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Vote - Most Challenging A Level Subject

Matt1989

general studies, critical thinking, applied health and social! IMO extremely difficult. They are notoriously world renowned to be of an exterme difficulty. They are equivalent of a 1st at Uni, if a grade A is achieved.

Reply 81

zhivago

2

I think it's relative personally. The naturally apt scientists also taking Arts subjects will find those hardest, while the Artsy kids taking science subjects too (a la moi), will find the sciences that bit harder. So it does depend on the person (and obviously also the subjects you've taken).

Physics is harder than Chemistry though, in my opinion, at least. I think for Physics you have to be a proper mathematician (which I am not), as opposed to Chemistry where you can get away with being an Artsy types and just learning what goes on.

But that just proves it's all relative. Maths dudes will probably find Physics easier because a lot of it is Maths.

Generally though, I think from an outside perspective, Chemistry and Physics are seen as the two toughest A-levels. Maths isn't anymore, because AS/A2 maths students get like 6 attempts at re-sits or something (so the Guardian tell me), so apparently now it's different to the other subs.

Easiest subject at GCSE for me: PE and Geography (neither of which are my favourite/best). Maybe History as well actually (which is a favourite).

Reply 82

Nuheen

12

Biology IS a pain in the arse. I have chem,eco, maths and bio and I only study bio but still I cant remember all the stupid facts. The proteins really piss me off. First you have primary structure, then secondary, then tertiary and finally quarternary and guess what, it is not not necessary for a protein to have all of them.

Reply 83

Girl_Anachronism

Proteins are hard. Testing for proteins? Pfft. You gotta be having a laugh.

AQA Chemistry is hard (to me), but it would be worse having Salters, I suppose.

Reply 84

thefin

1

Matt1989

general studies, critical thinking, applied health and social! IMO extremely difficult. They are notoriously world renowned to be of an exterme difficulty. They are equivalent of a 1st at Uni, if a grade A is achieved.

Reply 85

Platinum Mech

12

silent ninja

If you got B+ in your GCSE you stand a very good chance of getting A-C in AS Maths, whether you enjoy maths or not. There isn't really much material in AS Maths.

I think my brother got a B at GCSE, but he seemed to find it incredibly hard -- even being at a brilliant sixth form college. :confused:

I've never studied A-level Maths myself, so I can't really give my own opinion, but he failed one module and only passed the entire thing by revising just one area of the syllabus for the next module, thus going against his own teacher's advice. :rofl:

thefin

My sister went from A* at GCSE to E at AS. Needless to say she dropped it.

Not sure how this happened then? was a few years ago now and she didnt become a waster or anything...

I could say the same thing about my brother -- he put in about three times as much effort into his Maths AS-level than his four others, but yet got AAAB in them (Fine Art, English Literature, General Studies and History). :confused:

And I remember his teachers commenting on just how hard he worked at the parent's evening.

Reply 86

smilee172

14

why isn't maths on the list? that's gotta be the hardest or one of

Reply 87

halfoflessthan50p

12

im surprised Chemistry got the highest. WJEC chemistry isnt too bad at all. I dont wanna sound big-headed but it just remebering facts, not that hard.

Then again i did English Lit and found it quite hard (B), so yeh depends on your strengths weaknesses doesnt it. Apparently maths is regarded as the hardest A level. But that doesnt really mean much

Reply 88

henryt

17

The thing about Chemistry is that the syllabus is totally insane, whichever one you look at. Then, if you look at a unit, it may as well be a higher tier Chemistry GCSE paper!! They ask you about pretty diagrams and what the test for an alkene is, and all about what bonds are!! I was getting so hyped up over the holidays, and was revising Chemistry frantically - when I look at the paper I was asked to do for holiday work under timed conditions, I find that I finish with about 25% to spare, and that when I get it back, I got 100%... Perhaps it was just that one paper... But then again, that was a 2000 paper, when the syllabus was "hard" and the exams were "harder".

But hey - people thinking Chemistry is hard is great for all us Chemists!!

Reply 89

halfoflessthan50p

12

yeh totally agree. A-level Chemistry seems hard on the surface but you do the papers and it all clicks

Reply 90

belle_27

14

I don't find Chemistry hard (I mean the content) and then when I look at the papers all the questions are really simple. Chemistry is the one exam that I've always come out of thinking that I've done well. But that probably also comes from enjoying Chemistry; I like doing Chemistry papers :p:

but then again I like Chemistry! Hence its my only science subject at A2 :p:

Originally posted by halfoflessthan50p
Apparently maths is regarded as the hardest A level.

Yeah, most people seem to find it really hard, even really clever people who you'd never expect (I was shocked to see someone in year 13 last year doing a maths retake) but with the ability to do multiple retakes and the number of different modules taken for maths, its really easy for those who get a bad mark to improve drastically with retakes.

And on a random note, Chemistry is considered to be one of the hardest degrees at Oxford. Thought someone might like to know :p:

Reply 91

henryt

17

belle_27

And on a random note, Chemistry is considered to be one of the hardest degrees at Oxford. Thought someone might like to know :p:

Really?? My brother's doing Chem. at Oxford and he doesn't seem too stressed over it!! He says it's really easy in comparison to some of the other degrees, like Medicine...

Reply 92

belle_27

14

^^ Really? My sister is in her fourth year there and she's found it really hard and very stressful especially the first year because of the maths involved and the fact that she didn't have A level maths. She's in her fourth year now, which isn't stressful because she's just doing research except for the DPhil student that supervises her who she doesn't get on with. He criticised her project so she left the building and didn't return til the next day :eek:

She was the person who told me that its one of the hardest degrees there along with medicine.

Reply 93

Scout

1

From hearing my friends talk about it i'd say languages but really it depends on your strengths

Reply 94

Pippicvb

Chemistry is my own personal hell. It may be because my teachers like to stretch us to breaking point. They like to give us tests evary week or so and unless you get an A you are considered to fail it so i just spend my life resitting in lunch times. Fair enuf they expect the best from us but it always seems to take prority over my other subjects( eng lit and history) which has caused a mini battle between subject teachers lol

Reply 95

jessicat

whoever said that there isn't that much material in AS maths is wrong in my opinion - i thought the step up from gcse was huge, i found it quite difficult in the first couple of terms, having to think for myself and not be a parrot (but obviously that way of thinking is much btter)
i read somewhere that german is the hardest A-Level
out of my A-Levels, id say i find maths hardest, altho according to exams i do best in it. I'm doing worst in german and i think its cos im too lazy to actually memorize those damn adjectival endings!

Reply 96

halfoflessthan50p

12

In maths there isnt any synoptic though. So once you've passed the module you can just forget everything you learnt. (did you do higher GCSE maths? i found that really hard, harder than A2 maths tbh)

i did GCSE french. Oh, learning grammar in a foreign language is so tedious. Hours upon hours of "je vais, tu va, il va, on va, nous avons.." lol i really do feel sorry for you

Reply 97

Apagg

13

halfoflessthan50p

In maths there isnt any synoptic though. So once you've passed the module you can just forget everything you learnt. (did you do higher GCSE maths? i found that really hard, harder than A2 maths tbh)

i did GCSE french. Oh, learning grammar in a foreign language is so tedious. Hours upon hours of "je vais, tu va, il va, on va, nous avons.." lol i really do feel sorry for you

You're joking right? Each paper tends to require maths learnt on earlier modules.

Reply 98

Elusive Moose

1

German. Not only is there so much new grammar (which I'm useless at, and as soon as I learn something complicated and new I forget how to do things like the past tense) but (for the Edexcel syllabus anyway) you have two pieces of coursework and then there's the oral and oh my god it's so much work... (My other subjects are English Lang/Lit and History, which come a lot more naturally)

But yeah, I'd still find a science subject a lot more challenging because my mind just doesn't work in that way at all. It's completely dependant on the person- there are two people in my History class who do Chemistry as well. One finds Chemistry easier and less challenging because they're much more of a sciency person. The other finds History a lot easier. Ultimately it's completely a matter of opinion- you're never going to get a definitive answer on which is the most challenging A Level.

Although if you did it would be languages :wink:

Reply 99

MisterE

1

halfoflessthan50p

In maths there isnt any synoptic though. So once you've passed the module you can just forget everything you learnt. (did you do higher GCSE maths? i found that really hard, harder than A2 maths tbh)

i did GCSE french. Oh, learning grammar in a foreign language is so tedious. Hours upon hours of "je vais, tu va, il va, on va, nous avons.." lol i really do feel sorry for you

Did i just read from that, he thinks GCSE higher maths is harder than A2 maths?? Could you please explain please if you really meant that, i'm doing higher tier for maths and i've seen A2 papers, by no means is A2 maths easier!!!!

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