

I didn't do any of your subjects, but as a general advice, I would advise you to start revising since day 1 if you're aiming for top grades.

Literally, just do around 1 hour a day since day 1 up to your exams and you will be fine (maybe increase it to 2 hours when you get closer to exams).
It could be watching videos on your topics, making notes (or using textbooks and making notes), and very importantly, doing a lot of past paper questions - and understanding a paper FULLY, before going onto the next one. Not just doing a paper, losing a lot of marks and hoping to do better in the next paper. Look at the mark schemes too and try to study the best ways to answer your questions. Make sure you look at your specification, so you know exactly everything you need to and don't need to know for your syllabus. Also, if there is a topic or subject or area you are not as good at as the other one, focus on that one slightly more.

If you do it consistently since day 1, you will be fine.


Best of luck!

Best advice that I or anyone can give is to add focus to your revision (learn exactly what the specification wants you to learn)
I got A* Biology and here is what I did:
- Ngl I didn't really do any proper work during year 12 and only managed to scrape an A grade and an A grade prediction. Don't be surprised if you get C's and Ds in your assessments because it is extremely common due to jump in difficulty in both exam technique and workload.
- I made a word document and wrote down each specification point as a header. Underneath I compiled exam ready notes using classwork, revision guides, textbook, corrections to answers from assessments etc. I updated this document whenever I could after each biology lesson throughout the year (though I did have to catch up on year 12 content too). This means that by exam season I had my own personal revision guide. Don't be tempted to just cram everything the week before using CGP book because it won't work.
- Make a summary sheet for each core practical with a concise method (using cormmss structure), areas of improvement, statistical tests used, validity points etc. Core practical questions come up a lot no matter what exam board you do. They are usually anywhere between 5 and 9 marks.
- Exam technique is what most people who find Biology hard complain about. You need to do practice questions and practice a structure for each command word like 'devise' or 'analyse the data to explain'. The markscheme is really difficult to predict. In fact A* boundary for my exam board is only 65% this year.

You will be fine don't worry

I took very different subjects to you - Law, business and economics.

It's really important that you are consistent in your studies - personally I recommend 2 days per subject and a days rest. I did this and got A*AA. My best advice is to print of the specifications for each subject - when it came to revision I tended to annotate my basic notes on the specification and learnt that instead of all my lengthy notes. I started revision from week 1 so I could gradually accumulate my knowledge and by exam time it was a breeze - even for the linear subjects where I had all my exams in 2nd year.

Personally I recommend just taking brief notes in class before doing a full write up and further consolidation after class.

In terms of past papers I strongly recommend you start them as soon as you learn a topic - obviously not a full past paper for a while, but just pick out questions, or make up questions in the style of the exam board. When you do mocks in class ask for feedback on how you could get full marks, this really seemed to help for me.

Getting those A*'s at A-Level does require a lot of hard work for a long time, but the work itself shouldn't be too difficult. Stick to the syllabus, start early, make accurate notes and practice your technique, ask for feedback and continue improving.

Good luck

Hi thank you so much

I also have another question, due to the new A level exams there are no AS exams.
I just wanted to know the best way to revise year 12 content during year 13.
I was thinking to do each year 12 topic a month e.g September topic 1 all exam questions and content, October topic 2, is this a good idea or will I just forget all topics I studied first by the exam season?

Thank you sooo much x
by 2 days per subject do you mean Monday and Tuesday Biology and Wednesday and Thursday psychology?

Hi, there are AS exams, maybe your school doesn't do them - some do and some do not.

Although there are official AS exams they have a 0% weighing on your overall A2 grade, but universities take them into account (as well as predicted grades).

You will do all of the AS content in Year 12, but you will also sit an A-level paper in Year 13 that will have the AS content in it.

I wouldn't do topic 1 in September and topic 2 in October and then do the a-level exams 9 months after doing topic 1 in September, you are very likely to forget or be very rusty in that topic.

Do a bit of everything, it's doable. Go over topic 1 once every month, go over topic 2 once every month. If there's something you need to go over more then go over it more than once a month, but if you understand it well then once a month might be okay.

It honestly depends on you, no one can tell you the best way to revise - just give you some general advice, you have to know that - or find that out.
E.g. there are people that prefer using textbooks and/or making a lot of notes and flashcards etc. and then doing past papers, and then there are people who just prefer watching videos on a topic and just doing past paper questions without any/many notes (me).

You should repeat your content often enough for you not to forget - and make sure you are good with it. Make sure you do past paper questions - as that's the best way to revise once you know the content and have the knowledge.


Best of luck!

I took very different subjects to you - Law, business and economics.

It's really important that you are consistent in your studies - personally I recommend 2 days per subject and a days rest. I did this and got A*AA. My best advice is to print of the specifications for each subject - when it came to revision I tended to annotate my basic notes on the specification and learnt that instead of all my lengthy notes. I started revision from week 1 so I could gradually accumulate my knowledge and by exam time it was a breeze - even for the linear subjects where I had all my exams in 2nd year.

Personally I recommend just taking brief notes in class before doing a full write up and further consolidation after class.

In terms of past papers I strongly recommend you start them as soon as you learn a topic - obviously not a full past paper for a while, but just pick out questions, or make up questions in the style of the exam board. When you do mocks in class ask for feedback on how you could get full marks, this really seemed to help for me.

Getting those A*'s at A-Level does require a lot of hard work for a long time, but the work itself shouldn't be too difficult. Stick to the syllabus, start early, make accurate notes and practice your technique, ask for feedback and continue improving.

Good luck

You were able to do Business and Economics together? No school or friend I know was able to do that.

Yeah it was a very popular choice at my college. There was quite a bit of content cross over during year 1 but started to become very distinct in year 2.

That's quite odd to be honest, I know they're quite similar in parts, but it wouldn't put anyone at a disadvantage.

I wish I could've done that ...instead I picked Economics and Physics

Business to physics to quite a change

I got a C C in math and physics AS. Wish I'd had revised. I literally handicapped myself to the point that I only had 6 hours prior exam and had to study the entire 3 books.

Anyway, I'm doing Comp Sci, Math, Physics and planning to do an intensive Further Math this year.

You're going to do 4 a-levels in Year 13?