year 12s

I have to ask but are you actually falling behind or is it just a feeling? Like you'll have to differentiate between it. Like at sixth form you learn so much more in a week at school than you would have at GCSE so it feels like there's so much to learn which could potentially make you feel like you are falling behind? I would recommend talking to a friend because that always helps. As for the amount of work I'm doing. I'm not doing any extra work. The homework I get set takes up enough time already. My school recommends doing 4h per subject per week including homework and extra stuff. Maybe that would help you? Good luck

Hey my school gives us alot of homework every lesson but ofcourse it's for our own benefit. I try to finish my hw in my frees or soon as I get home. This leaves me just above 3 hrs of independent work every night. It sounds like a lot but it's not intense work. I just do the summary questions for future topics for the sciences and read ahead and I just do practice questions from the textbook for maths too. On the weekends, after I've done all the essential stuff set by skl or anything I missed during the week, I just try some exam questions. I get you about falling behind because it's difficult to figure out what exactly I'm meant to be doing, it feels like I'm not doing enough tbh and idk what to do about it...

What exactly are u struggling with BTW?

hmmm
i guess it take me agess to make my notes. i spend the majority of my time making my notes, not cuz i want to make them neat or anything, but just cuz it takes me ages to collate everything from diff sources. also, i have loads of questions when i go through my notes so it takes me a while to find the answers to my qs, as i want to make sure i understand stuff thoroughly. on top of this, i have to do homework from school as well.

eg. today i spent like three hours thoroughly reading through like 11 pages of my chem textbook on structure and bonding and made my notes. and thats all i got done today

so i feel like im 'falling behind' i guess cuz im not getting the time to read ahead or do extra practice qs and stuff.... im also not getting the time to spend on super curricular and oxbridgey stuff...

thanks for the replies btw

I feel like I’m falling behind too Like I’m just so unmotivated and have to kind of force myself to revise outside of school. I’m doing chem, bio and history. Also, how are you finding A level Maths so far. I’m thinking of switching to maths from history but scared as to whether it will be difficult?

I feel like I’m falling behind too Like I’m just so unmotivated and have to kind of force myself to revise outside of school. I’m doing chem, bio and history. Also, how are you finding A level Maths so far. I’m thinking of switching to maths from history but scared as to whether it will be difficult?

Well I'm doing maths Chem bio and physics and the only subject that requires really good notes for me is bio. For the rest only practice works for me. For you it might be different I get that. I really recommend the CGP revision guides tbh I've got the physics one it's amazing. I can easily read ahead for my lessons and it's easier to comprehend than the textbooks which have so much unnecessary waffle in them. After reading through these I just practice some questions it's so so important at Alevel I think. I'm gonna buy the CGP books for chem and bio aswell, people criticise them but even my teacher said that they have all the spec points word for word so...

Also don't worry I think that youre doing enough. Try talking to your teachers and ask them about the best way to revise for each of your subjects, trust me they know best. Good luck!

Time management is very important, especially once you get into your second year because you will have to revise for your exams, pro tip: revise in your summer holidays (even tho they're a long way away). So work on managing your time and you should be good - and yeah, you can get alot of work

aww thank you!!!

yeah i rly should invest in CGP books...they seem so useful. im gonna do this for chem n physics acc...which one r u getting for chem?

Are you going to get the course books or the revision guides?

aww thank you!!!

yeah i rly should invest in CGP books...they seem so useful. im gonna do this for chem n physics acc...which one r u getting for chem?

i hv no idea lol im just waiting for the other persons advice aha

also lmk if u decide to switch to maths x

So as someone who’s done A level chemistry, please know that at this early stage, spending this long on early topics to understand the content and make notes in COMPLETELY normal. I remember breaking down and crying when I learnt how electron shells are really structured and it took me at least 3 hours just to understand the two pages of the textbook it took up. It will get much much easier to understand content quicker as you go along and get to grips with the new style of content. One thing I would recommend might be to have the spec on hand when making notes, as exam boards won’t ask questions other than content mentioned on the spec (I didn’t know this until I made revision notes but I WISH someone had told me this earlier). I gave up reading ahead after a couple of weeks, I found it much more time efficient to make notes fresh on a topic during lesson, and spend time afterwards collating class notes, textbook pages etc into my final notes, without knowing I’d have to prep for the next lesson. Obviously, do whatever method works for you, that’s just what worked for me. Hope this helps x

So as someone who’s done A level chemistry, please know that at this early stage, spending this long on early topics to understand the content and make notes in COMPLETELY normal. I remember breaking down and crying when I learnt how electron shells are really structured and it took me at least 3 hours just to understand the two pages of the textbook it took up. It will get much much easier to understand content quicker as you go along and get to grips with the new style of content. One thing I would recommend might be to have the spec on hand when making notes, as exam boards won’t ask questions other than content mentioned on the spec (I didn’t know this until I made revision notes but I WISH someone had told me this earlier). I gave up reading ahead after a couple of weeks, I found it much more time efficient to make notes fresh on a topic during lesson, and spend time afterwards collating class notes, textbook pages etc into my final notes, without knowing I’d have to prep for the next lesson. Obviously, do whatever method works for you, that’s just what worked for me. Hope this helps x

I’m confused as I don’t know whether to get the course book or the revision guides aha. Idk I’m really scared to switch to maths. Last year I was confidently telling everyone I’m going to be taking A level Maths but then everyone put me off it saying A level Maths is too difficult and that “most people fail it” and that “it’s impossible for me to get an A or B”

No worries man, I get it that sixth form is quite stressful and I'm always panicking aswell since there are so many clever and organised people around me but if as long as your doing something in ur time, its enough!

I'm just getting the regular CGP revision guide for chem