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Advice you would give to a year 11 going to 6th form in September?

Is there any general advice you guys would give?

I will be doing History,Biology,Chemistry and Maths.

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b prepared. biology is extremely difficult not because of the content but just the amount of it and the application of knowledge, u need to be prepared to put in the time to get a really deep understanding.

history is a good subject, having a natural flair for English will really help u grasp the style of the essays and once you've got that the rest comes easier.

a levels are hard so try as much to be prepared and I can't stress this enough but get on top of it early. go home and write up ur class notes as early as possible, so by exams u can focus on more productive things like past papers and learning the mark scheme. remember though that sixth form is one of the best periods of ur life so u need to get the balance between work and play right, as I can guarantee this will b one of the best years of ur life so far


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I'm going to do kind of the same subjects (year 11 too) : just English Lit instead of History! (that's my 'reserve' subject :biggrin:).

The advice I've got from teachers is to be on the ball from day one : especially for Chemistry as each lesson builds on the next and it's really easy to fall behind and get confused if you don't have a solid base of understanding.
Well, that's what my chemistry teacher said.

:smile:
Reply 3
Pay complete attention from Day 1, and get ready to do a lot more work outside of the classroom. There are too many stories of people on here who didn't do this, thinking that AS would be like GCSE's and ended up with abysmal AS grades.

Don't be like them, step up, and work hard.
I'm doing AS now- biology, chemistry, pe and english lit.

Let me tell you that chemistry a level is no joke !!! Biology is hard, but chemistry is much harder. You go back in the first lesson and kind of re do the structure of an atom just to put it into perspective!! Honestly i dont mean to scare you but it is tough. Spend the extra time making sure you are comfortable with it, because unlike in GCSE when you didnt understand something so you just winged it or went over it next lesson, you need to know everything and be comfortable with the topics in the whole of the chemistry syllabus in order to fully grasp it. You will be covered a lot of stuff each lesson, often with it all linking together, so any weak spots and you are at a severe disadvantage.

It's all about application of knowledge. You will learn a topic and then the question will be nothing you have covered, but you have to work out what you can apply in the question. It takes a bit of getting used to because the GCSE side of you will be like 'we cant answer this we havent covered it'. So be open minded about a levels.

It's a hell of a lot of work. Use free periods wisely- yes, chat and relax in some, but otherwise work will bog you down. My school recommends 5 hours of extra study other than lessons per subject a week. If you dont do that then it becomes obvious very quickly- by christmas basically.

But have fun as well- a levels are a lot better than GCSEs, they are harder yes, but doing subjects you like is more rewarding. Biology is awesome, I love it, a level takes it a step further and it's very satisfying. :smile:
Reply 5
Read through your years notes every week. There is so much more content than at GCSE this is the best way to become familiar with everything on the syllabus. Maybe even through the notes you made that week a couple of times as well.

Use the majority of your frees to work. If you have homework or something you are stuggling with do that, occassionally if you feel tired or have no work you can take the time to relax but that extra work time will add up. Aim to do like 40mins to and hour of work outside of lessons everyday and stick to that even if it means doing 3 hours for 1 subject at a weekend.

Take any tests you have seriously, if you can smash your mocks in January and get As then you can revise a bit less, relax and be confident come June.
Reply 6
I'm in year 12, doing bio, chem, physics, maths and further maths.

My main advice is to buy some flashcards now, and make one flashcard on everything that you learnt in each lesson, each day. Then tie them all together at the end of the unit, and go over them, just flipping through them, about once a week. This will allow you to figure out what you know vs. what you don't understand, and forces you to keep up with all of the different things that you have to memorise. In biology, chemistry and history, there is a crazy volume of information that you need to know off by heart. I know that if I had a system throughout the year for retaining info, then I wouldn't have been stressed out at all during exam time. Seriously, if you can memorise all the definitions, some model answers, the timeline for history, and have decent critical thinking skills, then you are basically set for an A.

Just remember that you need to enjoy what you are learning. If at any point you think that you are losing interest (this will probably happen in chemistry at at least 5 different points during the year :wink:), watch some university lectures, read some wikipedia pages, borrow a book written by some acclaimed scientist or something! Just try and maintain your love for learning, and try and keep reminding yourself that the universe is a fantastic place and you are privileged to have the chance to learn about it!

Don't worry about revising like crazy, or studying for hours a week right off the bat. I know that loads of schools recommend and 1.5 hours of work per lesson, but I really don't think that you need it. As long as you do little bits each night, clarify EVERYTHING that you are vaguely confused about, and learn the spec off by heart, you will be completely fine! It might sound like a lot of work, but just treat AS as your job.

Please message me if you need any help with anything (especially biology and chemistry related :smile:) throughout next year! Good luck, and you'll be fine!
Get ready for the Hardest Maths in the Century.
Original post by maggie43
Get ready for the Hardest Maths in the Century.


He is doing A level single mathematics, C1 is just an extension of GCSE.
you mean just C1
Original post by Jai Sandhu
He is doing A level single mathematics, C1 is just an extension of GCSE.
Original post by maggie43
you mean just C1


C2 as well, A2 maths is a bit harder but honestly not that much as if you are strong at C4 there isno reason you shouldnt ace C3 as C3 is just building blocks for C4. (coming from someone who was set 6 out of 7 in GCSE maths).
Coming from a maths A2 student I have to say do as many practice questions as you can, attempt to finish all the questions in your textbook and when you have, go to Solomon Press and find more, it's that easy to do well in maths as long as you're always practicing.
I'm doing the subjects you said you were intending to take![year 12].my advice to you would is practice content and don't laze around.it will probably be the most stressful 2 years of your life in terms of education but its the hardest you'll ever have to work.personally i would say maths is the hardest subject and is really different to GCSE..DON'T WORRY ABOUT COLLEGE YOU WILL LOVE IT!
Learn the exams, not the course
Reply 14
I only do maths and chemistry from your subjects but for both of those, especially chemistry, make sure to understand every lesson because each topic builds on others. So if you don't understand a topic you might fall behind with other topics later on and snowball effect happens.

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Year 13 A2 student here doing English Lit, Psychology, Spanish and Art. Don't get too frustrated and stressed if things aren't going as you hope - the best thing to do is keep organised and if you're not organised, get organised! You will feel much better as a result. With A Levels, you either do very well or very badly. I'd suggest making sure you thoroughly go through your content and revise over it frequently. Also, try to actually enjoy your subjects as you'll do much better if you have a motivation for doing well.

Good luck with A Levels!
You should look over your notes every single day to recap what you have learned in class because this will help you understand better.

People tend to revise in different ways so find out what works best for you.
Original post by SuperHuman98
Is there any general advice you guys would give?

I will be doing History,Biology,Chemistry and Maths.


I've picked exactly the same A Levels! Not entirely sure about History though - I'm not a fan of English but enjoy learning about History. Might change my mind and switch it for geography before the start of the year though - as I'm not sure how well I'll get on with all the essays!
Original post by Jai Sandhu
He is doing A level single mathematics, C1 is just an extension of GCSE.


im gonna be doing C1,C2,C3,C4,S1 and M1 over the 2 years i think
Original post by SuperHuman98
im gonna be doing C1,C2,C3,C4,S1 and M1 over the 2 years i think


With mathematics just make sure you practice, you do not need to do extra work from the book, but make sure you do the homework set, and do past papers, past papers are the best form of revision for science subjects. If you decide however to do nothing for the first year then the second year will hit you hard, just maintain your ability in maths and you will be A-ok.

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