Double Blocking - AS and A2 at the same time?

yeh you can but subjects that reuire masses of coursework i would recommend, it works with subs like Politics, Economics, Philosophy etc coz they have no coursework.

Reply 3

kellywood_5

It depends how your school/college organises it really. Personally I'd say taking AS in January and A2 in June would be a much better idea because then you'd have a chance to ease into the subject and develop your skills before going onto the more difficult part of the course. Trying to do AS and A2 at once could be quite tricky because often you need slightly different skills for each and you'd have to juggle them. I don't know about English language, but I think it would be possible with sociology, especially if you did the coursework. AS is planning a research project and A2 is actually carrying it out, so there's a big overlap between the two and it would probably be helpful doing A2 with AS still fresh in your mind. As far as the exams go, the style is slightly different at A2 with 1 long essay instead of 2 shorter ones, but the data response questions are pretty similar. I can only speak for AQA though, other exam boards may be slightly different.

Reply 4

OP

thanks for that, I really hope you're able to do it with sociology as it looks really interesting. What about any other subjects? Is it possible with law, or medai studies? Anything else?

Reply 5

Eau

15

eskimomelon

thanks for that, I really hope you're able to do it with sociology as it looks really interesting. What about any other subjects? Is it possible with law, or medai studies? Anything else?

I'm doing the whole AS A2 for Further Maths...

Reply 6

713

It really depends on your school, if they are one of the top performing I could imagine they wouldn't let you do it because you might ruin pass rate.
My school has an average point core of like 200 and they don't have any problems with that as long as I get on with my work.

Reply 7

OP

oh.. well I don't know about my college really, how do you find out? Is there a league table as such?

Reply 8

eskimomelon

oh.. well I don't know about my college really, how do you find out? Is there a league table as such?

do you know what their pass rate for a level was last yr. but here you go lol

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/performancetables/

Reply 9

OP

OK thanks, my college has an average score of 234.6, still don't know what that means :smile:

Reply 10

OP

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/cgi-bin/performancetables/dfe2x1_05.pl?School=8838602&Mode=Z&Type=
heres the link - see if you can decipher it :smile:

Reply 11

wow ure coll is huge!!! basically the average UCAS point score each personachieved was 234.6 whihc is just about CCC which is slightly higher than ure local Education authorities average, but slightly lower than the england average.

Reply 12

OP

ok thanks, overall I hope to get many moe ucas points than that though :smile:

Reply 13

anon53

4

Are you planning on doing a new subject in a school or college setting?
I think it depends how the timetable works at your school or college, but it might be possible for you to attend both AS and A2 lessons side by side if there are no clashes or other issues. As has already been suggested, you could sit the AS in January. If you do well then this would mean that you would no longer have to attend AS lessons after this time, so you would have nearly two terms in which to prepare for the A2 in the subject. Also consider that if you drop both History and Geography and just take up one new subject than you would have more free periods in school,assuming you continue with your other subjects through to completion at A2 level. You could consider a subject with 1 piece of coursework for the AS modules and 2 exam papers. This would relieve some of the exam pressure, but also ensure that you do not have too much coursework to produce in such a short period of time. Remember that you will have nearly 2 terms to prepare for the A2 aspect, but only 1 term for the AS - this might not be an issue considering it is meant to be the easier of the two aspects of the qualification. Some schools even save all 6 modules until the end of Year 13, but this is rare - although it does prove that it is possible to achieve success if you are committed.

Remember though that some people decide to drop a subject at the end of Year 12. You could do this as well - particularly if you are currently taking 5 AS levels. This would leave you with 3A2's - the standard requirement for university entrance. If you are doing the standard 4 AS Levels, I don't think I would recommend this option as many univerities will base offers on 3 rather than 2 subjects taken at A2 level.

I hope this helps

Reply 14

Two Tone

9

Your college is about the same size as mine. About the double blocking, you will have to ask them - we don't know about your college and what they will/will not let you do.

Reply 15

713

I have a lot of double blockings and they told me I would just have to do the work at home instead of attending classes.

Reply 16

OP

Right, I know my college allows double blocking, I've already found that out. What I want to know is which subjects do you think it will be possible to do this with, with regards to workload and type etc?

Reply 17

713

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/cgi-bin/performancetables/dfe2x1_05.pl?School=3558600&Mode=Z&Type=

that depends on you i suppose.
I would probably not be able to do for instance subjects like chemistry,physics and english in one year.don't know what you think you get on with easy and what not.

Reply 18

stratomaster

mtbab

wow ure coll is huge!!! basically the average UCAS point score each personachieved was 234.6 whihc is just about CCC which is slightly higher than ure local Education authorities average, but slightly lower than the england average.

Look how many my college has got then :p:

Reply 19