Does A Level get any better?

Hi, I'm in year 12 and I've just started college doing French, Spanish and Maths A levels. I'm really struggling with maths, scraped an E by 2 marks in my recent assessment and don't know why I'm finding it so difficult, I think it might be not knowing how to approach the questions if they're in a format I haven't seen before?? I got an 8 in GCSE so don't understand why people who got 7s on the same course are coping fine but I'm not!!

Anyway, does it get better than this?? Is it normal, just the GCSE-A level jump?? I need a B for university!

Reply 1

Lemonadez

You learn more about trig, differentiation and integration. Imo, the content gets only a tad bit harder but not by much. Also, try doing A LOT OF practice questions. Watch videos on exam solutions, try the questions, mark them. Best way to revise maths. And as for why people who got 7s at GCSE are doing better:
-They are naturally numerical but pissed around too much during year 11 (I did that but still got 9).
-They are just working much harder now and keeping on top of everything.

Reply 2

Chwirkytheappleboy

I found the step up from GCSE to A Level to be much more significant than I had anticipated and like you I came close to failing my first mocks. But also like you, I recognised at a similar stage that I really needed to up my game. I really increased the amount of time I spent working, and basically re-taught myself all the material again from the beginning, making sure I properly understood what I was doing before moving on.

The end result of that was that I ended up getting As in Maths and Further Maths (this is before A*s existed for A Levels) and then went to University and got a 1st class degree in Maths & Physics. So hopefully that demonstrates that even if you’re struggling now - just like I was - you can still definitely turn it around if you put in the effort.

Reply 3

EmCharles

In my experience, no it does not get easier. The jump is huge, and for those that found GCSEs easy it can be hard, as they have not had to struggle through this before. I was the same!
The questions are there to catch you out. The work is demanding and only gets more complex. However I found I adjusted, and sosk your teachers for feedback on your approach, and self mark following exactly what the mark scheme says. They are looking for specific parts of working out. You never know which parts, so write down all of your working clearly and in order. Even add sentences to clear up your work if you must. Do not skip even the smallest of steps, as they could make the difference.

Reply 4

begbie68

Original post by keetzy

I was similar to you at school. As a teacher & now a tutor, I see many other similar students : found GCSE maths fairly easy/straightforward, and don't understand why you're struggling at A- Level.

The main difference is you MUST do lots of practice at A-Level, just to be relatively ok. You've probably NEVER EVER had to work at maths in the past.
If you've got a decent text book &/or teacher, you should pay attention to examples, be able to reproduce them, and then make the connection between example(s) & other questions on same topic.

Algebra is a big deal at A-Level, and herein lies a good analogy:

In y6 & y7, you could probably 'see' the solution for 3x-5=13...... x=6
But later, 13 - 12/(2x+1) =5.7 needs a METHOD (most likely)

So at A-Level, you MUST learn method & process, first. Practice algebra & learn definitions. Then you should be fine.

Reply 5

Larateu

This is me being honest - A level maths is easier than GCSE maths in terms of how much work I need to do to understand it.

Reply 6

begbie68

Original post by Larateu

This is me being honest - A level maths is easier than GCSE maths in terms of how much work I need to do to understand it.

hmmmm. is that just you kidding yourself? Can you answer ANY question on a topic that you reckon that you understand?

they get much worse.

Original post by begbie68

hmmmm. is that just you kidding yourself? Can you answer ANY question on a topic that you reckon that you understand?

Its just my opinion. I would obviously do better at a gcse paper than an A level paper but im saying A level maths is less work for me since I understand everything immediately whereas in gcse i had to revise

Reply 9

stamm

I also got an 8 at GCSE however I was extremely determined at the start of my year 12 and this benefited me greatly. I eventually achieved an A* in the end of year 12 exams and honestly the best way to excel at maths is to revise and do maths questions continually throughout the week, doing a simple 2 hours every 1/2 days you really develop these skills. If you make sure that you revise continually, you will generally find it quite easy as when you come to revising towards the end, it will just be you remembering how to do things rather than relearning things that you didnt actually learn properly. I must admit i did struggle in certain topics like trigonometry and certain mechanics but my best advice for things you dont understand is to use external resources. My go-to was always Mymaths where i would go through the lessons for the topics and then i would go back to my normal text book and try and do the questions there. If i needed extra help, i watched videos (khan academy is extremely good but there are lots of these around) and did their examples to familiarise myself with the processes. Best of luck.