A levels

Are you in AS (year 12) or A2 (year 13) right now?

AS don't award A*s.

What subjects do you study?

That’s what I thought but they’ve got an A* grade I think it’s because the course has changed and the exams are at the end of two years ....

My Study Techniques & A* Resources

Maths
I try to finish the content and be thorough with it as fast as I could by reading the textbook examples and watching youtube videos from Jack Brown if i'm still unsure about the topic. I also have a school 'Integral Maths' login which is for the MEI exam board but I love practising from it because the questions are typically more difficult than the AQA ones.

After being thorough with the content, I try to do as many different types of questions for each topic but focus mainly on doing hard questions to prepare myself for worst case scenarios in the real exam. I also write down questions that I struggled with or made silly mistakes on, and I revise that topic again a few days using just the questions sheet. I also skim over this on the exam day, so I can familiarize myself with the hard questions and remember where I make silly mistakes so that I won't mess up and do this in the real exam.

Where I get my Maths practice questions:
• Past and Specimen Papers for all AQA, OCR, Edexcel and MEI.
• My AQA textbook exercises
• Physics&MathsTutor
• Madasmaths.com
• MathsMadeEasy
• Integral Maths

Biology
I learn the content from https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5062288 and check if it covers all the content from my textbook. I add some more detail to it (the 'HowScienceWorks' boxes that we all skip ) and then learn that too.

After doing that, all I do is PRACTICE QUESTIONS as I believe that this is the key to Biology as there are soo many application questions. I write down the questions that I got wrong and memorise them to prevent me from making that mistake in the future.
I memorise the Mark Scheme for as many questions as possible, as similar questions in biology will have an overlapping mark scheme which expects certain key words and won't give you the marks unless you state those 'exact words'.
I once lost marks for describing some equipment as 'accurate' but I got it wrong because the mark scheme only accepted the word 'precise'.

Where I get my Biology practice questions:
• Past and Specimen Papers for all AQA, OCR and Edexcel
• Physics&MathsTutor
• SaveMyExams
• Ask your teachers for more questions
• pxs biology

Chemistry
This subject is actually the easiest and most straight-forward one to revise for. LITERALLY, the only studying I do is memorising the Chemrevise revision notes and then doing past paper questions. The AQA Chemistry questions are soo repetitive so memorising mark schemes helps a lot! I also note down the questions I got wrong and learn the mark schemes to them.

Where I get my Chemistry practice questions:
• Past and Specimen Papers for all AQA, OCR and Edexcel
• Physics&MathsTutor
• SaveMyExams
• Ask your teacher for more questions
• A-LevelChemistry.com

GENERAL STUDY TECHNIQUES:

• The Pomodoro Technique whilst i'm learning the content for the first time. This is how it works: Study for 25 minutes at a time and reward yourself with a 5 minute break. After doing this twice more, reward yourself with a 15 minute break at the end of your third study period of 25 minutes. Then restart and continue. This technique breaks down your workload into small, manageable chunks to stay fresh and focused throughout the day.

• Spaced repetition to ensure I don't forget the content that i've learnt. It means you review information at gradually increasing intervals, so it becomes retained in your long-term memory.

• The Feynman technique to check if I'm thorough with what i've learnt. It states that if you've really understood something completely, you should easily be able to explain it in simple terms to someone that knows absolutely nothing about the topic.