Folders vs Notebooks for A levels

folders

you will probs need 2 actually for each subject
1 for as and 1 for a2

also why are you doing 4 a-levels

I was struggling to pick between maths and psychology, and in the end I decided to do them both, as the college ok’d it. Is there something wrong with doing 4?

no university looks at 4 a-levels in favour of someone with 3, both are seen equally. Basically what you're doing to yourself is giving a whole extra work load when 3 is hard enough to keep up with. Even the smartest (some that got A*A*A*) dropped 4 because of the work load

Just think carefully before starting 4

Yeah I mean I suppose that could be true. I wouldn’t say that the extra work load isn’t worth it though, I think both maths and psychology provide useful skills for what I want to do.

Universities, even the Cambridge talk I went to a few days ago said that dropping 4 subjects is much more worth it if you can secure more A*s. I think if you're stuck between those two subjects, think about what you want to do at University. It is probably ideal to have a plan before picking your subjects, so then when it comes to UCAS you have the required subjects for the course. If your course you want to pick requires more psychology than maths, pick that etc etc. You could pick 4 but I would strongly advise against it. I don't know how some even do 5

I can totally understand your point... I’m probably just setting myself up for tons of stress and no social life haha. You see, I want to do law at university so I feel that history and English are good fits for that. I suppose maths and psychology are more to do with showing that I’m a logical thinker and building knowledge on why people act the way they do. I’ll definitely look over my plan and think things through.

As you can’t decide between which you prefer of maths or psychology, I’d recommend doing 4 for the first 2-3 weeks of college and then drop the one you least prefer after you’ve had some lessons for both. It’s not worth doing 4, as A-levels are extremely difficult and universities would prefer you to get higher grades in 3 subjects than lower grades across 4.

How I do the whole folder thing at college is I use a day folder which has all of my subjects in it (with dividers between each) and I place all of my work from lessons in that. I just use an A4 pukka pad for lessons which you can rip out the pages of. Then when it gets to half term, I condense all my class work into notes and put them in place of all the work from the previous half term (as it’s far less paper) and place my old work into individual lever arch files that I just keep at home. Hope that makes sense!

Honestly, I think that’d be really, really great if my college allowed it. For some odd reason, I think by the 7th July you can no longer swap around your a levels and if you’ve chosen 4, you have to commit for the full two years. It’s a bit strange to me as I’m not going to have an inkling what they’re like before starting haha

And thank you for the folder advice, I can start planning something similar now. Makes my life much easier!

Oh that’s annoying as I initially took 4 to figure out which one I preferred out of physics and politics (to go alongside maths and history) and was allowed to drop one after a few weeks at my college.

And I’m glad you found that helpful, it’s definitely kept me so organised throughout my time at college! Really helpful having notes from the last half term too as it’s meant I’ve never had to make any in a rush when I’ve had assessments.

As you want to study law, it’s really open in terms of A-level combinations so you can’t go wrong with maths or psychology. Psychology will be likely be more beneficial to you though as it’s an essay based subject whereas maths isn’t but both will look good when applying to universities!

Universities, even the Cambridge talk I went to a few days ago said that dropping 4 subjects is much more worth it if you can secure more A*s. I think if you're stuck between those two subjects, think about what you want to do at University. It is probably ideal to have a plan before picking your subjects, so then when it comes to UCAS you have the required subjects for the course. If your course you want to pick requires more psychology than maths, pick that etc etc. You could pick 4 but I would strongly advise against it. I don't know how some even do 5

Thank you, that’s honestly so helpful. Would you mind telling me a bit about what maths a level is like (it’s the one I think I’m most anxious about)? I think I’m going to be with AQA for it.