Need some a-level advice

Hi everyone, I am 16 and I'm doing my AS this year, all in summer because they got rid of January exams
I am taking biology, chemistry, psychology and physical education
At GCSE I got 8a* and 4a, I really want straight A's at AS level, please help me and give me some advice to how I can achieve these grades, and stay focused throughout the whole year. AS level feels so difficult already and I really need motivation to not fall behind and become complacent
THANK YOU, ANY TIPS ARE MUCH APPRECIATED x

ALSO IM PLANNING ON USING THE SPECIFICATION FOR BIO AND CHEM AND NOT LEARN ANYTHING THATS NOT ON THE SPEC, IS THAT OK??

Revision is a terrible method of learning. You want to minimise the amount of revision you have to do, and this means engaging properly in learning throughout the year. If you don't understand something in the lesson, ask the teacher - put your hand up and get clarification. Don't wait until revision to properly learn it, because then it's too late. If you do leave a lesson not understanding everything in it, then make sure later that day that you go over the material and actually understand it.

Secondly, you have to understand how the mark scheme works. Don't waste any time writing about stuff that won't be in the mark scheme or won't get you marks - you can write the most flawless essay or give the most complicated solution to a problem, but if what you've wrote isn't on the mark scheme, you've just wasted time in the exam. Learn the exam technique and practice it by doing past papers during revision. In most subjects, past papers should be the most important part of revision.

I remember being in the same situation last year
Just learn stuff from the text book and re read it every now and then whilst taking short regular breaks eg 15 mins every hour also have rest days like the Friday afternoon off and do past paper questions and remind yourself that if you do well you will be successful, after all it is your own future.
If thats not motivation then I don't know what is
Good luck

This is copied from a thread I responded to a few weeks ago:



You don't have to learn anything not on the spec; it contains everything that could come up in the exam. Even if a question doesn't explicitly ask something in the spec, the answer is likely to be part of the spec, or can be deduced from the content in the spec.

Thanks so much, forgot about mark schemes does anyone know what AO2 is or how I do it?

Based on your subjects, I assume you mean AO2 in psychology (AO just means assessment objective - all essays subjects have AOs). In psychology, AO2 is evaluation - rather than explaining a theory (asking 'what'), it asks you to evaluate the theory; does evidence support it, or to what extent; does it have any important implications, etc.

Unless you're planning on dropping biology for A2, its best to not necessarily learn things not on the syllabus, but at least read around the subject. For A2 bio, in your unit 5 exam you have to write a synoptic essay, which is an essay about something not on the syllabus, but it links to various parts of the syllabus. For example, it may be on the kidneys, which includes diffusion, osmosis, active transport and also the immune system (kidney transplants). So its useful to read around a bit and familiarise yourself with stuff that isn't on the syllabus, it may help you get an a* at a2 but don't go spending loads of time on it!

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We already evaluate every theory, so would I just need to learn those evaluations for AO2?

Thank you, for AS do I still have that synoptic essay? Also if anyone has any General Studies advice tell me!! Im thinking of not listening in lessons, not doing the homework so I have more time for my other 4 AS levels? Is this a stupid idea?

Thank youuu, heard past papers really help but I've been told that knowledge will only get you like 60% and that I need to evaluate but how do I do that???