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'Reading Around' Your Subjects

Hi all,

Recently, my teachers, in particular my biology teacher recommended we should start 'reading around' our subjects. He went on to say that we should study for around an hour privately for every hour spent in lesson - so this equals an extra 5 hours per week per subject! This sounds extremely excessive. Anyways, to the point, in your experience how much extra study is needed regarding extra knowledge for exams etc? Thanks in advance, Loradora xoxox

Reply 1

Mustard-man

18

For biology A2 I think extra reading would be quite essential, esepcially for the essay question.

Reply 2

thefin

1

Hi, it all really depends on how ambitious you are in terms of what you want to achieve at the end of sixth form, and, im afraid to say, your intelligence. Obviously an hour of study per hour of lesson time is gonna help, but at the same time, its obviously a lot of work (from my average-good comprensive school perspective, might different at the top notch schools). Its unfair, but another factor is intelligence. If your bright youll get by doing less work. As for reading around your subject, if youre lucky enough to know what you wanna do at uni then this cant hurt in that particular subject. As for your others, surely it would be best just to stick to the syllabus... Of course, you can still read around the subject if it aids you in getting a variety of perspectives on the subject content, this is always valuable.
The basic thing is, if you want to do well, work as hard as you can! Simple as that. But at the same time, you might also want to do other things -socialising etc. Find a balance, but try and consider that school grades are probably the most important thing at the moment. Im studying for A2s right now, and really wish id not only worked harder at AS but also even at GCSE. At my school i was never realy taught the value of GSCEs for top unis. I know if i had worked harder i could have potentially achived anything. Unfortunately i made the same mistakes as people have been making for years and will still do in the future. I was lazy and had 'itll be alright' attitude.

Work hard and you will acheive the standard that you as an individual should be achieveing - what could be better than that?

ps all this is obviously my opinion, and i dont necessarily know what im talking about. :wink:

good luck

Reply 3

utopian

I agree, I think it really does depend on how well you want to do. If you just want to 'get by', then just do as much as you think you need to do OK/well. I myself have ended up probably doing that much, just because I want to do a veterinary course and need straight As so I'd rather do loads and loads of work (however boring it is!) and improve my chances. So many people don't do that much though, so I really don't think it is necessary to do that much. Especially if you're really clever and absorb things like a sponge (unlike me!).

Reply 4

.Laura. <3

OP

11

Thanks for your comments, I have a fairly good memory, utopian, but I was a little worried that all the extra notes would prove unecessary and 'clutter up' my remembering the core information! I'm looking to achieve mainly B's this year - perhaps higher in the 'Arts' subjects, and did well at GCSE by my school's standards, average by TSR's (3A*, 9A, B) :p:

. Thanks again for your advice xoxox

Reply 5

thats_my_poison

1

i dont think theres any need to read around your subjects unless you're interested in studying it further. i would just learn exactly what is on the syllabus because i dont know about you, but i barely have enough time to do just my homework/coursework/revise as it is

Reply 6

Akhoza

Reading around the subject is stressed especially in biology

Reply 7

.Laura. <3

OP

11

Akhoza

Reading around the subject is stressed especially in biology

I see, what kind of material would you suggest i.e popular science books, text books...? :smile:

Reply 8

Niaya

13

yer we are told to do at least an extra 5 hours per subject per week but that includes home work as well so its really not that much

Reply 9

Hanski

1

I suppose watching various documentaries and picking up and flicking through a science magazine contributes towards it!
Just everytime you do that you pick up a little bit more knowledge, which will add up and you'll know a fair lot :wink:

Well enough to get some kind worthwhile essay produced. I'm dreading that synoptic paper in June!
(That's what I do anyway... :p:

)

Reply 10

*starry_eyed_*

14

Right frm the start of my first year at college, we were encouraged to do an extra hour outside of lessons, for every hour we do lessons; making 5 hours extra for each subject.

I find that english I do a lot of reading anyway, so I don't find that makes much difference. For sociology I do a lot of reading the best text books I can find, picking up on extra studies I can use, as welll as the simpler ones we are given in class. For ICT, I have coursework which takes up at least 5 hours extra.

Reply 11

Akhoza

loradora68

I see, what kind of material would you suggest i.e popular science books, text books...? :smile:

Yeah they recommended getting some fat ugly old biology text books from the library and researching topics we covered in class on the internet to gain 'deeper understanding.' It makes me laugh when i look back since i made SO many notes for my AS biology, reading around this subject prepares you very well for the synoptic and the long essay questions.
I wasnt too fond of biology. :puke:

Good luck

Reply 12

undiscovered

13

To be honest, extra reading gets you nowhere with A-levels because the exams have such rigid markschemes (esp. for science subjects) that they just don't care what you have looked at that's not on the specification. From experience, trying to be too clever in an exam doesn't work!

Reply 13

Geminus

2

-Sian-

To be honest, extra reading gets you nowhere with A-levels because the exams have such rigid markschemes (esp. for science subjects) that they just don't care what you have looked at that's not on the specification. From experience, trying to be too clever in an exam doesn't work!

I see what you mean, but sometimes it might help just to read something from a different perspective to try and strengthen your understanding of the topic concerned. I do this with maths occasionally, just looking at a different textbook to see how they have explained a concept. But, as you said, trying to be too clever doesn't work!

Also quite helpful for languages, just reading more things in the foreign language will improve your vocabulary and your general understanding of grammar etc as will as learning about society :smile:

Reply 14

=Keith=

3

I can never read around n e subject. Do u ppal have time? doing ur homework and revising the syllabus is more than enough.. There are so many other things to do apart from studying

Reply 15

Wkd_Intent

I'm afraid im one of those "do work when it needs to be done" people. To be perfectly honest, i'm on for a A, B, B/C at the end so someone with the same attitude as me with abit more inteligence would completely fine without it.

I do Physics, Biology and Maths and the way i see it, with GCSEs and A levels your learning to pass a test, nothing more, if its not in the text book, then its not in the test.

It's fair enough seeing how other books example things if you dont already get it, but reading other books with extra information is bad when it comes to test day. We've all sat in that exam room and had bits of info floating around in your head that you cant use (e.g. a formula) which distracts us from what we need.

Its just my opinion, but with scientific subjects having extra knowledge hasn't helped me once and i'm not exactly doing badly.

Reply 16

Swinely

2

I really don't know how anyone can have time to read around subjects, i do 5 a/s so i just do what i have to otherwise i find i have no time left, i can just about fit everything in without having to use many more hours reading around :|. I don't think its even needed really, not in my subjects anyway, if you have a bad memory then it might be useful to reinforce what you've learnt though?

Reply 17

Pmc2k

1

Didnt read around any of my subjects.. didnt get straight A's but got AAB bc overall. I just learnt from the text books/exam papers.

'Reading Around' Your Subjects

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