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Your opinions on your A-Levels

I'm considering what A-levels I am going to take. I need opinions on any of your A-levels. If you enjoy them/If the work load is large/If you find it difficult/What you would recommend? Ones I'd be especially interested in hearing any opinions on are: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths/Further maths, History, Both English's, French and Spanish. Thanks!

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Biol: lots of memorisation which can get REALLY BORING but content's not hard at all
Chem: fairly straightforward
Maths: easy...like piss easy
FM: harder than the rest but doable - in fact, pretty straightforward. FP2 circle theorems in complex numbers and FP3 vectors can be fidgety.

(NB I am doing Maths at university so I would find it easy.)
(edited 9 years ago)
Currently studying, A2 Biology, History and English Literature.

Biology: very, very interesting, making it easier to find the motivation to revise. Workload isn't too bad and it's definitely manageable. There is a lot of content though, so you need to be prepared to memorise a lot! Past papers and mark schemes are quite important if you want to hit the top grades! I'd definitely recommend it. Not too challenging if you put the work in.

History: probably my favourite A level. Again, very interesting, though that may be topic dependent so I'd advise you to see what areas you'd be studying before committing yourself. You obviously need to be fairly good at writing essays, so good English skills are very important. You also need a very good memory as there is so much content it's untrue :tongue: the key to history is to practise the essay technique, use the same structure every time but implement the correct content into it. I'd also highly recommend this subject, it's very rewarding and not too hard if you know the exam technique well enough.

English Literature: probably my least favourite of the three (though I still love it) but not too difficult at all. Just like history, I'd recommend looking at the texts you'd study before choosing this as it makes all the difference if you like your texts. It goes without saying that you need good English skills and again, a good essay technique. You also need to be surely aware of the assessment objectives; you could write an excellent essay, but go off topic or don't hit the AOs and you won't get high marks. It can be quite tricky learning lots of quotes for closed book exams, but it's not a massive issue. Basically, just KNOW YOUR TEXTS as best as you can :tongue: I'd definitely recommend it if you enjoy it and obviously enjoy reading.

I love all of my subjects and I wouldn't change them if I had the option :smile:

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(edited 9 years ago)
Maths: fairly easy, but i wouldn't underestimate the exams
Further maths: more challenging than maths of course and probably best to avoid doing D1
Physics: the maths here is easy enough if you've done successfully well in GCSE maths and physics, also very challenging but my lessons are great fun
French: a massive jump from GCSE, mark schemes are very harsh/tough/strict (well for edexcel, they are)

the preparation i did all year for the french speaking exam turned out to be a waste of time and the exam was only for 10 mins... this isn't the life i was hoping for back in september :s-smilie:
(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 4
All really helpful, keep the advice coming guys :cool:
Reply 5
Original post by joe4234
I'm considering what A-levels I am going to take. I need opinions on any of your A-levels. If you enjoy them/If the work load is large/If you find it difficult/What you would recommend? Ones I'd be especially interested in hearing any opinions on are: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths/Further maths, History, Both English's, French and Spanish. Thanks!

don't do many of those subjects but i do english lang/lit combined which i enjoy. some of the content can be boring but it is straight forward enough which i like cause it is a lot easier to revise. the workload isn't too bad as long as you stay on top of everything. i have to study a play in detail and so what i did after each lesson was write a summary of each scene which has really helped with giving me some good notes to revise from. if you study a play i recommend you do the same.
my other a levels are geography and psychology but if you would like to hear what they are like let me know
Reply 6
I do:

PSYCHOLOGY - it's really interesting and easy to grasp. You have to know studies for different topics but if you can't quite remember who did it, it doesn't matter!

SOCIOLOGY - again, really interesting but sometimes it's difficult to apply different theories to a concept and there's essays that you have to get plenty of evaluation into. I'd recommend it if you're good at making links between points!

FRENCH - This is my favourite! It depends if you have natural ability. You have to understand grammar points and be able to come up with things to say about each topic (unlike GCSE where you can learn what you say for speaking/writing).

GEOGRAPHY - This is a good subject if you can remember lots of information. There is a lot of content but it is certainly interesting providing that you go into depth with your class work (it helps you when it comes to revision!!)
Original post by joe4234
I'm considering what A-levels I am going to take. I need opinions on any of your A-levels. If you enjoy them/If the work load is large/If you find it difficult/What you would recommend? Ones I'd be especially interested in hearing any opinions on are: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths/Further maths, History, Both English's, French and Spanish. Thanks!


Maths is mega hard.
I found that out the hard way.
English lit is interesting but hard if you don't have a good essay technique or analysing skills. Rereading texts is vital and as long as you master the art of writing sophisticated essays then learning quotes should be a doddle!
Reply 9
Maths - C1 is easy. C2 Less so. S1 is death unless you learn the equations.
Further Maths - May as well book your funeral dates now.
Geography - It's alright, and easy to make up case studies.
Philosophy - Just mention Aquinas, Jesus, Hitler and Dawkins.
English Lit - As long as you mention Feminism and the Patriarchy a lot, you will be fine.
Reply 10
I do maths, further maths, chemistry and physics.
Maths is mega easy and I highly recommend it! Further maths is mega easy in AS but really hard in A2! Physics is average in terms of difficulty but by far my favourite because it's really interesting!
I hate chemistry! Do not take chemistry! Whatever you do! Do not take chemistry!


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Maths - overall fine, c1 -pips, c2 - less easy and M1 is hell :cry2: - don't ever underestimate any of your maths exams
Chem - :love: so interesting and doable
Physics - interesting, harder than Chem though
Economics - interesting hate the essays to the core though
I study Biology (OCR), chemistry (OCR B Salters) and maths (edexcel)

Biology content is easy, just LOTS to remember and to get top grades you need to fully understand it and link everything together. I would only take it if you do really enjoy it, as most people who took it half heartedly last year failed.

Chemistry is one I almost didn't take but now love. You DO need to work in it a lot, if you don't go over stuff it's easy to quickly get lost in content but very simple once you understand. I will say that the Salters B markschemea are ridiculous at times though!

Maths is very straightforward, just do over everything and do every single past paper and it's easy to get full marks :smile:
Reply 13
Studying : Psychology, Spanish, Maths, Chemistry AS

Psychology : really love this subject, it's interesting and not especially hard although there is a lot of stuff to rememer. Biggest tip really is get to know essay technique.

Spanish : Might be my favourite subject, the way we did it in my school is we did SO MUCH work before the oral exam and it was the most stressful thing ever. but the workload was always manageable and to be honest I didn't have to do that much extra work because of it. The 15 minute speaking isn't as scary as it is always made out to be and the exams, as far as I can tell, are only a bit harder than GCSE.

Maths: awful. terrible. a lot of people here saying they find it easy but I got 2 A*s at GCSE and I'm really struggling, even with core 1. I've put the work in and i'm not getting anything out of it so for me this is probably my worst subject.

Chemistry: again not really for me so don't know why I took it. it can be interesting at times and if you're really into it, it shouldn't be too hard but I find it mostly a drag and to be honest I haven't worked very hard so now i'm a bit worried for the exam. only take chemistry if you're sure you love it and are prepared to put the work in!

hope this has helped in some way!
Chemistrys actually my favourite. It wasnt at gcse, and I disregarded doing physics straight away because I found it pretty boring. I applied for all biol type subjects and just do maths and chem coz they were reccommended so theres a chance youll enjoy some of those subjects' topics but not others but I wouldnt be put off as thats for most subjects.
But I ended up taking chem maths phys and further maths like the dude above, physics is much more interesting to my surprise, I took it as a subject that offers something different than anything medical/biol related and theres a range of different new topics so not so bad if u dont like one. Chemistrys a great science it mixes with phys and biol and you learn much more about why/how, not just remember you add x to y and it precipitates a compound which is named by swapping the names of the reactants round... its not all remembering which means youre learnung interesting how answers. Maths C3s not much harder in fact I find C2 harder, but doing the further maths just means you go through it quicker which makes it all a bit harder. Youll have to practice maths phys and chem every week but go for it coz theyre not boring at all. Its eadier to drop them than pick up... good luck :smile:

most of the subjects are different at AS but AS maths is actually not as bad as I expected. I wouldnt really listen to something being hard or boring in someones opinion just because peoples opinions split and change throughout starting AS so ive noticed.

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(edited 9 years ago)
maths: most not too bad keep doing questions etc practise
further maths: tough mainly because fp3
physics: challenging but interesting lots to memorise
chemistry: hard and i hate it should never have chosen it i was an idiot for choosing it. don't do chemistry
Finished mine in 2012. I self taught English Language and Lit, Geography and French. I thought they were very simple, and are really just a numbers game. Get all the UMS in AS, it makes getting an A grade a piece of cake because you need practically nothing in A2.
I miss how basic A Level was :frown:
Reply 17
I do English Literature and I liked the coursework aspect to it, but find the examination part much harder because it is so easy to go off topic and miss the points you actually need to write about! But if you love reading it is a great subject to take because it requires a lot of reading :smile: I also do Sociology and Geography.
I do French, Spanish (AQA) and English Lit (OCR)
I absolutely love all of them, I always heard that languages were much harder at A level than at GCSE, but as long as you have a good grasp of the language itself rather than just relying on the memorisation from GCSE then you'll be fine! The only problem with doing both is that occasionally I get slightly confused between the two, but it actually helps me more than hinders I think.
English Lit is really interesting (obviously depending on the texts you study), I found it hard to get a grasp of at first but now I really enjoy it, and I can't decide which one (I also do philosophy) to drop at the end of the year! You also have to be pretty good at writing essays.
I would definitely recommend all three, they're not the easiest of subjects to do but I'd much rather be doing subjects that I love and find interesting than ones that I just did because they're easy and dull.
(Also philosophy wasn't on the list, but I absolutely love it, I chose it as my 4th because I didn't really have another one I wanted to do, and now it's my favourite and I'm considering doing it at uni, so definitely take it into account!)
Well I took Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry and Physics.

Physics: Piece of cake
Maths: Pretty easy tbh, nothing very complicated, very easy if you took FSMQ additional mathematics.
Chemistry: Found this the hardest - but apparently that's just because I took it on Edexcel. There is a large volume of learning and often things on the exams will expect you to apply principles learnt rather than regurgitating knowledge.
Further Maths: Really not that hard - probably the most intellectually stimulating of the four that I have written about here but there isn't that much content to learn :smile:

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