Alevels
Can someone who did alevel biology and chemistry just give me a little bit of information about what it’s like. Im soooooo scared to start college
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Original post by Tmfatima2002
Can someone who did alevel biology and chemistry just give me a little bit of information about what it’s like. Im soooooo scared to start college
Im on the same boat with you and i really scared since everyone says that its going to be very hard.
Original post by ineedhelp1234
Im on the same boat with you and i really scared since everyone says that its going to be very hard.
On top of it being rlly hard I’m worried about making friends too 😭
nah I'm taking bio chem and psychology since I hate maths
Hi! I've just finished A Level Biology (AQA), Chemistry (AQA) and Psychology (Edexcel) along with an EPQ and AS Level Religious Studies so hopefully I can help out!
I'm not entirely sure what you want to know so I'll just give an overview of my experience. Chemistry was the hardest subject I did, I'm not going to lie, however its one of those that as long as you put the effort in you should be fine. It has a fair amount of maths in and it's a wide variety from simple formulas to remember to big 7 mark titration questions. Don't worry too much about this though! I hate maths and it's not my strong point but the maths does get easier the more you practice. You start seeing common methods of doing things and generally the questions are the same, just in a new context. It is a very interesting subject and I thoroughly enjoyed it (especially the organic part) so don't worry too much about the difficulty level. Put the effort in, work hard and you'll be fine.
Personally I didn't find understanding the content of Biology hard. It was the amount of content to remember that was difficult. As long as you revise from the start and keep on top of things, you should be fine with biology. For both subjects the key thing is to revise often and from the start and use past papers. Both subjects are now full with application and you can't get a good grade by just memorising anymore. You have to be able to apply your understanding to unfamiliar situations and the best way to do this is past papers. These also really help with both biology and chemistry maths skills.
Hope I've helped and please feel free to ask anymore questions about the subjects, college, or just anything in general really!
I'm not entirely sure what you want to know so I'll just give an overview of my experience. Chemistry was the hardest subject I did, I'm not going to lie, however its one of those that as long as you put the effort in you should be fine. It has a fair amount of maths in and it's a wide variety from simple formulas to remember to big 7 mark titration questions. Don't worry too much about this though! I hate maths and it's not my strong point but the maths does get easier the more you practice. You start seeing common methods of doing things and generally the questions are the same, just in a new context. It is a very interesting subject and I thoroughly enjoyed it (especially the organic part) so don't worry too much about the difficulty level. Put the effort in, work hard and you'll be fine.
Personally I didn't find understanding the content of Biology hard. It was the amount of content to remember that was difficult. As long as you revise from the start and keep on top of things, you should be fine with biology. For both subjects the key thing is to revise often and from the start and use past papers. Both subjects are now full with application and you can't get a good grade by just memorising anymore. You have to be able to apply your understanding to unfamiliar situations and the best way to do this is past papers. These also really help with both biology and chemistry maths skills.
Hope I've helped and please feel free to ask anymore questions about the subjects, college, or just anything in general really!
Original post by yeahthatonethere
Hi! I've just finished A Level Biology (AQA), Chemistry (AQA) and Psychology (Edexcel) along with an EPQ and AS Level Religious Studies so hopefully I can help out!
I'm not entirely sure what you want to know so I'll just give an overview of my experience. Chemistry was the hardest subject I did, I'm not going to lie, however its one of those that as long as you put the effort in you should be fine. It has a fair amount of maths in and it's a wide variety from simple formulas to remember to big 7 mark titration questions. Don't worry too much about this though! I hate maths and it's not my strong point but the maths does get easier the more you practice. You start seeing common methods of doing things and generally the questions are the same, just in a new context. It is a very interesting subject and I thoroughly enjoyed it (especially the organic part) so don't worry too much about the difficulty level. Put the effort in, work hard and you'll be fine.
Personally I didn't find understanding the content of Biology hard. It was the amount of content to remember that was difficult. As long as you revise from the start and keep on top of things, you should be fine with biology. For both subjects the key thing is to revise often and from the start and use past papers. Both subjects are now full with application and you can't get a good grade by just memorising anymore. You have to be able to apply your understanding to unfamiliar situations and the best way to do this is past papers. These also really help with both biology and chemistry maths skills.
Hope I've helped and please feel free to ask anymore questions about the subjects, college, or just anything in general really!
I'm not entirely sure what you want to know so I'll just give an overview of my experience. Chemistry was the hardest subject I did, I'm not going to lie, however its one of those that as long as you put the effort in you should be fine. It has a fair amount of maths in and it's a wide variety from simple formulas to remember to big 7 mark titration questions. Don't worry too much about this though! I hate maths and it's not my strong point but the maths does get easier the more you practice. You start seeing common methods of doing things and generally the questions are the same, just in a new context. It is a very interesting subject and I thoroughly enjoyed it (especially the organic part) so don't worry too much about the difficulty level. Put the effort in, work hard and you'll be fine.
Personally I didn't find understanding the content of Biology hard. It was the amount of content to remember that was difficult. As long as you revise from the start and keep on top of things, you should be fine with biology. For both subjects the key thing is to revise often and from the start and use past papers. Both subjects are now full with application and you can't get a good grade by just memorising anymore. You have to be able to apply your understanding to unfamiliar situations and the best way to do this is past papers. These also really help with both biology and chemistry maths skills.
Hope I've helped and please feel free to ask anymore questions about the subjects, college, or just anything in general really!
Thank you so much this really helps, how much revision did you put in a day
Original post by yeahthatonethere
Hi! I've just finished A Level Biology (AQA), Chemistry (AQA) and Psychology (Edexcel) along with an EPQ and AS Level Religious Studies so hopefully I can help out!
I'm not entirely sure what you want to know so I'll just give an overview of my experience. Chemistry was the hardest subject I did, I'm not going to lie, however its one of those that as long as you put the effort in you should be fine. It has a fair amount of maths in and it's a wide variety from simple formulas to remember to big 7 mark titration questions. Don't worry too much about this though! I hate maths and it's not my strong point but the maths does get easier the more you practice. You start seeing common methods of doing things and generally the questions are the same, just in a new context. It is a very interesting subject and I thoroughly enjoyed it (especially the organic part) so don't worry too much about the difficulty level. Put the effort in, work hard and you'll be fine.
Personally I didn't find understanding the content of Biology hard. It was the amount of content to remember that was difficult. As long as you revise from the start and keep on top of things, you should be fine with biology. For both subjects the key thing is to revise often and from the start and use past papers. Both subjects are now full with application and you can't get a good grade by just memorising anymore. You have to be able to apply your understanding to unfamiliar situations and the best way to do this is past papers. These also really help with both biology and chemistry maths skills.
Hope I've helped and please feel free to ask anymore questions about the subjects, college, or just anything in general really!
I'm not entirely sure what you want to know so I'll just give an overview of my experience. Chemistry was the hardest subject I did, I'm not going to lie, however its one of those that as long as you put the effort in you should be fine. It has a fair amount of maths in and it's a wide variety from simple formulas to remember to big 7 mark titration questions. Don't worry too much about this though! I hate maths and it's not my strong point but the maths does get easier the more you practice. You start seeing common methods of doing things and generally the questions are the same, just in a new context. It is a very interesting subject and I thoroughly enjoyed it (especially the organic part) so don't worry too much about the difficulty level. Put the effort in, work hard and you'll be fine.
Personally I didn't find understanding the content of Biology hard. It was the amount of content to remember that was difficult. As long as you revise from the start and keep on top of things, you should be fine with biology. For both subjects the key thing is to revise often and from the start and use past papers. Both subjects are now full with application and you can't get a good grade by just memorising anymore. You have to be able to apply your understanding to unfamiliar situations and the best way to do this is past papers. These also really help with both biology and chemistry maths skills.
Hope I've helped and please feel free to ask anymore questions about the subjects, college, or just anything in general really!
Thank you I'll try to keep on top of things also what did you do for psychology i never took it for GCSE ?
Original post by Tmfatima2002
Thank you so much this really helps, how much revision did you put in a day
It's hard to say per day, I never really gave myself a timetable (my revision was very unorganised haha). I generally used to dedicate one day to one subject. In my frees I would try to do any homework I was set so that I could focus on revision when I got home. I would normally get home around about 4:30pm and I would work until about 7-8pm so about 3-4 hours with breaks in between. Revision mainly consisted of making or using flashcards, rewriting concise notes using the textbook, and doing past papers.
Some online resources I used a lot were:
Physicsandmathstutor - They have all the past papers for all exam boards you need fr both biology and chemistry (and some psych resources). They also have notes and questions per topic too for target revision.
Mr Pollock - AQA Biology youtube revision channel that do good videos for quick revision.
E Rintoul - AQA Chemistry youtube revision channel that has amazing videos including talk-throughs of practice papers.
Chemrevise - Pretty sure they do revision guides for most exam boards. I wouldn't have survived without their revision guides, honestly they're great.
Hope I've helped and anymore questions, just ask!
Original post by yeahthatonethere
It's hard to say per day, I never really gave myself a timetable (my revision was very unorganised haha). I generally used to dedicate one day to one subject. In my frees I would try to do any homework I was set so that I could focus on revision when I got home. I would normally get home around about 4:30pm and I would work until about 7-8pm so about 3-4 hours with breaks in between. Revision mainly consisted of making or using flashcards, rewriting concise notes using the textbook, and doing past papers.
Some online resources I used a lot were:
Physicsandmathstutor - They have all the past papers for all exam boards you need fr both biology and chemistry (and some psych resources). They also have notes and questions per topic too for target revision.
Mr Pollock - AQA Biology youtube revision channel that do good videos for quick revision.
E Rintoul - AQA Chemistry youtube revision channel that has amazing videos including talk-throughs of practice papers.
Chemrevise - Pretty sure they do revision guides for most exam boards. I wouldn't have survived without their revision guides, honestly they're great.
Hope I've helped and anymore questions, just ask!
Some online resources I used a lot were:
Physicsandmathstutor - They have all the past papers for all exam boards you need fr both biology and chemistry (and some psych resources). They also have notes and questions per topic too for target revision.
Mr Pollock - AQA Biology youtube revision channel that do good videos for quick revision.
E Rintoul - AQA Chemistry youtube revision channel that has amazing videos including talk-throughs of practice papers.
Chemrevise - Pretty sure they do revision guides for most exam boards. I wouldn't have survived without their revision guides, honestly they're great.
Hope I've helped and anymore questions, just ask!
Thank you so much this really helps and also does alevels carry on from gcse or isit completely different ?
Original post by Tmfatima2002
Can someone who did alevel biology and chemistry just give me a little bit of information about what it’s like. Im soooooo scared to start college
I do both and will be starting A2 next week. They're generally not too bad, especially understanding the content, but be prepared for the workload that comes with any a level. I recommend starting revision from the beginning of the year. If you stay on top of it you should be fine. Good luck
Original post by onequestion805
I do both and will be starting A2 next week. They're generally not too bad, especially understanding the content, but be prepared for the workload that comes with any a level. I recommend starting revision from the beginning of the year. If you stay on top of it you should be fine. Good luck
Thank you so much!
Original post by yeahthatonethere
Hi! I've just finished A Level Biology (AQA), Chemistry (AQA) and Psychology (Edexcel) along with an EPQ and AS Level Religious Studies so hopefully I can help out!
I'm not entirely sure what you want to know so I'll just give an overview of my experience. Chemistry was the hardest subject I did, I'm not going to lie, however its one of those that as long as you put the effort in you should be fine. It has a fair amount of maths in and it's a wide variety from simple formulas to remember to big 7 mark titration questions. Don't worry too much about this though! I hate maths and it's not my strong point but the maths does get easier the more you practice. You start seeing common methods of doing things and generally the questions are the same, just in a new context. It is a very interesting subject and I thoroughly enjoyed it (especially the organic part) so don't worry too much about the difficulty level. Put the effort in, work hard and you'll be fine.
Personally I didn't find understanding the content of Biology hard. It was the amount of content to remember that was difficult. As long as you revise from the start and keep on top of things, you should be fine with biology. For both subjects the key thing is to revise often and from the start and use past papers. Both subjects are now full with application and you can't get a good grade by just memorising anymore. You have to be able to apply your understanding to unfamiliar situations and the best way to do this is past papers. These also really help with both biology and chemistry maths skills.
Hope I've helped and please feel free to ask anymore questions about the subjects, college, or just anything in general really!
I'm not entirely sure what you want to know so I'll just give an overview of my experience. Chemistry was the hardest subject I did, I'm not going to lie, however its one of those that as long as you put the effort in you should be fine. It has a fair amount of maths in and it's a wide variety from simple formulas to remember to big 7 mark titration questions. Don't worry too much about this though! I hate maths and it's not my strong point but the maths does get easier the more you practice. You start seeing common methods of doing things and generally the questions are the same, just in a new context. It is a very interesting subject and I thoroughly enjoyed it (especially the organic part) so don't worry too much about the difficulty level. Put the effort in, work hard and you'll be fine.
Personally I didn't find understanding the content of Biology hard. It was the amount of content to remember that was difficult. As long as you revise from the start and keep on top of things, you should be fine with biology. For both subjects the key thing is to revise often and from the start and use past papers. Both subjects are now full with application and you can't get a good grade by just memorising anymore. You have to be able to apply your understanding to unfamiliar situations and the best way to do this is past papers. These also really help with both biology and chemistry maths skills.
Hope I've helped and please feel free to ask anymore questions about the subjects, college, or just anything in general really!
what exam board did you do for religious studies ?
Original post by ineedhelp1234
Thank you I'll try to keep on top of things also what did you do for psychology i never took it for GCSE ?
I didn't do it at GCSE either so don't worry! Honestly it's definitely not required, I don't think anyone in my class did it at GCSE. I'm not sure whether you mean what did I do as in content or as in revision, so I'll just cover both!
Content wise on Edexcel we covered (in year 1): Social (prejudice, obedience, homophobia), Cognitive (memory, dementia), Learning (aggression, phobias, eating disorders, learning behaviour), Biological (agression, drugs, drug therapy). In year 2 we did: Child (Autism, attachement, daycare), and Clinical (schizophrenia, depression, diagnosis, culture). It is honestly such an interesting subject, I'm sure you'll love it!
Revision wise, as it is the most content heavy subject of all the ones I did, it required a lot of revision. It is mainly memorisation so I relied on a lot of flashcards and I used a technique where I would write notes on a study/theory then get a blank bit of paper and write down everything I could remember by memory and compare the two once I was done. Then you just revise the bits you forgot! I did past papers for this too, however it is harder as the markschemes are very subjective. Your best bit is to do some questions out of class then ask your teacher to mark them for you.
Hope this has helped and keep asking questions if you need!
Original post by Tmfatima2002
Thank you so much this really helps and also does alevels carry on from gcse or isit completely different ?
I didn't do GCSE psychology so I can't comment on that however I found that Biology A Level was very similar to GCSE in the skills that I needed, it was just a lot more intense and in-depth. A Level Chemistry, however, I found to be very different from GCSE. This may be due in part to me moving from OCR at GCSE to AQA at A Level but they felt like very different subjects. GCSE was quite a lot of memorisation whereas A Level was a lot more applied and I seemed to be learning a lot of new content I had never done or heard of before. Don't be too worried by this though! You get taught everything you need to know when you need it, it'll just take a few days to adapt and you'll be fine!
Original post by hobashir
what exam board did you do for religious studies ?
I did AQA with my religion being Buddhism!
Original post by yeahthatonethere
I didn't do GCSE psychology so I can't comment on that however I found that Biology A Level was very similar to GCSE in the skills that I needed, it was just a lot more intense and in-depth. A Level Chemistry, however, I found to be very different from GCSE. This may be due in part to me moving from OCR at GCSE to AQA at A Level but they felt like very different subjects. GCSE was quite a lot of memorisation whereas A Level was a lot more applied and I seemed to be learning a lot of new content I had never done or heard of before. Don't be too worried by this though! You get taught everything you need to know when you need it, it'll just take a few days to adapt and you'll be fine!
Oh okay, thank you !
Original post by Tmfatima2002
Can someone who did alevel biology and chemistry just give me a little bit of information about what it’s like. Im soooooo scared to start college
I did AQA Biology and OCR A Chemistry.
Biology was so interesting. AS topics I found were very straight forward and easy to understand. A2 were more complicated, but once you remembered it it was fine. Biology is just a lot of content, but topics do link together. Biology is all about practicing once you remembered it as the questions can be very strange and the mark scheme is VERY specific, hence why it was 64% for an A* this year I presume😂.
Chemistry to me was straight forward. The good thing is that the topics can be completely different from physical to organic, so if you’re not good at one topic then there’s plenty of other topics for you to excel at. The exams were good too; very straight forward questions unlike biology and very little application I found.
If you would like me to send my revision material, I am happy to. I made sure I put every single little detail that could possibly be asked just to make sure and some off spec knowledge. Paper 3 in biology you write an essay that you need off spec knowledge to gain full marks. I got A* in both so I think they paid off😂
I do Biology,Chemistry and Maths and going into A2.Personally I find chemistry the easiest and maths the hardest.
Chemistry is mostly about understanding concepts and applying your knowledge especially in organic chemistry.It is not really about memorisation.I don't find the maths too challenging and many of the maths questions are a great way to get lots of marks. Organic chemistry is a bit hard because some of the examples are hard and you need to really think as you never seen such examples before and have to try and apply your knowledge.I found chemistry only hard for the first month but after that I just started self teaching myself and watching machemguy and doing questions and it was all good.I really enjoy chemistry personally and don't find it too hard.
For Biology,it is all about memorising content but you also have to understand it as you have to apply knowledge to different contexts.The mark schemes are a pain,you have to memorise the mark scheme,because it is very specific about using particular words and phrases,so sometimes when you know a topic well,you still don't get the marks if you didn't word your answer the way the examiner wanted you too.Some of the topics take some time to understand especially some of the processes, I find concepts in chemistry a lot easier to understand compared to biology where I have to sit there and look at 5+ different resources about one thing and think about it for some time before things click.Some topics are quite interesting,but I find plants extremely boring and hate any plants related topic,but the human stuff is interesting.
Chemistry is mostly about understanding concepts and applying your knowledge especially in organic chemistry.It is not really about memorisation.I don't find the maths too challenging and many of the maths questions are a great way to get lots of marks. Organic chemistry is a bit hard because some of the examples are hard and you need to really think as you never seen such examples before and have to try and apply your knowledge.I found chemistry only hard for the first month but after that I just started self teaching myself and watching machemguy and doing questions and it was all good.I really enjoy chemistry personally and don't find it too hard.
For Biology,it is all about memorising content but you also have to understand it as you have to apply knowledge to different contexts.The mark schemes are a pain,you have to memorise the mark scheme,because it is very specific about using particular words and phrases,so sometimes when you know a topic well,you still don't get the marks if you didn't word your answer the way the examiner wanted you too.Some of the topics take some time to understand especially some of the processes, I find concepts in chemistry a lot easier to understand compared to biology where I have to sit there and look at 5+ different resources about one thing and think about it for some time before things click.Some topics are quite interesting,but I find plants extremely boring and hate any plants related topic,but the human stuff is interesting.
Original post by Tmfatima2002
On top of it being rlly hard I’m worried about making friends too 😭
Me too omd im starting sixth form alone and I can’t stop worrying about it and on top of that I’m doing bio chem and psychology.
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